“The Showa era” is the first continuity in the Godzilla franchise, encompassing the fifteen films released from Godzilla (1954) to Terror of MechaGodzilla (1975). The term comes from Japan’s Showa period, the reign of Emperor Hirohito, which lasted from 1926 to 1989. Since every Godzilla film released between 1954 and 1975 was produced during the Showa period, they’re referred to as “the Showa-era Godzilla movies,” and we have ranked every one of them here!
Ranking these films isn’t easy because they vary in style and ambition. Some are classic cinema, others are pure popcorn entertainment, and a few are strange curiosities. So this ranking considered several factors:
Coming down from the large scale monster mash highs of Destroy All Monsters, director Ishirō Honda delivered a follow-up that is very small, cheap, and odd. All Monsters Attack, which also goes by the title Godzilla’s Revenge even though there is nothing dark or vengeful about it, is a uniquely strange children’s movie, the most direct appeal to the youngsters in the audience the series ever made. The lead character is Ichirô Miki, a bullied grade schooler who daydreams of visiting the monsters of Monster Island and befriending Godzilla’s son Minya, who is his height, speaks to him in a dopey voice, and happens to have a monstrous bully with the same name as Ichirô’s bully, Gabara. Both of the kids eventually stand up for themselves, then the final moment conveys the questionable idea that it’s okay to be a little punk sometimes, just as long as you’re not a wimp.
The interactions between Minya and Ichirô and the scenes involving Gabara are basically the only new monster footage that was shot for All Monsters Attack. The 70 minute running time is padded out with moments of the kids watching from a distance as Godzilla deals with multiple threats, and these Godzilla scenes are stock footage from the series’ other island-based entries.
The fact that this movie even exists is kind of confounding, and the amount of stock footage really drags it down. That said, it is a good film for the intended audience. This would be an excellent installment to show to a kid who has an interest in watching Godzilla movies. Adults might not get so much out of it, but as long as some children out there are being entertained and learning to love Godzilla by watching it, there’s nothing wrong with that.
The set-up: test detonations of nuclear bombs have been wreaking havoc on the kingdom of Seatopia, which was swallowed by the sea after being struck by an earthquake millions of years ago. The Seatopians are ready to retaliate and wage war on the surface world, and to do so they steal an inventor’s flying robot so it can guide the monster Megalon, who the Seatopians worship as a god, to the cities they want to see destroyed.
The robot Jet Jaguar, a character that was created by a Japanese grade schooler who had sent in a sketch of the robot as a submission in a contest Toho Studios was holding, is the entire reason this movie was made. If it seems like Godzilla was dropped in as an afterthought, that’s because he was! Director Jun Fukuda was developing this as Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon, then it became a Godzilla sequel when producers began to worry that Jet Jaguar wasn’t cool enough to carry his own movie. (They were right.) That’s also when another monster, the returning villain Gigan, was added into the story. Another good move, because Megalon is a doofus.
Godzilla was on a bad streak when Megalon hit theatres. The last few movies hadn’t been particularly well regarded, and this haphazardly slapped together, cheap, rushed production didn’t break the bad run.
Worried that Yoshimitsu Banno had made a brand-tarnishing disappointment with Godzilla vs. Hedorah, franchise producer Tomoyuki Tanaka brought Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and Son of Godzilla director Jun Fukuda back into the fold to deliver a more traditional sequel with the often-used “Godzilla must defend Earth from monsters controlled by evil aliens” plot. This time, cockroach aliens from Nebula Space Hunter-M set King Ghidorah and Gigan loose on Tokyo. The two monsters cause as much destruction as possible while military forces try their best to fight them off and, of course, man-made weapons have little effect on the monsters. The only hope lies in Godzilla and Anguirus, who finally arrive to confront them in a lengthy climactic battle.
A lot of this feels very familiar, and for good reason, as the monster scenes feature a lot of stock footage. At least there’s some awesome new monster battle footage. The movie improves greatly once King Ghidorah and Gigan are set loose, but the long build-up to that happening can feel like a bit of a slog, despite the quirkiness of the characters (including a struggling comic book artist and his tough-talking, karate-skilled girlfriend).
The new monster Gigan is a cybernetically enhanced creature with hooks for hands and a buzzsaw in its torso. One cool touch during the final battle is the fact that the monsters draw blood from each other, something which doesn’t happen very often in these movies. Specifically, Gigan bloodies his opponents with the use of his metallic appendages. So the movie ends up being enjoyable in the long run, but a lot of it is rough to sit through.
