Godzilla: Difference between revisions

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After seeing how much damage Godzilla has done, Serizawa does eventually decide to use his oxygen destroyer, but first he [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|burns all his research notes]]. The navy take Serizawa to the middle of Tokyo bay, where he successfully uses his invention to kill both Godzilla and himself, a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to prevent the oxygen destroyer being misused.

At the end of the film, Yamane says he doesn't believe Godzilla was unique. [[There Is Another|Another will inevitably appear]].

Yamane was correct. The film launched a successful franchise, with several [[Alternate Continuity|alternate continuities]], in which Godzilla has veered from villain to hero to [[Anti-Hero]]. The King of the Monsters starred in two [[Western Animation]] series -- the not-so-well recieved ''[[The Godzilla Power Hour]]'' and the more loved ''[[Godzilla: The Series|Godzilla the Series]]''. Godzilla, along with King Ghidorah and Gigan were even [[Special Guest]] in the TV show ''[[Zone Fighter]]''.

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[[Toho]]'s Godzilla films are traditionally categorized into three eras, according to when they were made: '''Showa''' (1954-1975), '''Heisei''' (1984-1995), and '''Millennium''' (1999-2004). Each era has its own look-and-feel, particularly in its special effects but also in its plotlines.

In 2011, IDW Publishing launched an ongoing Godzilla comic book series, co-written by [[The Goon|Eric Powell]] and Tracy Marsh and drawn by [[Green Arrow|Phil Hester]].

[[Legendary Pictures]] started a new American era of the series in 2014, focusing on faithfulness to the original material. And there was much rejoicing.

The general interpretation of Godzilla in the original film was of more of a natural disaster, something powerful that can not be reasoned with, but ultimately a sympathetic character who was as much a victim of the atomic age as the Japanese he terrorized. Subsequent films set Godzilla as a heroic ally to the humans or as an evil creature that has to be killed. The [[Godzilla (film)|1998 American film]] portrayed Godzilla as a mostly innocent creature that just wanted to be left alone.

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=== Films in the Godzilla Franchise include: ===

These are the titles of the official films. The names vary in regional release -- ''a lot''.

====Showa Series (1954-1975)====

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* ''[[Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster|Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster]]'' (1964)

* ''[[Invasion of Astro-Monster|Invasion of Astro Monster]]'' (1965)

* ''[[Ebirah, Horror of the Deep]]'' (1966)

* ''[[Son of Godzilla]]'' (1967)

* ''[[Destroy All Monsters]]'' (1968)

* ''[[All Monsters Attack]]'' (1969)

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* ''[[Godzilla vs. Gigan]]'' (1972)

* ''[[Godzilla vs. Megalon]]'' (1973)

* ''[[Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla]]'' (1974)

* ''[[Terror of Mechagodzilla]]'' (1975)

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** ''Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee'' ([[Game Cube]] and [[Xbox]]), ''Godzilla: Save the Earth'' ([[Xbox]] and [[PlayStation 2]]) and ''Godzilla: Unleashed'' ([[Wii]] and [[PlayStation 2]]).

** The [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] and [[Dark Horse Comics|Dark Horse]] comic books.

* [[AI Is a Crapshoot]]: Kiryu is built around the original Godzilla's skeleton, and when it first hears Godzilla's roar, it remembers its past and goes rampaging. They quickly find out a way to fix it, though.

* [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot]]: Kiryu is built around the original Godzilla's skeleton, and when it first hears Godzilla's roar, it remembers its past and goes rampaging. They quickly find out a way to fix it, though.

* [[All Just a Dream]]: All the monster sequences in ''All Monsters Attack''. They only happened in the little boy's mind, and served as life lessons for how to deal with human bullies and bandits.

* [[Almost-Dead Guy]]

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** [[Eyepatch of Power|Dr. Serizawa]].

** Steve Martin, taking in account he's one of the very few, if not the only, American to be on a city that Godzilla destroyed and actually survive.

