Your thoughts on the godzilla anime?

total trash

I feel the Godzilla anime is underrated. There is much meaning and brilliance behind the films that most fans tend to overlook. I can understand why many fans would generally be upset with the direction the anime has taken but I would rather take this change-of-approach as opposed to what we have received from the MonsterVerse thus far.

While I can understand where most fans were coming from with complaints, I personally thought it was okay. Not the best for what it was going for, but the conceptual ideas and visuals kept me interested.

It's a decent first step into new territory for the franchise. A bit of a misstep, but better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all.

If given more time to further develop these kinds of ideas in the next attempt, I'm sure it'd go much smoother.

The first was one pretty interesting. I enjoyed the world-building, it kind of felt like a Jules Verne novel at parts. 

The second one however was really just exposition and people having philosophical debates for two hours before a repeat of the prior film's climax. I thought the concept of Mechagodzilla being made of living metal to be interesting but beyond that, it was kind of a disappointment. 

I'm hoping the third film will redeem the trilogy though. 

In two words, wasted potential. 

I think it could have been amazing, especially with the concept. However, it was executed in a way I can only call okay at best. 

People tend to find this perspective a bit odd, but I feel that, even given its flaws, the anime was a success, though not in the traditional sense.

The anime successfully implemented new ideas and takes on characters and properties, as well as expanding the bracket for just how varied the franchise can get.

The trilogy serves as an important first step towards new avenues to explore.

I have to agree with some assorted points from my fellows above, there's a lot of positives that are worth celebrating like trying some new ground in the storytelling, being brave enough to change up Godzilla and the situation and generally trying to break the Big G into new ground, but I also can't help but feel that it's a somewhat wasted opportunity thanks to Toho's strange dictations about what the content could be.  It seems the original intentions would have allowed us a Mechagodzilla City mecha battle over what we got, but the overlords nixed it in favor of the human drama.  Good human drama is important to the kaiju genre, but in this case it becomes more tedious to me than it does genuinely interesting.  There's a balance there of delivering on the fan service we hope for (a good scrap and action now and then) to servicing a good story, but in this case it edged more on dull because they were holding themselves back too much.

But I agree with TheGMan123, it's good that Godzilla's branched out (no pun intended) into anime, I hope for a stronger effort the next time the attempt is made.

I think they had some good story potential but seemed to forget about the interesting stuff. So there is a conspiracy and possible mutiny on the ship? Well, I guess that was wrapped up pretty quick. We have this grand plan to defeat Godzilla. Oh, it pretty much worked without surprises, that's pretty boring. 

As for the second one, it seemed a little better. I did like how it showed the reliance on technology is a weakness. Though, honestly I may just be looking too deep into that trying to get something good out of it. I am fine with Mechagodzilla not showing up and it being a city, though I can understand how others were disappointed.  Also, the main character started to maybe just possibly get a little interesting and not just a half dimensional character like he was in the first movie.

I am hoping the 3rd one does something interesting with the other alien race. I am guessing they are going the religious route as the 2nd movie showed the weaknesses of technology. Also, I hope we get some decent female characters, but seeing as our best male characters so far have been lacking I won't be surprised if that doesn't happen.

I agree, it's Total Trash.  It commits the biggest sin movies can commit, it's incredibly boring.  I haven't read the prequel Monster Apocalypse, but it sounds much more like what people would've wanted.  I'm all for doing something different, Shin being a good example, but it has to either tell a really good story, or just a decent one, supplemented by some awesome monster battles and fan service/appearances.  This series promised the latter while hyping the 1st one's release, only for us to find out all those monsters & their big story, was just the set up to only be mentioned in the actual movie.  That is not a good way to start a series.  All would've been forgiven if it was good, but the story, and everything else, was just total garbage.  I had a lot more to say about them, specifically criticizing each in great detail, right after I watched them, but I got it all out and tried to block them from my memory.  Plus I'm sure you don't want to read all that.  I'm not sure which side of the fence the OP falls on, or if he hasn't seen them, but suffice it to say, I was VERY disappointed, and I'm REALLY not hard to please.

Just got Netflix and was able to watch the first two anime Godzilla films and have mixed emotions on them.  "Planet of the Monsters" was pretty good but a little long winded.  "City on the Edge of Battle" was a little disappointing because I was hoping for to see a new version of MegaGodzilla but instead got a "living metal" city to fight Godzilla.  That being said the anime in both films was very good but the storytelling left alot to be desired.  Looking forward to part three of the trilogy.