Another small scale entry in the franchise from Ebirah director Jun Fukuda, with the action taking place on a sparsely populated island for the second movie in a row. As the title promises, this one introduces us to Godzilla’s son, a creature you can call Minira or Minilla (as in Mini-Gojira or Mini-Godzilla), or even Minya. The series had been getting increasingly child-friendly as it went along, and the fact that Son of Godzilla is particularly aimed at the children in the audience shows through in the redesign of the Goji suit for this entry, as the King of the Monsters has been given a very cartoony look. The kid-friendly approach is also evident in the tone, as this movie almost comes off like a sitcom episode.
The story finds Godzilla crossing the ocean to find the source of radio-disrupting brain waves: Sollgel Island, where a research team is preparing to test their weather machine by freezing the swelteringly hot island, which is inhabited by massive mantises, an evil spider, and a mysterious native girl. Also on the island is a huge egg, which is the source of those disruptive emissions. They were telepathic cries the incubating monster was sending out to his dad, Godzilla.
Son of Godzilla is very much a typical B-movie sort of monster flick, along the lines of something like Attack of the Crab Monsters, but with a dash of Gilligan’s Island. The most entertaining scenes are when Godzilla and Minya go off into the wilderness for some father/son bonding time, which involves practicing roars and atomic breath-blasting.
With Godzilla vs. Hedorah (a.k.a. Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster), director Yoshimitsu Banno delivered one of the most divisive entries in the Showa era of the franchise. Even the musical score for this one is divisive, with Riichirô Manabe replacing Akira Ifukube, the composer who created the most iconic music in the Godzilla series, and making some very memorable use of a slide trombone.
In figuring out the way to approach his Godzilla movie, Banno drew inspiration from the anti-nuclear statement of the original film and decided to focus on another issue the world was dealing with (and still is), pollution. He was heavily influenced by the then-modern hippie culture (he had been deeply moved by Woodstock), which is why there are hippie characters and a night club performance of the theme song “Return! The Sun” against a backdrop of psychedelic imagery. He had also noticed that manga was becoming popular with the kids in Japan, which accounts for the brief animated interludes he added into the movie.
As Godzilla takes on a monster that is the living, mutating embodiment of pollution, Banno reminds us of the death and destruction that comes along with these monster clashes. The film is unique, odd, and the darkest movie in the series since the first. Allegedly, when series producer Tomoyuki Tanaka first saw the finished film, he told Banno that he had ruined Godzilla. But if you want action, this one definitely delivers it, as the final battle goes on for almost 30 minutes! This is also the film where Godzilla uses his atomic breath to propel himself through the air and chase down his flying opponent.
Following the success of Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla, Toho was eager to get another Godzilla movie into production – and rather than hire one of their in-house screenwriters for the project, they held a contest, asking their audience to send in ideas. Screenwriting student Yukiko Takayama sent in a pitch, and actually got hired to expand her ideas into a screenplay! Director Ishirō Honda returned to the helm for this one, which turned out to be the last Godzilla movie for a decade. This was the end of the Showa era, and it was also the last full feature film Honda made as the primary credited director.
The aliens from the previous film, the Simians, are still scheming to take over the planet, and this time they take control of an amphibian dinosaur called Titanosaurus so it can team up with the rebuilt MechaGodzilla and attack Japan. Of course, Godzilla isn’t just going to stand by and let that happen.
This movie isn’t the greatest, but it’s entertaining. The audience didn’t show up for it, though. Terror of MechaGodzilla was the least attended Godzilla movie of the entire series up to that point, a fact that probably has less to do with the quality of the film than it did with the economic situation in Japan at the time (they had been hit hard by the oil crisis of 1973). So Godzilla went on hiatus, with the final shot of him wading back into the sea assuring fans that he could return someday.
Directed by Jun Fukuda, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (a.k.a. Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster) is widely regarded as one of the weakest entries in the series, but it’s not a bad movie, it’s just not the type of Godzilla adventure that viewers had become accustomed to. The movies had been getting bigger and bigger, and then there’s this one, which is set on a small island. Some of the oddness is due to the fact that Godzilla was a last minute replacement for King Kong. The original version of the script was written for a King Kong movie that was meant to be a co-production between Toho and the American Rankin/Bass Productions. Kong was entirely written out of this one, but the Toho-Rankin/Bass Kong project did come to fruition the following year with a completely different story. It was released under the title King Kong Escapes.
The wreck of a stolen yacht strands a group of people on Devil’s Island, which happens to be home to the militaristic terrorist organization Red Bamboo, with a giant lobster-monster called Ebirah patrolling the water. Luckily, Godzilla also happens to be taking a lengthy nap on the island – so our heroes wake him up with a bolt of lightning and set him loose on the villains.
