(I wish to dedicate this post to the recent victims of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. This disaster dealt a mighty blow to the nation and I hope they are able to make a swift recovery. If you are interested in donating to any relief efforts for Japan, please do so. You can search on Google for any charities that are sending aid. Make sure you do your homework, though, and know where your donations are going.)
For over half a century, giant monsters, aliens, and multicolored superheroes have entertained Japanese audiences in television and movies. With such a storied history, the tokusatsu genre has gone through changes. There have been times when a franchise, such as Toho's Godzilla, went on hiatus, only to resurface again. This caused a general consensus amongst tokusatsu creators and fans to categorize the whole of the genre into eras. While each franchise has their own specific timeline for these eras, they do tend to coincide with each other.
When tokusatsu films and TV were first created, it ushered in what would be called the Showa era, named after the historical era in Japan that occurred at the time. Showa jidai (meaning "period of enlightened peace") corresponded with the reign of Emperor Hirohito, who ascended to the throne in 1926. In daikaiju terms, Showa referred to the time between the mid-1950s to about 1980. For Toho, their last Showa film was Terror of Mechagodzilla in 1975 while Daiei, the creators of Gamera, ended the period with Super Monster Gamera in 1980.
When Emperor Hirohito died in 1989, the Showa era ended with him. His son, Akihito, assumed the throne the next day and ushered in a new era with a new name: Heisei (a word that was taken from Chinese historical and philosophical texts and has come to mean "peace everywhere"). However, the daikaiju Heisei era began before the death of Hirohito. Toho brought daikaiju back with The Return of Godzilla, also known as Godzilla 1985 in the US five years before the Showa era ended (its Japanese release was in 1984). Daiei, however, waited six years after Hirohito's death before they resurrected Gamera in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe in 1995.
For these two franchises, the Heisei era characterized the 1980s and '90s. Despite not being as long as the Showa era, the Heisei era gave us great movies from both franchises. Gamera, whose movies got stale toward the end of the Showa era, found a new lease on life during the '90s. Granted, they only made three Gamera movies, but the general consensus is that each of them were of superior quality to many of Gamera's Showa era movies.
While there have been great Godzilla movies from all three eras,
the Heisei era did give us some of the best movie poster art ever.
These two eras did not just pertain to daikaiju eiga, though. Many tokusatsu TV shows, such as Ultraman and Kamen Rider, had their own Showa and Heisei eras. For Ultraman, the Showa era began with Ultra Q, a predecessor to Ultraman, and ended with Ultraman 80. For a few years after that, Tsuburaya Productions allowed Ultraman to be made by foreign countries, such as Australia and the US. When that didn't pan out, they ushered in their Heisei era with Ultraman Tiga and continued the series ever since. Kamen Rider had a similar run, but the hiatus between eras was divided by a time when the franchise only did stage shows. The enduring Super Sentai series, however, seemed to have been going on since its inception, making it a bit harder to determine where Showa ends and Heisei begins.
The only good thing about this movie is that
it inspired Toho to make more Godzilla movies
One era that you will only find amongst daikaiju eiga is the Millenium era, which was heralded, of course, by the new millennium. When Toho bid farewell to the Heisei era with Godzilla's sad death in Godzilla vs. Destroyah, Tri Star Pictures decided to try and "Americanize" the franchise with their own take on Godzilla. Needless to say, the movie sucked so much ass, that Toho decided they needed to make more Godzilla movies just to get the bad taste out of everyone's mouths. They kicked off the Millennium era with Godzilla 2000 Millennium, which, while not as good as some of the Heisei era movies, did herald the return of a proper daikaiju eiga. The remainder of the Millennium era movies were mostly better, though. While Daiei did, officially, bring Gamera into the Millennium era, there has only been one movie to show for it: Gamera the Brave, before the franchise slipped back into hiatus.
The Millenium era Gamera the Brave
has the most adorable design of Gamera, so far.
Right now, neither company seems to be working on any new movies. However, as I write this, there is talk that Legendary Pictures, the guys who make the DC Comics movies (as well as that horrible Clash of the Titans remake - why would you ruin a cult classic like that?!), are working on a new reimagining of Godzilla. My opinion? It's probably gonna suck, because Hollywood can't seem to understand the soul of daikaiju eiga. That's why the 1998 Godzilla movie is garbage, it wasn't about an unstoppable force of nature, but a dumb, giant lizard. My only hope is that Toho will be offended by this new Godzilla and be inspired to make new movies and give us another era to enjoy.
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