** Colonel Gondo from "Biollante"? A [[Colonel Badass]] who makes a [[Bond One-Liner]] to a very angry Godzilla.

{{quote|"All this intravenous stuff's no good for you. Stick to smoking."}}

** ''GMK'' has a particularly badass admiral who drives a submarine into Godzilla's mouth and then drills a hole out through his neck. When Godzilla next tries to use his breath weapon, it ''rips him apart''.

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* [[Bad Export for You]]: The infamous ADV release of Destroy All Monsters.

** The first wave of Classic Media disks were all in pan and scan, despite the fact that they had already been released in letterbox by Simitar sometime earlier.

** Classic Media's dirty, faded print of the U.S. cut of ''Rodan'' is in a very dire shape, and appears to be the same one that was released ''decades'' earlier on countless VHS and television releases.

* [[Bandage Babe]]: Yuri spends the second half of GMK with a bandage around her head.

* [[Battle in the Rain]]: There's one of these in ''Godzilla vs. Biollante''.

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* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: Kiryu saving a nurse and child from a beam charging Godzilla by slamming into him just as he lands, sending Godzilla flying down several blocks.

** In ''Final Wars'', Mothra gets [[Kill It with Fire|set on fire by Gigan]]. [[Infernal Retaliation|She decides being set on fire isn't that bad and flies into Gigan,]] [[Heroic Sacrifice|killing them both.]]

** Earlier, Godzilla was getting trounced by Gigan and Monster X when Mothra showed up and clotheslines them. It. Is.

* [[Bilingual Dialogue]]: ''Final Wars''. In ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'', all English speaking actors voices are retained and subtitled in Japanese.

* [[Breath Weapon]]: Godzilla is famous for this, though he doesn't breathe "fire" as commonly thought, but rather an atomic heat beam - it varies between a kind of super-heated gas in the earlier films to a concentrated beam with explosive qualities in the later films. Many other monsters have a breath weapon of some form over the series, including Rodan (1956 and 1993), King Ghidorah, Baragon (1965), Mechagodzilla (in all versions), Biollante, Spacegodzilla, Destoroyah, and Keizer Ghidorah.

* [[Bungling Inventor]]: Tetsuo from ''Invasion of Astro-Monster'' is pretty bright but his invention is an overly noisy device. It turns out to be an extremely effective weapon against the people of Plant X.

* [[Call Back]]: Final Wars features many callbacks to the classic Toho sci-fi films of the 50s and 60s, including having the object plummeting towards Earth be Gorath from [[Suspicious Star Gorath]], and having the vintage Tohoscope logo be shown at the beginning.

* [[The Cameo]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHxzAXaJOtU Godzilla appears in a brief daydream sequence] in the Japanese film ''Always 2'', doing what he does best and looking quite good in CGI.

** Akira Takarada, who starred in the original ''Godzilla'' and numerous sequels, will be making a cameo in the 2014 American ''Godzilla''.

* [[Canon Discontinuity]]: The Godzilla series has multiple separate continuities within it: Showa (The films between 1954 and 1975) and Heisei (the films between 1984 and 1995) being the longest of them. Most films after that are their own individual continuity (But most still keep the original as canonical). This still doesn't prevent fans from picking and choosing amongst them. The fact that the first film's american version was actually re-dubbed in Japanese and shown in cinemas to a great success also adds some confusion to the Japanese fans as to what version was canon.

* [[Captain Obvious]]: Shoichi, the main human character from "Raids Again" explains EVERYTHING that is going on in the movie but only in the dub.

* [[Chainsaw Good]]: {{spoiler|Gigan NEOS}} towards the end of ''Final Wars'', and ''[[Dual-Wielding|Dual Chainsaws]]'' at that!

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** A new series from IDW Publishing is currently in progress. And unlike Marvel and Dark Horse, they've got the rights to a bunch of Godzilla's foes.

* [[Cool Boat]]: The Atragon/Gotengo.

* [[Cosmic Horror Story]]: King Ghidorah's background mentions that it has destroyed countless worlds with life.

* [[Creepy Twins]]: Mothra's Fairies (the Shobijin/Cosmos/Elias).

* [[Crossover]]: Mothra, Rodan, King Kong, Gorosaurus, Manda, Varan, Baragon, MOGUERA, Kameba and Zilla all started in their own movies before being imported to the main series.

