Ranking the Godzilla Directors

[szmigiel]

Rank the directors of the Godzilla films.

1 Ishiro Honda
Easily my number one, pretty much invented the genre and tropes. Never followed a formula, each film has its own feel. Even with "All Monsters Attack", I may not love the plot or the use of stock footage, but it is still well directed.

2 Kazuki Omori
I loved how adventurous he was in making Godzilla Vs. Biollante, somethings come off corny but the movie will always feel unique. He was more subdued with Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah but still well put together.

3 Shusuke Kaneko
If I was ranking Daikaiju directors over all, and not just Godzilla, he would be a solid number two only behind Ishiro Honda, due to his work on the 3 Heisei Gamera films. Also if Toho wouldn't have interfered so much in GMK he probably would be number two.

4 Yoshimitsu Banno
The psychedelic art house Godzilla director.

5 Jun Fukuda
Would have placed higher if not for Godzilla Vs. Gigan which is a mess of a movie.

6 Ryuhei Kitamura
Godzilla Final Wars is unique film in the same way that "All Monster Attack", "Godzilla Vs. Hedorah", "Godzilla Vs. Biollante", and "GMK". I liked his take, I know many disagree.

7 Gareth Edwards
There was some good choices made and some poor choices made, unfortunately the poor choices outweigh the good choices. Hopefully when he finishes the trilogy he will move up the list, not down.

8 Kensho Yamashita
The plot of "Godzilla Vs. Spacegodzilla" maybe a mess, but it is still pretty well directed.

9 Masaaki Tezuka
Wasn't a fan of the pacing in the two Kiyru saga movies.

10 Motoyoshi Oda
"Godzilla Raids Again" isn't a bad Daikaiju movie and was made quickly off the heels of the success of Gojira before anyone really knew what a sequel should be.

11 Koji Hashimoto
While I like the build up in the first act, the rest of the movie fails to pay off.

12 Takao Okawara
So much of his Godzilla movies come off as bland to me.

13 Roland Emmerich
For totally missing the point

[GodzillavsJason]

My ranking of course.

1. Ishiro Honda

Obvious number with great films like Gojira, Ghidorah, and Terror of Mechagodzilla. Thee Directing father of Godzilla.

2. Jun Fukuda

Outside of the boring Son of Godzilla, I thought his other four Godzilla films are a lot of fun and I find myself always re-watching them. Hell, even Godzilla vs Gigan is my second favorite G film of all time. His films always brings a smile on my face.

3. Kazuki Omori

I'm not to much of a fan of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah, but Godzilla vs Biollante is what I call a damn perfect Godzilla film. My personal favorite of the Heisei films.

4. Yoshimistu Banno

Take a crazy idea for a film and execute in a crazy way and yet it still turns out to be one of the better flowing narratives and characters that actually work for the plot in the whole series. Everything about that film is great.

5. Garth Eddywards

Amazing how he showed Godzilla on screen and just makes me happy every time I see it.

6. Takao Okawara

I hate Godzilla vs Mothra, but made up for it with Mechagodzilla and Destoroyah.

7. Kensho Yamashita

Did a decent job with Spacegodzilla

8. Shusuke Kaneko

Damn impressive job with Gamera and GMK. Though I do enjoy his films, he's just not my preferred Godzilla film maker.

9. Masaaki Tezuka

Has some interesting ideas that were executed well, but yet some that weren't done so well.

10. Motoyoshi Oda

I like the way he presented Raids Again with a dark atmospheric touch, but the characters remain forgettable.

11. Ryuhei Kitamura.

Very few ideas actually worked, but in general just no.

12. Roland Emmerich

Fuck you!

Can't comment on Koji Hashimoto since I haven't seen ROG in ages.

[Kaiser]

1. Ishiro Honda

There really isn't any other answer to this question from my perspective. Without Honda, there wouldn't be a Godzilla series or at least not as we recognize it. Godzilla is a great movie in every sense of that word; some Japanese critics consider it one of the top 50 Japanese films of all-time. Plus he directed some of the best sequels in the franchise: Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster and Invasion of Astro-Monster along with King Kong vs. Godzilla make up the golden age of Godzilla films.

