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[Orestes Hardy]

GodzillaJapanese: ゴジラ, Hepburn: Gojira) is a Japanese monster, or kaiju, media franchise consisting of films, television series, novels, comic books, video games, and other merchandise. The franchise is centered on the fictional kaiju Godzilla, a prehistoric reptilian monster awakened and powered by nuclear radiation. The franchise is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the "longest continuously running film franchise", having been in ongoing production since 1954, with several hiatuses of varying lengths.[8] The film franchise consists of 38 films: 33 Japanese films produced and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd., and six American films; one produced by TriStar Pictures and five films (part of the Monsterverse franchise) by Legendary Pictures.

The original film, Godzilla, was directed by and co-written by Ishirō Honda and released by Toho in 1954.[9] It became an influential classic of the genre. It featured political and social undertones relevant to Japan at the time. The 1954 film and its special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya are largely credited for establishing the template for tokusatsu, a technique of practical special effects filmmaking that would become essential in Japan's film industry since the release of Godzilla (1954).[10] For its North American release, the film was localized in 1956 as Godzilla, King of the Monsters! It featured new footage with Raymond Burr edited together with the original Japanese footage.

The popularity of the films has led to the franchise expanding to other media, such as television, music, literature and video games. Godzilla has become one of the most recognizable symbols in Japanese pop culture worldwide and remains a well-known facet of Japanese cinema and was one of the first examples of the popular kaiju and tokusatsu subgenres in Japanese entertainment.

The Godzilla film series is broken into several different eras reflecting a characteristic style and corresponding to the same eras used to classify all kaiju eiga (monster movies) in Japan. The first, second, and fourth eras refer to the Japanese emperor during production: the Shōwa era, the Heisei era, and the Reiwa era. The third is called the Millennium era, as the emperor (Heisei) is the same, but these films are considered to have a different style and storyline than the Heisei era.

Over the series' history, the films have reflected the social and political climate in Japan.[12] In the original film, Godzilla was an allegory for the effects of nuclear weapons, and the consequences that such weapons might have on Earth.[13][14][15][16] The radioactive contamination of the Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon No. 5 through the United States' Castle Bravo thermonuclear device test at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954, led to much press coverage in Japan preceding the release of the first film in 1954.[17] The Heisei and Millennium series have largely continued this concept. Toho was inspired to make the original Godzilla film after the commercial success of the 1952 re-release of King Kong and the success of The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), the first live-action film to feature a giant monster awakened following an atomic bomb detonation.[18] The success of the Godzilla franchise itself would go on to inspire other giant monster films worldwide.

The initial series of films are named after the Shōwa era (as all of these films were produced during Emperor Shōwa's reign).[19][20] This Shōwa timeline spanned from 1954, with Godzilla, to 1975, with Terror of Mechagodzilla.

The first Godzilla film initially began as a Japanese-Indonesian co-production titled In the Shadow of Glory (栄光のかげに, Eikō no Kage ni).[b] However, the project was cancelled after the Indonesian government denied visas to Toho's crew due to anti-Japanese sentiments and political pressure.[23] On his flight back to Japan after a failed attempt to renegotiate with the Indonesian government, film producer Tomoyuki Tanaka conceived an idea for a giant monster film inspired by The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and the then-recent Daigo Fukuryū Maru incident.[2] Tanaka then succeeded in convincing executive producer Iwao Mori to replace In the Shadow of Glory with Tanaka's monster film, after special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya agreed to do the film.[24]

Godzilla was first released in Nagoya on October 27, 1954,[28] and released nationwide on November 3, 1954.[29] Despite mixed reviews,[30] it was a box office success. It became the eighth best-attended film in Japan that year,[31] and earned 183 million (just under $510,000) in distributor rentals during its initial run,[32] with total lifetime gross receipts of $2.25 million.[31][33] The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Special Effects at the Japanese Movie Association Awards; it won Best Effects and lost Best Picture to Seven Samurai.[34]

Starting with Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, Godzilla began evolving into a friendlier, more playful antihero (this transition was complete by Son of Godzilla, where Godzilla is depicted as a more virtuous character) and, as years went by, it evolved into an anthropomorphic superhero. Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster was also significant for introducing Godzilla's archenemy and the main antagonist of the film series, King Ghidorah.

