Why Does Every one like The showa series

[Voyager]

I just love the look of them, the feel of them. Tsubaraya's effects are unmatched by any other guy in the business (Nakano isn't bad either). The monsters have distinct personalities. The stories are compelling (most of the time). Honda, Fukuda, Banno, and Oda are all very talented directors. The characters are compelling. The actors are good, both human and monster. The music is fantastic.

That's just off the top of my head.

[Omegazilla]

I am going to have to agree with the OP. The Showa series is overrated due to nostalgia glasses and is indeed very corny. However this does not mean it is necessarily bad. While the series does have some of the worst movies in Godzilla's history, it also has some of the best as well. The series has some really iconic moments and kaiju, even in the bad ones.

[Terasawa]

"Cheesy", maybe? Corny ("trite, banal, or mawkishly sentimental") doesn't describe the Showa films, probably not any Godzilla movie.

And why do people automatically assume that the fans who like these movies like them only out of nostalgia? That's such a bullshit argument since most of us are young enough that we grew up with the Heisei and/or Millennium Godzilla movies too.

[Kaltes-Herzeleid]

Honestly to me the word "cheesy" is up there with the word "edgy" as a haphazardly thrown around buzzword I can't stand but people will use in a derogatory fashion to convey a false sense of sophistication. To me, something is only "cheesy" (for lack of a better word) if it's unintentionally funny by way of poor execution. Majority of the Showa films knew what tone what they were going for and to me, intentional moments of levity don't count as cheesy or corny because it's supposed to be humorous.

Even Godzilla Vs. Megalon, as shitty as it was, knew what it was going for tonally.

[Terasawa]

I think it's generally understood that "cheesy" means something like "so bad it's good" or "so absurd that it's funny". Godzilla's shie on Planet X might have been intended to be funny but it's definitely absurd in any context. Therefore, to some, it is "cheesy".

I try to avoid that word myself for the same reasons you don't like it, but that's what I take it to mean.

[MaxRebo320]

[Terasawa]

At least it continues the legacy of "party city butt". Hard not to agree with him IMO.

[KaijusHunter]

Putting aside the Godzilla films, the Showa era of Toho movies has a lot of variety and there's something for everybody to like.
Family dramas, romantic comedies, epic-scale war films, spy thrillers, youth comedies, adventure films, and so on.

If only there was a legal streaming platform to watch their catalogue, starting up with 1933 to today. Hiding these films by only showing them on Japanese cable is not enough and a disgrace to the craftmanship and passion that went into them, especially in the 1950's and 1960's, where many overlooked directors, technicians and actors built their reputation.

[Omegazilla]

Yikes. Didn't know I would incite butthurt.
Cheesy? https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cheesy
Definitely.
Corny:https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corny
At time, yes.

While I would say cheesy or zany is a better word corny is appropriate at times too. We do see a pattern of stale concepts. Evil aliens from outer space like to mind control monsters and try to conquer Earth. The aliens never possess anything impressive except for mind control or perhaps a robot. We also have seen plenty of stock footage. We even got a movie that consisted almost all of stock footage fight scenes. Like it or not the Showa series budget generally was pretty low and yes, cheap. That is just a plain fact. I know somebody is going to try to pull up Heisei and Millennium budgets but comparatively speaking they were higher. We do not see stock footage or recycled concepts as frequently in those two series. Heisei series has a whole movie dedicated to time travel. You don't find anything like that in any other movie. Period. Also, guess what word professional movie critics like to use to refer to Godzilla? CHEESY. Now most professional movie critics think their taste is somehow more "sophisticated" that everyone else's but that's not the point. The point is, there ARE lots of people who agree the series is cheesier than Holy Hell and they are right. So yeah there are some people blinded blinded by nostalgia when it comes to this series. As I said that doesn't make it bad. You can't really be a true Godzilla fan if you write off the longest running series, but it is certainly over-praised.

[JAGzilla]

We do not see recycled concepts as frequently in those two series.

The rest of the post is fine, but I'm not letting you get away with this sentence.

[Voyager]

We do not see recycled concepts as frequently in those two series.

The rest of the post is fine, but I'm not letting you get away with this sentence.

Flash backs to;

Super X
Super X2
Super X3
ANEB
Mecha-King Ghidorah
Mechagodzilla
MOGUERA
Dimension Tide
Kiryu

[JAGzilla]

We do not see recycled concepts as frequently in those two series.

The rest of the post is fine, but I'm not letting you get away with this sentence.

Flash backs to;

Super X
Super X2
Super X3
ANEB
Mecha-King Ghidorah
Mechagodzilla
MOGUERA
Dimension Tide
Kiryu

I'm not entirely sure whose side you're taking here. Some of those are blatantly reused concepts, but then some are original, so...?

[Desghidorah]

One factor I would say is it is kind of hard to hate even if you think the quality of production and effects are lower at some points. It's a bit like the Adam West Batman show. In the mid-2000s that show got hated on and bashed constantly, but as time went on even fans who adamantly adore the really darker incarnations like the Dark Knight trilogy, have come to like and appreciate the Bright Knight. It's gotten to the point with Batman fans, you will have some that argue endlessly about what is the best storyline or incarnation, but everyone pretty much agrees they like the West show even if it doesn't top the list.