2. Kazuki Omori

Along with Kaneko and Honda, he's the only guy who I can call a good director without reservations. His movies have a style and flair to them that even Honda lacks to some extent. His stories are much more complex that the usual Godzilla film and his films have surprising amounts of depth to them. I love both Godzilla vs. Biollante and Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and I must give him some props for writing the screenplay to Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, which is the best thing about that movie as well.

3. Shusuke Kaneko

If we're counting the Heisei Gamera Trilogy then he'd go above Omori, but as much as I love GMK I don't love it enough to place it above the combined total of Omori's work. He's the last guy I'd call a legitimately good director and the one who feels the most like a modern, updated version of Honda.

4. Yoshimitsu Banno

He gets this spot due to sheer creativity alone. He may not always be able to execute his ideas in Godzilla vs. Hedorah, but the ideas alone are interesting enough to warrant viewing and make the film utterly unique in regards to not only the rest of the series, but really any other movie I've seen. He's definitely style over substance but at least he isn't a boring rubber stamp for the studio like a lot of the guys below him.

5. Gareth Edwards

Edwards definitely has a distinctive visual style and knows how to make things look impressive on the screen. I think his pacing works fine but he needs to work on his characters though and not be such a tease with the monsters. I feel like he can be too clever for his own good a lot of the time.

6. Jun Fukuda

He's hard to rank because when he's on, his movies are a blast and are super entertaining. But when he's bored or unmotivated and just phoning it in, he's awful. Godzilla vs. Megalon is the worst film of the franchise by far and Godzilla vs. Gigan isn't that much better. He redeemed himself with Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, one of my all-time favorites, and his earlier outstanding work on Son of Godzilla. But those two are a big mark against him and I don't care for Ebirah all that much (though that's mostly on the script, not him) so here he belongs.

7. Masaaki Tezuka

Lots of people like to pick on Tezuka but he deserves more credit than people give him. He actually does a good job at creating human characters you can relate to and care about (or at least he tries to, rather than treating them as walking exposition) and I think he knows how to create a sense of urgency quite well. The thing, there's really not a single thing I think he does outstandingly well, and that's what hurts him in the final evaluation. He doesn't have any major deficiencies, but no real strengths either.

8. Koji Hashimoto

He had a lot of potential but the guy desperately needed an editor. His pacing is abysmal and his direction can be pretty bland. He excels at building atmosphere though and creating a good tone for a movie, but his inability to kick things into high gear clashes with this.

9. Takao Okawara

He's basically a rubber stamp for the producers and is generally only as good as the source material he gets: bad script, bad movie (Godzilla 2000: Millennium) / mediocre script, mediocre movie (Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II) / good script, good movie (Godzilla vs. Destoroyah) and Godzilla vs. Mothra which straddles the line between bad and mediocre. There's not much to say about him, he's just sort of a name attached to the credits really.

10. Roland Emmerich

I know Godzilla really isn't really Godzilla in the 1998 film, but the movie is a good deal more entertaining than many of the lesser entries. Emmerich's films may be stupid and loud but they are fun if you're willing to let yourself go and I do like the rainy New York City in the 1998 film, it sets a good mood.

11. Ryuhei Kitamura

Japanese Quentin Tarantino wannabe. At least he gives his films a flair and style even if it's obnoxious and annoying to sit through. I do admire his boyish enthusiasm and I feel like he could be good in a different style of movie, but he was absolutely the wrong person to direct Final Wars. Every so often he makes me smile or chuckle to myself but his rampant pillaging from other movies gets really annoying. Say what you will about Omori and his homages, but at least he didn't barrow whole-cloth from X-Men, The Matrix, and Star Wars in the same movie.

12. Motoyoshi Oda

From what I've read about him, he's the guy Toho went to when they wanted a picture done quickly and within budget. From that alone, you can probably guess my opinion of him.

