Godzilla Minus One came out recently and seems to be doing spectacularly at the Japanese box office. I’m hoping that it will perform similarly well when it comes to its international release but it also got me thinking about the franchise in general and how surprisingly restrictive it can be when it comes to availability. Over two years after having picked up the Showa era films from Criterion, I’ve yet to see a major push when it comes to making the other films generally available. Therefore, I thought I’d take the opportunity that the release of a new Japanese Godzilla film has presented to make my case for why, as a fan, I want to see the Heisei and Millennium films rereleased.
I’ll first provide a quick summary about the way that Godzilla films are divided up. The first fifteen films are regarded as the Showa era films and cover the films that were released between 1954 and 1975 and it was these films that Criterion released in their lovely collection. The next seven films were released between 1984 and 1995 and are referred to as the Heisei films, despite the fact that the Heisei era didn’t begin until 1989. These films served as a continuation of the original 1954 film and wiped away the timeline of everything in between. From 1999 to 2004, six Godzilla films were released in what became known as the Millennium era. These films were essentially anthologies, only serving as a continuation of the original 1954 film with the one exception being Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. which served as a direct continuation of the film from the year before, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. Finally, the current Godzilla era is referred to as Reiwa which consists of the 2016 Shin Godzilla, a trilogy of anime films from 2017-18 and, most recently, Godzilla Minus One, similarly strange to the Heisei films in that the Reiwa era began in 2019.
It’s tragic to say that, since I first saw a Godzilla film two years ago, I’ve only been able to get my hands on Blu-rays of the Showa era films as well as Shin Godzilla. This is due to, as far as I’m aware, the Heisei and Millennium films not being released on DVD/Blu-ray in the UK or Ireland. Nor does it seem that they are on any streaming service. I will admit that I was quite excited when I heard recently that the Godzilla films would be on Pluto.TV but, after using a VPN since it’s a US only service, I was quite disappointed to see several films missing as well as some which seemed to be available in English only. I did end up watching Godzilla vs. Megaguirus and Godzilla: Final Wars on there but it means that I’m still unable to see a significant portion of the franchise.
Oddly enough, it seems that Godzilla fans in America are also facing issues as well when it comes to these films. While they do fare a bit better with some Blu-ray releases of these films, I’ve heard that these releases aren’t particularly great quality and that two films, The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla Vs. Biollante, are horribly out of print and near impossible to get at a reasonable price. This is apparently due to a variety of rights issues with several licenses being distributed across different American companies but I think that, in an age where the Godzilla MonsterVerse films have grossed hundreds of millions worldwide and helped increase the popularity of Godzilla worldwide, it’s inexcusable that we are in this state as we’re about to enter 2024.
So what is my solution? It should come as no surprise that all I’m asking for is that these films get distributed in some shape or form. As someone who prefers to collect physical media, I would love to see the Heisei and Millennium movies released in a new Blu-ray collection with a wealth of extra content and high-quality picture and audio but I would also settle for them being released on streaming services, not only so I could see them but so that others could do so as well. Maybe we’ll see some changes should Godzilla Minus One’s international release prove successful but it’s just as likely that nothing will happen. It’s disappointing that this is the case but I will continue to wait until I get the opportunity to see these films someday.
Let me know your thoughts on whether you want to see the Heisei and Millennium films rereleased, whether you’re a Godzilla fan, if you’ve seen the films and, if you have, what you thought of them, any reasons why you think it’s difficult rereleasing these films and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!