What Is Your Favorite Godzilla Era And Why?

For discussions covering more than one Toho film or show that span across more than one “era.”

What Is Your Favorite Godzilla Era?

Showa
14
70%
Heisei
3
15%
Millenium
0
No votes
Monsterverse
3
15%
Reiwa
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 20

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eabaker
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Re: What Is Your Favorite Godzilla Era And Why?

Post by eabaker »

I've got to go with Showa as well, for basically the reasons that CrimsonBloodX and Rando Yaguchi gave. The quality and the sophistication of the storytelling was more consistent than at any other time in the series' history, and the sheer number of entries and the relative freshness of the genre lead to incredible creative variety. Also, my personal aesthetic tastes tend to run towards movies of the 60s and 70s anyway.
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Re: What Is Your Favorite Godzilla Era And Why?

Post by Keizer »

I will be following the crowd here by saying Showa, albeit for slightly different reasons. I tend to like it the most for its visuals, monsters, tone, and creativity. I am not quite sure how to put my finger on it, but the miniatures, sets, and suits made back then seemed to be made with a lot more flair and creativity. The same applies for the monster designs; even the worse ones on the list had a lot of character and creativity. I swear, they just don't design monsters like they used to, for better or worse. There were definitely good monsters made after the Showa era, but it had the best and most creative ones, if you ask me. I will say that I think the Showa era starting faltering after Destroy All Monsters; even if it added cool new monsters, the actual stories suffered, if you ask me, only getting better with the Mechagodzilla movies. There is also the fact that there was a clear lack of budget with the latter day Showa films, which was especially apparent in Godzilla's Revenge and Godzilla VS Gigan. In the end, though, I think the creativity of the first era shines through.

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Re: What Is Your Favorite Godzilla Era And Why?

Post by Dynomy-DX »

While I have favorites in each era, I’m a huge fan of the Monsterverse. They take what works about the monsters in previous movies and expand it in ways that tie to mythology and crazy sci-fi in the latter half of the movies. It feels like a little bit of everything, which weirdly works for me, if that makes sense.
Reignited... and hopefully less weird this time around.

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Re: What Is Your Favorite Godzilla Era And Why?

Post by gomezm6 »

This was difficult as I enjoy both the Show and Heisei periods equally, and I would agree as I have also enjoyed Monsterverse Universe very well. I did pick Heisei mainly due to it including some of the best model work, Return of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Biollante, and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II which are some of my favorite Godzilla films, and while some of them used quite a bit reputition on their soundtracks, I feel the Heisei soundtracks are much more complete and done. I will say that this period also holds a special place in my heart since I was able to get the videos of these films (Japanese versions with subtitles) way back in 1996, after getting them either via a company in California or a cousin who lived in Japan. After seeing certain scenes in magazines in 1994-1995 (not to mention the articles which came out about Godzilla's death in Destroyah), I spent much time obtaining the films.
I will admit that out of all the eras, the Millennium and Reiwa eras I feel are the weakest. That is not to say the films are bad, I just don't enjoy some of them as much (such as the anime films and the colossal mix-up of Final Wars which could have been an excellent film, but it got bogged down by too much Hollywood influences, and monsters and fights which lasted too short of a time). Hopefully we will see more films in the near future (live-action) either from the Monsterverse or Toho which will give the Reiwa period much more power.

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Re: What Is Your Favorite Godzilla Era And Why?

Post by edgaguirus »

I prefer the Showa era. The main reason is that those are the movies I saw growing up, but they also have some great films. The level of creativity they had produced interesting kaiju and stories. They also had skilled actors/actresses and music scores to highlight those stories.
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by Jermobooka »

I’ve had a change of heart

Decided to binge some Showa era recently and...yeah, it’s tied with the MV for me now. The monsters, action, characters, plots, diversity, uniqueness...it really has everything going for it

Seeing the Showa era all over again makes me realize just how underrated it is and how overrated the Heisei era is. I mean, the creativity really went down the shitter after vs. King Ghidorah
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by Voyager »

Jermobooka wrote: Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:15 pm I’ve had a change of heart

Decided to binge some Showa era recently and...yeah, it’s tied with the MV for me now. The monsters, action, characters, plots, diversity, uniqueness...it really has everything going for it

Seeing the Showa era all over again makes me realize just how underrated it is and how overrated the Heisei era is. I mean, the creativity really went down the shitter after vs. King Ghidorah
Yes... Yes! You’re being converted!

Criterion Collection? I used it to binge Showa, too.


Despite my new avatar and sig, believe me, the Showa is still by far my favourite era for everything. Plots, effects, kaiju, designs, characters, cinematography (although it is closely contested by Shin), etc.
Last edited by Voyager on Mon Jun 07, 2021 8:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by godjacob »

MonsterVerse for me, mostly cause it has some of my fav interpretations of classic Kaiju and some nice new ones. But I think each era has their own merit.
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by Dynomy-DX »

Count me in on Team Monsterverse. While the other eras have their impact, I’ve grown most attached to the MV incarnations and stories. Millennium is a close second though.
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by Jermobooka »

Voyager wrote: Mon Jun 07, 2021 8:08 pm Criterion Collection? I used it to binge Showa, too.
Yup. Really worth it! One of the best purchases I’ve made
:D
Yes ...Yes! You’re being converted!