13. Kensho Yamashita

Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla is awful, the second-worst film in the entire franchise and unlike Fukuda, Yamashita doesn't have any other films to boost his score. So he comes in dead last.

[three]

well i think Ishiro Honda will top every list unquestionably. the man knew exactly what he was doing, and produced what are still some of the finest pieces of cinema i have personally ever seen in my brief lifetime.

a runner up for me was Kazumi Omori for what he did with Biollante and KG. very entertaining movies with excellent villain portrayal. the story in KG was a bit sloppy, but i really appreciate what he was going for and how he achieved his vision.

the third one was a lot more difficult to choose than i imagined. Koji Hashimoto was my choice because he was able to capture the same sort of horror/disaster vibe that the original Gojira had that other films in this franchise lacked.

after those three, for me, the decisions begin to be more or less based on favoritism around the movies and less about what i believe the director was going for and accomplished. special mention should go to Edwards for bringing a respectable american version of Godzilla to the silver screen, and for great character development from Maasaki Tezuka, especially with the characters of Akane and Kiryu.

[szmigiel]

I pretty knew that Ishiro Honda would easily taken the top spot, I am more curious what peoples view of the other directors are, which is why I allowed up to 3 votes on the poll. I want to see how the top 3 to 5 turn out. Some directors only have a single film to judge them on which can make it tough to judge them compared to other directors that have done multiple films. I didn't want to try to judge directors by era either, as Jun Fukuda is getting some votes, but he will always be in Hondas shadow in the Showa era.

I would like to do polls on Director of Effects, Music, and Writers, but I pretty much know the number one in each of the those too, it is how the others rank with fans that I am more curious about.

[gojira96]

1. Ishiro Honda

2. Shusuke Kaneko

3. Jun Fukuda

4. Kazuki Omori

5. Yoshimitsu Banno

6. Takao Okawara

7. Gareth Edwards

8. Koji Hashimoto

9. Masaaki Tesuka
I've only seen one of his films, and it didn't impress me, so maybe he'll rank higher when I get around to the other two.

10. Kensho Yamashita

11. Motoyoshi Ota

12. Roland Emerich

I've never seen Final Wars, so I can't judge Kitamura's work.

[Pkmatrix]

And, my list:

1. Ishiro Honda - This should surprise no one. He was easily the most talented of all the directors to helm a Godzilla film.

2. Kazui Omori - What can I say? GvB is my favorite Godzilla movie and that, alone, shot him way up my list.

3. Jun Fukuda - I'm glad he seems to be getting more respect nowadays, because I really enjoy most of his films. Son of Godzilla, Ebirah, and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla are three faves!

4. Koji Hashimoto - I thought Hashimoto did a great job with G'84, he crafted a movie that visually felt as close to a contemporary Hollywood film as you were probably going to get.

5. Gareth Edwards and Shusuke Kaneko (TIE) - I can't choose between the two. Kaneko is great, but I feel Edwards is on par and has the potential to rise even higher. We'll have to wait and see.

6. Motoyoshi Oda - An underrated director of an underrated movie, IMO. I've always liked Godzilla Raids Again and grew to only love it more after finally getting to see the Japanese cut nearly a decade ago. I've been surprised to learn that there aren't more fans who agree with me.

7. Masaaki Tezuka - Not the best director in the franchise (his work is, frankly, very TV-like), but he made up for it with some really creative and interesting ideas in his films.

8. Yoshimitsu Banno - GvH was a well-made and creative film, but just was never really a favorite.

9. Takao Okawara - Okawara's films have soured on me over the years, and despite my finding new appreciation in GvMG'93 I just can't get into them the same way I did when I was a kid. Okawara has a lot of the same problems that Tezuka has, but without the interesting creative ideas Tezuka made up for it with.

10. Kensho Yamashita - I feel bad, because I feel like the failings of this film are probably not his fault (I say that, though, without any real knowledge of what happened behind-the-scenes on Space Godzilla), but GvSG is just not a good film at all. I had good ideas, but not enough for me to give him a higher rank.

