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| Although as Godzilla fans we regularly compare and contrast all these movies because they feature the Godzilla character, I didn't want to rank all 34 (soon to be 35) films against each other here. The series has been running for so long and has reflected many filmmaking trends, techniques, styles, and goals that I don't think it's fair to group 34 wildly different movies together. Instead of drawing lines with each successive series of Godzilla films, I've chosen to group the films by the Japanese periods in which they were made. There were a few reasons for doing so:
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| *As of 2019, there are 32 Japanese Godzilla films. Sixteen each were produced during the Shōwa and Heisei eras.
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| *Although the Shōwa era ends with a film that would receive six Heisei era sequels, and although the Heisei era encompasses at least three different Godzilla series, I think this organizational method better groups the films together by the key personnel that worked on them. For example, two of the principals on ''The Return of Godzilla'' (Tomoyuki Tanaka and Teruyoshi Nakano) served the same role they'd had in earlier entries and director Koji Hashimoto had been an assistant director for Ishiro Honda on six of his kaiju films. (That film is also not as far removed from some of its predecessors as ''Godzilla vs. Hedorah'' or ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'' had been.) And while some of the Shōwa era personnel would still work on the films of the '90s and 2000s, their roles were more limited as younger filmmakers took over as the primary contributors to the series. Furthermore, '''every''' Japanese director of the Godzilla films since 2000 grew up with the Shōwa Godzilla series, usually as a hardcore fan.
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| *In my opinion, ''Godzilla vs. Biollante'' is the first Godzilla film that feels more overtly influenced by Hollywood blockbusters than the classic Godzilla films. The influence of the Shōwa films is still felt in other later movies but generally speaking I think the films of the '90s and 2000s (and to a lesser degree the '10s entries) feel more alike each other than the '54 - '84 films.
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| *It's my user page and this is simply how I chose to do it.
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| The order of the Heisei era films is almost set in stone. The Shōwa era rankings are bit more difficult: a lot of those films are in virtual ties with each other, so the order could change the next time I watch any of those again.
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| ==Godzilla== | | ==Godzilla== |
| ===Shōwa Era (1926-12-25 to 1989-01-07)=== | | ===Shōwa Era (1926-12-25 to 1989-01-07)=== |
| I don't think there's any question that ''Godzilla'' (1954) is the best film in the entire series, however, it's a heavy movie that depresses me to a point that I prefer a number of the sequels over it.
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| <gallery> | | <gallery> |
| Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster Poster 1971.png|''[[Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster]]'' | | Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster Poster 1971.png|''[[Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster]]'' |
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| </gallery> | | </gallery> |
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| ===American Productions=== | | ===Hollywood Films=== |
| <gallery> | | <gallery> |
| Godzilla 2014 Poster.png|''[[Godzilla (2014 film)|Godzilla]]'' (2014) | | Godzilla 2014 Poster.png|''[[Godzilla (2014 film)|Godzilla]]'' (2014) |
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| Gigantis The Fire Monster Poster A.png|''Gigantis, the Fire Monster'' | | Gigantis The Fire Monster Poster A.png|''Gigantis, the Fire Monster'' |
| </gallery> | | </gallery> |
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| ==Toho Genre Films==
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| Hold that thought.
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| ==Gamera== | | ==Gamera== |
