Are there actually two groups of Showa Films?

[jellydonut25]

[Pkmatrix]

[Jorzilla]

Monster Zero is a prequel to Destroy all Monsters. It kind of makes sense in terms of progression for humanity to master space flight and have advanced technology after their interaction with Xiliens.

The only reason continuity is messed up after this is due to Sea Monster. It's not a super big deal, but I'm always curious how Godzilla ended up in that damn mountain.

Son of Godzilla clearly is in the timeline because of Minya and DAM.


Continuity gets really messed up Hedorah onwards, which is why I'm advocating for it to be spun off.

[jellydonut25]

So...SoG is a prequel to DAM because of Minya...who ages visibly within the few days/weeks of SoG but then in the THIRTY YEARS between SoG's time period and DAM's setting, doesn't age a day?

The continuity falls apart rather quickly, and isn't even worth attempting for MOST of the films...even those who outright insist that there is continuity.

[Hybrid Gojira]

I never really thought about the continuity of these films....probably because I did see them out of order, but there is a slight sense of continuity even beyond DAM since Terror of MG references other kaiju (Rodan, Manda, and KG) during Katsura's conversation with her father. Obviously we then have Terror of MG referencing the previous MG film as well.

Meh, it doesn't really bother me. While the Heisei films purposely tried to be a series, the Showa films were a continuous series but only loosely. You could easily pick a Godzilla film at random and not feel like you missed much from previous stories. This is even true of the early Showa films, tho I'd agree with Jelly that the continuity post-DAM isn't quite as strong. Even the early films were mostly self-contained. I don't think the Showa series was purposely building some sort of grand story arc where each movie needed previous entries...while the Heisei films purposely tried to progress with each film.

[DannyBeane]

I dunno. While I view them all as showa films I tend to organize them as pre-Tsuburaya and post-Tsuburaya. Everything from tone, visual looks, and change in budget seemed to happen all at once when Eiji Tsuburaya died. I still view them all as the same continuity though.

[tbeasley]