Launched in 1997 as a promotion for Bandai's recent lines of vinyl Godzilla toys and running untill 1998, Godzilla Island follows a team of humans created by the government in the year 2097, known as G-Guard, who have managed to gather Earth's kaiju onto an island somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean they call Godzilla Island. However, the island is also the focal point of a group of aliens, lead by Zagreth, who send out various monsters to take the island by force or attempt to sabotage G-Guard's operations. Inevitably, Godzilla and his allies end up in a fight with Zagreth's latest monster, and G-Guard must keep themselves safe from sabotage. Whilst not in the midst of crisis, G-Guard's primary goal is to study the monsters in their own habitat and learn more about the island's inhabitants, but a lot of events come up that endanger G-Guard and the monsters, forcing them to work together and fend off the threat.
In March of 2023, Toho started an official English subtitled release on the Official Godzilla YouTube channel.
Godzilla Island has examples of the following tropes:
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Godzilla, unlike his other incarnations, is completely good here. This remains true when compared to his Showa incarnation, who, while was one of the most heroic incarnations prior to these series, still started out as a villain.
- The same thing applies to other Kaijus, such as Rodan, Anguirus, Baragon and Gorosaurus.
- The most notable example is Gigan. In the Showa series, he's a Sadist who takes great pleasure in harming Godzilla and always plays dirty. Here? He's honorable and prefers to fight fair, and isn't shown taking any form of sadistic pleasure. He even pulls a Heel–Face Turn to boot!
- Adaptational Villainy: Battra in his debut appearance was the protector of Earth, attacking humanity only because of his Knight Templar views, but he was still willing to form an Enemy Mine with Mothra against bigger threats. Here, he is an evil Kaiju in service of Zaguresu and has no qualms about letting aliens invade or even destroy the Earth.
- Alien Invasion: Oh yes.
- And Another Thing...: The Great Dark Emperor is fond of this. Especially when his subordinates are badmouthing him.
- Back from the Dead:
- In the tenth arc, Destoroyah and Megalon are inexplicably alive again and in 'monster jail'. The commander says the science center revived them to see if they could be rehabilitated into allies. This does not turn out to be the best idea.
- SpaceGodzilla, after previously haunting Godzilla as a ghost in the ninth arc, gets revived in a new physical body in the seventeenth arc, now known as Super-Special SpaceGodzilla High Grade Type Two.
- Big Bad: Zaguresu and later Landes, for G-Guard, and Dororin for the kaiju.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: The commander in the latter half of the seventh arc.
- Breather Episode: The eighth arc is basically Torema and Lucas talking to each other about themselves, the island, and events that have already happened.
- Broke Episode: A large part of the seventh arc is about how utterly in debt Zagreth and her invasion force are, despite being successful planetary conquerors. She's so broke her spaceship is out of fuel, so in debt she can't take out a new loan from the space bank, and her existing funds aren't enough to even afford a functioning super kaiju from the Kaiju Vending Machine. Her superior, Giant Dark Emperor literally has to come bail her out, both financially and from a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from the commander (piloting the very kaiju she bought earlier) and Torema.
- Canon Foreigner: Gororin, a giant cactus ball, was an original creation for the show. Kumasogami from Yamato Takeru was renamed "Dororin", but remained otherwise intact aside from the figure's paint scheme.
- Canon Immigrant: Gigan's eye beams, which were never explicitly shown in any of his films up to this point. Kumasogami and Dogora, as well.
- Complexity Addiction: Some of Zagreth 's plots can feel like this. Most blatant is in the tenth arc where she makes and parks an artificial sun over the island to create an unbearable heat wave and weaken the native kaiju over several days. However, as the artificial sun is too dangerously hot to approach, one wonders why Zagreth didn't just drop it on the island as a weapon.
- Courtroom Episode: Believe it or not, Godzilla gets put on trial in the third arc.
- Credits Gag: In the ninth story arc, the narrator starts going into a dramatic 'tune in next time' spiel during a tense standoff between Mechagodzilla, Moguera, and the arc's villain kaiju, only to get cut off by the villain blasting Moguera and starting the fight right then.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Several
- In the first episode, Zagreth ’s spaceship takes out Moguera, Mechagodzilla, and Jet Jaguar with one shot each.
- Destoroyah appears at the end of the fourth story arc and proceeds to beat up Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and Moguera all at the same time without really seeming to exert himself. It takes a lucky shot and a Deus ex Machina to beat him.
