Welcome, welcome to Monster MAYhem, everybody!

Please find your seats and make sure you have a snack handy. We’re here to discuss the Godzilla franchise today, so you’ll need your strength. There simply is not enough time to go into detail about every one of these 38 (and counting) titles, but I will attempt to give you a thorough overview of the franchise as a whole, where it came from, how it’s shaped, and who did all that shaping anyway. Let’s dive in! Skree-onk.

A Crash Course on Everything Godzilla

What is Godzilla?

Where to even begin? Godzilla (his Japanese name is more accurately Romanized as Gojira) is an iconic figure of Japanese cinema. Although his canonical origin shifts depending on the movie, Godzilla is a massive, ancient undersea creature who looks like an enormous reptilian dinosaur. In addition to being radioactive and a real big boy, he has the power to shoot flaming “atomic breath” from his mouth.

He made his debut in the 1954 horror movie Godzilla (which, until recent years, was only officially available in English via an Americanized recut titled Godzilla, King of the Monsters! featuring footage of future Perry Mason star Raymond Burr shoehorned in to make it look like he was interacting with the original Japanese stars). It followed Godzilla emerging from the water to rampage across mainland Japan after being awakened by nearby nuclear testing. 

Although the American recut was stripped of a great deal of its potent metaphorical power, the original film is a harrowing watch, bringing to the screen all the anxieties and fears of Japan in the wake of the nuclear bomb. The movie combined the basic plot of the 1953 Ray Harryhausen monster movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms with the horrors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki blasts and the even more recent radiation poisoning suffered by the crew of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon 5, which had drifted close to the Bikini Atoll testing site.

Because it turns out audiences love catharsis, Godzilla was a smash hit and kicked off a boom in the Japanese kaiju movie market (or “giant monster” movie). If this seems strange, just think about how many people rented Contagion at the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns in 2020. Many of these kaiju movies were created by Toho Co., Ltd, the company behind the 1954 movie and all of its Japanese sequels.

Over the years, the nature of Godzilla shifted considerably. Sometimes he was a metaphor for unstoppable chaos and destruction, either political or scientific. However, like many horror movie villains with a franchise on their hands, he eventually became the protagonist, helping save Japan from other giant monster threats. He even found a home in the 1960s and 1970s, residing more or less peacefully alongside other kaiju on Monster Island. Ultimately, whatever tone or shape he took, one constant remained. Godzilla has been consistently popular for longer than nearly any of us on Earth has been alive, and over the past seven decades his franchise has continued to expand in size to match his own enormous bulk.

Key Godzilla Filmmakers & Cast Members

Godzilla couldn’t exist without the humans he crushes underfoot, and here are some of the most important people that were instrumental in bringing him to life.

Honda Ishirō (1911-1993): The director of the original Godzilla and seven of its sequels who shepherded the kaiju through the most important tones and phases of his early era.

Ifukube Akira (1914-2006): The composer of the first movie and many of its sequels, who provided the iconic military march score that elevates even the silliest Godzilla movies to mythic proportions whenever the needle drops on one of his key themes.

Fukuda Jun (1923-2000): The director of five Godzilla movies who was a key influence in the monster becoming a kiddie matinee icon in his silver age.

Tsubaraya Eiji (1901-1970): The special effects wizard who brought Godzilla to life in 1954, Tsubaraya was a leading light of kaiju cinema until his death, at which point he had ushered more than 20 early Japanese monster movies to the screen.

Sahara Kenji (1932-): After playing a small unnamed role in the 1954 Godzilla and appearing in several other Toho kaiju movies, Sahara appeared as various characters in a dozen more Godzilla installments, eventually becoming the actor who has appeared in the most movies in the franchise.

Nakajima Haruo (1929-2017): The suit actor who portrayed Godzilla in the original movie and the subsequent 11 sequels, Nakajima also portrayed various monsters in other kaiju movies including Space Amoeba and The War of the Gargantuas.