11. Ryuhei Kitamura - GFW is painful for me to watch, and this is coming from someone who liked it and defended it back in 2005. It's made worse by learning that Kitamura seemed to really understand what was wrong with the franchise and what Toho needed to change back in 2004...but his ideas on how to fix those problems just made them worse.

12. Roland Emmerich - I'm sure it's going to be cliche to put him at the bottom, but Emmerich's film really was awful. The real failing of G'98, and why I put him below Kitamura, is that the movie is BORING. It's incredibly dull, almost completely dropping the Giant Monster movie element for much of Act Two in favor of a bad romantic comedy subplot. The monster movie that's there is actually okay and something I could sit through, but it's dragged down so far by that romance arc (and, as I've mentioned in the past, the plots insistence that we focus on Matthew Broderick instead of the far more heroic/interesting Hank Azaria character) that I have no choice but drop it down to dead last. GFW, Space Godzilla, and Megalon are bad too...but at least none of those are BORING.

[Gojira tai Mosura]

Listing Worst To Best

12. Takao Okawara and Ryuhei Kitamura
I couldn't possibly put either one of these guys higher/lower than the other. They're that bad. Rant time.
There is no forgiving Takao Okawara guy for what he has done to the Heisei Era, for me at least. It was a franchise that had a decent remake of Gojira, and then churned out the best Godzilla film ever made. Then it released Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and the Heisei era embraced Showa's old cheesy, yet fun antics and was honestly a good film. But then, everything changed when the Takao Okawara attacked, spreading his buttcheeks and farting out Godzilla vs. Mothra: Battle for Earth to the masses. Awful script/story? Check! Terrible effects? Check! Making more awful films afterward? CHECK! Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2 is a mediocre film that's much closer to being as good as the likes of early Heisei, and it's honestly a miracle in my eyes, that this guy was almost able to replicate a good film. But the worst he's made came in 1995. Godzilla vs. Destoroyah is a terrible film that easily hits the bottom 5 Godzilla films ever made, period. The only reason I can think people like this film is because it abused your emotional weakness at the end of the film and had Godzilla die with admittedly great effects and with Ifukube pumping out his amazing work all in one scene.
AND THEN HE MAKES GODZILLA 2000! STOP IT!
As for Ryhuhei Kitamura... to be brutally honest, this guy is an awful director. He understands what makes Godzilla films terrible and he knows how to make them better, but knowing that does not make you a good director in any way. It makes you a problem solver. It does not make you ready for the role to make a movie, and it shows in your creation. Your "film"More like steaming pile of crap is awful, Ryuhei, and all you did was make Godzilla look even worse in it's Millennium era.

11. Gareth Edwards
Ahh... here we go...
I'm just going to say it:
I haven't enjoyed a single film/documentary/thing made by Gareth Edwards, and it honestly pains me to put him this low. They're all rather mediocre things that are incredibly unmemorable and boring, with the only thing standing out being the CGI. Seriously, the CGI he puts on his films looks just as sexy as he does in real life

and he utilizes CGI to his advantage in every way. Godzilla has mainly been using practical effects up to this point, and we love to criticize how bad they look at times (the wrecking ball trick, incredibly bulky, etc.) but the CGI actually looks really good, albeit a little too shiny/wet looking. He also made the monsters themselves (save for some scenes with the M.U.T.O's) look very, very real and nice looking and still using the fact that they're CGI to do some ridiculous things. You can't do the Godzilla VS Male & Female M.U.T.O as well as he did without using CGI, you just can't!
But the problem comes in when he actually has to do his job directing and making the film now that the CGI looks pretty. So what does he do? He makes it painstakingly boring, hardly even develops his characters, and makes the beautiful looking monsters hardly even appear on screen ON THEIR SIXTY YEAR ANNIVERSARY! I know Godzilla 2000 did this as well, but that movie sucks so it doesn't matter. What matter is: Gareth did a great job making the CGI look good and making the monsters look real screen-wise (their designs are awful, though), but everything else he does is piss-poor at best and eye-gougingly bad at worst.
I have hope for Gareth in the future though, something tells me he listens very closely to criticism and will eventually make the film I've been waiting for since 2004.

