Generations of Superfans

[Great Hierophant]

Any media with an established fanbase can get intensely passionate at times. Sometimes fans can get a bid odd in their tastes and some can be a bit insufferable at times. Fans tend to vary greatly in their tastes due to age. With a tongue in cheek approach, (having been guilty of some of these things), let me outline some of the more "dedicated" traits you may find in a superfan of various age groups.

1. You have met this fellow somewhere, maybe at a con, maybe on a forum, maybe in a chat. He is a somewhat older fan. He waxes regularly about the "glory days" of the 1950s, 60s and 70s and how much of a part of them he was. I will call this guy "the Showa Snob." The Showa Snob is a peculiar breed of superfan, and he goes about like this :

• Talks about how he actually saw Showa-era Godzilla film(s) in the theaters during their first run,
• Runs his (faded) 8mm Ken Films color print of its Destroy All Monsters digest,
• Owns every Japanese-monster focused edition of Famous Monsters of Filmland
• Framed an autograph of Ishiro Honda,
• Keeps his Shogun Warriors Godzilla on display with its original box,
• Mounted an original one sheet of Godzilla vs. the Thing on his wall,
• When having to speak of a Heisei, Millenium, Reiwa or Monsterverse kaiju film, he will invariably mutter "product" somewhere in the conversation (with a hint of contempt)

2. A younger version of the Showa Snob, say we call him "Son of the Showa Snob", claims to be every bit a fan as his elders, but he tends to have somewhat more modern tastes :

• Kept his off the air VHS recordings of Godzilla movies
• Watched Godzilla vs. Biollante on HBO through his "black box"
• Imported the Bandai 1995 Meltdown Godzilla figure at great expense
• Has an autographed photograph of Megumi Odaka
• Subscribed to G-Fan "back when it was good"
• Kept the ticket stub for when he went to see Godzilla 2000 in the theater
• Brags he went to an early Convention to be one of the first western fans to meet Haruo Nakajima and Ken Satsuma

3. And still younger fans can be superfans, and if we extend the generations to "Grandson of the Showa Snob", we might find the following :

• Has a full compliment of Blu-rays of all the Japanese films
• Complains how he lost out on that one S.H. Monsterarts figure due to being out of a job during the pandemic
• Traveled for 2 hours to see Shin Godzilla in limited release
• Earned a spot the leaderboard for speedrunning Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee
• Has a one-sheet of all the Monsterverse films
• Accumulated a sizeable number of IDW Godzilla series comics
• Created a Twitter account devoted to kaiju shitposting

[eabaker]

Well, I'm definitely a generation 2...

[Spuro]

I guess I'm Generation 3 just by virtue of my age... but then again, I'd imagine the majority of TK is.

Has a full compliment of Blu-rays of all the Japanese films

Mostly. A lot of them are still in DVD format, notably Sony's Heisei/Millennium disks. I'd upgrade... but that one bluray that pairs Destoroyah with Megaguirus would ruin the order on my shelf... it's important, damnit!

Complains how he lost out on that one S.H. Monsterarts figure due to being out of a job during the pandemic

Not due to the pandemic, but I want Battra and Spacegodzilla so bad...

Traveled for 2 hours to see Shin Godzilla in limited release

Damn right! That was a great experience.

Earned a spot the leaderboard for speedrunning Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee

Afraid I never had Xbox Live as a kid... but I DID adore that game to pieces.

Has a one-sheet of all the Monsterverse films

What's a one-sheet?

Accumulated a sizeable number of IDW Godzilla series comics

Yes, but most of them are digital.

Created a Twitter account devoted to kaiju shitposting

Nah, dude, I keep my kaiju shitposting to this very forum.

[LegendZilla]

I think it's safe to say I'm a second generation fan since I was born in 1990.

[LSD Jellyfish]

You forgot the obnoxious elites who move and live in Japan for a few years, speak a little bit of Japanese, and act like they're better than everyone!

[LegendZilla]

You forgot the obnoxious elites who move and live in Japan for a few years, speak a little bit of Japanese, and act like they're better than everyone!

I know this is off-topic, but can I PM you?

