The Showa Series & Abstract Continuity

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Elsewhere the question was raised as to how Godzilla's wounds from Godzilla vs Heodra healed by the time of Godzilla vs Gigan. The subject of a regenerative ability (a la G2K) was brought up. My response ended up a little longer (and a bit deeper) than I had planned and I figured it was worth posting here. Food for thought, perhaps:

Many of the Showa films had such loose continuity that it's not something I believe anyone was supposed to think twice about when watching Godzilla vs Gigan. IMHO Godzilla vs Hedora plays more like a standalone film than one connected to the rest of the 70s movies. If you wanted to you could easily string the other four films from the 1970s together but Godzilla vs Hedora seems to be it's own entity. In Godzilla vs Hedora Godzilla is just...Godzilla. He's not presented with a back story or a past. He's just there. In Gigan his history is referenced with Monster Island and his character is set up a little differently. It's always the same Godzilla, but in the Showa films the hows, whys and where's were always tailored to the needs of the story. He was injured in Hedora but in Gigan...he's not. You're not supposed to think about the hows and whys because the two films are their own separate entities that just happen to star Godzilla.

It's really difficult to explain my point of view here because it's sort of abstract. The Heisei films were linear, connected, featured the same Godzilla, many of the same human characters and constantly made references to what came before. While many of the Showa films are definitely connected in some way (Godzilla through Monster Zero, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla and Terror of Mechagodzilla) several of the films (Godzilla vs the Sea Monster, Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs Hedora) tell their own tales and seem little interested in what's come before.

In Godzilla vs Gigan we're not supposed to think about what happened with Godzilla's hand and eye because that happened in Godzilla vs Hedora, which has nothing to do with the story of Godzilla vs Gigan. Keep in mind by the 70s these films were purely childrens movies anyway. Continuity wasn't important anymore and how Godzilla recovered from his injuries was a non issue. Again, in the 1970s no one really thought of things like continuity when making these movies. It wasn't an issue and didn't really become an issue until the 1990s. Like Bond films or Mickey Mouse cartoons, in the late 1960s and 1970s Godzilla movies were just...Godzilla movies. If Godzilla suffered a massive injury in one film and then appeared perfectly healthy in another film you weren't supposed to think about it.

Think of it this way. How many Tom and Jerry cartoons end with Tom either definitely disposed of or even killed? But he's always back in the next cartoon. And it's not a different Tom Cat. It's just Tom and he's back for another installment. That's the way I look at the Showa series, especially films like Godzilla vs Hedora. At the end of that movie I'm left with the impression that Godzilla's scars are permanent, something he's going to have to live with for sticking his neck out to end Hedora's threat and protect the planet. In Godzilla vs Gigan he doesn't have those scars because it's an unrelated installment entirely.

[INVINCIBLE HASTUR]

Good topic as I was just discussing this with a friend not too long ago.

Look, TOHO themselves back in the 60'S didn't care to have a tight continuity with the Godzilla films of the time because it was simply unnecessary. Surely there was some loose connections established as the series progressed that are easily noticeable but the goal was really just to make a quality Monster movie that both children AND adults could have fun with. They were successful at that for sure. There are plenty of fans that cry at the notion of the Showa era Godzilla movies not followinga strict order like the Heisei films. I don't get it. They are thinking too hard about the character then and will never truly enjoy watching lets say, a double feature because that might screw them up.

Same thing happened with all the early Ultra series from Tsuburaya.

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