Showa Godzilla's (Lack of) Continuity

[Pkmatrix]

I recently read a few fan theories about Showa Godzilla's "continuity" and couldn't help but laugh. Why is it so many fans just assume there's a shared universe/continuity going on in the films prior to RoG? You've got to jump through so many flaming mental loops to make any sort of Showa Continuity make any sort of sense.

IMO, it's much easier to think of Showa Godzilla as an "era" of films, rather than a single "timeline". A timeline makes no sense, but as an era you can bunch all of them together as we've always done without issue. Within that era you've got three or four pretty distinctly separate continuities that have their own characters/plot points/settings/etc. and can be looked at individually.

(I've also developed a similar view toward Heisei Godzilla, which more and more I personally define as as everything from 1984 through 2004.)

Does anyone else agree, or am I talking nonsense?

[jellydonut25]

I don't think it takes too too many mental gymnastics to think of a continuity running from Gojira through Monster Zero, or even a loose continuity running up through DAM.

After that, it gets really dicey and isn't worth it.

As for WHY people try to force continuity, I really have no idea. Continuity doesn't make things better in and of itself (Heisei series, anyone? The continuity there is by and large meaningless)

[MekaGojira3k]

Working out timeline garbage for movies/books/tv shows has been something I've done since childhood. It's a weird mental exercise for me. I dunno it's fun, and it's harmless especially since I never try to enforce how I think something fits together on anyone else.

[Pkmatrix]

[Legion]

[lhb412]

I always felt that Showa continuity amounts to: "continuity doesn't matter unless we mention it specifically." Most cartoons follow the same rules, so it didn't bother me as a kid.

The behind the scenes continuity is what makes the Showa era, not any kind of story continuity.

[klen7]

[walshiam]

I never considered continuity a necessity unless it disrupted understanding the flow of events in the current film.

[lhb412]

^Exactly. I think a film only needs to be consistent in itself.

[Jorzilla]

[Zack Metoyer]

Personally, I never noticed any real continuity issues, except for the occassional loss of a Rodan or a Mothra. If you go by what the films say, it's easy to imagine the Showa series takes place in chronological order, with the exception of DAM as the final film, being set in 1999. I hear a lot of people complain because Monster Island exists in the 70's films, however, this is irrelevant because Monster Island and Monsterland are two different locations. In fact, Monster Island was introduced first in Son of Godzilla, although this is only explicit in the Japanese version (both in the film's title and spoken dialogue). It's not like the people writing the films were unaware of the films made before, nor were they deliberately resetting the timeline like in the Millennium series.

[Hybrid Gojira]

[jellydonut25]

People DO act that way about the Heisei series though. I've seen the argument made MULTIPLE times. Is it a "popular" opinion? I don't know, but I've rubbed up against enough people thinking that way.

[MekaGojira3k]

I mean, I could get people enjoying something because it seems more connected. I mean, that was something I thought was neat about it when I was a kid, but I don't think it allows it to trump anything else. Especially when the continuity isn't even that big a part and everything else is so flawed.

[jellydonut25]

a sizable number of people would argue your point that the continuity isn't a big part...I'm not one of them, but I've been taken to task when I've brought that up as well.

[Benjamin Haines]

Ever since I was a kid, I've always viewed the Showa Godzilla series the same as Speed Racer, Batman, The Tick, or any other action-packed animated series, even Godzilla: The Series. All episodes take place in the same universe as each other, and in chronological order unless otherwise specified, but in general they feature standalone stories except when it's convenient to the plot for them to reference events of a prior episode. Every episode is just a tale of the happenings in the star character's world and that allows them to tell whatever kind of story they want.

The notion that the filmmakers in the Showa Era consciously wiped the slate clean with every movie is a peculiar bit of revisionist fan theory that I've seen mentioned a couple times before on this board. I don't buy into it at all. It just seems like a silly attempt to retroactively stretch the Millennium Series perspective back in time onto the Showa Series.

[Pkmatrix]

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

^I think that's a different type of continuity. It expects the audience to remember popular characters and concepts, but not to actually follow a continuing plot-line through multiple films.

[Legion]

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

Yup.

[jellydonut25]

Too often I think we (myself included) forget about the lack of home video when 90% of the Showa era films were made. "continuity" wasn't really a tight thing with people pouring over its details in the 60s and 70s.

Many of the minor continuity gaffes in the Showa era probably went largely (or entirely) unnoticed.

[MekaGojira3k]

It kind of reminds me of the Bond films (the first 20), in that there's a continuity but its really loose. The continuity is really in the MI-6 characters, and organizations.
I still don't see how trying to understand the chronology of these films is such an atrocious act.

[walshiam]

It's not atrocious, just pointless since each story is balanced on their own.