Key Godzilla Allies & Enemies

Godzilla fought against and alongside many kaiju throughout his illustrious career. Here are a few of the ones that you’re going to encounter the most.

Mothra

Mothra was introduced in her own solo movie in 1961 before being brought into the orbit of Godzilla, and later had her own solo trilogy in the 1990s. One of the only canonically female kaiju, Mothra is a giant moth who defends her remote island home. Mothra does fight Godzilla from time to time, but once Godzilla becomes a friend to humanity, she largely stands with him against other monsters. Mothra is commonly accompanied by the Shobijin, tiny twin priestess fairies who spread her message. Mothra also frequently appears in her larval state, which I wish she didn’t, because her larval state always looks like a turd with a butthole for a mouth that shoots silly string.

King Ghidorah

A giant three-headed dragon from space. While Godzilla had complicated relationships with other monsters, sometimes fighting with them, sometimes fighting alongside them, Ghidorah is basically always a villain. And a super cool one, at that. He’s basically the Blofeld to Godzilla’s James Bond.Mechagodzilla

Mechagodzilla

A robotic version of Godzilla, sometimes depicted as a weapon designed to defend Japan from Godzilla, sometimes just pure evil. Look, the Godzilla franchise existed in Japan in the 1970s, mechas were going to have to be involved somehow. It was the law.

Rodan 

Another monster who was previously introduced in his own movie, Rodan is a radioactive pteranodon. Honestly, he’s not that interesting to me. He mostly just flies around in a way that makes it seem like some P.A. just out of sight has thrown him like a paper airplane. But he’s one of Godzilla’s first and most frequent allies, so let’s not give him short shrift.

Anguirus

Anguirus is this weird spiky armadillo-type guy who fights with Godzilla in the second movie, but mostly shows up as an ally in future movies to help him fight other monsters. I think he’s an attempt to mimic the other monsters seen on Skull Island in King Kong. He’s never made that much of an impression on me either, but he shows up a hell of a lot, so somebody out there liked him. And he was also the first other kaiju that Godzilla ever fought onscreen. Their tussle is somewhat incidental, and not exactly the main crux of the movie, but it was a portent of much bigger things to come.

Baragon

If you haven’t seen this behind-the-scenes clip of Baragon, you must. A red, horned monster with big flappy ears, Baragon was introduced in Honda Ishirō’s unrelated 1965 movie Frankenstein vs. Baragon. He doesn’t appear in too many proper Godzilla movies, but of the extraneous Toho kaiju that were ported in for various adventures throughout the franchise, he’s the most adorable. Unfortunately, in his crowning moment, an attack on the Arc du Triomphe, his suit was damaged and he was replaced by the bland dino-creature Gorosaurus. But his lost epic moment still lives forever in our hearts.

Godzilla’s Shōwa Era (1954-1975)

So named because every movie in this original era came out during the reign of Japan’s Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Shōwa. He reigned for a long time, and so did Godzilla. The Shōwa era was the most important in developing what we’ve come to know as a Japanese Godzilla movie, in every possible form. Although it started with the full-tilt nuclear fear horror of Godzilla and its first sequel, the franchise eventually tipped into kiddie matinee adventure storytelling the further into the 1960s and 1970s it got.

Godzilla (1954, dir. Honda Ishirō)

You know it, you love it, you want more of it. Or at least, let’s hope you do. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover.

Godzilla Raids Again (1955, dir. Oda Motoyoshi) – featuring Anguirus

This thrown-together sequel came out a mind-boggling five months after the original and immediately threatened to capsize the burgeoning franchise. Although I would argue that it’s a pretty solid siege picture in its own right, it seems that people at the time found that it had diminishing returns, and there wasn’t another Godzilla movie produced for nine years. This might have sunk the franchise if not for Honda’s diligent work keeping the torch burning by directing many more iconic kaiju movies in the meantime featuring monsters that would later join the broader franchise in a big bad way, particularly 1956’s Rodan and 1961’s Mothra.