10. Roland Emmerich.
The only thing keeping Ronald Emmerich higher than Gareth is that he's actually made some good films before, and his atrocious film gave us Godzilla: The Series.
This is a cliché spot and I'm not going to talk about it any more.
NEXT!

9. Kensho Yamashita.
We're no longer in "terrible director territory" and more in "meh director territory". Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla was his only Godzilla film, and it's bad, let's be honest here. No where near as bad as Godzilla vs. Mothra or Destoroyah, but it's not better than any of the others. He only really directed one film, and because the film wasn't as bad as the others, he gets above them. But other than that... there's not much to comment on.

8. Motoyoshi Oda
He directed Godzilla Raids Again.

7. Koji Hashimoto
Eh. Not much to talk about here. Godzilla 1985 isn't really as good as the other two Golden Heisei Films, but it's definitely faar better than the other films released after those two.

6. Masaaki Tezuka
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus is a bore fest.
Tokyo S.O.S is a snore fest.
But Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla actually blew me away the first time I had actually seen it. It was pretty darn good. Had it been terrible, Tezuka would be at #8 instead. But it's not. It's actually a good film. A really good film. Like, really good.
Go watch it.

5. Yoshimitsu Banno
He directed Godzilla vs. Hedorah.
That's all I really have to comment on. I just like that film.

4. Shusuke Kaneko
Good Director Territory, and boy we got something special with this one... who only worked on one film. Had he worked on more films, and had them been just as good as GMK, he would be much higher. But unfortunately, he only worked on one fantastic film. Which is upsetting, because this guy made one of my personal favorite Godzilla films.

3. Kazui Omori.
Unfortunately, I refuse to put him any higher than #3. Godzilla vs. Biollante is a masterpiece in my opinion, and any blasphemer who dares say anything heresy shall have a spiked dildo shoved up their rectum.

2. Jun Fukuda.
What can I say about this guy? His films are wacky, fun, and are very easy to watch (excluding Godzilla vs. Gigan, that film sucks).
The only thing keeping him from #1 is because he isn't...

1. Ishiro Honda.
Get over it. It's cliché and I don't care.
Ishiro is such a beautiful director that he made Godzilla actually survive after Godzilla Raids Again, and that alone puts him here. He has a few bad films under his wing, but I really don't care. He deserves all the praise and flowers he gets. He's made more Godzilla films than anyone else, and only two of them are really bad (All Monsters Attack, Destroy All Monsters). Not only did he direct the first (and widely believed to be the best even-though-it-isn't) Godzilla film ever made, Gojira, he also has made a ton of other films, almost all of which are just as wacky as Jun Fukuda's work.
Go watch his films. Stop reading. Go watch 'em.

[kamilleblu]

2. Jun Fukuda.
What can I say about this guy? His films are wacky, fun, and are very easy to watch (excluding Godzilla vs. Gigan, that film sucks).
The only thing keeping him from #1 is because he isn't...

Megalon would like to have a word with you.

And, my list:
5. Gareth Edwards and Shusuke Kaneko (TIE) - I can't choose between the two. Kaneko is great, but I feel Edwards is on par and has the potential to rise even higher. We'll have to wait and see.

That would be kind of unfair to Kaneko since he only got one opportunity to direct a Godzilla film. But I would love to see him direct another someday.

[M.o.g.u.e.r.a14]

1: Ishiro honda or Gareth edwards. Come at me.

[tymon]

Honda, Fukuda, Banno and Kaneko are the ones with the greatest knack for visuals and compositon, that's for sure. I dislike G14, but not because of Edwards...he also has quite an eye, and can at least breathe some life into a shitty script.

[tbeasley]

Like a lot with this franchise it's become easier for me to look at things in categorized chunks so I hope this all makes sense.