The climax features plenty of damage and explosions, but it is on a much smaller scale than we’re used to seeing in a Godzilla movie, and this installment in the series is kind of jarring to come across when watching your way through the series. Despite the location and smaller story, the filmmakers did make a strong effort to keep the movie interesting and satisfying, throwing multiple combatants at Godzilla once he finally gets out of his cave bed. (Ebirah! Terrorists! A giant condor! Mothra cameo!)
The second film in the franchise give Godzilla his first monstrous opponent. His enemy in this one is a creature left over from a prehistoric era: a spiky-shelled dinosaur-like creature called Anguirus. And while the first movie focused on the horror and the human consequences of the destruction Godzilla wreaked upon Tokyo, here director Motoyoshi Oda has the monsters do battle in an Osaka that has been emptied of civilians, making it, essentially, simply a ring for Godzilla and Anguirus to do battle within. There are no human lives at stake beyond anonymous soldiers and some escaped prisoners. This movie is all about the spectacle of watching two monsters clash. The most emotion on display during the battle sequence comes from the owner of a fishing company as he watches his business go up in flames.
The lead characters are former fighter pilots Tsukioka and Kobayashi, who now work as spotter pilots for the Kaiyo Fishing Company. We get a glimpse into their personal lives – Tsukioka is engaged to marry his boss’s daughter Hidemi, who also works at the fishing company and whom Kobayashi secretly has a crush on. But even more than on them personally, we see how the presence and destructive activities of Godzilla have an effect on the Kaiyo Fishing Company throughout the film.
The most impressive thing about Godzilla Raids Again is the fact that it was such a rushed production, it reached theatres less than six months after the premiere of the original Gojira. Oda was known as a man who could get a movie made quickly (he was pumping out up to seven movies a year for Toho), and he delivered a good Godzilla movie on an insane schedule, even if the particular brand of magic that Gojira had, its scope and its emotional effectiveness, were not recaptured.
Godzilla celebrates his twentieth anniversary by fighting… himself? The Mecha doppelganger introduced in this film quickly became one of Godzilla’s most popular enemies, and it first shows up as a Godzilla impostor that goes rampaging through Japan – until the real deal shows up to challenge it.
After so many lackluster installments in a row, Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla is a welcome return to form for the series and one of the best entries we got from returning director Jun Fukuda. The story is familiar, as there’s a prophecy element like we saw in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster and the bad guys controlling MechaGodzilla are another bunch of aliens (ape-like creatures in human disguise this time), but this isn’t another cheapie that’s filled with stock footage. Toho made sure this anniversary movie was done right and packed it with (surprisingly bloody) action.
That action is a great capper to a film that harkens back to the franchise’s glory days and is as spectacular as the occasion demanded. Watch out for that MechaGodzilla vs. Anguirus battle, though. That’s one a heartbreaker, made all the sadder by the fact that this is the last time Anguirus is seen in this era of the series. He wouldn’t appear in another Godzilla movie until thirty years later, by which time there had already been a couple of reboots. This is the end of this iteration of Anguirus, and I’ve always felt bad for the guy.
Released just eight months after Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster expanded the scope of the franchise. Up to this point, the kaiju threats in Toho’s movies had been earthbound horrors; legendary and/or ancient creatures usually awakened by nuclear bomb detonations. This one gives us a threat from outer space… and Godzilla evolves from villain to hero to handle it!
We had seen several clashes between giant monsters before, but this film presents for the first time the idea of giant monsters teaming up with each other to face a stronger opponent. The only hope Earth has at defeating the world-destroying King Ghidorah is if Godzilla, Rodan (a monster that was introduced in its own solo film – directed by Ishirō Honda, of course – in 1956), and Mothra join forces against it. It’s Mothra who convinces Godzilla and Rodan to come to the world’s aid.
For most of its running time, the movie has a dark and serious tone. The storyline is intriguing and convoluted, involving alien mind-control and a “prophetess from Venus,” and it adds a strange new level of science fiction and the supernatural to the series. Once the monster team-up comes together, it starts appealing directly to the children in the audience and moments get exceptionally silly. King Ghidorah is going to destroy our planet, he should be the thing of nightmares, but instead he’s making Godzilla hop around because he has zapped him in the butt. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster is a bit scattered, but still an entertaining film.