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** Averted on the first one, since it didn't changed the movie as much as it ignored some themes that might have offended Americans back in the day.

** Brutally played straight with the second film, ''Godzilla's Counterattack/Godzilla Raids Again/Gigantis the Fire Monster''. Read all about it [http://www.aycyas.com/godzillascounterattack.htm here] and [http://www.historyvortex.org/GodzillaAmerica2.html here]

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: A few.

** The fight against "Zilla" (his [[In Name Only]] American counterpart) in ''Final Wars'', which doubles as one [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|Crowning Moment]] of [[Take That]]. Though...almost every other battle in the film. Anguirus, Rodan, and King Caesar are the only monsters other than the main antagonists who last more than a few seconds against Big G, and even then, that's only because there's three of them.

** The fight between Baragon and Godzilla in ''Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah'' -- it even involves '''actual''' curb stomping.

** Gigan being killed by ''[[Zone Fighter]]'' and King Ghidorah beating ''[[Zone Fighter]]'' in round one.

** Godzilla is utterly hopeless at beating Mechagodzilla in their first encounter--until he magnitizes himself, which allows him to finally get the upper hand.

* [[Cut and Paste Translation]]: Although the ending of ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'' was not an example of this, major chunks of character development were hacked away and replaced with yawn inducing scenes of U.N. scientists spoon feeding the audience bizarre and nonsensical pseudoscience. Though almost the entire soundtrack was replaced with the one from ''[[Creature from the Black Lagoon]]'' (According to U.S. producer John Beck, it sounded less [[Macekre|"oriental"]]), the [[~~Mis Blamed~~|ending remains the same]] save one minor alteration omitting Godzilla's roar at the end, which covertly implied that Kong had won.

* [[Cut and Paste Translation]]: Although the ending of ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'' was not an example of this, major chunks of character development were hacked away and replaced with yawn inducing scenes of U.N. scientists spoon feeding the audience bizarre and nonsensical pseudoscience. Though almost the entire soundtrack was replaced with the one from ''[[Creature from the Black Lagoon]]'' (According to U.S. producer John Beck, it sounded less [[Macekre|"oriental"]]), the [[Misblamed|ending remains the same]] save one minor alteration omitting Godzilla's roar at the end, which covertly implied that Kong had won.

* [[Cyber Cyclops]]: Gigan. His single eye can shoot out a cluster of laser beams.

** Although until his appearance in ''Final Wars'' this wasn't one of his abilities. Gigan was shown firing lasers on the boxart and posters of his movies but he never did it in them.

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* [[Eye Beams]]: Hedorah, Mechagodzilla (except for Kiryu), King Caesar, Battra (both forms), MOGUERA, ''Final Wars'' Gigan and Monster X.

* [[Eyepatch of Power]]: Dr. Serizawa, the only man to kill Godzilla officially.

** Captain Yamoto from ''Ebirah, Horror of the Deep'', also portrayed by Akihiko Hirata.

* [[Eye Scream]]: One of the wounds Godzilla recieves from Hedorah: His eye is burnt out. But Godzilla fully retaliates later.

** In ''Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla'' Akane manages to stun Godzilla by aiming the maser at one of his eyes.

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** [[Family-Unfriendly Violence]]: Anguirus getting his jaw overstretched by Mechagodzilla, the bloodletting in Godzilla vs. Gigan and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla...there's actually quite a bit in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and it's direct sequel.

** It should be mentioned that this sort of violence is considered much more acceptable for Japanese children compared to American standards, so this is a bit of cultural differences. Just look at the Gamera series, which are loaded with such violence. The Godzilla films in the 1970's started having similar gore most likely because of the Gamera films.

* [[Family-Friendly Firearms]]: Family friendly maser technology, especially in the 1990s series. Conventional guns still appear frequently, however.

** Justified, as bullets do not affect kaiju generally.

** In ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'', the agents from Seatopia used ''knockout gas guns.''

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** Subverted in ''Godzilla vs. Destroyah''. What ultimately kills Godzilla isn't high-tech weaponry or another monster, but rather an overdose of radiation that causes him to go into a nuclear meltdown.

