How big is this fandom, really? And the general nature of the fandom.

[szmigiel]

The fandom is big enough that companies are willing to deal with Toho for licensing, which is no easy feat. It is hard to divide the fanbase between the very hardcore out to the causal fan, but it is big enough that we get videos, comics, toys, etc... fairly regularly. There is a convention that has been able to support itself. El Rey runs Godzilla marathons twice a year, and I come across plenty of movies on several of the digital TV movie sub channels.

I think there are many Fanbases that have a sub-fanbase that are fans of Godzilla and Kaiju. At Anime conventions there is always a group that are fans of tokusatsu, horror fans have a groups who love the kaiju films, movie buffs hold up the original and some respect the 60's output of both kaiju and samurai, plenty of toy collectors dishing out cash for items. Look at the scalping prices for out of print DVDs.

[BlankAccount]

Going 12 years without a Toho flick helped. By the time Shin came out enough time had passed that Japan was missing him instead of it being after several years in a row of movies being rushed out and them being tired of him. They loved Shin.

Yeah the Youtube community is pretty much

*YT Assholes send death threats in mass.*
*You stop making videos*

YT Assholes: "Hey why did you stop making videos? There's nothing to watch and we're bored."

Cause fuck logic.


I pretty much stopped making videos for others to enjoy and just do it for myself now, I don't enjoy it anymore, it's literally just something to do so I feel like I was productive and to kill the time.

[Breakdown]

OT: I feel like we have a very decentralized structure. There is not 'main hub' in which we all congregate.

And thank God for that...

I feel like organized, active, self-identifying Godzilla fandom is pretty niche, but Godzilla has such a prominent place in popular culture, a lot more people are Godzilla fans than are a part of "Godzilla fandom."

That could also depend on what criteria qualifies one as being a "fan" and being part of the 'fandom". To me, if you enjoy the movies and have respect for the character, I consider you to be a fan and thus part of the fandom.

[tbeasley]

We're definitely a niche thing in the sense that you can have people proudly saying they're fans of Marvel, DC, Harry Potter, LOTR, Star Wars, Star Trek, Transformers, etc. and no one ever finds it odd or questionable, but when you say you're a fan of Japanese sci-fi and monster films you kind of have to go, 'No, I genuinely like them, not in a snarky, ironic MST3K fashion.' At least that's my experience (not that I go around proclaiming I'm a massive Godzilla/Gamera fan but still).

[KaijuCanuck]

We're definitely a niche thing in the sense that you can have people proudly saying they're fans of Marvel, DC, Harry Potter, LOTR, Star Wars, Star Trek, Transformers, etc. and no one ever finds it odd or questionable, but when you say you're a fan of Japanese sci-fi and monster films you kind of have to go, 'No, I genuinely like them, not in a snarky, ironic MST3K fashion.' At least that's my experience (not that I go around proclaiming I'm a massive Godzilla/Gamera fan but still).

That's definitely a big difference. I never feel like I can out and say it, even around other nerds, unless I make a ton of overtures to the schlock factor. And I do genuinely enjoy the cheesy aspects, but that's so not all there is to this genre.

[edgaguirus]

I really don't see much of that judgment in non fans these days. They are sometimes wrong about the films, but they don't condemn the films for the stereotypes people take with these movies. The Monsterverse has likely been responsible for that, or it could be the people I hang out with are more mature. Anyhow, I think being a Godzilla fan is becoming more acceptable.

[Loganrules115]

I really don't see much of that judgment in non fans these days. They are sometimes wrong about the films, but they don't condemn the films for the stereotypes people take with these movies. The Monsterverse has likely been responsible for that, or it could be the people I hang out with are more mature. Anyhow, I think being a Godzilla fan is becoming more acceptable.

The acceptability of being a fan is growing extremely slowly. It might take another decade before we can visibly see any progress.

[ArchdukeSquidlyIII]

I have no idea about the scope and size of this fandom, but if you're wondering what the general nature of this fandom is from at least my standpoint, most the people I tend to meet either come off as standoffish or just plain skreeonking rude. :/

Like way back when during the days of the Kaiju Collector forum? Yeah, I remember a lot of members there had some sort of personal vendetta against you for whatever stupid reason. Sucks you had to go through that!

[THECRAZEBLING]

I have no idea about the scope and size of this fandom, but if you're wondering what the general nature of this fandom is from at least my standpoint, most the people I tend to meet either come off as standoffish or just plain skreeonking rude. :/

Like way back when during the days of the Kaiju Collector forum? Yeah, I remember a lot of members there had some sort of personal vendetta against you for whatever stupid reason. Sucks you had to go through that!

To be fair, I inadvertently brought it on myself due to my own inexperience and tendency to argue a lot when people SEEM to have insulted me but more or less at least try to see reason on personal things.

But as far as I can see that chapter in my life is already closed and I don't want to open it again, I'm only looking forward.

How did you know about that though?

[HeiseiGodzilla117]

I really don't see much of that judgment in non fans these days. They are sometimes wrong about the films, but they don't condemn the films for the stereotypes people take with these movies. The Monsterverse has likely been responsible for that, or it could be the people I hang out with are more mature. Anyhow, I think being a Godzilla fan is becoming more acceptable.

The acceptability of being a fan is growing extremely slowly. It might take another decade before we can visibly see any progress.

What? I never have any problems when I mention that I enjoy these movies. Never. Some people might say they're not into it, but I never catch any flak.

Are there actually cartoonish bully caricatures out there giving some of you guys hell for being into this stuff?