King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962, dir. Honda Ishirō) – featuring King Kong

This is kind of a wet fart of a movie, attempting to graft a Japanese salaryman comedy (a subgenre focusing on wacky businesspeople that was huge at the time) onto a kaiju movie. In an attempt to sweeten the pot, they also threw the American monster King Kong in there. The results are very threadbare and goofy, though charming.

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964, dir. Honda Ishirō) – featuring Mothra 

Another, better, attempt at a crossover, this time with a homegrown Japanese monster. Honda is back to making slightly more serious Godzilla movies as well.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964, dir. Honda Ishirō) – featuring King Ghidorah, Mothra, & Rodan

The seeds of what is to come are truly planted here. While Honda is taking Ghidorah seriously as a threat in his debut appearance, there are some silly moments strewn throughout (most notably Godzilla and Rodan playing volleyball with a boulder). This is also one of the earliest moments where Godzilla is positioned as a defender of Earth rather than an out-and-out destroyer. Though there’s also plenty of destroying going on.

Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965, dir. Honda Ishirō) – featuring King Ghidorah & Rodan

OK, now this one is just kooky. Godzilla is taken to another planet and at one point does a happy victory dance. He’s definitely not the animus of 1950s nuclear fears anymore.

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966, dir. Fukuda Jun) – featuring Ebirah & Mothra

If you thought Astro-Monster was kooky, just you wait. In this movie, a 1960s beach movie is grafted onto a Godzilla movie with a colorful James Bond-esque secret lair on an island that is being besieged by a giant sea monster. Fukuda shows some signs of interest in epic monster mayhem like the scene where Ebirah’s claw emerges from the waves next to a bobbing ship. But for the most part, it’s just goofy fun. Oh, and there’s more kaiju volleyball.

Son of Godzilla (1967, dir. Fukuda Jun) – featuring Minilla, Kumonga, Kamacuras

This one is definitely for the kids, introducing Godzilla’s titular son Minilla to the world. Like all the cheapest Godzilla movies, it takes place on an island where the monsters can run around without fear of running into anything so pesky and expensive as a model of a city that they can smash.

Mini Monster Profile: Minilla 

Godzilla’s ugly little baby boy. Nobody knows how he was born, so don’t ask. You either love him or you hate him, but most people hate him.

Destroy All Monsters (1968, dir. Honda Ishirō) – featuring King Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra, Anguirus, Minilla, Kumonga, Manda, Gorosaurus, Baragon, & Varan

This movie is the most direct counterargument to Marvel’s claim that Avengers: Endgame was the most ambitious cinematic crossover event ever attempted. Some monsters had to be ported in from unrelated Toho properties and never really found a place in the overarching Godzilla franchise later on, but seeing so many kaiju together under the direction of Honda is pure movie magic.

All Monsters Attack (1969, dir. Honda Ishirō) – featuring Minilla & Gabara

And Godzilla enters his stock footage era. This is basically a sitcom clip show episode with an anti-bullying storyline grafted onto it. No future Godzilla movies would be quite this craven and cheap, but get used to seeing a clip of a monster fight and saying, “wait, that seems familiar…”

Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971, dir. Banno Yoshimitsu) – featuring Hedorah

The 1970s have arrived, and this movie will remind you of that fact over and over again. It’s a psychedelic trip where Godzilla fights a smog monster and you get to learn about the perils of pollution while staring at scenes that look like they were shot through a lava lamp.

Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972, dir. Fukuda Jun) – featuring Gigan, King Ghidorah, & Anguirus

We’re now firmly in the “vs.” period, where each new movie came up with a new monster to throw at Godzilla for a full-tilt WWE smackdown. Typically, these movies involve a monster rampaging, Godzilla crankily swimming over from Monster Island to get it to stop, and then Godzilla swimming back off into the sunset at the end while a child shouts “sayonara!” from a cliffside.

Mini Monster Profile: Gigan

Gigan is a cyborg space dinosaur. Gigan has a buzz saw for a tummy. Gigan is my favorite.

Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973, dir. Fukuda Jun) – featuring Megalon, Jet Jaguar, Gigan, & Anguirus

In addition to Godzilla vs. Megalon being notably gay, this entry is yet another late-period Godzilla movie to feature a child protagonist, cementing the franchise’s transition into kiddie matinee fare. Gigan only returns so they can include stock footage from the previous movie and use those shots to beef up a 2-on-2 fight.

Mini Monster Profile: Jet Jaguar

Jet Jaguar, the pure-of-heart mecha who helps out Godzilla, was designed by a child who won a contest. A child who was clearly obsessed with Ultraman, because Jet Jaguar looks like you melted an Ultraman toy in the microwave. Look at his weird pointy head and horrifying rictus grin. He’s so ugly. I love him.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974, dir. Fukuda Jun) – Mechagodzilla, King Shisa/King Caesar, & Anguirus

I guess Fukuda eventually realized that a mecha version of Godzilla would be way cooler to look at than Jet Jaguar, whose terrifying visage makes people want to piss their pants and then someone else’s pants for good measure.

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975, dir. Honda Ishirō) – Mechagodzilla 2 & Titanosaurus

Honda’s final outing in the franchise leans into its goofier side, but his return does bring a nice bit of class to the last gasp of the waning Shōwa era.

Godzilla’s Heisei Era (1984-1995)

So named because all but the first movie came out during the reign of Japan’s Emperor Akihito, itself called the Heisei era. The Heisei era is notable for featuring the strictest continuity of any Japanese branch of the franchise before or since.

The Return of Godzilla (1984, dir. Hashimoto Kōji) 

This is both the “gritty reboot” and “legacy sequel” of the Godzilla franchise. Like many movies in the franchise to come, it strips away all the loose, frequently contradictory continuity of the Shōwa era and positions itself as a direct sequel to the original movie. It also brings the tone back to awestruck horror, telling a similar story to the original, but with updated effects (though I’ll remind you that “updated” doesn’t always mean “better”).

Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989, dir. Ōmori Kazuki) – featuring Biollante

The movie that introduces the psychic Saegusa Miki (Odaka Megumi), who will become a constant through the end of the Heisei era and the longest-running human character of the franchise.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991, dir. Ōmori Kazuki) – featuring King Ghidorah, Mecha-Ghidorah, & The Dorats

This movie is a delightful hodgepodge of early 1990s science fiction tropes featuring a Terminator-esque android, time travel back to World War II, and the formidable Mecha-Ghidorah.

Mini Monster Profile: The Dorats

These are the monsters who eventually mutate into King Ghidorah, which isn’t very nice of them frankly, but aren’t they precious? I just wanna pinch their little cheeks.

Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992, dir. Ōkawara Takao) – featuring Mothra & Battra

This one goes more Indiana Jones than Terminator, but showcases how much more the entries in this era were influenced by Western filmmakingGodzilla vs.

Mechagodzilla II (1993, dir. Ōkawara Takao) – featuring Mechagodzilla, Rodan, Baby Godzilla

This is the movie that introduced a redesigned version of Minilla, who would slowly grow up throughout the rest of the era.

Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994, dir. Yamashita Kenshō) – featuring SpaceGodzilla, Mothra, & Little Godzilla

The filmmakers tried to spice up a typical Mechagodzilla-style plot, where the titular kaiju fights a dark mirror of himself, with mixed results.

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995, dir. Ōkawara Takao) – featuring Destoroyah & Godzilla Junior

SPOILER ALERT: Godzilla dies in this one. This movie very much knew that it was (quite literally) the end of an era, so it pulls out all the stops and leans in on emotion, horror, and all that good stuff that The Return of Godzilla promised and its sequels mostly didn’t deliver.

Mini Monster Profile: Destoroyah

Because they really wanted this franchise to come full circle, Destoroyah is a mutant created by the Oxygen Destroyer, the device that defeated the Godzilla all the way back in 1954.