- When Hedorah appears, it unleashes a toxic cloud that drops just about every kaiju on the island, including Godzilla, without any fanfare whatsoever.
- A Brainwashed and Crazy commander manages to subdue and Shock Collar all the kaiju of the island offscreen.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Torema is a survivor of a planet destroyed by the Xillians. Her people were friends with a Godzilla-like race who were brainwashed by the Xillians into attacking. Torema was forced to kill her best friend Jigollu in the attack before fleeing the planet.
- Dogpile Of Doom: A heroic example occurs in the climax of the seventh arc when the kaiju all pile onto Mecha Ghidorah at the same time.
- Embarrassing First Name: The commander's full name is Jinguji Beisukenote , the latter of which can be anagrammed into 'sukebe', roughly meaning 'pervert'note .
- Greater-Scope Villain: Giant Dark Emperor, leader of the aliens who is behind Zagreth and Landes' attacks.
- Healing Spring: Rodan airlifts Godzilla to one after he loses a fight early in the series. His opponent, Gigan, also has to make use of the springs.
- Heel–Face Turn: Gigan undergoes one by the end of his arc.
- Played for Laughs when Dogora gets fired and sent to Heaven, treating it like a Fate Worse than Death.
- Innocent Aliens: Torema, a benevolent alien whose home planet got destroyed by King Ghidorah controlled by Zagreth . She assists G-Guard to not let Earth meet the same fate.
- Kill It with Fire: Mothra's dying act is to throw Hedorah into the magma of an active volcano. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.
- Long Runner: Lasted for 256 episodes at three minutes each over the course of two years.
- Makes Just as Much Sense in Context: The Kaiju Vending Machine that is just floating in the middle of space and produces original kaiju Hyper Mecha King Ghidorah. Easily the most ridiculous thing in the entire Godzilla franchise.
- Merchandise-Driven: Understandable, considering most of the monster scenes are done with the very vinyl figures being promoted.
- Minimalist Cast: The non-kaiju characters requiring actors can be counted on your fingers.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Neo Hedorah is a doppelganger of Hedorah fused with Matango mushrooms, capable of spewing fumes that result in Matango mushrooms growing all over the island, destroying the food supply, and even on other Kaiju, sapping their lifeforce.
- Mythology Gag: References abound to both the Showa and Heisei era of Toho films, some more obvious than others.
- Matango Island, which is home to mushrooms that can get kaiju drunk.
- Fake Godzilla gets injured, revealing a familiar metal pattern under its skin.
- Two of the island’s features are named after Gaira and Sanda. The island’s main mountain is named after the former and the plains where Godzilla fought Gigan is named after the latter.
- Necromancer: Dogora explicitly introduces itself as an 'agent of the underworld'. It summons the ghost of Space Godzilla to possess Godzilla and make him attack the rest of the kaiju.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In the sixth arc, Zaguresu sets off a plot to release a poison cloud over Godzilla Island. Torema then proceeds to trick her into neutralizing it.
- Noble Demon: Gigan starts off as this, as he never goes out of his way to hurt anyone and always plays fair, even when dueling Godzilla.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Considering the short nature of the episodes, this happens a few times.
- In the third arc, the commander orders the Super-X to arrest Godzilla. The very next shot is of Godzilla in handcuffs and behind bars.
- In the seventh story arc, Torema goes on a walk to figure out how to deal with a Brainwashed and Crazy commander. She doesn't even finish her walk before the commander has managed to Shock Collar all of the kaiju on the island.
- Preacher Man: King Caesar is this for the kaiju.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Godzilla when possessed by the ghost of Space Godzilla.
- Showdown at High Noon: Zagreth challenges Torema to one of these at dawn with each piloting a Mechagodzilla. Surprising no one, Zagreth cheats.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Godzilla vs Gigan. Gigan wins.
- Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains: Gigan's a Type IV, through and through; he never does anything that could be remotely considered villainous, aside from having a dueling match with Godzilla (which even then, they both agreed upon). By the end of his arc, he leaves Earth on pleasant terms.
- Stock Footage: Anything done with the kaiju that’s not using the toy figures is spliced scenes from the Showa and Heisei era movies.
- The Alleged Car: Black Mechagodzilla is the kaiju version.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The series' plot is somewhat similar to Destroy All Monsters, just with G-Guard looking to study them in their own habitat instead of just leaving them totally to their own.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Inverted in that the entire series revolves around thwarting the alien invasion plan, stage one of which involves taking control of Earth's kaiju as part of their invasion force.
