The Return of Godzilla (1984): The 16th film in the Godzilla franchise, this was the last film produced in the Shōwa era and the first film in the Heisei series. It is at once a sequel to the original 1954 Godzilla and a reboot. The King of the Monsters would return to his roots as an enemy of human beings, if only for a few movies, and it was jarring for kids who grew up with the cute and cuddly version.

Directed by Koji Hashimoto and written by Shuichi Nagahara with a story by Tomoyuki Tanaka, this begins with the Yahata Maru caught in strong currents off the shores of Daikoku Island and a creature that makes its way out of a volcano. Godzilla is not the only creature, as there are also gigantic sea lice called Shockirus.

In the universe of this movie, the Godzilla attack of 1954 happened and people are aware of the kaiju. They are not, however, in the know that it may be back. People are in total fear of Godzilla, with an example being that Professor Hayashida refers to him as a living, invincible nuclear weapon. The Japanese government finally has to reveal that there is another kaiju when it destroys a Russian submarine and almost starts World War III.

Other countries want to nuke the monster but the Japanese government asks them to keep from doing that and allow them to use their new SUPER X weapon and its cadmium shells, which can slow down the nuclear reactor inside Godzilla. Of course, the Russians have set their nuclear weapon to fire automatically on Tokyo but can’t stop the countdown. The American counter-missile destroys it, an EMP pulse stops SUPER X and brings Godzilla back to life. That said, you can always defeat a kaiju — at least for the end of the movie to happen and before it comes back — by blowing it up inside a volcano.

Special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano said, “We went back to the theme of nuclear weapons, since that was the theme of the original film. Japan has now learned three times what a nuclear disaster is, but at that time Japan had already had two. The problem was that Japanese society was gradually forgetting about these disasters. They were forgetting how painful it had been. Everyone in Japan knew how scary nuclear weapons were when the original movie was made, but it wasn’t like that by the 1980s. So in those meetings, we decided to remind all those people out there who had forgotten.”

This was the first Godzilla movie since 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla. There was a rumored color remake in 1977, The Rebirth of Godzilla, as well as Godzilla vs. the Devil and Godzilla vs. Gargantua. There was a push in Godzilla’s 25th anniversary to make a new movie and series creator Tomoyuki Tanaka wrote Resurrection of Godzilla that had Godzilla fight Bakan, a shapeshifting monster and dealing with nuclear waste. Steve Miner and Fred Dekker almost made a stop-motion 3D movie as well, but budget kept getting in the way of these new movies. It took the 10,000 members of the Godzilla Resurrection Committee to make the movie happen.

Godzilla was back, even if it wasn’t exactly a box office success. There’s always America, right?

Godzilla 1985: In the same way that Godzilla was re-edited to be Godzilla King of the Monsters in America — and re-released as the American edit in Japan in 1957 as Monster King Godzilla — Toho worked with New World Pictures to release The Return of Godzilla in North America under the title Godzilla 1985. They even brought back Raymond Burr to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the original movie.

New World’s plan was to make a remix with Leslie Neilsen voicing much of the dialogue, turning a very serious movie about nuclear power into a goofy comedy. Raymond Burr disliked this and supposedly that’s where this ended.

Burr’s scenes were done in a day. The reverse shots, where the actors were speaking with Burr, were shot the next day. The major change is that while Soviet Colonel Kashirin dies trying to stop the missile launch in The Return of Godzilla, in this edit, the Russians make the choice to nuke Tokyo. Director R. J. Kizer (Hell Comes to Frogtown, Death Ring) said that New World was a conservative company and demanded this. They also demanded Dr. Pepper product placement all through the movie, even asking Burr if he would drink it in a scene. He stared at Kizer until, well, you don’t see Raymond Burr drinking a Dr. Pepper in this, do you?

I love that New World also decided that they would make a music video for this movie, “I Was Afraid to Love You (Love Theme from Godzilla 1985)” by Jill Elliot.

Interestingly enough, this is one of the first movies to be based on the scientific agreement that dinosaurs evolved from birds and not lizards. Godzilla follows birds due to the homing instinct that he has and that’s the same way that he’s lured to the volcano.

If you read critics’ reviews for this movie, they seem to wonder why Japan keeps making movies that are poorly dubbed with cardboard movies and people in rubber suits. This speaks to me of a lack of imagination and a childhood that wasn’t spent joyously watching Godzilla fight Megalon, Hedorah, Gigan and more. Compared to the CGI American films that came in its wake, this is a lean and frightening take on the creature.

When a good witch sends Django one hundred years into the future, he has to protect humanity from Godzilla. Yet even his abilities are not enough, so the sorceress sends him assistance in the form of Trinity. Can these two Italian Western heroes stand a chance against the Japanese King of the Monsters?

Edited by Steven Sloss, this fan trailer was edited together from seven different films, with music and sound effects from many others. It also has some original voice acting.

I know this isn’t real but I was so happy after watching this that I decided to share it with all of you.