Godzilla’s Millennium Era (1999-2004)

So named because… well, these movies came out during the turn of the millennium. Thrilling. After resurrecting Godzilla, they went hog-wild and threw continuity to the wind, generally ignoring everything but the 1954 Godzilla at every opportunity.

Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999, dir. Ōkawara Takao) – featuring Orga, the Millennian

A conspicuous failure at doing for the franchise what Return did in 1984. This time, it’s Godzilla vs. an invading alien spaceship, and not very much happens for quite a long time.

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000, dir. Tezuka Masaaki) – featuring Megaguirus

Though the era’s kickoff sputtered out, this one was able to hit the ground running with some full-tilt popcorn movie mayhem. And it was actually released in 2000, so there’s that. Let’s just pretend this was the beginning of this era.

Mini Monster Profile: Megaguirus

Although it’s super common for any monster to have mecha-, mega-, super-, or whatever appended to their name in a new form, this kaiju doesn’t actually have anything to do with Anguirus. Instead, she’s a kind of giant flying sewer insect thing. Think evil Mothra. That’s also pretty much what Battra is, but there are only so many monster ideas out there. 

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001, dir. Kaneko Shūsuke) – featuring King Ghidorah, Mothra, & Baragon

A big title for a big movie. This one unites some A-list monsters (and my buddy Baragon) in a big adventure with both mythic monster imagery and a somber attention to detail in how their rampaging affects the human world.

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002, dir. Tezuka Masaaki) – featuring Mechagodzilla

Mechagodzilla returns in the new millennium to kick off the second of the two duologies in which he has been featured thus far.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003, dir. Tezuka Masaaki) – featuring Mechagodzilla & Mothra

The only entry in this era that is a direct follow-up to the preceding movie.

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004, dir. Kitamura Ryūhei) – King Ghidorah, Zilla, Rodan, Mothra, Gigan, King Shisa, Anguirus, Minilla, Kumonga, Kamacuras, Manda, Hedorah, & Ebirah

An attempt to recreate the glory of Destroy All Monsters in the modern age by cramming as many kaiju into a single movie as possible (including “Zilla,” the American version of Godzilla, who is summarily destroyed). It’s amplified with a fast-paced modern sensibility that makes the experience of watching it feel like you’ve snorted Pixie Stick powder mixed with instant coffee. Mileage will vary.

Godzilla’s Reiwa Era (2016 – now)

So named because these movies came out (and are coming out) during the reign of Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, itself called the Reiwa era. So far, there haven’t been enough of these movies to really be able to tell what the basic shape of this era will be like, beyond the fact that Godzilla is presented via CGI rather than an actor in a suit. But between you and me, the future is looking bright!

Shin Godzilla (2016, dir. Anno Hideaki & Higuchi Shinji)

For the second and so far final time, Godzilla had been off the big screen in Japan for more than a decade, so he was due for a reboot. And what a fucking reboot he got. This movie, which draws inspiration from the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, follows bureaucrats trying desperately to figure out how to handle it (or at least make it somebody else’s problem) when a monster emerges from the ocean and rapidly evolves into a full-on Godzilla. Government impotence is paired with one of the most genuinely devastating Godzilla rampages you’ll ever see. The scene where he uses his atomic breath is genuinely beautiful and awe-inspiring, an up-close look at the cataclysmic scale of the monster’s terrifying power.

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, & Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2017/2018, dir. Shizuno Kōbun & Seshita Hiroyuki) – featuring Kamacuras, Anguirus, Rodan, Mechagodzilla, King Ghidorah, & Mothra

A trilogy of animated science fiction features about human refugees returning to a monster-overrun Earth in the near future. An utter failure at capturing the potential of Godzilla in an animated medium, and that’s not even mentioning their choice to depict Ghidorah as basically an ethereal triple-stream of piss. The less said about these movies, the better. 