[LSD Jellyfish]

You forgot the obnoxious elites who move and live in Japan for a few years, speak a little bit of Japanese, and act like they're better than everyone!

I know this is off-topic, but can I PM you?

Sure go ahead. Anyone is always free to PM me and I try to make an effort to respond to everyone, especially stuff regarding the forums.

[Voyager]

I’m a certified (offshoot) Gen 3 Showa Snob, and I’ll wear it on my sleeve!

• Criterion Set
  Complains about SHMA
  Have the Heisei/Millennium Box set but never watch them that much.
  Watches Shin on blu ray and Amazon Prime
  Saw the anime films and SP on Netflix
  G14 was my first Godzilla cinema experience.
  Loved Godzilla: Unleashed
  Played Godzilla: Daikaiju Battle Royale

[StreamOfKaijuness]

In terms of age, I'm probably on the cusp of generations 2 and 3 (born in '89 and became a Godzilla fan in '98).


My generation 2 stats would be:

• Once owned every Godzilla movie up through G2000 on VHS, including two TV recordings, but haven't had those tapes for many years now
• First saw Godzilla vs. Biollante by renting the tape from Blockbuster Video
• Collected Trendmasters and other American toys as a '90s kid, lots of TriStar film merchandise
• Has the Criterion Godzilla '54 DVD autographed by Haruo Nakajima and the Godzilla 2000 DVD autographed by Tsutomu Kitagawa
• Never subscribed to G-Fan magazine but has downloaded PDF scans of most issues from its glory years
• Did keep the Godzilla 2000 theater ticket stub but has long since lost it
• Never been to a G-Con/G-Fest but did trek to general sci-fi conventions in the past decade to meet Nakajima and Kitagawa

And my generation 3 stats would be:

• Has multiple shelves of creature feature and Japanese sci-fi/fantasy films and shows on DVD and BRD
• Hasn't given a hoot about toys & figures in 20 years
• Only had to drive one hour to see Shin Godzilla in a theater... although it was two hours including the drive home... and then went back to see it again later that week...
• Doesn't remember there being a leaderboard but fondly remembers playing the hell out of God.DAMM in middle school, even still has the GameCube disc
• Only posters on the wall are a framed King Kong 1933 reprint (mail-in offer from the 2005 DVD) and Noriyoshi Ohrai's textless Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah art printed on canvas
• Does indeed have almost every IDW Godzilla comic from their original run except Kingdom of Monsters and Oblivion (still need to get their newer Godzilla comics)
• Doesn't care about Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, etc., lost interest in Facebook and MySpace long ago, and couldn't care less about listening to fans jabber on YouTube or podcasts

A lot of them are still in DVD format, notably Sony's Heisei/Millennium disks. I'd upgrade... but that one bluray that pairs Destoroyah with Megaguirus would ruin the order on my shelf... it's important, damnit!

Yes, it is important! Here is the solution for Godzilla vs. Megaguirus:

1. Take Sony's 1-disc Megaguirus DVD, remove the disc and the wraparound cover from the case.
2. Put the disc and wraparound cover into an empty 2-disc case.
3. Add Sony's Megaguirus BRD to that case in the other disc slot.

The solution for Godzilla vs. Destroyer is very similar:

1. Take Sony's 1-disc Spacegodzilla/Destroyer flipper DVD, remove the disc and the wraparound cover from the case.
2. Put the disc and the wraparound cover in an empty 3-disc case.
3. Add Sony's Spacegodzilla and Destroyer BRDs to that case in the other two disc slots.

And just like that, you'll have a three-disc Spacegodzilla/Destroyer BRD+DVD combo set sitting on your shelf, along with a 2-disc Megaguirus BRD+DVD combo set, with no disruption to their chronological shelf sequencing!

It's super easy! This is what the end result looks like, if these images are able to load:











Sony's distribution rights to Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah and Godzilla vs. Mothra were up for renewal in 2019, and that double-feature BRD set has become an expensive collector's item in the years since, probably because Sony allowed their rights to lapse and that set is now out of print.

