This Month in Godzilla History! (November)

On November 3rd, 1954, Japanese audiences were exposed to Gojira for the first time! 63 years have past and there are still Godzilla movies being made! Making this franchise the longest running and biggest one yet!

For those of you who don't know the filmmakers of this movie were inspired by a tragedy only a few months earlier!

The Lucky Dragon No. 5 was a Japanese tuna fishing boat with a crew of 23 men which was contaminated by nuclear fallout from the United States Castle Bravo thermonuclear weapon test at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954. The crew suffered acute radiation syndrome for a number of weeks after the Bravo test in March. All recovered except for Aikichi Kuboyama, the boat's chief radioman, who died.

After the vessel came on board some contaminated tuna reached markets and the whole country went into panic. This inspired Toho producer Tomoyuki Tanaka to give a base to a monster movie that he always wanted to make. Tanaka would bring together the talent and heart that would be the base for Japanese sci-fi films for the next 41 years! Tanaka the talent of director Ishiro Honda, Master and Father of Japanese Special FX director Eiji Tsuburaya, and music director Akira Ifukube. Together they would bring this monster to life! They and a small cast and crew would do something that has never been imagined in Japanese film before!

Although the next few mentions were publically released in theaters everywhere in Japan in the following month of December. These Godzilla flicks where released at the Tokyo International Film Festival held in the month of November and audiences were exposed to these Godzilla films of the new millennium!

Godzilla 2000 - Nov 6, 1999

Godzilla against Megaguirus , Nov 3, 2000

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack - Nov 3, 2001

Godzilla against Mechagodzilla - Nov 2, 2002

Godzilla Tokyo SOS - Nov 3, 2003

Even though its a huge month for Godzilla fans to celebrate. There is another kaiju worth mentioning this month

Gamera was released in theaters on November 27, 1965! Considered a Godzilla imitator, Gamera still went on to have several sequels and had a very successful reboot in the 90's that even outclassed the Toho Godzilla films released at that time! Also appearing on several MST3K episodes and received a cult following! There is even a talk of a reboot possibly in the works in the wake of the recent monster boom from Toho and Legendary films featuring giant monsters.

So this month is one to celebrate for Godzilla and Giant monster movie fans everywhere!

Come celebrate with me!