Godzilla Minus One (2023, dir. Yamazaki Takashi)

If there’s a defining element of the live-action Reiwa era, it’s the willingness to throw continuity to the wind and build something exciting in its place. Just like Shin Godzilla, this movie exists in its own timeline, this time taking place before 1954 and presenting an alternate version of Godzilla’s first attack on Japan during the period immediately post-World War II while the country was recovering and attempting to grapple with the darker side of its national identity. You’ve probably seen this one. It made shit-ton of money. It won an Oscar. It’s also one of the only Godzilla movies where the human story actually matters even a little bit, and is successfully told on top of that.

Why Does Everyone Hate the 1998 Godzilla?

Meanwhile, over in America… During the brief hiatus between the Heisei and Millennium eras, Hollywood got their hands on the rights to the franchise and decided they could pour all their money into a blockbuster movie that proved they could do Godzilla better than the Japanese.

Reader, they couldn’t.

Roland Emmerich’s 1998 box office disappointment was an attempt to apply Godzilla to his disaster movie formula that made hits out of movies like his previous outing, Independence Day. However, while ushering that vision to the screen, he and his team made nothing but divisive decisions. Over the years, many have tried to get to the bottom of why this movie didn’t work. Maybe Matthew Broderick wasn’t the right movie star to anchor this kind of project. Maybe the Godzilla design shouldn’t have leaned so far into its lizardlike origins. Maybe more work should have been put into hiding the limitations of 1998 CGI. 

The truth is, the problem is a little bit of everything. Godzilla 1998 is 18 different movies, some of which are good and some of which are bad. And almost none of which are a proper Godzilla movie, which really is the problem here.

Oh, and people were also mad that this version of Godzilla is canonically female, but that’s just silly. We do make a habit of applying gender to the big lug and his kaiju friends, but that’s just one of our many flaws as humans. Godzilla couldn’t give a shit about gender, the binary is just one of many things he crushes beneath his reptilian feet.

The Monsterverse Godzilla Explained

Godzilla has also been involved in this gnarled, misbegotten Hollywood situationship called the Monsterverse. Here are the titles from that franchise in which he has appeared:

Godzilla (2014, dir. Gareth Edwards) – featuring MUTOs

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019, dir. Michael Dougherty) – featuring King Ghidorah, Mothra, & Rodan 

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021, dir. Adam Wingard) – featuring King Kong & Mechagodzilla

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023, Apple TV+ show) – featuring King Kong and a bunch of assorted “Titans”

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024, dir. Adam Wingard) – featuring King Kong & Mothra

Though these movies have run alongside the Godzilla installments from the Reiwa era, they form an entirely distinct continuity separate from any Japanese movie.

Interestingly, as far as Godzilla himself goes, the Hollywood movies take kind of a middle line between the early and late periods of the Shōwa era. Godzilla is viewed as a force of nature with all the destructive, horrifying power that this entails. However, this is also a force of balance, so he fights other monsters in order to reset the world to the way it should be, with humanity being an incidental factor in all of that. It’s somewhere between the grandiose terror of 1954’s Godzilla and the “I came out of the ocean to tell you to quit it” vibe of the 1970s “vs.” entries.

The franchise also includes the movie Kong: Skull Island (2015) and the animated Netflix show Skull Island (2023). It’s an attempt to MCU-ify the Godzilla franchise that has at least worked better than the DCEU or the Dark Universe. But in the process, it has gotten itself bogged down in oodles and oodles of lore, something that the Japanese Godzilla movies tend to gleefully eschew, for good reason. If you’ve ever wanted to spend hours watching humans blather on about hollow earth theory and bioacoustics while sludgy grey CGI monsters wander around the screen occasionally, then do I have the franchise for you!

OK, I’m being mean. The 2014 Godzilla is quite satisfying, and Adam Wingard brings an eye-popping color palette to his entries. But overall, these movies prove again and again that Americans should be allowed nowhere near Godzilla movies. Whether his movies are full-tilt horror or kiddie adventure movies, Japanese Godzilla is fun. American Godzilla is just homework.