Sony's rights to Mechagodzilla '93, Spacegodzilla, Destroyer, Rebirth of Mothra, Rebirth of Mothra II, Megaguirus and GMK are all up for renewal in 2023, so we can expect each and every Sony DVD and BRD containing any of those movies to go the way of GvsKG and GvsMothra by the end of next year. Those remaining Heisei/Millennium blu-ray discs are still cheap and easy to get right now but that isn't going to last much longer...

[Legion1979]

Definitely generation 2, but not all of that is true for me. I never had an Odaka autograph (still don't) and I saw Biollante from a bootleg of the Japanese version in 1990, not HBO. In fact, the list for generation 2 should include something about owning all the Heisei films on bootlegs before the Sony stuff came out.

Also, having a very hard time accepting that Sony's blurays are out of order and NEEDING to fix them are DEFINITELY a generation 3 category. Generation 2 (again) would have had them all on bootleg y 1996 and probably went as far as importing official Japan releases afterward. By 2014 I doubt many generation 2 fans cared that $11 Sony discs paired the movies up incorrectly. But I'm waiting to be proven wrong.

[canofhumdingers]

Hmm this is kinda funny. I’m curious to see what “generation” I land in based on the given criteria. I suspect gen 2 but let’s see.

Gen 1:

• I do think the 50’s-60’s Showa era is probably the best overall time period in kaiju film production.
• Not old enough to have seen them in their original run but I have seen many Showa films in movie theaters including a number of original 35mm prints.
• I own the collected Godzilla “Ack-ives” Famous Monsters
• Not Honda but two framed autographs from Haruo Nakajima, one of Takarada, and one Yoshimitsu Banno autograph on a toy
• Mounted an original one sheet of Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster on his wall

Gen 2:

• Had off air tapes but gladly replaced them with better copies asap
• Watched Godzilla vs. Biollante on HBO’s official vhs
• Kept the ticket stub for when he went to see Godzilla 2000 in the theater but lost it

Gen 3:

• Has a full compliment of Blu-rays of all the Japanese films
• Complains how he lost out on multiple S.H. Monsterarts figures due to being broke some years before the pandemic
• Traveled for 20 mins to see Shin Godzilla in limited release two nights in a row
• Accumulated a complete original run of IDW Godzilla series comics

So I guess I fit the most criteria of Gen 1, though age wise I’m probably solidly in Gen 2. I also agree with legion about owning all the Heisei films (and millennium films) on bootlegs before official releases came out as another one for Gen 2.

[edgaguirus]

Consider me generation 2. I had several films on VHS before going to digital media, but I have no Odaka autograph, don't collect figures, and first saw Biollante from a dvd.

[Legion1979]

A good generation 2 fan would have preordered a Meltdown Godzilla for the best possible price as soon as he heard it was coming out and received it around the same time he got to watch Godzilla vs DESTROYER (because that's what we ALL called it then) from a theater cam copy only weeks after it came out.

Also, the MonsterArts part of Generation 3 should read "From length of time before release, to how it was shipped, to quality control, complains about each and every MonsterArts figure, but buys every single one of them anyway."

[eabaker]

A good generation 2 fan would have preordered a Meltdown Godzilla for the best possible price as soon as he heard it was coming out and received it around the same time he got to watch Godzilla vs DESTROYER (because that's what we ALL called it then) from a theater cam copy only weeks after it came out.

I'll never forget my first viewing of a theater cam copy of GvsD. I got home from school that day, having just learned that the girl I liked had asked one of my best friends to the Winter Formal, and let all of that emotion out by weeping at Godzilla's death.

[Jetty_Jags]

I'll never forget my first viewing of a theater cam copy of GvsD. I got home from school that day, having just learned that the girl I liked had asked one of my best friends to the Winter Formal, and let all of that emotion out by weeping at Godzilla's death.

Wish I could give you an electronic pat on the back/hug after reading this one

[eabaker]

I'll never forget my first viewing of a theater cam copy of GvsD. I got home from school that day, having just learned that the girl I liked had asked one of my best friends to the Winter Formal, and let all of that emotion out by weeping at Godzilla's death.

Wish I could give you an electronic pat on the back/hug after reading this one

It's been over a quarter of a century. I've long since moved on.

