The original Gojira represented director Ishiro Honda’s viewpoint on nuclear weapons. Surprisingly, it’s not an anti-American diatribe, but a rather sober look at the horrors of nuclear bombs. The anti-nuke message is toned down a bit in the English language translation Godzilla, King Of The Monsters, but it is still there. Godzilla’s gone through quite a few personality changes over the years, from metaphor, to clown, to misunderstood beast, to force of nature to Dr. Pepper spokesmodel. Whatever the case may be, Godzilla is an international pop culture icon.
For our Episode Guide we are concentrating on the movies that we are calling “Commonly Available in North America.” We realize this may cause some fuss from purists, but this is the decision we made. However, if we notice a departure of some sort between the N.A. and the original Japanese versions, we will make a note of it. We’re sure we won’t catch them all. Furthermore, we felt the differences between Gojira and Godzilla, King Of The Monsters warranted individual listings.
There are different eras of Godzilla movies, separated by several years in which production was interrupted. The Showa and Heisei series have some sort of continuity that runs through each series. Each movie in the Millennium series generally throws out any continuity with any other movie, other than the original Gojira. In the Episode Guide we are noting which era a movie belongs.
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The Showa Series (1954-1975) / English titles are included where applicable
- Gojira / Godzilla, King Of The Monsters!
- Godzilla Raids Again / Gigantis, The Fire Monster
- King Kong Vs. Godzilla
- Mothra Vs. Godzilla / Godzilla Vs. The Thing
- Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster
- Invasion Of Astro-Monster / Godzilla Vs. Monster Zero
- Ebirah, Horror of the Deep / Godzilla Vs. The Sea Monster
- Son of Godzilla
- Destroy All Monsters
- All Monsters Attack / Godzilla’s Revenge
- Godzilla vs. Hedorah / Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster
- Godzilla vs. Gigan / Godzilla On Monster Island
- Godzilla vs. Megalon
- Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla
- Terror of Mechagodzilla
- Return Of Godzilla / Godzilla 1985li>
- Godzilla Vs. Biollante
- Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah
- Godzilla Vs. Mothra / Godzilla And Mothra: The Battle For Earth
- Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla II
- Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzilla
- Godzilla Vs. Destoroyah
The American Version (1998)
- Godzilla
The Millennium Series (1999-2004)
- Godzilla 2000: Millennium
- Godzilla Vs. Megaguirus
- Godzilla, Mothra And King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
- Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla
- Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.
- Godzilla: Final Wars
The Heisei Series (1984-1995)
Hey! Nobody’s perfekt! If you see something that’s not quite right, drop us an email. We’ll look into it and make appropriate changes.