[ArchdukeSquidlyIII]

I have no idea about the scope and size of this fandom, but if you're wondering what the general nature of this fandom is from at least my standpoint, most the people I tend to meet either come off as standoffish or just plain skreeonking rude. :/

Like way back when during the days of the Kaiju Collector forum? Yeah, I remember a lot of members there had some sort of personal vendetta against you for whatever stupid reason. Sucks you had to go through that!

To be fair, I inadvertently brought it on myself due to my own inexperience and tendency to argue a lot when people SEEM to have insulted me but more or less at least try to see reason on personal things.

But as far as I can see that chapter in my life is already closed and I don't want to open it again, I'm only looking forward.

How did you know about that though?

I was a member WAY back when it was still up. I think my username was something stupid such as "likeaboss550" or whatever. Good on you for putting it behind you though!

[Chrispy_G]

When I meet Kaiju/Godzilla fans in real life - Amazing experience, so much enthusiasm over finding someone else who is 'in' on the genre and enjoys and appreciates these films.

When I encounter Kaiju/Godzilla fans on the internet - Sadly most of the time, people come off as shockingly pretentious considering how gloriously ridiculous this genre we love so much can be. So much of it feels like it boils down to a veiled, condescending 'Screw you and your opinions' type of conversation.

[Loganrules115]

I really don't see much of that judgment in non fans these days. They are sometimes wrong about the films, but they don't condemn the films for the stereotypes people take with these movies. The Monsterverse has likely been responsible for that, or it could be the people I hang out with are more mature. Anyhow, I think being a Godzilla fan is becoming more acceptable.

The acceptability of being a fan is growing extremely slowly. It might take another decade before we can visibly see any progress.

What? I never have any problems when I mention that I enjoy these movies. Never. Some people might say they're not into it, but I never catch any flak.

Are there actually cartoonish bully caricatures out there giving some of you guys hell for being into this stuff?

Not necessarily, but from personal experience it does affect how other people view you. The general attitude from skeptical non-fans is one of "Oh, you're into that stuff" as if I were engaged in some profound social taboo.

[Rodan]

I've never had anyone question my interest in the genre (most people who know me well just think it's kind of a quirky interest), but I usually do have to double-down a few times on the fact that I like it completely unironically when/if it first comes up.

Most people who know me well also know I'm into a lot of hoighty-toity high-art stuff too, though, so it usually just boils down to "Okay, well, I guess he sees something in this. All right." But, like, shit, also a lot of these films are just really joyful and if you have a chance to actually sit down with anyone who isn't into the genre and watch one, they'll probably find something to like.

That's in the States though. I haven't had the opportunity to trot out the "I really like Godzilla movies" bit in Japan yet; it'll be interesting to see what the response is. I'm not eager to immediately come across as some sort of otaku.

[eabaker]

I've never had anyone question my interest in the genre (most people who know me well just think it's kind of a quirky interest), but I usually do have to double-down a few times on the fact that I like it completely unironically when/if it first comes up.

While that's been the case for me from about age 16 on, around 14-15 I'd say a lot of my peers were somewhat judgmental about the subject. But, then, at ages 14-15, I think people can to be pretty judgmental about almost anything that differentiates someone from the crowd.

[Tohosaurus]

I think it's important to note that Godzilla is really the biggest within the "kaiju genre".

Comic book or superhero fans have nearly unlimited heroes to be, well, fans of. Kaiju popularity is anchored by essentially Godzilla, maybe AoT, and maybe Kong. Toho's library of monsters, likened to maybe Marvel's library of superheros, is limited in that Godzilla is the only major star. Rodan and Mothra may have originated in their movies, but they've been more or less integrated into the Godzilla series by now. So that really leaves the monsters of various popularity like the Ultra series, Gamera, Cloverfield, or Pacific Rim. It's the "popular" monsters that promote the popularity of the genre. That's what makes Godzilla so key to the entire giant monster genre. I think it'd really help Toho to build off of their most popular monsters and then utilize that to make a whole library of monsters that can support their movies, books, etc. Only so many can do it, but there's more than Godzilla. At least I believe so.

[Major sssspielberg!]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is how Godzilla (or references to kaiju) have slipped in to all these other large-scale mega-fandoms. Star Wars has tanks based on Masers and the Zillo beast, the T. Rex rampage in Lost World, Gamera, Ghidorah and Ultraman references basically encompassing an entire ep of Billy and Mandy, Godzilla himself technically BEING a Marvel character, etc. Obviously its kinda subversive but enough creative people show their love by inserting kaiju and toku into their work. It shows how these films and tv shows have inspired people for generations, going back to Kong and Tsuburaya. So even though the fandom isn't yuge, they are so passionate about these creatures, films, tv shows, and IDEAS that people go out of their way to make references the average Joe Brody might not pick up on, but all us Ken Yanos will!

[Ryguy]

One thing that makes me question the size of the fandom though is the fact that many of the same people seem to pop up all over the place (in a good way). I feel like the entire fandom has at some point come into contact with g2kMaster, Living Corpse and miguelnuva

I actually ran into Living Corpse in the comments section of one of Pinksylist's Omegle videos that I was in lol (so completely unrelated to Godzilla). I find it so fucking crazy that this happened because given the size of the YouTube community, the chances of me running into some guy I knew from a Godzilla forum in a non-Godzilla video that I myself was in is just... damn

----

Also, yeah liking Godzilla has become much less of a social bastard than it used to be, at least in my experience. When I was in middle and high school, people would always give me shit for liking this stuff. But once I got to college, nobody gave a shit (and I don't care what people think of my admiration for Godzilla either). Probably just has a lot to do with people growing up. It's ironic that judging others for liking so-called "immature" things is only taboo for those below the age of 17. I went through the same shit in middle school during the whole "Nintendo games are for kids, and Call of Duty is for adults" BS