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2) GIGANTIS THE FIRE MONSTER - ORIGINAL SHOWA SERIES 1954-1974. Given that in the previous part of the franchise only the skeleton was left of Godzilla, this sequel has no direct continuity. They simply don't address Godzilla’s resurrection, and take it as fact when at the beginning of the film it’s discovered by a fishing company plane on a deserted island. There are several reminiscences of the first one, with excerpts from it, and the main general and the scientist are played by the same actors. However, unlike the first one, this one lacks a long explanatory exposition. The fighting takes place in Osaka, with a monster named Anguirus, who looks like a cross between a lizard and a hedgehog. The UN offers help to the Japanese, and given the fact that the film was produced by Americans, a shot of the front page of a Japanese newspaper with the inch-high headlines AMERICA OFFERS HELP was mandatory. Ten years after Hiroshima, this is what I call a moral gesture :o). While the first one was straightforward, here they find time for a love triangle.

3) GODZILLA - KING OF THE MONSTERS! – ORIGINAL SHOWA SERIES 1954-1974. This is sometimes mistakenly considered the first Godzilla film. Basically, it’s Honda’s remake of his own first film, but for the American market. Honda used material from the first Godzilla (which makes up at least half of this film) and cut in newly filmed scenes with the character of an American journalist played by Raymond Burr, a start at the time, whose presence makes this film a bit different. Gone are the slightly anti-American allusions, the beginning is completely different, the original dialogue is horribly cut, and the original main characters have been almost eliminated at the expense of Burr. His presence, which fills about half of the film, really stands out like a sore thumb. His participation consists in the fact that he always looks gloomy and now and then says a word. It even went so far that in a hospital scene, where Burr is lying injured, Honda sent the two main characters from the original version after him, but since their performers couldn't be found to film those scenes, they are doubles, sitting with their backs to the camera the whole time. But the bottom line is that all the scenes without Burr are in fact footage from the first Godzilla, including the effects.

4) KING KONG vs. GODZILLA – ORIGINAL SHOWA SERIES 1954-1974. This episode was the turning point. Godzilla is no longer evil (temporarily) and it adds a considerable amount of infantilism and (unintentional) comedy, which Honda would develop in later works, with Fukuda taking it almost to the point of absurdity. The situational humour comes from the comic appearance of King Kong and his fights with Godzilla, which are hilarious. There are many memorable scenes: the octopus attack, Kong's first appearance, and the final King Kong vs. Godzilla fight, whose theatricality and childishness became a model for subsequent films. If you’re expecting some kind of monumentality in a fight between an ape and a lizard, proportional to their size, you are wrong. It looks pretty much like two wrestlers in costumes grappling each other, with kicking legs, shoving and a few judo moves. King Kong jumps at Godzilla but misses, hits his head on a rock and faints (!). Godzilla forgets that he can spew flames, so he tries to destroy the stunned Kong by pelting him with rocks, like dogs burying their excrement with their hind legs. Then lightning strikes King Kong near the end of the fight and he starts spewing electricity from his fingers, like the Emperor from Star Wars punishing Luke Skywalker; there are times that you come across something that goes beyond your imagination. The effects are funny, the dialogue is witty in the sense of "If we don't destroy Godzilla, he will destroy us", the performances are downright Dadaist and the whole thing is fun in an Ed Wood kind of way. I refuse to believe Ishiro Honda meant this seriously.

6) GODZILLA vs MOTHRA – ORIGINAL SHOWA SERIES 1954-1974. Of all Godzilla’s enemies, Mothra is the most fun. It has an interesting backstory (a divine origin, a mythical island, a refined appearance) and her children, her heralds and verbal contact with humanity (two little fairies in orange dresses with fur over their shoulders) always get me. Here, for the first time in the Godzilla franchise, they’re given space and use their sweet chant of "Mosuraja, Mosuraja" to convince Mothra to help humanity destroy Godzilla. What follows are many fights between Godzilla and Mothra, with humans, and with two larvae (which hatch from a giant egg washed up from the sea and hidden in a giant incubator), one of which bites Godzilla's tail and the other, hidden among the rocks ambushes him squirting a yellow gooey secretion. So, all in all, an enjoyable episode an ode to a plush moth, models of tanks, planes, helicopters, rocket launchers, and an island, all of which look like a picture in an issue of Watchtower, plus the overacting, lots of pathos and an ubiquitous serious tone :o)

7) GODZILLA vs MONSTER ZERO – ORIGINAL SHOWA SERIES 1954-1974. Godzilla in a slightly sci-fi vein. This time, almost all the plot revolves around aliens from Planet X (located near Jupiter) who are being terrorized by King Ghidorah (Monster Zero), a three-headed dragon that shoots rays and destroys everything in its path. In exchange for the instructions for a superdrug for all diseases, the Earthlings "lend" Godzilla and Rodan to the aliens to help them fight a great "historical" battle. Said battle consists of comically throwing rocks at each other, Ghidorah is defeated and Godzilla can start the dance of victory (!). If you're wondering what a dance like that looks like, well: Godzilla jumps, crosses his legs in one jump, one hand slams into his stomach, the other goes to his temple, like a soldier saluting, and on the second jump, the legs and arms switch sides, etc. There are a few more twists and turns in the plot, and eventually the inventor Tetsuo and his device whose sounds paralyze the aliens come into play. If destroying aliens with unpleasant sounds reminds you of something, then yes, you're right: Tim Burton's Mars Attack. All in all: not enough Godzilla, too many aliens and less fun on the creators account.

