Topic on User talk:Gojo2022

So, I can’t fully say how soon I’m going to do this, but at some point, I plan to do full in-depth movie reviews on the Showa and Heisei Godzilla films and probably the same for other Toho properties, but what I needed to know in doing so, is what age group each of these films were considered for?

Like for example, it appears the first 9 “Showa Era” films in the other words the “golden age”, from 1954-1968 were considered films for adults and then we have the Toho Champion Festival for the last 6 from 1969-1975 which were considered for children. Then, all the Heisei films were for adult audiences again.

What puzzles me the most is “Son of Godzilla” and “Godzilla vs. Hedorah”.

I have heard some people say “Son of Godzilla” was actually a children’s film, but according to an interview with Jun Fukuda, when asked if Minya was meant to appeal towards children, he replied, “No it was just a new approach”.

As for “Godzilla vs. Hedorah”, there appears to be a large disagreement whether the film was actually suitable for children.  Some people claim because of the film’s presence in the “Toho Champion Festival” that it was. Others see the film having too many disturbing scenes and the anti-pollution message it sent being more on adult level and that a lot of people that saw this film as children had nightmares.  

So, any thoughts? Does anyone know what Toho directly said on what approach they were looking for on each individual film?

Also, if you know about the other films that Toho did that are non-Godzilla related on who they’re aimed for feel free to share.  I also think the solo Rodan and Mothra may have been intended for adults, while Space Amoeba might have been for children.

While Japanese demographics don’t necessarily work in the same way as they do in Western cultures, I’ll try my best to explain it.

Godzilla 1954 is a dark film with heavy themes surrounding nuclear weapons and so I would say that the film is intended for a more mature audience. I’d say the films from Raids Again to Destroy All Monsters are “age neutral”, they are more accessible to children compared to the original film (mostly due to the lessened nuclear themes) though there is still somewhat of a maturity to them with the only real exception to that being Son. All Monsters Attack - Mechagodzilla ‘74 were targeted towards kids, this was partly due to the competing Gamera series, the Showa era was originally intended to end with DAM but the popularity of Godzilla and the rival Gamera franchise made Tomoyuki Tanaka continue the series, I would also guess this is why a child protagonist in AMA, Hedorah and Megalon were included. Terror of Mechagodzilla is an odd case because while it was still made for the Champion Festival, the darker aspects of the film partly due to the returning director Ishiro Honda make it stand out against the other 70s films.

As for the Heisei era films, they were originally intended to return the franchise to its darker roots as shown in the 1954 film, what may have helped is that the audience that grew up with the Showa era films were much older now. Though in the 1990s, much more children-based media was produced surrounding the Heisei series.

I would also like to note that the maturity of a project does not necessarily mean that it isn’t intended for children.

I'm glad to finally have someone address me on this, thanks again. It was just hard to tell because not everyone would say the same thing on which movie is for who.

I agree with everything you've said except the only thing I'd add is that I wouldn't say Terror is entirely serious and dark mind you. It has it's moments yes, but there are a lot of scenes that are pretty comedic such as Godzilla wiping the dirt off of him before continuing to fight Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus and a lot of the human scenes and dialog did appear laughable at times.