Over the course of 2009, I’ll be taking a look at every movie in the Godzillaverse. This will include every movie that the Big G fellow has been in, plus others that may (or may sort of) take place in the same storyline. For example, the movie Mothra doesn’t include Godzilla, but since Mothra appears in other Godzilla flicks, I’ve included it.

Also, I’ll be taking a look at all of the Gamera movies as well. Gamera was a lesser-known giant turtle monster not in any way related to the Godzilla story lines. Most of his movies are aimed at children and are just pure fun. Whenever possible, I’ll be watching both the original Japanese version (with subtitles) and the US version (with dubbed audio).

To top it off, I’ll also be reviewing the Mystery Science Theater 3000 versions of a couple Godzilla movies and a handful of Gamera’s.

When I started this project, I had only seen a few Japanese monster movies. But something has drawn me to them and I just have to do this. I’ll be seeing most of these movies for the first time.

I’ll be watching and reviewing them in the order of their release dates. They’ll be posted every Wednesday.

Godzilla
Here are all the movies in the Godzilla series that I’ll be taking a look at and links to their reviews as they’re reviewed…

(Movies in italics denote that they’re -in my opinion- in the Godzillaverse, though Godzilla makes no appearance in them.)

The Showa Series – (1954 – 1975)
Gojira (1954) dir. Ishiro Honda
Godzilla Raids Again (1955) dir. Motoyoshi Oda
Rodan (1956) dir. Ishiro Honda
The Mysterians (1957) dir. Ishiro Honda (will return to)
Varan (1958) dir. Ishiro Honda (will return to)
Mothra (1961) dir. Ishiro Honda
King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) dir. Ishiro Honda
Atragon (1963) dir. Ishiro Honda (will return to)
Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) dir. Ishiro Honda
Dogora (1964) dir. Ishiro Honda (will return to)
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) dir. Ishiro Honda
Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) dir. Ishiro Honda
Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) dir. Ishiro Honda
War of the Gargantuas (1966) dir. Ishiro Honda
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966) dir. Jun Fukuda
King Kong Escapes (1967) dir. Ishiro Honda
Son of Godzilla (1967) dir. Jun Fukuda
Destroy All Monsters (1968) dir. Ishiro Honda
All Monsters Attack (1969) dir. Ishiro Honda
Space Amoeba (1970) dir. Ishiro Honda
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) dir. Yoshimitsu Banno
Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972) dir. Jun Fukuda
Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973) dir. Jun Fukuda
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) dir. Jun Fukuda
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) dir. Ishiro Honda

The Heisei Series (1984 – 1995)
The Return of Godzilla (1984) dir. Koji Hashimoto
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) dir. Kazuki Omori
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) dir. Kazuki Omori
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) dir. Takao Okawara
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) dir. Takao Okawara
Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) dir. Kensho Yamashita
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) dir. Takao Okawara

The Rebirth of Mothra Series (1996-1998)
Rebirth of Mothra (1996) dir. Okihiro Yoneda
Rebirth of Mothra II (1997) dir. Kunio Miyoshi
Rebirth of Mothra III (1998) dir. Okihiro Yoneda

The Shinsei Series (1999 – 2004)
Godzilla 2000 (1999) dir. Takao Okawara
Godzilla X Megaguirus (2000) dir. Masaaki Tezuka
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) dir. Shūsuke Kaneko
Godzilla X Mechagodzilla (2002) dir. Masaaki Tezuka
Godzilla X Mothra X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) dir. Masaaki Tezuka
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) dir. Ryuhei Kitamura

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Gamera
In 1965, Daiei Motion Picture Company in Japan, thought it would be a good idea to enter the daikaiju eiga (giant monster movies) game. Their creature was a giant turtle named Gamera. Almost from the start, they fashioned Gamera as a “friend to all children.” Gamera movies, like Godzilla movies, became kids movies. This isn’t a bad thing, of course.

Like Godzilla, Gamera had a Showa series (seven… sort of eight movies), Heisei series (three movies) and Shinsei series (one movie so far). I’ll be taking a look at these along the way (or possibly after watching the Godzilla series). There is no extended Gameraverse.

Showa
Gamera (1965) dir. Noriaki Yuasa
Gamera vs. Barugon (1966) dir. Shigeo Tanaka
Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967) dir. Noriaki Yuasa
Gamera vs. Viras (1968) dir. Noriaki Yuasa
Gamera vs. Guiron (1969) dir. Noriaki Yuasa
Gamera vs. Jiger (1970) dir. Noriaki Yuasa
Gamera vs. Zigra (1971) dir. Noriaki Yuasa
Gamera: Super Monster (1980) dir. Noriaki Yuasa

Heisei
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe (1995) dir. Shusuke Kaneko
Gamera 2: Attack of Legion (1996) dir. Shusuke Kaneko
Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys (1999) dir. Shusuke Kaneko

Shinsei
Gamera the Brave (2006) dir. Ryuta Tasaki

MST3k versions of Godzilla and Gamera
Mystery Science Theater 3000 (you know, the show there a guy and his two robot friends watch movies and make fun of them) had twelve different episodes dedicated to either Godzilla or Gamera (Godzilla had two, Gamera had the rest).

Before the show made it to Comedy Central, they aired on KTMA, a public access channel in Minnesota. Here, they did five Gamera movies. Two years later, on Comedy Central, they did a couple of Godzilla flicks and finally, a year after did, redid four of the five Gamera movies.

I’ll be watching all of these as I watch the original Japanese versions of the movies themselves.

KTMA era
Episode K04 – Gamera vs. Barugon (1966 / 1988)
Episode K05 – Gamera (1965 / 1988)
Episode K06 – Gamera vs. Gaos (1967 / 1988)
Episode K07 – Gamera vs. Zigra (1971 / 1988)
Episode K08 – Gamera vs. Guiron (1969 / 1989)

Season Two
Episode 212 – Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973 / 1991)
Episode 213 – Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966 / 1991)

Season Three
Episode 302 – Gamera (1965 / 1991)
Episode 304 – Gamera vs. Barugon (1966 / 1991)
Episode 308 – Gamera vs. Gaos (1967 / 1991)
Episode 312 – Gamera vs. Guiron (1969 / 1991)
Episode 316 – Gamera vs. Zigra (1971/1991)

That’s a whole lot of moving watching. Are you ready?