Favorite Godzilla Era

For discussions covering more than one Toho film or show that span across more than one “era.”
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by MDK »

Showa era because of it's charming characters and stories. Honda, Tsubaraya, Sekizawa, and Tanaka all actually tried to make good movies instead of making soul-less movies with uninspired characters just to sell Godzilla Bandais.
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by Vatarian »

Hmm. Each era has advantages and disadvantages..... I'm tempted to say Millenium because of the fact that it had no truly bad films in it, IMO, and contained one of my favorites movies EVER in or outside of Godzilla, that is to say, Godzilla 2000.

That said, Heisei, while blighted by some bad eggs, also has some of my favorite films in it, such as Destroyah and King Ghidorah.... And BFE. Yes, I love it.

I like Showa too; it has the most consistant story-telling, but when it's bad, it's BAD. Sometimes the suits were legit too corny for me to take, and entries like Hedorah, Megalon, Revenge, etc.....
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by 20th Century Boy »

I like sparks as a trademark of the Heisei Era. It gets annoying when you're seeing the movies sequentially, but it works as a one-time thing.

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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by Kaiser »

The Showa era is the best top to bottom. It may have the largest collection of bad films, but the sheer number of classics are enough to outweigh the lower outliers.

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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by GodzillaRangerPrime »

The Showa Era by far
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

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LiquidG wrote:I think each series has its faults and strong points, and one things the Millennium series has over the Heisei series is the Effects, its nice seeing a building explode or a monster get hit with something and not see millions of fucking sparks go flying everywhere like its the 4th of July.
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by Gojora »

Uhh....
This is quite hard to say since i like all of them but i'm going with Showa for a bit.
I like the campyness it had late but early it was serious.
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by Pkmatrix »

As I've thought about it, I find it more useful to choose by decade rather than from the three "eras".

My favorite decade, hands down, are the 1980s films. After that are probably the 1960s, the rest tend to swap places depending on my mood though generally the '90s are at the bottom. I'm not even counting the 2010s yet, since it's only one movie.

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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by three »

Pkmatrix wrote:As I've thought about it, I find it more useful to choose by decade rather than from the three "eras".

My favorite decade, hands down, are the 1980s films. After that are probably the 1960s, the rest tend to swap places depending on my mood though generally the '90s are at the bottom. I'm not even counting the 2010s yet, since it's only one movie.

When you put it that way,

90s

80s

70s.

At any given day, that order can be completely different.
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by Breakdown »

After watching MOAR SHOWA, I have to say that it slightly surpasses Heisei as my favorite where as previously I enjoyed them equally.
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by Jomei »

Showa is best era. While there are things to like in both of the later eras, Showa establishes most of the best characters and kaiju, it has the greatest number of awesome films, the special effects are generally very good for their time, and it boasts great variety.
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

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Jomei wrote:Showa is best era. While there are things to like in both of the later eras, Showa establishes most of the best characters and kaiju, it has the greatest number of awesome films, the special effects are generally very good for their time, and it boasts great variety.
yea, out of curiosity how do you rank it by decade?
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

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three wrote:
Jomei wrote:Showa is best era. While there are things to like in both of the later eras, Showa establishes most of the best characters and kaiju, it has the greatest number of awesome films, the special effects are generally very good for their time, and it boasts great variety.
yea, out of curiosity how do you rank it by decade?
The '60s was my favorite decade for Godzilla. It's not worth ranking beyond that, as the number of films per decade skews their value.
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by Legion1979 »

Jomei wrote:
three wrote:
Jomei wrote:Showa is best era. While there are things to like in both of the later eras, Showa establishes most of the best characters and kaiju, it has the greatest number of awesome films, the special effects are generally very good for their time, and it boasts great variety.
yea, out of curiosity how do you rank it by decade?
The '60s was my favorite decade for Godzilla. It's not worth ranking beyond that, as the number of films per decade skews their value.
Exactly. The original may be a masterpiece, but GRA is pretty mediocre. On the other hand, I love all the '70s films, even the weakest ones. So my ranking by decade would easily be

1960s
1970s
1950s

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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by three »

^ well, at least you got the 70s right. the 60s were what i'd call a golden age, but not a group of my favorites.
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by HedorahIsBestGirl »

The Showa Era because it will always have such a nostalgic charm for me. I grew up watching the Showa movies on VHS and the Sci-Fi Channel and I still find them the most enjoyable today. There are several post-Showa Godzilla films that I love, but as a series overall I like the Showa Era the best, by far.

Added in 11 days 6 hours 9 minutes 22 seconds:
I've had more thoughts on this.

The Showa Era isn't just my favorite because of nostalgia, it's also my favorite because it has the most style and the most variety. Every Showa films has its own unique flair. Each one brings a different taste to the table and, for the most part, I enjoy them all. Some are lighter, some are darker, some have deeper themes and some exist as vehicles for kaiju action; all of them tell their own stories, and all of them are made with love. Even films which I dislike (Revenge, Megalon) stand out more than most Godzilla films made after 1975. And the best Showa films (Godzilla '54, Mothra, DAM, Hedorah, TOMG) are better than anything made after '75, with the lone exception of GMK.

