On this day, August 31, 1978, Godzilla vs Cosmic Monster was released in Philadelphia theaters.

Bigger and Angrier

Guess who’s back.

Godzilla, that’s who. The newest Japanese import to our shores is “Godzilla 1985,” a sequel to those unforgettable movie classics of the 1950s and ’60s.
This time, the 2-million-year-old monster is bigger (260 feet, as compared to 160 in earlier times) and angrier than ever – so angry, in fact, that he eats nuclear submarines.
A spokesman for the distributor described the film – which wowed ’em in Japan – as “nostalgia at its most perverse.”

That’s a recommendation?

Philadelphia Daily News, Saturday, August 31, 1985, p 15

"Godzilla vs Cosmic Monster" ad in The Philadelphia Inquirer (Thursday, August 31, 1978, p 21)

Godzilla at Tokyo Toy Show 2026

RC Godzilla (Source: @aCnDFFbw1h6668)
Mega House Godzilla Minus One (Source: @v2ab29)
Godzilla Sanrio Characters (Source: @shamy0525)
Godzilla toys (Source: @DDoslove0205)
Godzilla toys (Source: @shamy0525)
Mega House Booth (Source: @ToYou1107)
Kaiju King Series Godzilla 2026 (Source: @guernicass4)
GodziBurst (Source: @DDoslove0205)
Godzilla toys (Source: @wlJUOfMIheai5yz)
GojiBurst (Source: @DDoslove0205)
Godzilla Minus Zero ad

“Again, I’m only speaking hypothetically if there is another kaiju in the film. It can’t be a simple kaiju vs kaiju fight. It needs to mean much more and have much deeper theme than that.”

— Takashi Yamazaki, Screenrant.com

In print on the last weekend of August 1979 during Godzilla’s 25th Anniversary Celebration

Saturday, Aug. 25, 1979 Philadelphia Inquirer 7-A • See Original

King Kong and Godzilla (Philadelphia Inquirer, Saturday, Aug 25, 1979, Associated Press)

Associated Press

The series featuring Godzilla (battling King Kong in 1974) “went downhill in the last five or six pictures”

To the rescue

Godzilla, once a villain, to be reborn a hero

By Andrew Horvat

Associated Press

TOKYO – Godzilla, the Japanese movie monster that first stomped across the screen 25 years ago as a film argument against the atomic bomb, will make a comeback next year as the hero of an accident at a nuclear power plant.

The monster, born in the South Seas as a result of U.S. testing of atomic bombs, will reappear after a six-year absence, apparently as a confirmed good guy.

“It will be a serious film, just like the first movie, which was a reaction to uncontrolled atomic bomb testing in the atmosphere,” Tomoyuki Tanaka, president of the Toho Motion Picture Co., said here yesterday.

“We are in the middle of script-writing,” he said. “The Japanese are now fearful of the future, much as at the time of the 1954 film.” Tanaka is the creator of the series of 15 movies starring the giant flying monster that tore up commuter trains and kicked its way through oil refineries.

The monster’s 25th birthday was celebrated in July in New York and this month in Tokyo with a showing of all 15 films. Tanaka said the new film is a response to renewed popular interest in Godzilla. About 60,000 people saw the film revival in Tokyo.

Godzilla toys brought in $4.5 million for makers in the past four years and books and other memorabilia are also said to be selling well after a lapse.

Ishiro Honda, director of 10 of the 15 Godzilla movies, said, “We went downhill in the last five or six pictures.”

Tanaka said European critics saw Godzilla as a Japanese reaction to the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States during World War II.

“I think that appraisal is correct,” Honda said. “Godzilla shows the Japanese attitude toward the atom.”

The monster turned friendly in later films, and, in one picture, warded off monsters from outer space.

In the first film, a monster emerges from world war, food shortage and the possibility the depths of the South Pacific after U.S. bomb testing in the Bikini atoll.

In the American version, Raymond Burr, later to become familiar as Perry Mason and Ironside, played the part of an American reporter investigating the appearance of a monster in Japan. Burr’s investigating activities were shot in Hollywood and spliced into the Japanese film.

The first film featured major Japanese actors but the later, cheaper films used mostly　lesser-known, younger talent.

“Godzilla is a hard act to follow,” said director Honda.

There was even a Godzilla film that dealt with the dangers of industrial pollution, which are very serious in Japan. Another monster called Hedora, from the Japanese word “hedoro” meaning industrial sludge, rose from polluted Japanese seas and engulfed everything in its path.

Godzilla in Japan is known as “Gojira,” apparently a combination of gorilla (“gorira” in Japanese and “kujira,” the Japanese word for whale.

“The oil shortage, the prospects of a third world war, food shortage and the possibility of another giant earthquake are now beginning to preoccupy the Japanese, much like the atom bomb did 25 years ago,” Tanaka said. Asked if the next Godzilla film will deal with these fears, he said, “I don’t think we’ll be all that logical.”

