History YMMV / GodzillaVsKingGhidorah

** Discussed in-universe in regards to the Godzillasaurus saving Shindo's platoon from the American soldiers during World War II: Was it really trying to rescue them as Shindo feverently believes or was it simply defending its territory?

** How "evil" the American soldiers on Lagos Island are is also up for debate. They arguably only attack the Godzillasaurus out of self defense, and upon retreating from the island, sympathetically note that the Japanese troops are in rough shape anyway and hardly need any more bombardment, especially with a giant dinosaur already on the loose. How "good" Shindo in his men are is likewise questionable, since Shindo ended up secretly building a ''nuclear-armed submarine'' out of his desire to protect Japan.

* NarmCharm: M-11 chasing Emmy and Terasawa, in which he's able to steer a car down a straight road despite having his upper body completely outside the car, rips off his burning jacket with no reaction after he flips the car and it catches on fire, and runs at an incredible speed grinning awkwardly as a vibraphone plays in the background.

** Discussed in-universe in regards to the Godzillasaurus saving Shindo's platoon from the American soldiers during World War II: Was it really trying to rescue them as Shindo feverantly believes or was it simply defending it's territory?

* TearJerker: Shindo's final moments with Godzilla. After going out of his way to charge Godzilla with nuclear missiles (despite Godzilla going off-radar, unaware he still exists), he still sees him as his savior in World War II, giving a tearful salute. And when Godzilla rampages, he and Godzilla look at each other, with the big guy recogizing him. Shindo then accepts his fate, allowing his "suicide by Godzilla".

* FridgeLogic:
** Futurians needed to bring 1992 era humans along in their mission to 1944... why exactly? They do everything themselves anyway and they already know from that book where they can find Godzillasaurus.
*** Mainly to let them witness the events that would come. No one hasn't seen Godzilla before he mutated except those soldiers.
** No matter how you view the time travel, you get some fridge logic. If you believe that the Futurians successfully rewrote history, then you have to wonder why the world still remembers Godzilla after he's been erased from the past. If you believe that the Futurians instead create a StableTimeLoop, then you realize that surely they'd be aware their plan was doomed, because there would be clear historical records of Ghidorah's defeat and Godzilla's resurrection. Of course, somehow the old man Emmie enlists to [[spoiler:build Mecha-Ghidorah]] has never heard of the battle, but that just raises further questions.

** The English version contains one of the most bizarre statements ever. After seeing Godzilla kill King Ghidorah, some of the characters watching the battle notice Godzilla is starting to walk towards the city. In response, Prof. Mazaki shouts "Just look at that thing! It's not going to be friendly to us!". This suggests that he believes that if something is large in size, it's instantly evil. [[RightForTheWrongReasons He's right about Godzilla not being friendly, but still, such a nonsensical statement is strange]].

* WhatAnIdiot: The Futurians. They decide to go back in time and erase Godzilla from history as to prevent him from destroying the rest of Japan.
** '''You’d Expect:''' The Futurians go back to 1944 with some kind of advanced weapon that could permanently kill the Godzillasaur once and for all, or let the thing bleed to death after it was badly wounded.
** '''Instead:''' They teleport the Godzillasaur out from Lagos Island and into the ocean, still in 1944.
** '''The Result:''' The Godzillasaur doesn’t die and it lives in the ocean, healing its wounds in peace until a nuclear submarine passes by in the 1970’s and the creature feeds off the radiation, thus creating the Heisei Godzilla seen ''[[Film/TheReturnOfGodzilla from the very beginning of this era]]''. [[spoiler:Although the Futurians are the villains of the movie,]] them creating the very creature they set out to kill wasn’t part of their master plan.

* NarmCharm: M-11 chasing Emmy and Terasawa, in which he's able to steer a car down a straight road despite having his upper body completely outside the car so he can try to grab Terasawa’s door handle, rips off his burning jacket with no reaction after he flips the car and it catches on fire, and runs at an incredible speed grinning awkwardly as a vibraphone plays in the background.

* NarmCharm: M-11 chasing Emmy and Terasawa, in which he's able to steer a car down a straight road despite having his upper body completely outside the car, rips off his jacket with no reaction after it catches fire, and runs at an incredible speed grinning awkwardly as a vibraphone plays in the background.

* BadassDecay: Ghidorah was the most powerful foe Godzilla faced in the 1960s, requiring the efforts of 2-3 monsters to drive off in his [[Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster first]] [[Film/InvasionOfAstroMonster two]] appearances. He was already starting to lose his edge a bit in the 70s when Godzilla and Anguirus were able to beat him and [[Film/GodzillaVsGigan Gigan]] at the same time, but ''Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah'' is when he really started to decline as a serious threat. Godzilla slaughters him in their first fight, and nearly wins their second fight despite Ghidorah having cybernetic enhancements. In every one of his subsequent film appearances, he's lost to Godzilla (and sometimes [[Film/RebirthOfMothra3 Mothra!]]) in one-on-one fights, rather than needing a team to bring him down, and he's often outright killed rather than fleeing.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Did Godzilla kill [[spoiler:Shindo]] out of anger at [[spoiler:being left to die by him]]? Or was it because [[spoiler:he knew Shindo wanted to die]]? Did he actually recognize or even remember [[spoiler:Shindo]] or was it all in [[spoiler:Shindo]]'s head? Would Godzilla have just destroyed that building, regardless of who was standing there?