** Also subverted in ''Final Wars''. Ebirah is defeated by <s> humans</s> [[Mutants]]...with high-powered guns. [[MST3K Mantra|Don't ask...]]

* [[Giant Spider]]:

** Kumonga.

** A robotic instance: The All-Terraintula, from the [[Dark Horse Comics|Dark Horse]] comics.

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* [[The Klutz]]: During his rampages and monster fights, particularly during the Showa era, Godzilla frequently loses his footing and tumbles to the ground (often knocking over a building or two in the process).

** This was all too common in the actual filming of such scenes, particularly in the first movie; stunt actors would often topple over due to the awkwardness of the toe spread.

* [[Large Ham]]: Mr. Tako, head of Pacific Pharmaceuticals.

** The Xilian leader in ''Final Wars''.

*** So VERY much. He was the cherry on top of the sundae for a film that is completely Ham and Cheese and embraces it.

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* [[Mama Bear]]: Do NOT try to harm Mothra's children. You will regret it.

* [[Man-Eating Plant]]: Biollante.

* [[Mars Needs Women]]: The titular race in ''The Mysterians''.

* [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]]: ''Final Wars'' has 15 different monsters, most of whom originated from other ''kaiju'' series.

** Actually, most of ''Final Wars''' monsters were from the Godzilla series. It was ''Destroy All Monsters'' that had a bunch of non-Godzilla kaiju.

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* [[MST3K Mantra]]: It's just best not to think too hard about a film series that stars giant radioactive dinosaurs, three-headed cyborg dragons, giant butterflies, giant cyborg monsters from outer space, etc.

* [[Muck Monster]] / [[Blob Monster]]: Hedorah, who is an alien kaiju that both feeds off of and is made of sludge.

** The titular A-bomb spawned mutants from ''The H-Man'' who disintegrate anyone they touch.

* [[Mutants]]: It's full of 'em. ''Final Wars'' actually features human mutants, capable of flying leaps.

* [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]: ''Ebirah, Horror of the Deep'' and ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'' were shown.

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** Miss Namikawa in ''Invasion of Astro-Monster'' and Defense Commander Namikawa in ''Godzilla: Final Wars'' (both played by Kumi Mizuno), though the latter was an [[Shout-Out|intentional nod/tribute to the former]].

** General Segawa in ''Terror Of Mechagodzilla'', and Defense Director Segawa in the Heisei Godzilla films (both played by Kenji Sahara).

** Goro Maki the reporter character from ''Son of Godzilla'' and Goro Maki the ''reporter character'' from ''The Return of Godzilla''.

* [[Necromantic]]

* [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]]: Jet Jaguar.

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* [[No Export for You]]: Hey, where are America's DVDs of ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'', ''The Return of Godzilla'' and ''Godzilla vs. Biollante''? Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, Sweden, Thailand, Spain, Italy and France got them!

** ''Godzilla vs Megalon'' [http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2012/03/22/media-blasters-announces-new-release-date-for-godzilla-vs-megalon now has a bilingual DVD announced].

** ''Ghidorah, the Three Headed Monster'' and ''All Monsters Attack'' have the notability of being the only two Showa films not theatrically released in Germany.

*** ''Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster'' was recently released on DVD in Germany, with a new dub made for it.

** The Japanese version of ''King Kong vs. Godzilla'' has not been released on DVD outside of Japan.

* [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]]: Justified, Serizawa is shown burning the notes before using it as it is part of his [[Heroic Sacrifice]].

* [[Non-Indicative Name]]: ''Frankenstein Conquers The World''. Dr. Frankenstein's not in it, and there's no conquering of any kind. Also ''Godzilla vs. The Thing'', though you can be forgiven for expecting to hear [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|"IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!"]] at some point.

* [[Not Evil, Just Misunderstood]]: The original 1954 film shows that he's as much a victim of the atomic bomb as everyone else.

* [[Nuclear Nasty]] One of THE [[Trope Maker|Trope Makers]]

* [[Nuclear Weapons Taboo]]: Borderline [[Anvilicious]] sometimes, the earlier movies especially would bring up atomic bombs as a way to destroy Godzilla and the other monsters, but would always get shot down because no one was anxious to destroy Tokyo and a large chunk of Japan in the process. Some films speculated that the bomb would just make the creatures ''stronger''.

