When Toho Studios sought to bring back Godzilla nearly a decade after the long running Showa era had come to an end the studio envisioned a darker, more serious and grounded approach to the iconic character. They wanted something more akin to the original Gojira than the high flying and boisterous adventures that the series had previously ended on. While the “grounded” aspect very quickly departs from the Heisei era after its slow build political drama of the first film The Return of Godzilla it does retain some very core elements from this fresh start over the course of the remaining six films- and they greatly improve and expand upon those elements as well.

I recently finished a full rewatch of the seven film series and found myself immediately wanting to come back and spend more time with this world and these characters. I’m a huge fan of the franchise overall, and every entry is special and has aspects I love, but why is there such a strong connection and love for this specific set of films? There seems to be a yearning for that era of media and entertainment in general right now, but I refuse to believe that it’s simply nostalgia. (…)