* CompleteMonster: [[WesternTerrorists Chuck Wilson]], the leader of the Futurians, was paranoid about [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japan becoming an economic superpower]], and so hatches a mad plan to ensure this never happens. First, he takes a time machine, along with his allies Glenchiko, Emi Kano, and a small army of androids. Then, he takes three genetically engineered creatures called Dorats with him to the past, in 1991. [[ManipulativeBastard Convincing Japan's government to aid him with lies about Godzilla]], he has his lackeys travel to the past, and attempt to [[RetGone remove Godzilla from history]]. When they fail, Emi, on Wilson's orders, leaves the three Dorats behind, where they are hit by a nuclear explosion, absorbing the radiation and becoming forcibly fused together into the Heisei [[Characters/GodzillaTheGhidorahs King Ghidorah]]. In the present, Wilson takes control of King Ghidorah and directs it like a living WMD. It destroys an entire city and kills hundreds of people under his orders, before flying to Hokkaido next, destroying everything in its path. Eventually, Japan has no choice but to bring Godzilla back, making Wilson indirectly responsible for all the evil Godzilla does in future movies. Wilson, showing no remorse for all the lives he's taken, just gloats that either Ghidorah will destroy Japan, or Godzilla will do it for him.

* FridgeLogic: Futurians needed to bring 1992 era humans along in their mission to 1944... why exactly? They do everything themselves anyway and they already know from that book where they can find Godzillasaurus.
** Mainly to let them witness the events that would come. No one hasn't seen Godzilla before he mutated except those soldiers.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Many viewers both outside of and inside in Japan criticized the depiction of WesternTerrorists (implied to be Americans at that) creating King Ghidorah simply to destroy Japan. Furthermore, the concept of Pacific War-era Japanese soldiers being portrayed in positive light caused some backlash. The director has gone on record that the movie is not meant to be pro or anti anything, and the depictions were simply for the sake of telling the story.

** While the Ghidorah suit is very impressive on the ground, the flying effects leave much to be desired, especially compared to how good similar scenes looked in the Showa-era movies decades earlier. Ghidorah appears to fly extremely slowly and barely flap his wings, and shots where his shadow is superimposed over location footage of various Japanese cities look exactly like what they are...a 2D element slapped over footage.

* BadassDecay: Ghidorah was the most powerful foe Godzilla faced in the 1960s, requiring the efforts of 2-3 monsters to drive off in his [[Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster first]] [[Film/InvasionOfAstroMonster two]] appearances. He was already starting to lose his edge a bit in the 70s when Godzilla and Anguirus were able to beat him and [[Film/ GodzillaVsGigan Gigan]] at the same time, but ''Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah'' is when he really started to decline as a serious threat. Godzilla slaughters him in their first fight, and nearly wins their second fight despite Ghidorah having cybernetic enhancements. In every one of his subsequent film appearances, he's lost to Godzilla (and sometimes [[Film/RebirthOfMothra3 Mothra!]]) in one-on-one fights, rather than needing a team to bring him down, and he's often outright killed rather than fleeing.

* BadassDecay: Ghidorah was the most powerful foe Godzilla faced in the 1960s, requiring the efforts of 2-3 monsters to drive off in his first two appearances. He was already starting to lose his edge a bit in the 70s when Godzilla and Anguirus were able to beat him and Gigan at the same time, but ''Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah'' is when he really started to decline as a serious threat, as Godzilla slaughters him in their first fight, and nearly wins their second fight despite Ghidorah having cybernetic enhancements. In every one of his subsequent film appearances, he's lost to Godzilla (and sometimes [[Film/RebirthOfMothra3 Mothra!]]) in one-on-one fights, rather than needing a team to bring him down, and he's often outright killed rather than fleeing.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: despite some ropey effects regarding M-11 and Ghidorah's flying scenes, overall this is a visually impressive installment in the series, and netted Koichi Kawakita a Japanese Academy Award for his FX work. All of the monster suits and puppets look great, with the "Godzilla B" suit in particular being a fan favorite. There are tons of great pyrotechnics, some really effective composite shots of the UFO, and

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: despite some ropey effects regarding M-11 and Ghidorah's flying scenes, overall this is a visually impressive installment in the series, and netted Koichi Kawakita a Japanese Academy Award for his FX work. All of the monster suits and puppets look great, with the "Godzilla B" suit in particular being a fan favorite. There are tons of great pyrotechnics, some really effective composite shots of the UFO, and

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Ironically, this film won for special effects. The SFX failure in question is when Emi Kano is using her jetpack, a rather unstably zoomed matte shot.

* ValuesDissonance: The sympathetic portrayal of World War II Japanese military personnel has gotten some heavy criticism in the West and even more in Asian countries invaded or colonized by Japan, areas that tend to view such portrayals as [[HistoricalHeroUpgrade whitewashing]].

** Discussed in-universe in regards to the Godzillasaurus saving Shindo's platoon from the American soldiers during World War II: Was it deliberately rescuing them as Shindo feverantly believes or was it simply defending it's territory?

** JapanTakesOverTheWorld by becoming the richest nation...despite being in an economic downturn that's lasted two decades as of 2014!

* WhatAnIdiot: The Futurians. They decide to go back in time and erase Godzilla from history as to prevent it from destroying the rest of Japan.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: Many viewers outside of Japan criticized the depiction of WesternTerrorists (implied to be Americans at that) creating King Ghidorah simply to destroy Japan. Furthermore, the concept of Pacific War-era Japanese soldiers being portrayed in positive light caused some backlash. The director has gone on record that the movie is not meant to be pro or anti anything, and the depictions were simply for the sake of telling the story.

* MisaimedFandom: Shindo [[spoiler:accepting death by Godzilla was his way of redeeming himself after dooming the very country he helped build after World War II]] is often cited as one of the most emotional and tear jerking scenes in the series. Despite this, there’s a good sized portion of the fanbase that claims it’s a comedic scene, believing it was funny how [[spoiler:Shindo thought he and Godzilla would be friends.]]