Shows era Toho have some genuinely creative storylines in and out of the Kaiju movies, and the passage of time has made the special effects simultaneously admirable and amusing.

[Voyager]

The rest of the post is fine, but I'm not letting you get away with this sentence.

Flash backs to;

Super X
Super X2
Super X3
ANEB
Mecha-King Ghidorah
Mechagodzilla
MOGUERA
Dimension Tide
Kiryu

I'm not entirely sure whose side you're taking here. Some of those are blatantly reused concepts, but then some are original, so...?

I’m referring to the Anti-G weapon plot line. But I’ll give you that, some are original. Not nearly enough though.

[Freebleeper]

Let me ask you a question... did you grew up after the showa era or before it but after that would be the answer since it's the same old cliche neanderthal reaction to these films (you know guy in a rubber suit wrecking a model Japanese city BLAH BLAH BLAH!) and I still believe the crew members did a heck alot more work on constructing the models than they do today.

[Voyager]

Let me ask you a question... did you grew up after the showa era or before it but after that would be the answer since it's the same old cliche neanderthal reaction to these films (you know guy in a rubber suit wrecking a model Japanese city BLAH BLAH BLAH!) and I still believe the crew members did a heck alot more work on constructing the models than they do today.

I mean, I was born in 2003 and I still like Showa way more then Heisei and Millennium.

[Desghidorah]

Let me ask you a question... did you grew up after the showa era or before it but after that would be the answer since it's the same old cliche neanderthal reaction to these films (you know guy in a rubber suit wrecking a model Japanese city BLAH BLAH BLAH!) and I still believe the crew members did a heck alot more work on constructing the models than they do today.

Born 1995, so if anything I'm a Millennium tyke. I saw the Showa films at roughly the same time as the Heisei ones and I usually regarded them as about even on a movie to movie basis.

[Omegazilla]

The rest of the post is fine, but I'm not letting you get away with this sentence.

It is true though. We got Godzilla fighting Super X. I already know some will say "but there were three!" Yeah but they were all distinctly different. We have a plant monster with Godzilla's DNA, which is insanely original and has not been repeated in the films as of yet. We have time traveling and a cyborg Ghidorah and a "Battle Mothra". Mothra, KG, and MG are technically recycled but even then the latter show are vastly different than they were in the Showa series. Finally we have a cosmic Godzilla and Oxygen Destroyer monster. Those are just the monsters alone. We also have other stuff we haven't seen hitherto like the psychic element that is consistent through the whole series. ANB was a very unique and nice plot element. We also get to see Baby Godzilla grow up and see Godzilla take a very lethal chaotic form in GvD which leads to his death, something we haven't seen since Gojira.

Super X
Super X2
Super X3
ANEB
Mecha-King Ghidorah
Mechagodzilla
MOGUERA
Dimension Tide
Kiryu

I can't believe you are comparing brief flashbacks to cheaply reused stock footage. There is a difference between recalling events in a previous film to advance the plot or remind the viewer about certain plot points. There is a blatantly stark difference between that and recycling Ghidorah ad naseum in GvG or having fights consist of stock footage in All Monsters Attack. How many times did we see Gigan's claw repeated in GvG and then again GvM? I never said the latter two series are all original or anything, I am just saying compared to the some of the Showa series they are. Moar Showa Ghidorah fights please.

The Showa series is still great, it just suffers later on when the budgets get ultra low. Even the schlocky ones that get picked on in MST3000 still have things to enjoy from it.

[JAGzilla]

Heisei and Millennium absolutely have plenty of original elements, I'm not questioning that. But you can't pretend for a second that they don't recycle things every bit as egregiously as the Showa films did. Ghidorah may have had four appearances in Showa, but he has five between Heisei (ROM Trilogy included) and Millennium. With varying forms and origins, sure, but still. Voyager mentioned the long list of anti-Godzilla devices; individually distinct or not, they were still repetition of the "build a thing to kill Godzilla" concept. Godzilla vs. Mothra and Tokyo SOS both borrow heavily from Mothra and Mothra vs. Godzilla. GFW was basically a DAM remake that also blatantly ripped off several American blockbusters. Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla uses the naval battle stock footage from Godzilla vs. Biollante. The list goes on.

[GojiDog]

The Showa Era was the birth of the genre, so its hard not to look on it with fondness.

Its like Star Trek TOS. Future series surpassed several elements of the original, and the original series was a victim of the restraints of when it was made...but it was the first, and without it, we wouldn't have Star Trek at all.

To use generic sayings: You gotta start somewhere and you never forget your first love.

And to be more specific, I love how the Showa Godzilla films develop Godzilla's character from death dealing behemoth to savior, and took its time its time to get to that point. It's a full character arc, realized over the course of 15 films, ending with humanity and Godzilla actively working together to protect the planet.

And then when you throw all the other non-Godzilla monster and sci-fi films into the mix, you get some classics like Rodan, Mothra, War of the Gargantuas, and the like, and when most of them crossover with Big G, it has the feel of a much larger world that's been created.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, The Showa Series for Toho gave us one of the all time great Monster Menageries, and it deserves that recognition.