The 'non-era' era?

[lhb412]

The Showa, Heisei, and Millennium eras of Godzilla movies are defined clearly by things like continuity, staff, designs and the like, as well as the fact that they were turned out regularly with the usual one-a-year pace. They stand out so clearly in the minds of us fans that we tend to think of the entire genre as adhering to those divides, even if, if you think about it, in terms of the genre as a whole the Heisei and Millennium eras are really one big era when kaiju movies were produced fairly consistently for about 20 years (the Heisei Godzilla movies, Yamato Takeru, The Gamera Trilogy, The Mothra Trilogy, the Millennium Godzilla movies and ending with Gamera the Brave).

But now I feel like Toho's era of consistent eras is over. Both Shin Godzilla and Godzilla: Monster Planet strike me as similar approaches: established talent in charge, radically reinventing Godzilla. What if this is the new normal, and an ongoing Godzilla series building on the same continuity with the traditional format of Godzilla taking on successive opponents a thing of the past? ... at least in Toho's case, because that's exactly what Legendary's MonsterVerse films are doing for a world audience, including Japan (and fulfilling Toho's decades-long dreams of concurrent foreign and domestic Godzilla movies).

Instead of an ongoing series, each Toho Godzilla project may be conceived as a self-contained project, and after following a live action movie with an anime trilogy I'd say every factor could be in flux for future Toho Godzillas. Maybe the next Toho Godzilla won't even be theatrical, but a TV drama? Personally, I find this approach pretty exciting. I don't think the Heisei series being continuity heavy really added too much, and the Millennium series' goal of no continuity done-in-ones was a bust because the movies tended to not take advantage of the freedom. Really, aside from GMK how easy would it have been to make the rest of those movies in the same (loose) continuity?

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

[Benjamin Haines]

[angilas]

In light of benjamin haine's post, how about dubbing it "the int'l era"? The constant back and forth beginning with Godzilla '14 might not be the first time we've had a western studio with rights to Goji, but Tristar made GINO which was literally GINO. AU kinda harkens back to millenium a bit too much, but here its something else. And having just seen skull island, im excited for both east and west franchises.

[lhb412]

^'International Era' does do the job, and is appropriately descriptive. I was thinking the 'PacRim Era,' which basically describes the same thing in a roundabout sort of way.

In truth, these things typically gain their names years after, right? The Heisei era just happened to coincide with the broader cultural moment of the change from Showa to Heisei and didn't Toho dub the Millennium era that from the get-go?

[Jorzilla]

International Era is too wordy. 5 syllables, Millennium was already a mouthful.

My vote is Revival Series. As people have pointed out, we are basically in a kaiju Renaissance.

[Mac]

[lhb412]

[Benjamin Haines]

We could just do what we did with the last series and call this one the Shinsei Series until it gets an official name.

[lhb412]

^Huh, I just had an Obi Wan "Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time..." moment. I vaguely recall folks calling the series that in the early going.

Of course the Heisei series had an alternate name in the "vs. series."

[lhb412]

Hmmmm.... if the anime films are released every November in '17, '18, '19 and Toho does the Japanese releases King of the Monsters and vs. Kong in spring/summer '19 and '20 when do y'all think the best spot for a new, Japanese live action Godzilla film would be? I reckon near the end of '20 would be the soonest.

[MekaGojira3k]

I've been calling it Resurgence or Revival Era simply because of the sheer output/reception and it being flanked by Kaiju-homages in the form of things like Pacific Rim or Colossal.

[tbeasley]

I don't think there's any use forcing them all under the same umbrella, Shin is its own separate thing, same for the MonsterVerse and Monster Planet. We'll just have to see if Toho does a proper continuation of Shin or not.

[Geno]

The Era-That-So-Far-Doesn't-Have-Any-Embarrassingly-Bad-Movies era.

[lhb412]

^We're batting pretty good so far, aren't we?

[Geno]

[jellydonut25]

[XvGojira]

Before the Animated movie turned trilogy was announced I liked to call it the Dual-era for having dual Godzilla series (US and Japanese). But now with three I think something like Multi-Era (or maybe Tri-Era if a fourth series doesn't pop up from somewhere).

[DannyBeane]

I don't think we even need eras anymore or at least we can name them once we realize they are over.

[Gwangi]

With Emperor Akihito abdicating his thrown on April 30th, 2019, that will officially mark the end of the Heisei era. The name that his son will chose, will probably be the unofficial era name for these next Godzilla movies that Toho has planned after 2020. Of course, if "G vs Kong" does absolute gangbusters, that could change the whole plan.

As for this current string (Shin & three animated features), I guess one can only call it the "non-era" era.

[Psycho Soldier]

Current reports suggest the next era of Japan will be called . So for us, that's one piece of the puzzle. Now it's partly a matter of deciding how to apply the label to Godzilla films. Will it apply only to films produced by Toho after this year? Is there any sense in bringing Shin Godzilla under the label, or will it belong to an interstitial period alongside the anime trilogy? Or is it too early to say, until or unless we see Toho's future productions?

I'm most sympathetic to the "wait and see" position. We know in retrospect that G84 shares continuity with Biollante and future films, thus it's considered a Heisei film and not a Showa one. On the other hand, though the gap between Destoroyah and G2K was shorter, G2K broke with the previous films' continuity as well as its visual styles, while setting a few standards for Megaguirus. Hence the Millennium era.

It usually has taken more than one film to establish the feel of a Godzilla era, so I'm content to let history play itself out. If Toho's next Godzilla films resemble Shin Godzilla thematically or stylistically, it'll be easy to decide that Shin Godzilla is a Reiwa film. If not, I'm sure there will be much to debate.

(I haven't brought the Legendary films into my thoughts because I consider them distinct from the Japanese productions. Likewise, I don't consider G98 a Heisei or Millennium film. I'm also unsure about the anime trilogy's place in all of this.)

[TerranigmaFreak]

Legendary Godzilla will technically be the first Reiwa Godzilla.

[Jorzilla]

I've seen a growing push from commenters and influencers online to move away from the Heisei series and start calling it the "VS." series to keep in line with the Japanese fans and due to Biollante and G'84 being Showa era films. Not to mention the fact that literally every movie since has been Heisei until now.

Everyone is also missing where GINO fits into a series grouping, but since that movie sucks no one really cares to address it.

I don't see a post-hoc reinterpretation of this batch being rebranded as Reiwa. To contradict myself 2 years I agree that International or maybe Global makes the most sense. Especially if Toho continues to pursue other offerings like the rumored China partnership.

[XvGojira]