Honda and Fukuda are definitely the top guys. Their films are the most important in the series in that they introduced core characters, concepts and ideas that later movies heavily rely on. I prefer some to others but they're all very enjoyable.

Omori, Okawara and Tezuka are more hit and miss. I like Biollante more than King Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla and G2K more than Mothra and Destoroyah, and the Kiryu films more than Megaguirus.

The rest might be easier (or not) to pin down cause they've only done one film each. But I do prefer Hedorah to Raids Again, ROG to SpaceGodzilla, G2014 to G98 and GMK to GFW.

[Pkmatrix]

That would be kind of unfair to Kaneko since he only got one opportunity to direct a Godzilla film. But I would love to see him direct another someday.

I know, that's why I couldn't choose between them. I love Kaneko's work, but both directors only got one shot at Godzilla each and I like both films.

[Julia Bristow]

For me its a top 3:

Ishiro Honda
Jun Fukuda
Yoshimitsu Banno

[seamus]

This is really tough, considering not every director was making consistently great films.

I like Honda for the original, Banno for the creativity, Hashimoto and Omori for making the most moody and cerebral Godzilla films(84 and 89 are hands down my favorites), Okawara for G2K, Kaneko because I really love almost everything he does, and Tezuka because I like his style even if I don't love all of his films, and it's nice to see the evolution of it through the Millennium series. Run-on sentence aside, that's all I got.

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

Just ranking them for now, will go more in depth in a bit.

1. Ishiro Honda
2. Jun Fakuda
3. Koji Hashimoto
4. Kazuki Omori
5. Shusuke Kaneko
6. Takao Okawara
7. Ryuhei Kitamura
8. Kensho Yamashita
9. Yoshimitsu Banno
10. Motoyoshi Ota
11. Edwards/Emmerich
12. Masaaki Tezuka

[Gojira tai Mosura]

2. Jun Fukuda.
What can I say about this guy? His films are wacky, fun, and are very easy to watch (excluding Godzilla vs. Gigan, that film sucks).
The only thing keeping him from #1 is because he isn't...

Megalon would like to have a word with you.

Despite Godzilla vs. Megalon being a terrible film, it still falls under the criteria I mentioned. It's wacky, it's so stupid and fun and it's easy to watch. It's so bad it's good.

[szmigiel]

I am pleasantly surprised that Jun Fukuda is the solid number 2. I see a lot of mix reactions to his films on this forum.
Kazuki Omori and Shusuke Kaneko are fighting for the number 3 and 4 spot.
Gareth Edwards is in the number 5 spot, time will tell if he stays there.
I am also shocked that Masaaki Tezuka hasn't gotten more votes with all the acclaim I see the Kiryu saga receive.

With Toho's control, and quick production schedule, it is hard to know what to blame, or praise, a director for. Some of the details of what was happening behind the scenes is known. Like it wasn't Kaneko choice to use Mortha and King Ghidorah in GMK, he wanted Varan and Anguirus instead. Jun Fukuda had many struggles; including shrinking budgets, having to force Godzilla into a film originally conceived for King Kong, and all the scrapped idea before they made Godzilla Vs. Gigan. Kazuki Omori had more time between his films, then Takao Okawara who was putting out one a year.

[ScootaVaran]

1-2. Its a close tie between Fukuda and Honda for me. I just tend to prefer Fukuda's characters over Honda's sometimes. This is obviously not a dig towards Honda. I still love the guy, but I just find Fukuda's characters to be far more lively and enjoyable to watch.

Beyond that

3. Takao Okawara
4. Gareth Edwards
5. Motoyoshi Oda
6. Masaaki Tezuka
7. Yoshimitsu Banno
8. Koji Hashimoto
9. Kazuki Omor
10. Kensho Yamashita
11. Ryuhei Kitamura
12. Roland Emmerich
13. Shusuke Kaneko

[Pkmatrix]

Okawara is your #3? Interesting! Why do you rank him so highly, ScootaVaran? I think most of us find him pretty middle-of-the-road.