Not only is this a kaiju movie, it’s also a comic book movie. Based on the Charlton Comics series Konga, which was an adaptation of the movie Konga and had 24 issues of art by Steve Ditko, this movie was made during COVID-19 lockdown by Brett Kelly, who also made Ouija Shark, Raiders of the Lost Shark, Agent Beetle (which is based on the Dan Garret Blue Beetle), Planet Blood and so many other movies. It uses stuff shot by friends and fans as well as stock footage and footage Brett shot himself.

The laws of public domain are always wild. The Konga comic book came out a year before the movie and is the first appearance of the ape. None of the Charlton Comics had renewed copyrights, placing them into the public’s hands, so this movie could be made while an adaption of the movie couldn’t.

After getting injected with a formula from an alien ship, a gorilla escapes and makes friends with Chance and Grayson. Then he grows to monstrous size and the boys have to figure out how to stop him before the government kills him. One way they try to help is by dressing Chance as a hot dog and trying to lure Konga away from the military.

I warn you that this movie is made with a stuffed animal and a monkey suit. If you’re expecting the poster to be real, you should not watch this. It also has characters with names like Megan Bacon (Ellen Mildred) and Major Bummer (Trevor Payer). Speaking of Major Bummer, someone took the time to complain about how his medals are incorrect on IMDB, which is hilarious, because of all things in this movie to complain about, they took the time to navigate the difficult-to-use IMDB database to remind the filmmaker that he was so wrong and that the character “wears the four stripes of a Navy Captain, not an Army, Air Force or Marine Major’s gold leaf.” I assume the same person also wrote about how the jets were wrong in a movie where a stuffed monkey becomes a 50 foot kaiju simian.

You can get this from SRS Cinema or watch it on Tubi.

Directed by Kensho Yamashita and written by Hiroshi Kashiwabara, this is the sixth and next to last movie of the Heisei era that begins with The Return of Godzilla in 1984 and ends with Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in 1995.

SpaceGodzilla was first conceived in 1978 and is similar to new kaiju villain Biollant. Creature designer Shinji Nishikawa saw SpaceGodzilla as a Western dragon-like creature with large fin-like wings on its back. Godzilla’s son would be redesigned to be cuter and not like the dinosaur in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.

Speaking of Biollante, Godzilla’s cells were brought into space by that creature and when they’re exposed to intense radiation from a black hole, SpaceGodzilla is born. The United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center comes to Birth Island and use a mind control device on Godzilla while The Cosmos, Mothra’s twin priestesses, appear to psychic Miki Saegusa and warn her that SpaceGodzilla is coming.

Even M.O.G.U.E.R.A. (Mobile Operations G-Force Universal Expert Robot: Aero-type), the new version of Mechagodzilla, fails to stop the creature from coming to our planet. Godzilla can’t even keep the monster from stealing his son and starts to use volcanoes to grow in power.

How wild is it that former All Japan Womens wrestler Masanobu Okamoto AKA Little Frankie was Little Godzilla?

If this movie had come out when I was a little kid, I would be drawing SpaceGodzilla in every class instead of learning about things I would never need to know from grade school. As it is, I’ve been drawing him in my notebook at work for the last day or two.

Directed and written by Shinpei Hayashiya, this is the story of the real-life Japanese battleship, the Yamato, which fights giant monsters in the Pacific Ocean. Yes, the same battleship from Space Cruiser Yamamoto AKA Star Blazers.

The crew doesn’t believe when they hear that the oceans they’ve docked in are protected by the man-sized, carnivorous Bonefishes and the Hell King of the Seas, Reigo. Well, they try and shoot what they think is Reigo and discover they’ve only murdered its child. Now filled with rage, the crew of the largest battleship in the Japanese Navy must battle the largest creature in the world.

There was also a 2009 sequel, Raiga: God Of The Monsters. This movie was retitled Reigo: King of the Sea Monsters and re-released to take advantage of the 2019 release of Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

Hayashiya also made the Gamera fan movie, Gamera 4: Truth, and the cast includes Susumo Kurobe, the original Ultraman, and Yukijiro Hotaru from the 1990s Gamera trilogy.

You can watch this on Tubi or buy the blu ray from SRS.

Chiisaki Yūsha-tachi Gamera (Little Hero: Gamera) is the 12th Gamera movie and the second reboot. It’s also the first movie in the series made by Kadokawa Daiei Studio after the company purchased Daiei Film. There was no sequel and no more Gamera films until 2023’s Gamera Rebirth animated series.

In 1973, Kousuke (Kanji Tsuda) watched as the town of Shima, Mie was destroyed by several Gyaos until Gamera saved the day, helping everyone to escape before destroying himself to stop the threat.  Thirty three years later, he’s a widower with a son named Toru (Ryo Tomioka). Life is hard and his son worries constantly about losing everyone in his life after the death of his mother.

One day, he and his friends Katsuya and Ishimaru discover an egg near where Gamera was last seen. It soon grows into a small turtle that can spin and fly just like the larger kaiju. He’s just in time, as there’s another kaiju called Zedus who is eating people and destroying cities. He easily defeats Toto who is saved by the government and healed. However, the red stone that is needed to give him his full power has been given to Toru’s friend Mai (Kaho) for luck as she goes into surgery.