* [[Nuke'Em]]: [[Shooting Superman|Which just revived him]].

{{quote|'''General:''' "The Air Force is standing by... with an atom bomb."

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* [[Our Dragons Are Different]]: King Ghidorah, who is loosely based on the Yamata No Orochi. There's also Manda, who is essentially a Chinese Dragon. And Orochi itself, in ''Yamato Takeru''.

* [[Our Ghosts Are Different]]: GMK Godzilla is essentially a zombie version of the 1954 Godzilla possessed by the souls of those who died in WWII.

* [[Our Monsters Are Weird]]: A lot of the stranger Kaiju fall under this, including Biollante, Hedorah, Gigan and even freaking Mothra.

** Godzilla has had a few moments where he does some very weird things in the early films, but these tended to be more moments where we would see flavors of his personality. His ability to fly and turn himself into a living super-electromagnet on the other hand, while being examples of [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]], still falls under this trope as well because of how completely out of left field they are, even for '''''him'''''.

* [[Out of Focus]]: In the first movie, Hagiwara is very important in the first half, but has a lot less to do toward the end. The American dub almost cuts him out altogether.

** Also, Iwanaga (the security officer that escorts Steve Martin around) disappears completely once he informs Steve of the power line defense surrounding Tokyo. Perhaps the intention was he died in Godzilla's attack?

*** Didn't Iwanaga die in the building Steve was in? I thought Steve noticed him under some rubble at the start of the film.

* [[Overcrank]] and [[People in Rubber Suits]] form the special effects more often than not.

** Inverted in ''Godzilla Raids Again'', when the cameraman accidentally ''undercranked'' some of the monster footage. Director Motoyoshi Oda actually loved the ensuing effect, and ordered the rest of the movie's creature scenes filmed thusly. He did not direct any more Godzilla movies.

* [[Papa Wolf]]: Only a [[Too Dumb to Live|complete moron]] would try to harm Godzilla's offspring.

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* [[Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe]]: Complete with [[Big Applesauce]] in the American remake.

* [[Tonight Someone Dies]]: ''Godzilla vs. Destoroyah''. {{spoiler|Godzilla dies of nuclear meltdown. And, the JSDF manages to freeze Destoroyah to death.}}

* [[Took a Level In Badass]]: Jet Jaguar and Megalon tend to do this in the games. Titanosaurus, a previous goofy monster in the movies, also became ''TERRIFYING'' in ''Godzilla: Unleashed.''

* [[Took a Level in Badass]]: Jet Jaguar and Megalon tend to do this in the games. Titanosaurus, a previous goofy monster in the movies, also became ''TERRIFYING'' in ''Godzilla: Unleashed.''

** Titanosaurus, goofy? Admittedly, his bite-punch tactic was a little silly, but otherwise he seemed pretty serious.

*** The more fitting example is Gigan. Who went from rather silly looking chicken thing into an absolute monster in Final Wars.

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** ''Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah'': A trio of humans arrive from the future and declare that, very soon, Godzilla will destroy all of Japan (even worse than he usually does), and that they must go back in time and make it so he is never created to make sure this never happens. Along with the main characters, they go back in time and prevent Godzilla's creation... only to secretly leave behind the Dorats, who end up merging and turning into King Ghidorah from the same radiation that created Godzilla. And the future people control Ghidorah.

** ''Godzilla: Final Wars'': When every monster ever starts attacking major cities around the globe at once, the Xilians (again) show up and teleport them all away, saying they only want peace between Earth and Planet X. But then it turns out they were planning on conquering the Earth (albeit through peaceful means). With their cover blown and the rash hot-head taking over command, all the monsters are released back on Earth, this time backed up by Gigan and the Xilians' numerous warships.

* [[Where's the Fun In That?]]:

{{quote|'''Audrey Timmonds:''' If he's the first of his kind, how can he be pregnant? Doesn't he need a mate?

'''Dr. Niko Tatopoulus:''' Not if he reproduces asexually.