What do the showa films mean to you?

[DannyBeane]

[Tiny Gigan]

I remember when I was a kid it was a big event for me to catch a Godzilla movie on television, including the Saturday afternoon Godzilla matinee one of the cable stations used to run that always had pro-wrestling style promos before each movie. I got a copy of "Godzilla vs. Megalon" for Christmas one year and basically wore the tape out in the intervening years. To this day I still can't "see the zipper". The only Godzilla movie I didn't like when I was a kid was "Godzilla's Revenge", mostly, I suspect because of the little hot-pants Japanese kid that's in so much of the movie.
The library at school used to have all these hideously inaccurate books on Godzilla and the other Toho monsters, including one that described Varan as a giant bat. When I was younger it was my quest to see all of the Godzilla movies, which seemed like a nearly impossible challenge. I didn't see the complete Showa Series until I was in college and one of my buddies found me a copy of "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster".
Long story short, I grew up on the Showa movies. I can look past some of the lame effects and crappy dubbing because they're just plain fun, and frankly they were burdened with less cumbersome, plodding human plots than most of the recent films.
I think some people think of the Showa era the same way they think of the Adam West "Batman": It's something that happened and is technically official, but it's better left on the shelf or even swept under the rug. To me though, the Showa era is what made me a fan of Godzilla and in a lot of ways is the beating heart of the series.

[Xenorama]

When I saw KING KONG VS GODZILLA in the theater, I had no idea what I was about to see. Suddenly there were two giant monsters fighting, one that resembled a dinosaur (two, if you listen to the US Scientists! ). I was about 7, I think, and then I watched any and every movie that said Godzilla- the next two I saw on tv were GODZILLA'S REVENGE and GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER.
One of the greatest things was seeing NEW monsters- I didn't know about the Famous Monster magazine at the time (I was about ten when I bought my first one, #125 with kino on the cover) so each time I usually saw at least one new monster. Nowadays, people can't go five minutes without wanting to see a new monster. There were times I waited YEARS!
And there was no way you knew if you'd see the movie again, so you paid careful attention to it, not leaving at all, even for the commercials. It was traumatic if your alarm clock, set for 3 AM didn't go off and you missed part or all of the movie, let me tell you!
After the movies started disappearing from the airwaves, about the early 80s- you'd see them occasionally, but nearly like the 70s- and no new movies were being made- Godzilla or Gamera- you'd wonder what happened, but didn't know who to ask.
Then VHS started happening, and the Godzilla movies slowly became available, or you could trade for the ones that weren't out, and other hard to find movies like Yongary or The Magic Serpent. VHS (and now DVD) are wonderful, but there sure was something special waiting and looking and being so happy to see a Japanese monster movie in the tv guide.

[planetxleader]

I, too grew up with the Showa series. For as long as I can remember, I've always watched Godzilla movies, and I really don't know what my first movie was. Most of the movies I saw were shown on "Super Scary Saturday," hosted by Grandpa Munster.

One of the Showa films that remains in my memory is Godzilla's Revenge. I don't remember seeing a lot of it when I was little (I was about three or four at the time - I'm 20 now), but I certainly remember anticipating it for days. I'd usually go to sleep with a little 5 inch black and white TV, and I remember seeing commercials for Godzilla's Revenge and getting real excited. I also remember Grandpa Munster hyping up Godzilla and Gabara's big fight, with little animated versions of the two monsters wearing boxing gloves.

I also remember anticipating Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (this was still when I was around three or four years old). I remember my parents spotting it in the TV guide, and I kept wondering what Monster Zero was. I have no memory of first seeing the movie though, so I can't remember if I was dissapointed or not that Monster Zero was really King Ghidorah.

I remember bits and pieces of seeing Godzilla vs. Gigan, particularly scenes of Ghidorah flying around and Godzilla and Gigan tearing apart that odd-looking building. I also remember seeing King Kong vs. Godzilla at one of my sister's friend's house, and I really don't remember if it was on TV or if it was a tape.

Godzilla 1985 (technically a Showa film) sticks out in my mind as well, particularly because I remember sobbing when Godzilla plummeted into the volcano with that awful scream (a scream that brought to my mind, at the time, witches, of all things). I remember hating all the human characters for killing Godzilla. I also remember noticing the better special effects, and for a time assumed that G85 was an American production.

Anybody remember Ian Thorne's Godzilla book? I remember clearly borrowing it from my school's library on a couple of occasions (there was also a King Kong book by the same author). After I while I got smart and I photocopied some pages of it. If anybody wants to see some of them, I can scan them and put them on the Net.

I can kind of see why some "newbies" to the genre can't appreciate the Showa films, because they didn't grow up with them and they don't have the nostalgia appeal that they have for us. When DAM came out on video in the late '90s, I excitedly bought it and brought it home, and was very dissapointed at first. Partly, I think, because it was not the all-out monster rumble I was expecting (I was looking forward to seeing more of Baragon and Varan), but also partly because it was a Showa film I did not grow up with (although I do have some deja-vu at some points in the film that suggests that I did see it as a kid, and just don't remember it). At that time (around '98, '99) I didn't really have an appreciation of the Showa films that I now have. I used to just watch the monster scenes, and didn't really watch the whole films in their entirety. At that time I was watcing more of the Heisei series (which I had just been introduced to the previous year, thanks to Barry's Temple of Godzilla) and the American Godzilla, so that could be a reason why I had troulbe appreciating the more traditional DAM.

Even if you are a newcomer to the genre and are watching and enjoying mainly the Heisei and Millenium films, I think it is important to see and appreciate the Showa films. They are good movies (ok, the '60s ones are) and were made with a different focus than the new ones are (Now it's all about Godzilla, but back then kaiju were everywhere). Plus, it's where Godzilla started out. It's a shame to just ignore the Showa era.

