Hail to the King Baby!!!: A Godzilla Retrospective Part 3

Previously: During the second half of the Showa Era, Toho sought to make Godzilla more of a kid friendly character, transitioning him from destructive force of nature to planetary protector against Monsters both man made and from beyond the stars.  However, the steady decline of the Kaiju genre in the 70s led to the premature conclusion of the First Age of Godzilla.

 
Despite the box office failure of Terror of Mechagodzilla, Toho toiled away at finding a new way to continue making Godzilla films.  Several ideas and pitches were thrown around for over 10 years but nothing fully materialized.  That is until 1984 celebrated Godzilla’s 30^th Anniversary with The Return of Godzilla.  The film stood out immediately from several of its predecessors.  The biggest change (no pun intended) was returning Godzilla to his roots.  He wasn’t about saving the planet anymore, the planet needed to be saved from him.  There was no opponent for Godzilla his size to tackle, only Humanity stood in his path and like before it took everything they had to bring him down.  The Return of Godzilla marked the beginning of the Hesei Era of Godzilla films and acted as both a sequel to the original 1954 Gojira as well as a reboot for the entire series.  Much like Gojira, an American adaptation was released in the US a year later, Godzilla 1985, featuring new American made footage as well as an appearance by Raymond Burr, who reprised his role from Godzilla: King of the Monsters in 1956.

While The Return of Godzilla brought Godzilla back to his menacing roots, the film wasn’t a slam dunk for Toho.  Hence why it would take five years for a sequel to emerge.  In 1989, Godzilla would face off against his first, brand new, original opponent since Titanosarus in 1975 with Godzilla vs. Biollante.  The film continued directly from the previous film and saw Godzilla fighting a monster birthed from his own cells with the soul of a human imbedded within.  While the film has become hailed as one of the best in the series thanks to its story and creative creature design, it again didn’t live up to Godzilla’s box office potential.  This led Toho to revisit the well that is Godzilla’s rogues gallery and next have him spar once again with his greatest rival in 1991’s Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah.  The film was considerably more fantastical than the overly serious Biollante featuring a new origin story for Ghidorah that involved time travel, androids and some cybernetic upgrades.  The gamble paid off as Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah made much more than Biollante and put the franchise on a steady course for financial success in the early 90s. 

With King Ghidorah’s return praised, Toho brought back two more popular adversaries in back to back films: 1992’s Godzilla vs. Mothra and 1993’s Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.  Beyond their box office victories, a pattern began to emerge within the Hesei Era, mainly its strong sense of continuity.  The Showa era played pretty loose with its connections from film to film.  The Hesei Era instead acted as one continuous story across several films.  This is most evident in Megumi Odaka’s Miki Segusa, a psychic who is often called upon to monitor Godzilla during his many appearances.  This leads to Miki forming a strange kind of bond with the King of the Monsters.  This is illustrated by another recurring character in the second half of the Hesei Era: Godzilla’s Son.  No the terrible mistake of nature that was Minia, this new iteration more closely resembled what Godzilla would look like as an infant (aka Baby Godzilla), before growing larger (and cuter) into Little Godzilla before reaching its final evolution, a slightly smaller version of his father better known as Godzilla Jr..  It’s these kinds of continuing storylines and character arcs that endear this era of Godzilla to so many fans.  And, naturally, the 90s practical effects made the monster battle even more cinematic and amazing than anything in the previous Showa era. 

By the time Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla arrived in 1994, interest in the series was beginning to wain again.  There was also rumblings of Tri Star Pictures over in the US looking to try their hand at an American made Godzilla feature film.  Despite Godzilla facing a space age version of himself, complete with giant crystals straight out of a Superman movie, Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla did not match the box office of the other three installments that preceded it.  With the Tri Star deal all but official, Toho made the tough decision to conclude the Hesei Era the following year.  Unlike the sudden end of the Showa Era, the studio had something bigger in mind for the Hesei Era’s curtain call.  This resulted in 1995’s worldwide mega event Godzilla vs. Destroyah.  Not only did the film cap off ten years of storytelling across seven films, Toho made the bold choice to kill Godzilla in a very emotional finale.  Like I said, it was a highly publicized event reported across the world but even with that kind of press, Godzilla vs. Destroyah ended the Hesei Era on the best note, even garnering acclaim from the fandom who still call it one of the best Godzilla films ever made.  

But was this truly the end for Godzilla?  Was the King really dead?  Well not only did the final seconds of Godzilla vs. Destroyah indicate otherwise but the US was ready to bring their version of the King of the Monsters to life…and Toho would realize quickly that they’d made a serious mistake and would have to show the world how its done.  But that’s a story for Next Week as we cross into the Millenium Era on the next Hail to the King Baby!!! A Godzilla Retrospective right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.