Godzilla from Always: Sunset on Third Street is also on display (Source: @g_misterbuster)

“When I heard that they were making a sequel, I wondered what I should do for the opening this time. The first movie had a single shot in the opening, which was well-received, so I wondered if I could do something completely different this time. Also, if people came to see the sequel with the same excitement they had after seeing the first movie, it would inevitably raise the bar, so I wanted to reset the expectations with the opening. As various thoughts crossed my mind, I decided, “That’s it, Godzilla!” — Takashi Yamazaki (Always 2)

My 90s Basement Bundle

The end of the month is upon us. As I prepare for next month I’m thinking about new content to share. Since my Godzilla Room has been reimagined, I can begin organizing and cataloging my collectibles in my basement. I have more collectibles down in the basement than in my room. When I’m down there I’m always looking for something to share. Yesterday, my eyes feel upon some items from the 90s. First, I spotted an old shopping bag from one of my favorite Philly toy stores from the 90s, Quakerhead Collectibles, owned by my friend Ted. I designed his logo featured on the bag. It’s plastic nostalgia and a portfolio sample. Second, my eyes landed on this bootleg VHS tape of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah with its desaturated cover and manually-typed label. There’s no doubt this is how I saw this great Heisei classic in the early 90s. And lastly, I found what I had been looking for over the last month. This is merchandise from the LitGodzi Kaizyu Series, centered around Little Godzilla and kaiju friends. I don’t remember where I bought this; it may have been from Quakerhead. But now it will be on display in my Godzilla Room in the 90s section.

My Godzilla vs King Ghidorah bootleg VHS tape

“I believe this team can create something greater than the last film.”

Godzilla Minus Zero Behind the Scenes

The countdown has indeed begun and tonight we have a behind the scenes look at Godzilla Minus Zero! Enjoy!

T-Minus One Month until Minus Zero

Today marks one month from the premiere of Godzilla Minus Zero at the 64th New York Film Festival at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on Saturday, September 26. Director Yamazaki has prepared a 125-minute “emotional rollercoaster” that resumes the struggles of the Shikishima family we witnessed in his Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One. All our questions will be answered. “I got goosebumps looking at even just a rough, in-progress version of this VFX sequence that means audiences are going to see something they’ve never seen before,” Yamazaki said. I’ve got goosebumps thinking about that night at the movies in NYC with the director, cast and crew! I’m in line for a chance to meet “The Legend of Ellis Island” when he arrives. Start the countdown!

On this day in 1954, Godzilla appeared over Odo Island’s Hachiman-yama (八幡山) to the astonishment of Dr. Yamane and his daughter and research team.

Watch Learn More

On this day in 1954

On Odo Island, Dr Yamane discovered a trilobite embedded in the red clay left behind in Godzilla’s footprint along with radioactive strontium-90. The trilobite (三葉虫), a type of crustacean, was characteristic of the Biphlocatas layer of the Jurassic period and lived during the same era as Godzilla. Dr Yamane determined the Godzilla was a creature in the process of evolving from an aquatic reptile to a terrestrial beast. “Two million years ago, a giant beast, Godzilla hid in the depths of the ocean unexplored by humans, or even in an undersea cave, and survived until today.” 1954 Trilobite Model

Journal with Odo Island photos and Trilobite research

In print on this day

‘Godzilla’ returns to basics in 1985 edition

The less you see of Godzilla, the more you want to see.

That’s the rule the Tokyo-based Toho film studio established with its first scaly-monster thrillers in the 1950s, but then violated with poor sequels.

As had been the case with Universal Pictures’ Frankenstein Monster and wrestler-actor Tor Johnson’s mountainous film brute, overfamiliarity made a clown of Godzilla.

It’s back to basics with Godzilla 1985, whose makers show the sense to keep their skyscraper dinosaur off the screen until reasonably late in the game. For fans who can’t do without a good early scare, the film presents some slimy dinosaur parasites to make a meal off crew members on a ship that Godzilla has wrecked.

Godzilla 1985 may be a very good film in the Japanese cut. The American edition reflects brilliant trick cinematography and miniature cityscapes and really scary close-ups of the beast, and it retains a classy musical score performed by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. But the translation to English often becomes unbearably foolish, indulging in superfluous dialogue to describe events better told by the cameras.

Godzilla 1985

Godzilla

Godzilla 1985 (New World/Toho)

WITH: Raymond Burr, Keiju
Kobayashi, Ken Takana, Yasuko Sawaguchi.

OPENING DATE: Today.

AT THESE THEATERS: Cinema V and Wedgwood in Fort Worth; Forum 6, Loews Lincoln and Loews 20 & 287 in Arlington: North Hills in North Richland Hills.

