Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

Just finished watching Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla. As I was watching, I began to wonder -- was the post-Ghidrah Godzilla really "good"? As a child, I always assumed so. At some point I saw that six-minute intro to Terror of MechaGodzilla which attempted to create a storyline out of Godzilla's history and explain his "redemption" (rehabilitation?) into being a "good" monster.

As a child, Godzilla's gradual evolution into a good guy made sense to me. Like Darth Vader (went my pre-adolescent reasoning), Godzilla inevitably saw the error of his ways and became "good."

Of course, there's another reason for Godzilla's becoming "good" (other than pleasing the child audience). When your model is to create movie after movie in which Godzilla fights some other monster, it's hard to continually cast Godzilla as the villain, since he's ostensibly the "star" -- a.k.a., the protagonist -- and the movie is his story. Whether or not the monster he's fighting is "good" or "bad," the films are generally designed so that we take Godzilla's "side," or at least, see things from his perspective (in a narrative sense, not a literal one).

A "good" Godzilla makes it much easier to explain why Godzilla is tussling with all these beasts time and again. This is where I think the Heisei and post-2000 films begin to have problems. Without a "good" Godzilla, you're left with just two plot devices to get to the monster fight: 1.) Godzilla's just hanging around, and THEN some other monster goes berserk and mankind has to give Godzilla a pass so he can take out the new monster, or 2.) mankind (or aliens) create (or summon) a monster for the specific purpose of destroying Godzilla -- which, I have to admit, I often find pretty contrived.

It's one thing when aliens from the Third Planet from the Black Hole or whatever spend an insane amount of resources to create a MechaGodzilla. They're aliens -- they don't know any better. Or maybe they just prefer form over function, like the Empire with its AT-ATs in The Empire Strikes Back. In any event, both the ape-liens and the Empire presumably have vast interstellar resources to draw from.

But the various human-made Heisei and Millennium MechaGodzillas...this just seems like simplistic logic at its worst. "Let's spend trillions of dollars and countless resources by creating a gigantic robot to beat up Godzilla!" Between rebuilding post-rampage Tokyo and constructing 100-meter-tall robots, there couldn't possibly be an unemployed person in Godzilla-world Japan.

In my opinion, the smartest -- and most realistic -- attempts to kill Godzilla were the Oxygen Destroyer, the cadmium missiles in the Super-X, and the anti-nuclear bacteria in Godzilla vs. Biollante. These were subtle, inventive attempts to destroy Godzilla, who defied destruction via conventional weapons time and again. That these weapons never worked was due to the necessities of the plot (i.e., that Godzilla couldn't die and ruin the chance for a sequel). But MechaGodzilla? That thing was just asking to be trashed.

I've gone way off topic. My original question is, was the "good" Godzilla of the post-Ghidrah films a real "ally" of humanity, or was he just protecting his turf? Or maybe he was just drawn to fighting other giant monsters? Even kaiju must get bored...

He was definately an ally in Hedorah, Gigan, Megalon and the two MechaGodzilla movies.

I have no problem with a Godzilla you can root for, but I find it, well, frankly, disturbing when he's portrayed as a squeaky-clean 100% hero. First of all, Godzilla was created as an allegory for nuclear misuse. While Godzilla's "monster for all seasons" ability to change character is what's allowed the series to survive for half a century, I still think that's taking it too far. Plus, it sucks the drama out of the film.

I still say the Desu-Goji is the most perfectly-balanced rendition of Godzilla ever. He evokes terror as hundreds die at his will, his massive body leveling entire series. Yet, at the end of the day, one can't help but feel sorry for him, as he witnesses the slaughter of his heir and his own painful death. Truly moving.

Whatever floats your boat an' all, but a good-guy Godzilla just bores me and is something I can't take seriously.

I say the only movie that he was truly represented as a hero in was Megalon. He shook hands with an Ultraman lookalike. The real Godzilla would have ripped off Jet Jaguar's head.

I think in most respects Godzilla is like Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name or Toshiro Mifune's character from Yojimbo from Ghidrah through Terror of Mecha-Godzilla.
He seems to show up where he is need, is crafty when working alone or with a partner, in a way he seems to have his own agenda, in the eyes of those he is 'saving' he is the hero, but when you come down to it he's as dangerous as the foes he's fighting, and when he's done he leaves to let other's rebuild.

The only movies where Godzilla is truely good are the ones that are told complete in the viewpoint of a child(i.e. Godzilla's Revenge, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, and Godzilla vs. Megalon).

Well to me the sudden change between "bad" guy and "good" guy
cannot be explained away very easily. To a degree the Showa
series is like the current series in that different Godzilla's seem to be
showcased. Not including the original there seems to be about
3 different ones:1. Godzilla Raids Again-Godzilla vs. Monster Zero/
2.Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster-DAM/ 3.Godzilla vs. Smog Monster
-Terror of Mecha-Godzilla.
I know,of course, that it is all one Godzilla since GRA but the
differences are staggering really!