How has Godzilla impacted your life?

[Kaiju-King42]

So... how has being a Godzilla fan impacted your life over the years, both positively and negatively? How do you think your life would be different without Godzilla?

Starting with something minor, as it is kind of late, my first Godzilla film was Ebirah Horror of the Deep. Later that week, we went to... I kid you not... Red Lobster. Remembering how Godzilla fought that giant "crab" as I thought Ebirah was back then, I wanted to eat... well, crab! Thanks to Godzilla somehow influencing 3 year old me to try crab, I was introduced to my favorite food in the same week as my favorite film series.

What about you guys?

[Shadow]

Well, when some one says year, I say the Godzilla movie of that year.

[ScootaVaran]

So... how has being a Godzilla fan impacted your life over the years, both positively and negatively? How do you think your life would be different without Godzilla?

Starting with something minor, as it is kind of late, my first Godzilla film was Ebirah Horror of the Deep. Later that week, we went to... I kid you not... Red Lobster. Remembering how Godzilla fought that giant "crab" as I thought Ebirah was back then, I wanted to eat... well, crab! Thanks to Godzilla somehow influencing 3 year old me to try crab, I was introduced to my favorite food in the same week as my favorite film series.

What about you guys?

lol same here! i actually kept the claws from my Red Lobster dinner because it reminded me of Ebirah. my parents fridge stank for months.

[Tohosaurus]

I think it gave me a certain appreciation for foreign cinema that I may not otherwise have had. In fact my infatuation with foreign cultures and politics may well have been a result of my always being intrigued by Japan (originally for the Godzilla movies). Seems silly to type out but I have a hunch it's true.

[TokyoVigilante]

The finales of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Godzilla 1985 were the most exhilarating and most emotionally poignant cinematic moments I had ever experienced up to that point (I was 6, btw). Before I watched movies to kill time and to try and draw the monsters/dinosaurs that were in the film, never really "getting into them". Godzilla movies were the first films I had gotten into and I knew that they didn't look totally convincing, but that turned me onto the fact that films are made by people and the imperfections give a charm and life that picture perfect films I enjoyed like Jurassic Park just didn't provide.

Basically, I'm in film school because Godzilla dropping into a volcano made me cry when I was six.

[ScootaVaran]

Basically, I'm in film school because Godzilla dropping into a volcano made me cry when I was six.

His screams as he fell in the volcano made me cry and gave me nightmares.
Not a cool thing for a little kid to hear from his hero.

[edgaguirus]

It's given me a fascination for Oriental cultures.

[Living Corpse]

It got me interested in science since you know, the first Godzilla film was all about how in the wrong hands science can be very destructive.

[Biollante]

I waste money on mundane plastic. Thanks Godzilla!

[Tyler]

Liking Godzilla has spread into all sorts of things for me. Dinosaurs, monsters, science fiction, other kinds of movies and to mirror TV I'm on my way to film school because my love of Godzilla evolved into a love of film in general.

[kaijukurt]

My fascination with Godzilla led to become interested in other things, like science fiction, nuclear science, Japan, etc.

[Cimmerian Dragon]

Prompted the interest in monster films, fed my love of paleontology and Cold War history/culture. If not for Godzilla, I probably would not have become a foreign film enthusiast as early in life as I did.

[matsumoto mephilas]

Basically, I'm in film school because Godzilla dropping into a volcano made me cry when I was six.

His screams as he fell in the volcano made me cry and gave me nightmares.
Not a cool thing for a little kid to hear from his hero.

dude that's dark poor goji it's like if rodan dropped into a volcano i would be scarred for years cause he's like my favorite ally

[JVM]

It made me join a Godzilla forum, attend some conventions and learn what the hell vinyl is.

Didn't impact my life at all really.

[Berzerkgodzilla]

Made my ideas really start to flow, also got me interested in the genre

[matsumoto mephilas]

my parents grew up with it and made me got into the series so we went to taco bell in 98 when i was one years old and got the zilla cupholder that came with the purchase of the tacos and it's still in good condition up to this day cause in the future i'm gonna pass this down as a heirloom to my kids .

[Varan 1958]

I was introduced to Godzilla when I was young. I first watched some of the Showa films that my family got for me, then I slowly, over the years, I collected all of the R1 releases and watched them. Later on, I started to collect other Godzilla items. I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for Godzilla.

[Gojira-Fan]

Basically, I'm in film school because Godzilla dropping into a volcano made me cry when I was six.

His screams as he fell in the volcano made me cry and gave me nightmares.
Not a cool thing for a little kid to hear from his hero.

dude that's dark poor goji it's like if rodan dropped into a volcano i would be scarred for years cause he's like my favorite ally

You better not watch the first Rodan movie.

[Dave McDave]

Christmas Eve, 1990: A barely seven years old boy and budding palaeontologist excitedly sat on the sofa at his Granddad’s house. It was on this night that a twenty-one year love affair began...

Almost everyone was either out or preoccupied with smoking on the back door step, leaving me to my own devices in the dusty, floral covered lounge. Channel Four here in the UK was generally the only place we could get to see foreign films, and usually well past bed time, but I guess the festive season had led to an absent mind in my mother, and I was allowed to stay up. In Masters of the Universe PJs while gripping my little T-Rex Early Learning Centre figure I stared in disbelief as something amazing played out on the television before me...

Destroy All Monsters.

I was hooked. It resonated in me far beyond its means, and stimulated that colossal urge that all hyperactive young boys seem to have to destroy things and be the centre of all attention, roaring all the way. Godzilla and me were kindred spirits, divided by celluloid and a couple of hundred feet, but that didn’t matter; from then on I knew I was giant monster trapped inside a child’s body.

My presents that week were great, but none of them compared to the gift of the boxes they came in, for these were no mere card structures; they were disassembled buildings waiting to be erected before being swiped at with a scream of barely containable malice. For years after ever pile of leaves, every frozen puddle, every soda can and polystyrene container on the street would suffer my wrath as I crushed through them in the stylings of my hero.

Of course, Jurassic Park eventually came out and while it was amazing, no Tyrannosaur could hold a candle to Godzilla; the King of the Monsters was so much bigger, and while all the other kids at school didn’t believe me, or doubted the prowess of my idol, I knew the truth. Godzilla was the best, and I would fight anyone who said otherwise, regardless of whether they’d even heard of him or not, that simple.

Eventually that hyperactive little boy grew up, in body at least, but he remained a steadfast fan, only now with a new problem; I’m that guy who just can’t find a single person who shares my love and semi-intimate knowledge of Godzilla. No one from my social circle of associates even finds the subject remotely entertaining and more than once I’ve had friends complain if I put on Godzilla movies, a fact that has only been proven wrong by the alternative ‘Lake Texakana’ sound track on Gamera 2: Advent of Legion...

And so I am forced to dwell in the dark of my room when I should be outside, or sketching, or trying to find some meaning in my life, because it is only when I am at this laptop do I ever get a chance to share and chat about my passion. It’s only on forums like this that I can express my fanship, and it is because of Godzilla that I tend to be a boring, shut in geek...

I wouldn’t have it any other way... ;p

[matsumoto mephilas]

@gojira-fan why shouldn't i watch the first rodan film?