Despite my new avatar and sig, believe me, the Showa is still by far my favourite era for everything. Plots, effects, kaiju, designs, characters, cinematography (although it is closely contested by Shin), etc.
Don’t get it wrong, the MV is still my favorite for a ton of reasons and edges out Showa, but only by a bit. I’ll never betray my era! :P
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by Legion1979 »

Terasawa wrote: Sat Apr 25, 2020 6:57 pm Showa, Heisei a distant second.
Yeah, this is me, with Millennium a distant third and the other two far, FAR below that.

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Re: Favorite Era

Post by Terasawa »

Looking at just the Godzilla series, I guess the disparity between the Showa and Heisei series isn't as wide as I thought when I made my last post over a year ago. I mean, obviously I knew I liked the Heisei movies, but when I look at the average rating for each Godzilla series (based on my IMDb ratings), all of the series are pretty close together (however, Showa is still the clear champion).
  • Showa average: 5.34
  • Heisei average: 5.14
  • Millennium average: 4.67
  • Hollywood average: 4.75 (GINO and the three Legendary Godzilla movies.)
    • Monsterverse average: 5 (The three LP Godzilla movies and KSI, because I think that's fair.)
  • Reiwa average: 4.75 (I'm not a fan of lumping the disparate and unconnected Shin and anime films together, but that's "official," so...)
    • Anime average: 4
  • Average of the 36 Godzilla films: 5.06
I'm not prepared to do this for more than just the Godzilla movies. That would be more difficult, because I don't find the Showa, Heisei, Millennium, Reiwa delineations useful outside of the context of the Godzilla series.
Last edited by Terasawa on Tue Jun 08, 2021 2:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by MegaGoji »

-Monsterverse and Showa
-Heisei
-Millennium and Reiwa

Each series has amazing movies so this was quite difficult to rank

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Re: Favorite Era

Post by Spuro »

1. Showa (Quality AND quantity! Win-win!)

2. Monsterverse (For the most part, just a ton of fun, with no stand-out horrible entries in my personal view.)

3. Millennium (50/50 in terms of good and bad movies, but the good ones here (GMK, G2K, GxMG) are some of my favorites, and the bad ones are still more fun than the average bad Heisei film.)

4. Heisei (The 80's films are great, but the 90s films really drag this series down – doubly so if one includes the Mothra trilogy.)

5. Reiwa (Shin is good. The anime trilogy marks my three least-favorite films in the entire series, and when that makes up 3/4 of your content, last place is a given.)
Last edited by Spuro on Thu Jul 08, 2021 3:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by Breakdown »

Tough call between Showa and Heisei, but I voted Heisei just for the sake of voting. I grew up watching both Showa and Heisei movies so that probably explains the difficulty in picking between the two. MonsterVerse would be third and everything else is meh.
Last edited by Breakdown on Thu Jul 08, 2021 6:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by Chrispy_G »

Monsterverse. No time like the present :)
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by SoggyNoodles2016 »

Damn, lots of good topics in the general films thread lately!

1. Millenium. Literally the most formative Godzilla films and the ones that to me define the character are in this era. It's definitely a mixed bag but what works here WORKS and I love the experimentation everywhere else.

2. Showa. The era that started it all is still a classic. Showa films are the ones that still speak to me most and I love to discover, and I'm also a fan of the cinematography here the most.

3. Monsterverse/Reiwa. The Monsterverse really are getting more confusing and sloppy as they go on, I'll admit, but the kaiju characterization and the new reimaginings are both classic and new. The Reiwa era on the other hand (which honestly feels like it goes in tandem with the MV) has some of my favorite new takes but also some heavily flawed entries (you know which 300 meter elephant in the room I'm talking about) that weigh it down, as much as I like parts of then.

4. Heisei. Look, I like big parts of the Heisei movies, especially the first 3. But I will be brutally honest. A combination of somehow aging the worse of the films in the series, a barebones universe that just does not work for me, and years of being praised as the only Godzilla thing that can and should exist make this era not one I'm fond of.
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by GodzillavsRayquaza »

Showa and Heisei are tied for me. Showa has more amazing movies (mostly just because it has more movies lol), however I prefer Heisei’s overall storyline, so I’m just gonna say they’re even for me and that I absolutely adore both.

MV/Reiwa I choose to just mash together, and I’d have probably just had them tied anyway. As someone who likes KOTM and the Anime Trilogy, MV and Reiwa are in second place just because of how excellent Showa and Heisei’s best movies are, as the two eras bring some absolutely excellent reimaginings of beloved things and awesome new elements as well.

Millenium… sorry, it just gets the short end of the stick. GMK and G2000 are fire, but they don’t match Showa and Heisei’s heights, nor do they reach G14 or Shin Godzilla.
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Re: Favorite Era

Post by Legion1979 »

Easy for me....

1) Showa







2) Heisei
3) Millennium
4) Monsterverse
5) Reiwa or whatever.

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Re: Favorite Era

Post by JessIAm »

I think my favorite era is whatever I'm currently watching...

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