Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

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LSD Jellyfish
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Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

Okay Heisei, 2000, and other movies definitely explicitly state Godzilla to have a special healing factor. However I've never heard of this confirmed for the Showa Godzilla. Sure he does take a lot of hits and yes he does heal. But it's nowhere near the healing factor of the later series and I'm wondering if people have gotten lazy and just kind of assumed the Showa godzilla has high regeneration rather than just extreme durability.

If anyone can prove me wrong and bring up an instance where any scientist or character brings up Godzillas healing factor in the Showa series I would appreciate that.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by edgaguirus »

I can't remember any mentioning of it in the Showa era, but he clearly does. In SOG, Godzilla loses an eye. Yet, later in the fight, Godzilla's eye looks just fine.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

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edgaguirus wrote:I can't remember any mentioning of it in the Showa era, but he clearly does. In SOG, Godzilla loses an eye. Yet, later in the fight, Godzilla's eye looks just fine.
I don't think he lost an eye in SOG, definitely got stabbed but I suppose that's similar.

But then there's issues with this though. In Godzilla vs Hedorah he gets one of his hands burned nearly down to the bone and I believe it remains this way for the majority of the movie.

Of course the best place to look is the Godzilla vs Gigan and Mechagodzilla films where he definitely bleeds. The wounds do recover. But what makes this so different or special than just recovering from a wound naturally?

If we went by this standard Angurius should have a healing factor because he recovers his eye in Godzilla Vs Gigan.

Edit: this may or not be cannon but I believe in Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster Godzilla stumbles and falls into a big castle and destroys it. The suit is damaged in the proccess, IIRC something happens to the teeth but since TOHO liked this they kept the shot. They don't fix Godzillas teeth throughout the rest of the film so that would also contradict the healing factor idea.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by tbeasley »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:I'm wondering if people have gotten lazy and just kind of assumed the Showa godzilla has high regeneration rather than just extreme durability.
Pretty much this. Once a healing factor was brought up for Heisei G people began looking back on the Showa version as having it too. Toho is even guilty of it if with their official stats.

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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

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tbeasley wrote:
LSD Jellyfish wrote:I'm wondering if people have gotten lazy and just kind of assumed the Showa godzilla has high regeneration rather than just extreme durability.
Pretty much this. Once a healing factor was brought up for Heisei G people began looking back on the Showa version as having it too. Toho is even guilty of it if with their official stats.
Yeah, exactly.

The Showa Godzilla is just one tough badass. Any wounds that healed between films were simply explained by Toho not stressing strict continuity between movies. Godzilla was just extremely tough but not immortal. It actually made his battles more dramatic.

Toho has taken a lot of that away with this regeneration bullshit, and have programmed an entire generation of fans to expect the monster to have insta-heal abilities. It's idiotic.

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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by LamangoKaijura »

Having four giant gushers of blood spraying from your neck one second and then having it stop the next second, may indicate regeneration.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

LamangoKaijura wrote:Having four giant gushers of blood spraying from your neck one second and then having it stop the next second, may indicate regeneration.
Or a low budget.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by LamangoKaijura »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:
LamangoKaijura wrote:Having four giant gushers of blood spraying from your neck one second and then having it stop the next second, may indicate regeneration.
Or a low budget.
OK, if we go by low budget, only specific monsters exist, due to stock footage.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by Moguera24 »

Legion1979 wrote:
tbeasley wrote:
LSD Jellyfish wrote:I'm wondering if people have gotten lazy and just kind of assumed the Showa godzilla has high regeneration rather than just extreme durability.
Pretty much this. Once a healing factor was brought up for Heisei G people began looking back on the Showa version as having it too. Toho is even guilty of it if with their official stats.
Yeah, exactly.

The Showa Godzilla is just one tough badass. Any wounds that healed between films were simply explained by Toho not stressing strict continuity between movies. Godzilla was just extremely tough but not immortal. It actually made his battles more dramatic.

Toho has taken a lot of that away with this regeneration bullshit, and have programmed an entire generation of fans to expect the monster to have insta-heal abilities. It's idiotic.
Why is it idiotic, I feel it makes the Big G even more badass. What's cooler than a mega tough radioactive dinosaur? A mega tough radioactive dinosaur that heals at an unprecedented rate, that's what. I believe that the regeneration was created by Toho as an explanation for his extraordinary durability, not as a replacement for it. There is defiantly still tension in Godzilla battles, Orga, Megaguirus, Ghidorah, Kiryu, and Keizer have all put Godzilla into situations where even his healing factor couldn't save him. By giving Godzilla this amazing power, they've also greatly improved the deadliness of his foes! I think that's awesome
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

I think the idiotic part was purposely going back and giving explanations to things they didn't have any explanations or reasons for.

Another point in favor of the lack of regen power is that it's never stated in the first half of the Showa series. Of course this thread is about how it isn't mentioned through the entire shoes series but keep in mind that for the first half (up until DAM) godzilla was a villain/antihero. If you have some big villain in your movie why would you not say he has regeneration in order to make him more intimidating and scary.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by Moguera24 »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:I think the idiotic part was purposely going back and giving explanations to things they didn't have any explanations or reasons for.

