Hail to the King Baby!!!: A Godzilla Retrospective Part 1

Welcome Dear Readers to another Anime Corner Special Event.  Given that we’re celebrating the official 70^th Birthday of the King of the Monsters this month, nows a good a time as any to do a little revisit to those 7 decades of history.  For the next five Fridays, we’ll be looking at Godzilla from the very beginning and working our way through his most current successes in 2024 (which are pretty huge btw, no pun intended).  We begin our little history lessons with, as I said, the beginning, a beginning so massive…that this is the only era we’ll be splitting into two parts just to cover it all.  Welcome to Hail to the King Baby!!!: A Godzilla Retrospective.

 
The year was 1954.  Almost a decade had passed since the devastating conclusion of World War II.  The nation was still in a state of indescribable shock after the nuclear bomb strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  It was during this period of recovery that filmmakers sought to make sense of the horror they’d witnessed by translating it into a new kind of vision.  Enter Tomoyuki Tanaka, who envisioned a monster much like the one in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, though the concept would evolve from a Squid like creature to something more Prehistoric.  And thus, with the help of fellow filmmakers Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya, Godzilla: King of the Monsters was born. 
 
The Kings first appearance is a film steeped in imagery born out of the Atomic nightmare Japan suffered.  Godzilla’s massive stature, iconic roar and seemingly unstoppable nature still produces powerful messages about the dangers of wielding Atomic power.  The film became an instant landmark achievement in filmmaking history thanks to a strong story, a legendary score and theme by composer Akira Ifukube, and game changing visual effects work.  While the film would be released in Japan as Gojira, the film would arrive in the US two years later under an alternative title that included new footage for this American version dubbed Godzilla: King of the Monsters.  Thanks to this, the world was now aware of this terrifying titan…and it wanted more. 

Case in point, a sequel, Godzilla Raids Again, was quickly fast tracked into production.  Released in Japan in 1955, this sequel began a trend most movie goers are most familiar with when it comes to Godzilla: the Monster Match Ups.  In his first on screen throwdown, Godzilla fought Angirus, who would go on to become a common recurring ally and rival for the King.  The idea of having Godzilla fight other creatures his size with various cities caught in the carnage was too good to pass up, so much so that his next two adventures would see him fighting two other iconic monsters.  The first was in 1963 when the King of the Monsters took on the 8^th Wonder of the World: King Kong in King Kong vs. Godzilla (which also happened to be Godzilla’s big move to color after his first two black and white films).  The second big face off came two years later in 1964 when Godzilla first battled his long time frenemy and fellow Giant Monster Icon, Mothra, in Mothra vs. Godzilla.  

1964 would also see the first appearance of the Monster many consider to be Godzilla’s greatest nemesis in Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster.  King Ghidorah more than earned his title being so powerful that Godzilla needed help from both Mothra and fellow Monster champion Rodan to defeat him.  Seeing multiple Monsters team up like this would prove so popular that a year later in 1965, Ghidorah would return again in Invasion of Astro Monster.  1966 would see a new Monster added to the growing catalogue of Kaiju superstars with Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, which originally was intended to be a film with King Kong at the helm before Godzilla and Mothra took his place.

Something that became a bit more apparent the more years went by was how Godzilla had changed in presentation.  While still a force to be reckoned with and hardly a savior of the Human Race (we’ll talk about that more Next Week), Godzilla became less a monster to be feared and more a popular one to root for, especially with kids.  This led to the questionable decision to give Godzilla his own little offspring, Minia, in Son of Godzilla.  Widely considered one of the series’ weaker entries, Toho felt that by the time the film arrived in 1967 that the well had about run dry on Godzilla’s adventures.  The decision was made to bring the series to the close by pulling out all the stops for 1968’s Destroy All Monsters.  And by pulling out all the stops, I mean just that.  The film had Aliens, Monsters attacking multiple cities and, best of all, the biggest Kaiju throwdown at the time with the films finale featuring Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, Angirus, Minia and several other monsters all fighting King Ghidorah at once.  Talk about going out with all barrels blazing. 

This would end up backfiring, kind of, for Toho.  While sales weren’t the greatest in the series, interest was still high with fans and children, prompting Toho to rethink it’s decision to end the series and instead take it in a new direction, one that would define Godzilla for the rest of the Showa Era.  But that’s still several movies to cover, so we’re stopping here for the moment.  Come back Next Week for Part 2 of Hail to the King Baby!!!: A Godzilla Retrospective as we look at the second half of Godzilla’s first era right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.