What is this Heisei, Showa, multiple continuity stuff about?
A. The original Godzilla movie (Gojira Japan 1954, Godzilla: King of the Monsters USA 1956) was intended as a stand-alone project. But its success naturally prompted Toho studios to make sequels. From 1955 through 1975 Toho produced forteen Godzilla sequels. With the exception of Godzilla’s Revenge (1969, USA 1971), which had its monster elements set in the imagination of a small boy, the Godzilla movies form a (sometimes loose) continuity. For instance, the first sequel (Godzilla Raids Again 1955) explains that the Godzilla in the film isn’t the one that was destroyed in 1954, but a second creature of the same species. That film ends with the new Godzilla buried under an avalanche of ice and snow. The next sequel (King Kong vs Godzilla 1962, USA 1963) has Godzilla emerge from ice and snow. The continuity depicted in the 1955-1975 sequels is called the “Showa” series after the then-Emperor of Japan. Toho took nearly a decade off from making Godzilla movies, then decided to relaunch the
