First thing is first, did you know Godzilla is returning today?

After twelve long years, TOHO Studios is finally releasing Godzilla: Resurgence! This will make the twenty-ninth Japanese produced film. America gave the world Godzilla movies in 1998 and 2014 to mixed reviews but they seemed to lack a certain something.

That means that the Big G will have starred in a total of thirty-one films, two animated television series, an animated OVA, two appearances on Zone Fighter, a show using only action figures, and multiple comic and video game adaptations. Godzilla’s success also kick started the kaiju film boom that also gave the world Mothra, Rodan, Gamera, and many others. Let’s take a look back at the original series of films (The Showa era) spanning from 1954 to 1975!

Director Ishiro Honda worked alongside special effects director Eji Tsuburaya, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, and composer Akira Ifukube to bring the beast to movie screens in 1954. Gojira was inspired by the events of World War II and the recent Lucky Dragon No.5 incident.

Gojira came out 4 months after that on November 3rd in Japan. The year 1956 saw the American release Godzilla! King of the Monsters featuring additional footage with American actor Raymond Burr. Both versions of the film were a success and this soon led to the sequel Godzilla Raids Again, released in Japan in 1955 and in America as Gigantis the Fire Monster in 1959. Though a decent follow up, it suffered from a rushed production, lack luster script, and an even weirder American adaptation. It did however feature the worlds first kaiju brawl between Godzilla and the bipedal, spike laden shelled Anguirus.

Starting out as an American script titled King Kong Meets Frankenstein, Godzilla returned in 1962 with King Kong vs Godzilla. The script had gone through numerous re-writes and had been shopped around to numerous studios before TOHO signed on. A co-production between TOHO and Universal Pictures, King Kong vs Godzilla turned out the highest ticket sales the franchise would know to this day. Thus the kaiju boom had begun.

The success of of King Kong vs Godzilla soon spawned the 1964 film Godzilla vs The Thing

Mothra would be the first TOHO kaiju Godzilla would fight that had already starred in their own movie. The ticket sales would keep the franchise running at full steam. Godzilla would team up with Mothra and Rodan in 1964 to take on Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster. This film would mark Godzilla’s first steps towards leaving his heel roots and becoming a champion of Earth. The three headed space dragon Ghidorah would return to fight Godzilla and Rodan in Invasion of Astro-Monster (Monster Zero in America). Over time Ghidorah would gain the title of “Godzilla’s greatest foe” and would return many more times throughout the franchise.

1966 would see the first Godzilla film released that wasn’t under the helm of Ishiro Honda (Godzilla Raids Again being the one exception). Ebirah, Horror of the Deep was directed by Jun Fukuda and had originally started out as a King Kong film. When the American rights holders to Kong declined, Godzilla was added as the hero kaiju so production could move along. Set on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean (to save production costs), Godzilla goes up against a giant shrimp.

1966 would also mark the year that special effects supervisor and Godzilla co-creator Eji Tsuburaya would delve into the world of television. His successful series Ultraman would soon spawn many sequels and imitators. Children could now watch city smashing monster action at home. This would start to effect the box office returns of the Big G. TOHO had Jun Fukuda return to the director’s chair to churn out Son of Godzilla in 1967. As the title suggests, this film would introduce Godzilla’s son Minilla in an attempt to wrangle in younger audiences.

Son of Godzilla didn’t do much to save the series so TOHO decided to wrap up it’s Godzilla franchise with 1968’s all out monster brawl Destroy All Monsters. Godzilla ends up teaming up with an all-star cast of kaiju to take down the series’ most lackluster alien invaders who happened to have brought Ghidorah along. Destroy would be the final Godzilla film to feature director Ishiro Honda  working with Eji Tsuburaya, Tomoyuki Tanaka, and Akira Ifukube.

Due to the surprising success of Destroy All Monsters, Honda would return in 1969 with All Monsters Attack (Godzilla’s Revenge in the U.S.). This would be the pinnacle of TOHO’s attempt to snare in a young audience. Featuring the return of Minilla and stock footage battles, this film would be the lowest grossing film so far. It failed to bring in at least two million ticket sales.

The surprisingly dark and brooding Godzilla vs Hedorah (Godzilla vs The Smog Monster in the U.S.)would come out in 1971. Featuring direction from franchise newbie Yoshimitsu Banno, this entry had the King go up against a mutated pile of garbage. Though returning to the series’ darker roots, the psychedelic and off-the-wall Hedorah would fail to capture the sales of previous films.

Jun Fukuda would return to helm the next film where Godzilla would fight his newest villain, space monster Gigan (teaming up with Ghidorah) in 1972’s Godzilla vs Gigan. This film would be riddled with the heaviest usage of stock footage to date. Sales continued to diminish through the next film as well. Godzilla vs Megalon would see the return of Gigan along with introducing the one-and-done foe Megalon.

The Big G would face off against his robotic, alien simian controlled doppelganger in Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla in 1974. Jun Fukuda would score a minor success which would convince Ishiro Honda, Tomoyuki Tanaka, and Akira Ifukube to return in 1975 on Terror of Mechagodzilla. Receiving praise from fans; Terror tried to capture the glory of the sixties films, but unfortunately it still didn’t garner the sales to save the franchise.

By 1975 the entire film industry in was in shambles due to the rise of home television. Most theaters were owned by the movie studios; so when sales went down, the studios felt the backlash immediately. TOHO was one of the few studios in Japan to survive the crash of the industry, but it came at a cost. Terror of Mechagodzilla would be the final film of the Showa era, as well as being the final full length film Ishiro Honda would direct.

The Showa Godzilla films offer a little bit for everyone. Gojira works as a serious film (it has received a Criterion release), the ’64 and ’65 films work as golden era science fiction, while the rest can be downright insane. If you enjoyed Pacific Rim or the 2014 American Godzilla then do yourself a favor and check out a few of these classic cult kaiju cinematic sweets.

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