RATED: PG, violent action and a few shocks; no ugly language.

In the U.S. footage, Raymond Burr reprises his part from the ’50s original as a news reporter who had covered the creature’s first rampage and is called upon to help fight the revived menace. The role presents little challenge to so capable an actor, but Burr makes it more than a caricature.

Toho conceived Godzilla (whose name means “go-rilla-whale”) as a fantastic embodiment of nuclear horrors. Even in its drastically re-cut English-language edition, the original Godzilla, King of the Monsters remains a frightening cautionary tale about consequences of tampering with the atom.

Godzilla 1985 resurrects the monster as an angry juggernaut, hungry to feed off waste from a power-plant reactor. The only conclusive means of stopping its onslaught is a warhead that raises spectres of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

But the story wisely avoids the deployment of nuclear weaponry and allows the Japanese to lure the monster into a volcano. We may suspect that Godzilla is too tough to let an inconvenience like this stop it for long.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram • Friday, August 23, 1985 • See Original

As hoped, Godzilla is returning to New York Comic Con. Godzilla Minus Zero will have its own dedicated behind-the-scenes panel. In attendance will be producer Kazuaki Kishida, VFX team member Tatsuji Nojiiman and two members of the sound team, Natsuko Inoue and Hisashi Takeuchi. The production team will give fans new updates, a look behind the scenes, exclusive visuals and sound reveals. The panel will be held at the Javits Center in Manhattan on Saturday, October 10, 12:30pm to 1:30pm ET in Room 405. Get there and be in line early. At NYCC 2024, we were in line and reached the entrance but were denied entrance because the room reached capacity. But my close encounter with Director Yamazaki made up for that. Hope to see you there! Learn More | Photo: Panel line in 2024

And They’re Here

A day later and the whole McDonald’s “Hello Kitty and Friends Godzilla” gang arrives at my door: 1) Hello Kitty X Godzilla, 2) Keroppi X King Ghidorah, 3) My Melody X Mothra, 4) Pompompurin X Gigan, 5) Kuromi X MechaGodzilla, 6) Cinnamoroll X Destoroyah, 7) Badtz-Maru X Rodan and 8) Chococat X SpaceGodzilla. Check out the commercial!

Hello Kitty and Friends Godzilla McDonald's Happy Meal Toys

Breaking News

Monster Maker Shinichi Wakasa “Apparently, there’s a Godzilla project in the works that even I don’t know about. I’m looking forward to it.” — Shinichi Wakasa

Source: 若狭新一 @shinichiwakasa
Photo: Burning Millennium Godzilla Suit Project

Original Japanese
自分も知らないゴジラ企画が進んでいるんだって。楽しみだね」

McDonald's Hello Kitty Godzilla Collaboration

You can guess where I had lunch today… McDonald’s. Yup, I didn’t go for the food, but for Godzilla and Hello Kitty and Friends Happy Meal. Although I didn’t get the King, I got No. 2 with 3 heads, Keroppi King Ghidorah. I don’t frequent fast food so I bought the entire set on eBay. Happy Collecting!

Godzilla Close Encounters

In Japan, you can’t get away from Godzilla who is every and found in every size. Godzilla is waiting for you at airports, beaches, cinema, department stores, events, expos, exhibits, gardens, hotels, iconic locations, museums, street corners, squares, subways, tourist spots, toy shops and more. Get out your phone and let Godzilla strike a pose for that up close and personal look at the King.

Godzilla Encounter

Tokyo Metropolitan Daigo Fukuryū Maru Exhibition Hall “Ishiro Honda: Messages in Film”「本多猪四郎~映画に込めたメッセージ~」 event flyer

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Director Ishiro Honda, the Tokyo Metropolitan Daigo Fukuryu Maru Exhibition Hall held the Ishiro Honda: Messages in Film”「本多猪四郎~映画に込めたメッセージ~」event on this day, August 19, 2011. The Lucky Dragon No 5 inspired Godzilla (1954) in which the director “depicted the ‘terror of nuclear weapons’ and ‘anger toward war,’ drawing upon the backdrop of the Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident and the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Transcending the boundaries of mere entertainment, the film embodies a wish for a nuclear-free world and serves as a powerful warning against the unchecked runaway of science and technology.” Learn More | Visit the Lucky Dragon

In print on this day

On Screen

The Japanese rescue Godzilla from Hollywood.

The big lizard is back

Godzilla 2000

Directed by Takao Okawara, written by Hiroshi Kashiwabara and Wataru Minura. With Takehiro Murata, Hiroshi Abe, and Naomi Nishida.
Dubbed in English.

Running time: 1 hour, 37 mins.