Son of Godzilla and All Monsters Attack were aimed at youthful audiences, featuring the appearance of Godzilla's son, Minilla. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla was notable for introducing Godzilla's robot duplicate and the secondary antagonist of the film series, Mechagodzilla. The Shōwa period loosely tied in to a number of Toho-produced films in which Godzilla himself did not appear and consequently saw the addition of many monsters into the Godzilla continuity, three of which (Rodan, Varan, and Mothra) originated in their own solo films and another five (Anguirus, Manda, Baragon, Gorosaurus and Kumonga) appeared in their first films as either secondary antagonists or secondary kaiju.

Haruo Nakajima mainly portrayed Godzilla since 1954 until his retirement in 1972. However, other stunt actors have portrayed the character in his absence, such as Katsumi Tezuka, Yū Sekida, Ryosaku Takasugi, Seiji Onaka, Shinji Takagi, Isao Zushi, and Toru Kawai.[35][36] Eiji Tsuburaya directed the special effects for the first six films of the series. His protege Sadamasa Arikawa took over the effects work for the next three films (with Tsuburaya supervising), while Teruyoshi Nakano directed the special effects for the last six films of the series.

Toho rebooted the series in 1984 with The Return of Godzilla, starting the second era of Godzilla films, known as the Heisei series.[38] The Return of Godzilla serves as a direct sequel to the original 1954 film and ignores the subsequent events of the Shōwa era. The Return of Godzilla was released in 1984, five years before the new Emperor, but is considered part of this era, as it is a direct predecessor to Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989), which came out in the first year of the new Emperor's reign.[39]

The Heisei films are set in a single timeline, with each film providing continuity to the other films, and brings Godzilla back as a destructive force of nature that is feared by humans.[38] The biological nature and science behind Godzilla became a much more discussed issue in the films, showing the increased focus on the moral aspects of genetics. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah gave Godzilla's first concrete birth story, featuring a dinosaur named Godzillasaurus that was mutated by nuclear radiation into Godzilla. Godzilla was portrayed by Kenpachiro Satsuma for the Heisei films while the special effects were directed by Koichi Kawakita, with the exception of The Return of Godzilla, for which the effects were directed by Teruyoshi Nakano.

Toho rebooted the franchise for a second time with the 1999 film Godzilla 2000: Millennium starting the third era of Godzilla films, known as the Millennium series.[40][41] The Millennium series is treated similarly to an anthology series where each film is a standalone story, with the 1954 film serving as the only previous point of reference. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. are the only films in the Millennium era to share continuity with each other and are also connected to 1961's Mothra.

In December 2014, Toho announced plans for a new Godzilla film of its own for a 2016 release.[43] The film is Toho's reboot of the Godzilla franchise, after Legendary Pictures' reboot in 2014; the film is co-directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi (both of whom collaborated on the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion), with the screenplay by Anno and the visual effects directed by Higuchi.[44][45][46] Principal photography began in September and ended in October with the special effects work following in November that year.[47][48] Shin Godzilla was released in Japan on July 29, 2016, in IMAX, 4DX, and MX4D to positive reviews and was a box office success.[49]

After the release of Shin Godzilla, Toho established a "Godzilla Room", a group consisting of 14 individuals that were tasked with studying all the previous films that involved the character and to ensure that further movies would avoid damaging the brand. The group wrote up a new set of mandated guidelines that that all feature films and merchandise had to follow, which involved the prohibition of permanently killing off the character and keeping him from preying on "people or things" to ensure that every appearance remained authentic.[50][51]

In August 2016, Toho announced plans for a trilogy of anime Godzilla films with Polygon Pictures animating the films and Netflix distributing the trilogy worldwide, except in Japan where each film will be given a theatrical release by Toho.[52][53] The first film, titled Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, was released on November 17, 2017.[54] The second film, titled Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle, was released on May 18, 2018.[55] The third and final film in the trilogy, titled Godzilla: The Planet Eater, was released on November 9, 2018.[56]

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