Another point in favor of the lack of regen power is that it's never stated in the first half of the Showa series. Of course this thread is about how it isn't mentioned through the entire shoes series but keep in mind that for the first half (up until DAM) godzilla was a villain/antihero. If you have some big villain in your movie why would you not say he has regeneration in order to make him more intimidating and scary.
I believe you're right, it was never a thing back in the "shoe" era :lol:
My guess is that the writer of G2000 thought regeneration was an interesting way to explain his durability, and so decided to keep it. No harm in that.
I just don't see how adding neat powers to a cool character is idiotic if the characters powers are essentially the same. Godzilla heals fast/is durable; this has always been a constant that hasn't really changed even after the Regenerator G1 explanation.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by LSD Jellyfish »

LamangoKaijura wrote:
LSD Jellyfish wrote:
LamangoKaijura wrote:Having four giant gushers of blood spraying from your neck one second and then having it stop the next second, may indicate regeneration.
Or a low budget.
OK, if we go by low budget, only specific monsters exist, due to stock footage.
Not to be overly critical but such as?

A lot of stock footage appears in Gigan or Megalon of fighting but there hasn't been a movie where they just recycle clips from some random film. I was also kind of joking when I made the budget remark.


Replying to Maguma:
I didn't mean idiotic in a overly negative way. I can't explain it so maybe you're right. I just have a weird reaction to assimilating and assuming characters have traits because they have them later in the series or in a different continuity.

Also I'm sure G2000 wasn't the one that brought up godzillas regen abilities. I'm sure it started in Godzilla vs Biollante.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by edgaguirus »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:I think the idiotic part was purposely going back and giving explanations to things they didn't have any explanations or reasons for.

Another point in favor of the lack of regen power is that it's never stated in the first half of the Showa series. Of course this thread is about how it isn't mentioned through the entire shoes series but keep in mind that for the first half (up until DAM) godzilla was a villain/antihero. If you have some big villain in your movie why would you not say he has regeneration in order to make him more intimidating and scary.
It also helps to make the villain that much harder to stop. Depth charges, tanks, rockets, and thousands of volts of electricity would be more than enough to kill an oversized animal. That the monster can heal any damage done to it makes it more suspenceful and desperate to stop the destruction and death.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

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LSD Jellyfish wrote: Replying to Maguma:
I didn't mean idiotic in a overly negative way. I can't explain it so maybe you're right. I just have a weird reaction to assimilating and assuming characters have traits because they have them later in the series or in a different continuity.

Also I'm sure G2000 wasn't the one that brought up godzillas regen abilities. I'm sure it started in Godzilla vs Biollante.
Maguma, heh

I get your apprehension to the idea of giving past Godzilla's traits future ones have, its understandable

I guess I referred to G2000 because it was the first to really go in-depth with his regeneration
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by LamangoKaijura »

Yeah, the whole regen thing only started because of G2K, and it convienently covered up some things in the past, like holes being blasted into Godzilla in the 90s (Space Godzilla, MechaGodzilla II and Destoroyah), or random spurts of blood and stuff that stop and vanish very quickly (Gigan, Megalon, MechaGodzilla). We could also argue that Showa Anguirus has regen as he ran, face first, into Gigan's buzzsaw, turning his face into a fountain, but it vanished and no signs of blood remained.

We can also argue a giant human forced Anguirus's head into Gigan's buzzsaw because you see a stage hand force it in there in the upper right corner.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by Legion1979 »

LSD Jellyfish wrote:
Having four giant gushers of blood spraying from your neck one second and then having it stop the next second, may indicate regeneration.
Or a low budget.
Gysers of blood happened to the Showa Gamera all the time, and those went away pretty quickly. Yet we KNOW he doesn't have regeneration. So...

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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by LamangoKaijura »

I know Legion can't see me and all that, but I'd like to point out that showa Gamera also took time to heal from those wounds. Visable wounds, like when Gyaos sliced his arm, he was underwater healing for a good while.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

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I can believe the Heisei has regen because they make such a big deal about Godzilla's cells being so special in GVB. The reason why I draw the line between Heisei and Showa having regen is because the Heisei definitely had a slant towards science and in Godzilla vs Destroyah Godzilla can't recover at all from Destroyahs nasal horn IIRC which seemed to stop the regen.

Also does the Kiryu saga godzilla have regen? After all at the end of GVM godzilla gets some big chest wound and heads into the ocean. Next film after a long time lapse he's still recovering from It and a point is made to aim for his damaged chest.

Also why can't you know who see you? Blocked or something?
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by Moguera24 »

Well the Absolute Zero Cannon freezes and destroys the very molecules of its target, so maybe it was much more difficult for the Regen cells to rebuild the entire molecular structure of Godzilla's giant wound.
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Re: Does Showa Godzilla actually have Regen?

Post by ILL GREEN »

Some good points. I guess his regeneration depends on his radiation level. The more he has, the quicker he heals, but the less, then its slow.

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