[LSD Jellyfish]

I had a bootleg VHS of Mothra vs. Godzilla when I was 5 years old. It was subtitled, which is why I think it was bootleg. My dad got it for me at Kim's Video and Music (a rather popular video store near the Bowery in Manhattan). I remember getting annoyed, and my father returned it and got that HBO VHS of Godzilla vs. Biollante. Ironically maybe 15 or so years later, I'd buy bootleg DVDs of Godzilla vs. Biollante and King Kong vs. Godzilla, before eventually rebuying DVD's/Blu-rays of them once they were avaiable.

I think bootlegs (bonus points for bootgleg VHS)+eventual blu-ray buys classify you as a superfan. If you made the active effort to acquire something, but then eventually bought a (hopefully) superior official release, then it means you're a special kind of nut.

I think it's weird now though that there's conceivably a "4th" generaion that exists now. I'm 26, but I see people register on here that are like 16-18 (no shame)!, and there's definitely 10 year olds out there who like Godzilla but aren't interested in signing up on a forum.

[Legion1979]

I have no idea where I'd be without bootlegs. My first one was Biollante in 1990 and that was the first time I saw a Godzilla film in wide-screen and in Japanese.

Then came discovering Yaohan Plaza in NJ in 1991. It was basically one stop shopping for Bandai toys and books. The video store in the supermarket got in boots of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah and Godzilla vs Mothra. The manager of Pony Toys introduced me to the bootleg VHS dealer I would end up using for all my movies (and up until a few years ago, I was still using them for Ultra series). On top of that, he also sold me my first kaiju fanzine, Kaiju Review.

I remember the earliest boots from that dealer. White cardboard sleeves, simple white labels on the tapes, raw Japanese with no subs and no extras aside from a trailer. They were $15 a pop, which sounds insane, but we all paid for it. My first purcahse was Destroy all Monsters and a tape of Toho trailers. When they upgraded their tapes to include plastic cases with full artwork and subtitles it was a really big deal. I still have all that stuff.

And I had no issue buying movies multiple times. Between boots and authentic Japanese and American releases I've probably bought a copy of Destroyah at least 8 times.

[eabaker]

I have no idea where I'd be without bootlegs. My first one was Biollante in 1990 and that was the first time I saw a Godzilla film in wide-screen and in Japanese.

Then came discovering Yaohan Plaza in NJ in 1991. It was basically one stop shopping for Bandai toys and books. The video store in the supermarket got in boots of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah and Godzilla vs Mothra. The manager of Pony Toys introduced me to the bootleg VHS dealer I would end up using for all my movies (and up until a few years ago, I was still using them for Ultra series). On top of that, he also sold me my first kaiju fanzine, Kaiju Review.

I remember the earliest boots from that dealer. White cardboard sleeves, simple white labels on the tapes, raw Japanese with no subs and no extras aside from a trailer. They were $15 a pop, which sounds insane, but we all paid for it. My first purcahse was Destroy all Monsters and a tape of Toho trailers. When they upgraded their tapes to include plastic cases with full artwork and subtitles it was a really big deal. I still have all that stuff.

And I had no issue buying movies multiple times. Between boots and authentic Japanese and American releases I've probably bought a copy of Destroyah at least 8 times.

My first bootleg of GvsMGII was dubbed into... Cantonese, I think? With simplified Chinese subtitles. When a better version became available, I sent that one back to the dealer, and he recorded the properly subbed version over it on the same tape.

[Legion1979]

I saw saw whole chunks of Godzilla VS Mechagodzilla (come on, eabaker, you're too old to be putting a numeral in the title lol) not via a tape of the actual movie, but via a promotional video featuring Akira Ifukube recording the score. That's one of those things I really need to transfer to DVD at some point. That and the Godzilla Fantasia/Godzilla Legend video.

After Pony Toys closed I had to find my Bandais elsewhere. After about a year of trying different places I eventually discovered Outer Limits in Clifton (also NJ). On my very first visit I discovered G-Fan...

...and life hasn't been the same since. Even though I haven't bought an issue since 2004 and only sporadically go to G-Fest it definitely changed my life.