Directed by Ryuta Tasaki, who has directed several Kamen Rider movies, and written by Yukari Tatsui, this had some complain that it was too kid-friendly. Maybe they hadn’t watched any Gamera movies before, those that believed all the older movies were for grown-ups.

You can download this from the Internet Archive.

The 27th film in the Godzilla franchise and the fourth film in the Millennium period, this was directed by Masaaki Tezuka and written by Wataru Mimura. In this timeline, the order of movies are Godzilla, Godzilla 2000, Godzilla vs. Megaguirus and Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack before this and Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. and Godzilla: Final Wars.

45 years after the original Godzilla attacked the world, maser-cannon technician Lieutenant Akane Yashiro (Yumiko Shaku) struggles to win over her fellow Japan Self-Defense Force soldiers when her failure to stop a new kaiju leads to several soldiers dying. Yet she’s picked to pilot the tool they will use to fight back, Kiryu, which is a cyborg built on the corpse of the first Godzilla. You may know it better as Mechagodzilla. Kikai-ryu means “machine dragon.”

The problem is that the new Godzilla’s roar unlocks memories in Kiryu which cause it to destroy humans. Yashiro must also win the respect of 2nd Lieutenant Susumu Hayama (Yūsuke Tomoi), the heart of Tokumitsu Yuhara (Shin Takuma) and learn how to use the Absolute Zero Cannon to stop the new Godzilla before it destroys Tokyo.

Japanese baseball player Hideki Matsui, whose nickname is Gojira and who played for the Yomiuri Giants, the New York Yankees, the Los Angeles Angels, the Oakland Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays before finishing his career with the Yankees, shows up in the movie. He’s hitting a home run when Kiryu shows up and also saves some children later in the movie.

Another cameo is Kumi Mizuno. She’s the Prime Minister in this but may be better known as Miss Namikawa in Invasion of Astro-Monster, Dr. Sueko Togami in Frankenstein Conquers the World and the island girl Dayo in Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster.

Lord Doom, evil master of Proyas the Dark Planet, has unleashed Kraa the Sea Monster on Earth. He knocks out a space station to keep the Planet Patrol — who have their own movie a year later — unaware of what he’s doing to our planet. That said, one of the patrol, Mogyar lands in New Jersey, complete with an Italian accent, as he was supposed to go to Italy and work with scientists there to stop the giant monster.

This uses footage from Zarkorr! The Invader and that’s fine, as these movies eventually cross over. Directed by Aaron Osborne and Dave Parker and written by Neal Marshall Stevens, this was also named for a Marvel comic, just like that movie. Zarkorr comes from the Tales of Suspense #35 story “I Accepted the Deadly Challenge of Zarkorr!”Kraa comes from the Tales of Suspense #18 story “Kraa, the Unhuman!”

Mogyar is a clam that speaks with the most racist Italian accent possible. I loved him!

You can watch this on Tubi.

Directed by Michael Deak and Aaron Osborne and written by Neal Marshall Stevens, this movie has aliens send a 185-foot, laser-eyed monster called Zarkorr to destroy Earth. The only man who can stop it is postal worker Tommy Ward (Rhys Pugh), who is helped by a 6-inch-tall pixie named Proctor (Torie Lynch), who is a mental image projected into his brain by another group of otherworldly creatures. However, the beast can’t be destroyed by any weapon.

The Zarkorr scenes directed by Michael Deak were filmed before Neal Marshall Stevens wrote the script. That’s the kind of movie that you’re getting into. However, those are the best parts of this movie. Zarkorr is pretty awesome and I wish that he was in his own movie instead of this, something better and with a bigger budget. Yet he rises above, even if he gets defeated by a mirror.

You can watch this on Tubi.

The Muscle King is taking over the world with his kaiju but he never planned on Pai Energy, the power that comes from gigantic breasts. I am not making this up, trust me. That’s what powers the Sexy Rangers, who are the last — and most attractive — line of defense for our planet.

There’s never any nudity but it’s that Japanese perviness that lingers too long on cleavage, like when a character gets knocked down in an SNK fighting game and you wonder, “Did we need that juggle?”

Enemies include Queen Amorous, Uni Kong and a humanoid Polaroid camera who is called Unicong Camerang that takes photos of the girls in sexy poses. I guess he’s one of the bad guys, even if what he delivers seems positive.

Director Shinji Nishikawa wrote Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II and was the designer for Godzilla, Biollante and other monsters on Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla 2000: Millennium and Godzilla vs. Biollante.

If you watch Japanese female pro wrestling, you may recognize two faces.

Yuzuki Aikawa was known as “The Gravure Queen of the Next Generation” — glamour modeling — who was the first Wonder of Stardom and Goddess of Stardom Champion and the first face of Stardom. She plays Pai Blue.

Yoko Yamada is an arm wrestling, MMA and freelance pro wrestler fighter. She started her career with S Ovation’s and Mariko Yoshida’s promotion Ibuki and is almost like a video game character come to life, as her father left the family when she was young as he was a gambler. He only came back when he had a stroke and she fights to raise money for his care. She plays Queen Amorous.