Parent’s guide: PG (giant monsters wreaking havoc, mild profanity)

Playing at: area theaters

Godzilla 2000 Millennium (The Philadelphia Inquirer, Friday, August 18, 2000, p 102)

Godzilla (right) does battle against another behemoth in “Godzilla 2000.” With cheesy effects and jokey English dubbing, the Japanese-made feature is an improvement over Hollywood’s 1998 effort.

By Steven Rea

Inquirer Movie Critic

It lumbers out of the sea, its spiky tail slicing skyscrapers in half, big clawed feet squashing automobiles like tin cans, its eyes looking fierce and soulful and — well, really, really fake.

In Godzilla 2000, the humongo reptile of Japanese cinema is back, terrorizing innocent citizens and giving the military a reason to call up its high-tech tanks and jet fighters. (They’re useless, of course, but you’ve got to give it a shot, right?) An enjoyable throwback to the way monster movies used to be made (cheesy effects, and dialogue to go with’em), Godzilla 2000 is the 23d such film from Tokyo’s Toho Studios, and it goes a long way toward rehabilitating the radioactive behemoth so sadly sullied by Hollywood in Roland Emmerich’s bloated 1998 snoozer, Godzilla.

In this installment, the firebreathing gargantuan comes face to face with what appears to be, at first, a flying chrome-plated bedpan designed by Alessi. This curious object, sprung from the ocean’s depths after a 60-million-year snooze, mystifies freaked-out populace – and then shape-shifts into an enormous ripoff of the monster from Alien. Godzilla and Orga, as the production notes call this creature (darned if I heard anybody call it that in the movie, go at it, toppling power lines and making a mess of the city’s noodle houses.

Godzilla 2000, which features a husband, wife and their kid racing around town in a van, Twister-style, tracking the monster, is dubbed into English in a manner that’s occasionally too jokey for its own good. (Maybe the writers were auditioning for Mystery Science Theater 2000? But there are some classic lines, none more so than the film’s last – a piece of priceless philosophizing that’s too profound to give away here.

Steven Rea’s e-mail address is …@phillynews.com

The Philadelphia Inquirer • Friday, August 18, 2000 • See Original

“Godzilla isn’t exactly a cute character, nor does he have the stylish look of American monsters. Yet, he’s a unique character who has enjoyed enduring support ever since his debut… As I kept filming, my love for Godzilla deepened.”

“My Feelings for Godzilla: Koichi Kawakita and Godzilla”
September 25, 2011

Gendai Kanae (叶弦大), composter of Monster March (All Monsters Attack, 1969) On this day was born Gendai Kano (叶弦大, August 16, 1938), who composed the theme song “Monster March” for All Monster Attack (aka Godzilla’s Revenge, 1969).

Listen Read Lyrics

My Saturday TV

On this weekend Saturday, August 18, 1979, we were in front of our TVs ready to watch Godzilla. This week on Godzilla Super 90: “Magnetic Terror.” The pilot of an airplane, sucked into a magnetic storm, parachutes to safety and is rescued by the Calico. Wynn discovers the magnetic storm is caused by a monster that consumes all metal.

My Saturday TV

(Notice) Call for Extras for the Movie “Godzilla”

Following a rigorous selection process, we are pleased to invite you to appear as an extra in the movie “Godzilla.” Please report to the designated meeting point—Nishi-Shinjuku Metropolitan Government Building No. 4—at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, August 14.
(Please refer to the map below.)

Please be sure to bring this postcard with you on the day of the shoot, as it will serve as your admission ticket at the reception desk. A token of appreciation will be provided after filming concludes in exchange for this postcard, so please keep it with you until the end. (Note: As this is a night shoot, we ask that small children be accompanied by a parent or guardian.)

We look forward to meeting you at the venue.

mockup extras map

Toho Pictures, Inc. – Toho Godzilla Club Secretariat

Lightning, SuperX, Extras

On this day, Toho’s main production unit shot a crowd scene featuring 2,000 extras in the Shinjuku sub-center where the current Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building was planned to be built. Fans from the Godzilla Club also gathered to participate. Godzilla Fan Club members who were selected by a lottery, were invited by postcard to appear as extras in Godzilla (1984). At 6:00 pm on Tuesday, August 14th, at Nishi-Shinjuku Toyu No. 4. Attendees received a limited-edition T-shirt, along with a generous package of perks that included an invitation to a preview screening and two movie tickets in exchange for the postcard after the shooting was over. The extras can be seen fleeing on the theatrical poster and movie ticket. Learn More | Godzilla Club | Godzilla 84 Places

Breaking News

The key visual for Godzilla Fest 2026, featuring Godzilla Minus Zero, has been revealed. Godzilla Fest is the annual event celebrating Godzilla’s birth, will be held on November 3. More Info

Today the story of Godzilla begins. The outside world learns of the Legend of Odo Island when an S.0.S. goes out from the sinking Eiko Maru.

Godzilla (1954) Timeline