The Heisei Era is my least favorite of the three original Godzilla eras because it's way too formulaic. There's not anywhere near the same variety of styles as in the Showa films. Every Heisei film has the same style which is, frankly, pretty bland. Most fans like the first two Heisei Godzilla films and the last one better than the four in the middle, and that's in no small part because they divert from the general style of the Heisei series the most. I'm not as in love with Biollante as most of the fandom, but I can't deny it has more originality than almost anything that came after it. I think the big issue with the '90s Heisei films is that they were more concerned with box office figures than with making meaningful movies. The Showa series was made with love, the Heisei series was made for profit. On the plus side, the continuity is nice; although such strong continuity would have prevented the lovably eclectic nature of the Showa Era, so maybe the Godzilla series is better off without it.

The Millennium Era is better than the Heisei Era, but not by much. This series tried to emulate the Showa series by bringing many different ideas and styles to the table, but it failed halfway through. The first three Millennium films are unique and entertaining and I love them all (even Megaguirus, which everyone else hates on). GMK is my personal favorite Godzilla film, and I think it's the first Godzilla film since 1989 to truly reinvent the series in an interesting way. Godzilla 2000 and Megaguirus are less revolutionary, but still an improvement over the stylistically stagnant Heisei series. Unfortunately, the second half of the Millennium series falls flat. GXMG and Tokyo SOS are even blander and more formulaic than the weaker Heisei films, and two of my least favorite Godzilla films. Final Wars is fun for what it is, but it doesn't feel like a Godzilla film and it's far from the series' best.

The Reiwa Era hasn't been going on long enough for me to judge it. Shin Gojira is a fantastic reinvention of the franchise, but I didn't care for the anime trilogy at all. If future "Reiwa" films are on par with Shin in terms of reimagining the franchise in interesting ways, it might rank up there with the Showa series for me. But if future Godzilla films are as bland and boring as the anime trilogy, this will be my least favorite era, hands down.

The MonsterVerse is fun. I like seeing a Hollywood take on Godzilla that at least tries to be somewhat faithful to the source material. Both films are distinctly American in style, for better or for worse, but it's hard to deny how awesome it is seeing Godzilla and company rendered in first-rate CGI. I think Godzilla vs. Kong will make or break this series. For now, I'd say it's a million miles better than the anime trilogy, but worse than most of the live-action Toho Godzilla films.

I saw lots of people ranking the decades, so here's my order:
1 - 1960s: Golden age of Godzilla
2 - 1970s: Wildest, most fun Godzilla movies
3 - 2000s (counting Godzilla 2000): Hit and miss, but with a couple of big hits
4 - 1950s: Where it all began; I actually like Raids Again, and if it was better, I'd rank the '50s higher
5 - 1980s: More unique than the '90s, although I don't love either film
6 - 1990s: Pretty bland overall, but I like MG2 and Destoroyah
7 - 2010s: Shin is great, MV is cool but not amazing, anime trilogy is garbage
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by GojiDog »

Its either Showa or Heisei.

The Showa Period was the golden age for the genre. It is when these monsters I've loved my whole life were created and some of the finest kaiju films ever made were produced. The work of Honda, Ifukube, Tsuburaya, Nakajima and everyone else involved in these films just made magic that has stayed with me my whole life. I also view the Toho kaiju films of this period as sort of taking the baton from the Universal Monster films of the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Universal just made one iconic monster after another and it only made sense to eventually cross them over. Godzilla and his friends took up that mantle and created a whole world of some of the greatest movie monsters of all time. Also, I love Godzilla's character development throughout the 15 films from pure destroyer to Earth's guardian. It is quite the wild ride.

The Heisei Period represented important changes. With Home video now being a major presence, it made sense to have continuity play a much larger role in the story. The Heisei Godzilla series had threads that ran through the entire series, and I just loved how the events of one movie would impact another movie 2 or 3 entries later. It gave it more of a comic book style of feel to it. Also, there was a perfect blending of old monsters getting awesome reboots and new creations to further add to the Toho monster family.
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by Godzamera »

Showa is my favorite era.

And as far as ranking the decades, this is where I stand as of now (I change my mind a lot):

1. 1960's
2. 1970's
3. 1950's (including Rodan)
3. 1980's
4. 1990's
5. 2000's
6. 2010's

I hope the 2020's are good
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by Fish Cakes »

The OP asked Heisei or Millennium, if Showa was an option there wouldn't really be a competition.

Reiwa for me though, Shin alone outdoes everything in Heisei and Millennium combined.
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Re: Favorite Godzilla Era

Post by Rodan95 »

I love all of the eras but if I had to choose 1, definitely Showa. You can't go wrong with the OG 15 films from the first series.

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