With Ishirō Honda back at the helm and American producer Henry G. Saperstein pulling some strings behind the scenes, the movie launches right into the story and introduces lead characters up front so as not to test the patience of the American audience. In the not-to-distant future, the World Space Agency sends astronauts (including American Nick Adams) to investigate Planet X, a dark planet that has recently been discovered to be orbiting Jupiter. They find that the planet is technologically, architecturally, and mentally advanced (their spaceships run on brain waves), but it’s being ravaged by King Ghidorah – and the shady, emotionless residents want Godzilla and Rodan to be transported to their planet for a rematch with the three-headed monster.
Of course, this is all building up to the people of Planet X threatening to launch a full-scale invasion of Earth. Good thing we have some giant monsters on our side, and they’re now presented in a way to make them heroes to the youngsters in the audience. Invasion of Astro-Monster (a.k.a. Godzilla vs. Monster Zero) is the entry that’s best remembered for the moment where Godzilla does a silly little victory dance after he and Rodan force Ghidorah to retreat from one of their battles. Honda objected to that moment of goofiness, but was overruled.
The suggestions Saperstein made helped the film in its pacing and international appeal, and the result is a highly entertaining sci-fi adventure. It’s very much in the same vein as its predecessor Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, but even better.
In 1961’s Mothra, director Ishirō Honda took audiences to Infant Island, home to small fairies that communicate through song and a giant creature called Mothra. Three years later, Honda and Toho decided to have Godzilla and Mothra share the screen in a story of a clash not just between two giant creatures, but also between nature and human greed. Unscrupulous businessmen stick a Mothra egg in an amusement park called the Shizunoura Happy Center and try to force the twin fairies, the Shobijin of Infant Island, into a stage show.
Since Mothra is meant to be a beautiful, benevolent, kaiju goddess in her fully-grown form, the still-villainous Godzilla was given a more evil appearance in this film, complete with sharp, pointed claws that drive home the fact that he’s the bad monster in this situation). The opening stretch before Godzilla shows up can be a bit tiresome with the repetitious “give up the egg”/”you can’t have the egg” scenes, but once the big G enters the picture, the film becomes a nonstop action thrill ride.
The scenes with the military attempting to fight off Godzilla were the best yet, and though you may think a giant moth would be outmatched going against Goji, Mothra proves to be quite capable against him. Then Godzilla himself proves to be outmatched when faced with Mothra’s twin larvae, which is kind of a letdown, but it works well enough. Mothra vs. Godzilla is a whole lot of fun and earns a spot high in the ranking of the series.
Toho had gone smaller with Ebirah, Horror of the Deep and Son of Godzilla, and while those entries had been cheaper to make, they had also seen a dip in audience attendance. It was possible that the series could be coming to an end – but if Godzilla was going to go out, Toho was going to make sure he went out in a big way. After a two film absence, director Ishirō Honda was brought back to take the helm and help craft the story for an epic monster mash that’s set in the future (1999!) and features a record number of creatures from the Toho stable. The line-up includes: Godzilla, Rodan, Anguirus, Mothra in larval stage, Gorosaurus (from King Kong Escapes), Minira/Minilla/Minya (who is no larger than he was in Son of Godzilla, despite this presumably being thirty years later), Kumonga/Spiga, Baragon (from Frankenstein Conquers the World), Manda (from Atragon), Varan the Unbelievable, and King Ghidorah. Ebirah and Maguma, a giant walrus creature from the 1962 sci-fi feature Gorath, were written into early drafts of the script, but they ultimately didn’t make the cut.
For twenty years, all of Earth’s monsters have been living in peace on an island called Monsterland. That peace comes to an end when aliens from the planet Kilaak set the monsters loose and send them to wreak havoc in cities around the globe. The story is perfectly simplistic, resulting in a spectacular sci-fi adventure that’s filled with action. There are monsters galore, scenes set all over the world, an incredible sequence in Tokyo, travel back and forth between the Earth and the moon, and interplanetary threats.
Destroy All Monsters is a welcome return to the large scale type of Godzilla film after its two low-key predecessors. It could have been a grand finale – but thankfully, this film’s success just paved the way for more sequels.
Original Gojira director Ishirō Honda came back for the third entry in the franchise, a movie that started life as a King Kong vs. Frankenstein idea. This time, Honda set aside the horror he brought to the first film and delivered something that is a blast to watch every step of the way. Godzilla dukes it out with his famous fellow monster King Kong, who first reached the screen 21 years before Godzilla did, in a goofball crossover that’s presented in full color.
King Kong is the focus of the main plot, while Godzilla lurks around in a subplot before the two finally come together in the last third of the film… and this monster clash is as silly as it can be when it gets the chance. The filmmakers were very self-aware about the appeal of these monster fights; the characters share the interest in seeing the outcome that the audience has. Characters wonder which of the two is stronger, the title “King Kong versus Godzilla” is spoken aloud, and bets are made on which monster will be the victor. Kong and Godzilla cause a lot of destruction in Japan, but the consequences are not dwelt upon. It’s just spectacle, destruction as eye candy.
