Why hasn't there been a Godzilla anime?
Godzilla Forum Topic

BCrockett94
MemberMothra LarvaeOct 1, 20134741 Views8 RepliesNow, I'm not a big fan of anime, I do watch a few from time to time. The thought has crossed my mind on why there hasn't been a Godzilla anime. Does anyone have any idea why it hasn't happened yet? Godzilla is one of the most popular franchises that's from Japan. And anime is popular too. I'm not saying that it should or shouldnt be done, I'm just asking why TOHO hasn't done it yet.
Replies

Durp004October 01, 2013
I've actually thought this when i was younger and I've been able to come up with 2 possible reasons.
Now I don't watch anime very often, i've only seen the 1s that have gotten popular in the US and a few that got licensed and put on youtube so this may be an incorrect, uneducated view. I think the main reason is the storyline. Most animes that I've seen and from what i understand is a very common anime concept is random guy finds something powerful gets thrown into a world that he's not used to and is forced to be a part of it because of the power, info, ect that he gained in usually the first episode, and this wouldn't really work with a godzilla story, unless they catered widely to a younger audience and had godzilla befriend said main character. So i think a story for godzilla would be very difficult to come up with from an anime standpoint unless they were just going for the monster of the week plot in which case the american godzilla did that very well.
The second reason i could come up with is that toho would have to license godzilla to an anime company and either let the company come up with it's own story and possibly misuse the character, or pay the company a lot to basically make a 20 episode anime rehash of the movies that have come out which would somewhat be a waste of money as i'm sure godzilla movies are much easier to come by over there than in the US and other countries.
Those are the main reasons I could come up with, besides toho just only wanting godzilla be be in movies for the time being.

BCrockett94October 02, 2013
That's actually a good point. Like I said, I haven't really gotten into anime, but it just confused me as to why that never happened. However, I don't think they necessarily need to make the main character befriend Godzilla. It can be something like the main character trying to survive an encounter with Godzilla. Not like an anime series, but maybe a movie (Like Spirited Away). But I do see where you're coming from with the having to pay tons of money to license Godzilla and to keep it from being misused.

kaijudinosaurfan12345October 31, 2013
here's my Godzilla anime the monsters are running wild and the world builds jet jaguar and super mechagodzilla to combat this threat the story centers around a super mutant like from Godzilla final wars who pilots the machines
godzillafanatic312December 06, 2013
Thats a very good point. Why didn't toho make an anime about Godzilla!

G. H. (Gman)December 07, 2013
I remember this question being brought up a lot during the late 90s and early 2000s. The reason I remember at the time was that Toho felt Godzilla was too big for the small screen. They also probably did not want to compete with Ultraman which was extremely popular at the time and pretty much eclipsing Godzilla's popularity.
Then the question was asked, "Why not an anime movie?" Well at the time the Millennium series was underway, so Toho probably didn't want to spend resources on a Godzilla anime that would compete with the live action version of the character.
It didn't matter either way though since the Millennium series was mostly considered a boxoffice failure. And with Godzilla and other tokusatsu dead/dying in Japan today I doubt they'd want to try an anime now.
The fact is, at this point, Toho would rather have someone else do the work for them and make money off the character, ala, Legendary Pictures.
"'Nostalgic' does not equal 'good,' and 'standards' does not equal 'elitism.'" "Being offended is inevitable. Living offended is your choice."
Wolfgar14July 17, 2016
I'm currently watching the anime Assassination Classroom, great funny anime, and there's a scene that takes place in a sort of dream sequence with a giant fish kaiju like creature. Then I thought of the Godzilla anime question. Anyways, the monster looked amazing and I think that a Godzilla anime could do well. Giant monster fights every episode with new and unexpected things. Maybe new creatures too. It doesn't need to be canon and it would just be great to watch.




