Godzilla/YMMV

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Japanese Films or Franchise related YMMV

  • Alas, Poor Villain: Godzilla, repeatedly.
  • Anvilicious: Godzilla vs. Hedorah is a high contender. Even higher are the first two Rebirth of Mothra films.
  • Badass Decay: Well, design wise, compare the fierce Rodan design in the original film to the goofier one in Monster Zero.
    • Zilla. One of the main reasons he is viewed so negatively by the fans.
      • Weirdly averted by Godzilla himself: the more he ceased being a true monster, the more he moved into Crazy Awesome.
      • Averted in Zilla Junior's case, when fans consider him the best incaration. The previous one, not so much.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: Some consider the entire film of Godzilla vs Hedorah to be this, peaks with the flying scene. Also the talking scene in Godzilla vs. Gigan.
    • All Monsters Attack, which takes place entirely in a boy's imagination, and has Minilla facing a bully and interacting with the boy (complete with goofy "hyuk-hyuk" voice).
    • Again that talking scene from Gigan.
    • Maguma's entire appearance. So much so he was cut from the American dub entirely.
  • Complete Monster: Since none of the kaiju talk, it's rather hard to determine just how evil any of them are. Still, there are some strong contenders for this title. Hedorah chuckles at Godzilla's plight, melts people's faces off, nearly burned the big lizard to death, and was responsible for millions of deaths. Gigan's a four hundred foot tall Psycho for Hire who laughs gleefully to himself as he slowly carves chunks off of opposing kaiju, and frequently postpones killing them in favour of inflicting more pain. SpaceGodzilla torments Godzilla Junior, and has far worse plans for the rest of Earth. Destoroyah upped the ante by killing Godzilla Junior (after a needlessly cruel No-Holds-Barred Beatdown) and targets Godzilla while the latter is grieving. Finally, we have Ghidorah and his various expies, who as both free agents and The Dragon to various alien empires have: destroyed planets and civilisations For the Evulz, attempted to very slowly drain the life out of Godzilla, fed on children, and caused general havoc and chaos all while cackling like a loon. As a Cosmic Horror for hire there's not many atrocities that Ghidorah hasn't committed, come to think of it.
    • And despite Ghidorah having a much longer rapsheet than Destoroyah, Destoroyah STILL comes off as the biggest Complete Monster the Big G's ever faced.
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Godzilla has a lot of these! His dynamic entrance in Terror of Mechagodzilla, to shooting a blast down Biollante's throat!
    • After watching Godzilla demolish every other opponent in his way, watching Monster X give him a good fight and Keizer Ghidorah utterly thrash him is pretty awesome.
    • In Mothra vs. Godzilla, and again in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., despite being old, on the edge of death, and being very frail, Mothra agrees to battle freakin' Godzilla and gave everything she could to try to stop him, resulting in her tearjerking death. Also see Visual Effects of Awesome.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: See page.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Anguirus for American fans. Megalon and Gigan as well, despite appearing in some of the worst movies in the series. Almost every Toho monster is a fan favorite in one sector or another.
    • In Japan, Baragon is popular like Anguirus, though he has his American fans. Though he couldn't appear much, he appears in merchandise and has even influenced the design of some Pokémon! When GMK rolled around, he was the only monster to be retained in Kaneko's original plan and earned more fans in his fight with Godzilla.
    • Gorosaurus was just the stand-in for the tyrannosaurus-like monsters King Kong usually faces in King Kong Escapes. When the Baragon suit became so damaged that he had to be reduced to cameos, Gorosaurus was brought in to trash Paris and fight King Ghidorah. His kangaroo kick in the final battle among other things gained him a number of fans.
    • Biollante, despite appearing in only one movie, has a quite a robust fanbase. It must be her scary appearance and being one of the few female monsters in the Toho universe.
    • Despite only appearing in the first movie (and, even there, having limited screentime) Dr. Daisuke Serizawa is easily the most famous human character in the series.
    • Bagan has a surprising following despite only appearing in a video game with only a very narrow following even amongst Godzilla fans. Him being a huge Difficulty Spike above anything before him and needing the player to become SuperGodzilla to beat him seems to have something to do with it.
  • Mainstream Obscurity: Not a lot of people have watched Godzilla movies but everyone has heard about Godzilla.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Destroyah's coldblooded murder of Godzilla Junior is the point in the film where it becomes obvious that Destroyah isn't just a instinctional monster but a sadistic killer.
  • Most Wonderful Sound- Godzilla's trademark roar.
  • Only the Creator Does It Right: Many people find any of the movies not directed by Ishiro Honda to be inferior.
  • Special Effects Failure: All over the place. Especially in Godzilla vs. Gigan.
  • Surprisingly Improved Sequel: YMMV on which Godzilla films. But the third Rebirth of Mothra film is leaps and bounds better than 1 and 2.
  • Tear Jerker: Godzilla vs. Destroyah. That is all.
    • There is also this, a funeral for the King of Monsters done shortly after the film was done. It was so big that CNN covered it.
    • The ending of the first film and Dr. Serizawa's Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Uncanny Valley: Gabara. There's something really weird about a monster with Godzilla's build but minus the tail.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Shusuke Kaneko had stated in interviews that the GMK Godzilla is supposed to be pure evil. 'Course, since we are talking about Godzilla, he gets more praise than the "heroic monsters" in the film (IE: Mothra, Baragon and Ghidorah.)
  • Vindicated by History: Terror Of Mechagodzilla had the weakest performances of the Showa era. Today it's considered one of the best of the Showa for being rather grim and mature for a 70s Godzilla flick.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: Even the staff who made Mothra vs. Godzilla where not sure how to create a fight between the two. It took a lot of creativity but they gave us one of the most beloved and awe-inspiring battles in Godzilla history. And Mothra had only her wings, poison, and determination at the time!
  • Villain Decay: King Ghidorah and the big lizard himself. The latter has probably the biggest of any movie villain, going from being the Big Bad Cosmic Horror that lays waist to entire world to being a mind-controlled slave to aliens.

American Film specific entries.