8) GODZILLA vs. THE SEA MONSTER – ORIGINAL SHOWA SERIES 1954-1974. Fukuda's first Godzilla directorial credit, which brings typical elements of his: mainly, poor special effects and bizarre plot twists, where the filmmaker, believing that the audience will eat everything up, throws whatever comes to mind at the screen. And so we have a bunch of castaways who discover on a deserted island the base of a terrorist group called "Red Bamboo", which produces a yellow mush in its nuclear facility to eliminate Ebirah, the giant crab that keeps the island in isolation. As if by sheer coincidence, the island is still home to Godzilla, buried under a pile of rocks, and Mothra, who’s awakened from her slumber by the natives to help them against the Red Bamboo, etc., etc. The typical Godzilla fights (wrestling-style grappling between monsters) are almost absent, Ebirah the wimp packs it after Godzilla bites off his claw, and Mothra – the saviour of humanity – is goodness itself. This title was included in the program of the the legendary Mystery Science Theater 3000, which I understand, but there are much more bizarre and, more importantly, entertaining Godzilla movies.

9) SON OF GODZILLA – ORIGINAL SHOWA SERIES 1954-1974. Simple in plot and yet (or maybe because of it) quite enjoyable. There are none of the typical plot twists, no aliens, no gigantic metropolis demolitions, just one island, a bunch of meteorologists and two new monsters: the giant mantis Kamacuras and the giant spider Kumonga, two of the most visually accomplished Godzilla adversaries of the Showa era. Naturally, this Fukuda entry could be cursed for one simple reason: it marks the first appearance of the fan-unloved Godzilla cub Minira, a chubby, bulging baby, who brings childishness and unnecessary farce to the franchise. Otherwise the film has nice visuals (the pretty tropical island scenery favours the camera), the studio sets are adorable, the special effects are again laughably naive in the context of the Showa series, and the fights are quite entertaining (Kumongo's sticky spider webs is a powerful weapon indeed). And as a bonus, there’s a Japanese supermodel playing an Amazon :)

10) GODZILLA – DESTROY ALL MONSTERS – ORIGINAL SHOWA SERIES 1954-1974. This time around, Honda mixed his favourite aliens, Godzilla, and all the monsters that had accompanied him throughout the franchise as adversaries or that had featured in some of the related TOHO films. It even plays on darker strings, including mass shootings between people, depictions of blood and suicide, which hadn't been the norm in this series so far. All the monsters, Godzilla included, are kept on Monster Island, which is taken over by the mysterious alien Kilaakas from a small planet between Mars and Jupiter, who uses mental control to send the monsters to the world's capitals. Rodan destroys Moscow, Baragan destroys Paris, Mothra is in Beijing, Manda (a newcomer in the form of a sea serpent) is in London, and finally Godzilla destroys New York. Of course, Tokyo also gets its due, with Rodan, Godzilla and Manda meeting there and razing the whole city to the ground (again). This whole bizarre spectacle culminates in a scene where all the Earth monsters fight against the cosmic King Ghidorah. The uninitiated viewer will get a proper meal out of this one, and the seasoned "Godzilla" crowd will get a kick, even though Honda is starting to be a shadow of its former glory years.

11) GODZILLA´S REVENGE – ORIGINAL SHOWA SERIES 1954-1974. The most infantile episode and a debasement of the Godzilla saga. The film follows the character of a young boy who in his dreams is transported to Monster Island, the home of Godzilla and all the monsters that had to do with him in previous films. The boy's guide on the island is Minira, Godzilla's son. It's hard to liken this creature to anything, it looks like a cross between a human, a gorilla, a lizard and God knows what else; it can talk, it's really fucking cute and just looking at it makes you laugh. Together with the boy, he watches his dad (Godzilla is said to be male) fight other monsters with passionate encouragement, interjecting now and then and letting his dad teach him how to whip the characteristic blue flame. In real life, outside his Godzilla dreams, the boy is inspired by Miniro's courage, remembers Godzilla's words that we should fight and not be cowards, defeats two thieves hiding at his house and beats up a boy who was mocking him. The infantile script is like something out of a kids show, obviously aimed at the youngest audience and with a hidden educational message: "You have to be brave and know how to defend yourself, look, Godzilla is not afraid either!" and the whole thing is about as witty as Pokémon.

12) GODZILLA vs. SMOG MONSTER – ORIGINAL SHOWA SERIES 1954-1974. In the context of the entire Godzilla's franchise, Banno's take is a unique achievement. Dark, bleak and at times even horrific (when the Japanese, killed by sulphur dioxide fumes, disintegrate into skeletons), with a strong environmental appeal. It’s a pleasant and welcome change from the infantile concept of Ishiro Honda and Jun Fukuda in particular. The central monster is Hedorah, a creature born from garbage and pollution that feeds on toxic fumes and inhales delicious smoke from factory chimneys. The fights with Godzilla are pleasantly uncompromising (with mutual eye gouging, for instance), and at the end Banno goes all in and even lets Godzilla rip the guts out of Hedorah to the tune of "Save the Earth". What's interesting is the discordant, at times almost psychedelic soundtrack, which gives the film a snazzy atmosphere. Too bad TOHO's buffoons were scared of such an uncompromising concept and Banno stayed with just one film.