There is a bit of social commentary in the mix, as King Kong vs. Godzilla satirizes television and marketing between the monster moments, but the focus is making every moment as fun as possible. This was made to mark Toho’s 30th anniversary, and it truly does feel like a celebration. The result is a highly entertaining film, and one of the most purely fun entries in the entire Godzilla franchise.
More than seventy years after its release, the original Gojira (not the American edit, Godzilla, King of the Monsters, although that’s entertaining as well) is still effectively disturbing and horrific. Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka had the initial idea for the iconic character that would become known as Gojira / Godzilla. Gazing out the window at the ocean below while on a flight from Indonesia back to Japan in 1954, Tanaka began to wonder what sort of secrets – what sort of creatures – the sea could hold. What could be lurking beneath the surface? The filmmakers took a concept that could’ve just been the makings of an average B-level creature feature and made a truly a great film, one of the all-time best monster movies. Sure, it’s about a creature rising from the sea and wreaking havoc, but there’s a weight to it because the story – crafted by Takeo Murata and Shigeru Kayama, then expertly brought to the screen by director Ishirō Honda – tied in to the horrors the Japanese people had just recently endured because of nuclear weapons.
Godzilla is a prehistoric creature that has been awakened and irradiated by nuclear bomb test detonations, and when he reduces Tokyo to a sea of flames, you can’t help but think of what had just happened in Japan a decade earlier. This is not merely destruction spectacle eye candy. This is pure horror. Everything that makes Godzilla the memorable classic that it is are on display during the Tokyo destruction sequence: the back-breaking work the performers in the Godzilla suit put into making the monster move across the screen; the special effects work of Eiji Tsuburaya in the mixture of suitmation and puppetry as Godzilla smashes into the 1/25 scale miniature replica of Tokyo, which was built with meticulous detail; composer Akira Ifukube’s score, which moves the action forward and amplifies the intensity, and, of course, Honda’s direction. For the human element at the heart of it all, surrounded by death and destruction, we get the story of a love triangle and a tragic hero.
To varying degrees of success, Gojira has been sequelized, rebooted, spun off from, adapted for animated television, etc. many times over during the decades since. While some great things have followed it, the original film still stands tall among the pack.
Godzilla (1954) remains the best Showa-era entry. Its combination of horror, social commentary, groundbreaking special effects, and emotional storytelling has never been surpassed.
All Monsters Attack (1969) ranks last due to its extensive use of stock footage and limited scope, although it remains an effective children’s film.
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) is the most underrated. While often dismissed as a minor entry, it offers a fun island-adventure atmosphere unlike any other Godzilla film.
There are fifteen Godzilla films in the Showa era, released between 1954 and 1975.
If you’re new to the franchise, start with:
The Showa era consists of fifteen Godzilla films released between 1954 and 1975. In order of release, they are:
Although several other Toho productions from the same period feature Godzilla or take place in the broader kaiju universe, including the television series Zone Fighter (1973), the fifteen films above are generally recognized as the complete Showa-era Godzilla film series. For viewers who want to experience Godzilla’s evolution from terrifying nuclear allegory to globe-trotting monster hero, watching these films in release order provides the clearest picture of how the franchise developed over its first two decades.
Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla contain some of the era’s strongest monster battles, but Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster deserves special recognition for introducing the concept of multiple monsters teaming up against a common enemy.
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) introduced King Ghidorah, who would go on to become Godzilla’s greatest recurring rival.
Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla (1974) introduced MechaGodzilla, the robotic duplicate that quickly became one of the franchise’s most popular villains.
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) was the final film of the Showa era before the series went on a nine-year hiatus and returned with The Return of Godzilla (1984).
Yes and no. Zone Fighter was a live-action television series produced by Toho and broadcast in 1973, during the Showa era of the Godzilla franchise. Although it is not one of the fifteen Showa-era Godzilla films, it shares continuity with the movies and features appearances by Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Gigan, and other Toho monsters. Godzilla even teams up with the hero Zone Fighter in several episodes. Because it was a television series rather than a theatrical feature film, Zone Fighter is generally considered a companion piece to the Showa era rather than an official entry in the film series itself.
The Showa era contains everything from serious nuclear allegory to outrageous alien invasion adventures and all-star monster brawls. Not every installment is a classic, but together they established the mythology, characters, and tone that turned Godzilla into one of the most iconic creatures in cinema history. More than seventy years later, the original films continue to influence every era of the franchise that followed.