[angilas]

[kent]

The Showa years are simple to define: The Golden Years of Godzilla.

[buddah11674]

I grew up on Godzilla, Gamera, and all the old sci fi and horror flicks of the fifties and sixties. When I was young, my dad would let me stay up very late on Saturdays so that we could watch Chilly Billy's Chiller Theater out of Pittsburgh on WPXI. If you ever watch "Night of the Living Dead", the reporter Bill Cardill and Chilly Billy are one and the same. My dad adored those films, especially the Godzilla and Gamera. He would sit in his chair and I would sit on the floor and we would watch these flicks until two in the morning. I will always treasure those moments. Dad passed away from emphysema and asthmatic bronchitis in 1991. After he died I was lost emotionally for years. Then I rediscovered all those old films in 1998. They made me feel fantastic, like I was a little kid and Dad was still around. Everytime I start to miss him, I pop a movie like Godzilla vs The Thing or Gamera vs Monster X in the VCR, sit down on the floor, and it's like he's right there with me.

[planetxman]

[Xenorama]

[planetxman]

[Xenorama]

[planetxman]

[Xenorama]

[megalon]

As with many others the Showa films were the G films I grew up with. The first time I saw a G film was when I sneaked downstairs as a kid and watched Godzilla Vs The Smog Monster really late-it was in a series of so-called 'bad' films,but I had read about godzilla films and couldn't wait to see this one. I was not disappointed,despite it being undoubtably a bizarre film. A few years later I encountered KK Vs G in a video shop,than G 85-the only Heisei film that had been made then! Soon after that UK TV showed 7 or 8 Godzilla films,and they were ones made between 1965 and 1976,so you could say that I grew up with the more 'juvenile' Godzilla films [well,except G 85,which never really impressed me].Of course eventually I managed to see,usually on pirate video,all the others,but I will always have a soft spot for the goofy,childish fun of the later Showa films,and will always get a kick out of seeing Godzilla as the Earth's defender. Yes,Godzilla Vs Gigan is a shoddy film compared to,say,Godzilla 54,but i know which one I would usually rather stick inthe video player after a hard day at work.

[The Punisher]

[william newell]

[kent]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

[The Reverend Tegoth]

[sharptooth666]

There was so many great things to watch when i was a kid, movie theatres near my home in the chicagoland area were always showin' some type of monster movies. and i went to the drive in alot as a kid. one theatre "the York" used to have matinees with 3 films back to back to back. some times it was "Sinbad" movies sometimes it was Godzilla. but every saturday afternoon i'd be there. the one thing i'll never forget as a kid growin up in the seventies is watchin Godzilla and Gamera movies on channel 66. when i saw G fight the Smog Monster for the first time i think i short circuited my brain. and who could forget seein that giant moth attacking our friend Godzilla in Godzilla vs.the Thing? the Showa series to me represents what bein a kid was all about. havin fun, laughing, running, fighting, playing. sometimes it was hard to tell if G and the boys( mealon, gigan, KG, jet jaguar, KK,KC) were fighting to the death or just havin an afternoon romp on a saturday.couple that grand style of fun with running home from school mon.-fri. to watch Spectre-man and Ultra-man and those are the memories that keep me comin' back to Godzilla and other kaiju movies. and superheroes.(by thre way Fuka-Fighter will be at G fest.) but the way Godzilla began to change, made monster fights seem more serious and ADULT. that is why i have such negative things to say about thhe "gay sei" series. there's no parts in those films that remind me of the fun Godzilla was when he was in hi twenties.
ALL HAIL THE BIG GUY!!!!!

[MekaGojira3k]

The showa films introduced me to godzilla. Simple. How I was introduced is still a bit of a mystery to me. I can't really remember how old I was, though I have been told I was two. Probably 3 or 4 in reality, but on with my rant. It was by a strange series of events that I got to see my first godzilla film. My parents had been in a bit of a fight and my father was taking her to dinner to smooth things over. Anyway, my grandmother was to take care of me, but I refused to go to her house...so she stayed with me at my parents house. I got bored as the night went on and started flipping to channels other than Disney or Nickelodeon and saw my first godzilla film. It was TNT's Monster vision and they showed quite a few that night. I watched some of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, all of Mothra v.s. Godzilla and all of Monster Zero. I fell asleep after that. I loved it and I had to find more. A few weeks later I came across a VHS copy of Godzilla, King of the Monsters which I still own and I watched it an ungodly amount of times. I began to look for any information I could find on godzilla, because to my knowledge only those three films existed. I found a book that ALLOSAURZ mentioned, the crestwood book. I ended up stealing it from our library. =) Anyway, the thing that I loved about first finding the showa films is that I had so little information about them. It was a grand mystery to me and I had to pick bits of informaton from any sources I could find. My collection of showa films was finally completed in the summer of 1999 when I recieved my VHS copy of Destroy All Monsters. It was a lot of fun trying to find all those films and it was a lot of fun watching them over and over and over again. When I got to see the hesei films there wasn't any mystery. I bought Godzilla v.s. Biollante one year and Godzilla 1984 the next, and when I found out there was another series I had to wait a few years but in 98' I finished the collection just like that. There was a sense of mystery to the Showa Films and I'll never forget how happy I felt when I found one of these. That's what the showa films mean to me.

[anguirus23]

[CyHunter]

To me, the Showa series was a collection of films that, like any other, had highs and lows, and was historically important to our modern-day kaiju films.

Most of all, though, it's an excuse for fans with a superiority complex to bash on "newbs" over the 'net.

[planetxman]

[briizilla]