YMMV / Godzilla: The Series

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Was Nick actually serious about placing Mendel in charge of HEAT or was he just joking?
• Character Rerailment: Though he has a bit more in common with the Hanna Barbera Godzilla, this Godzilla is much more closer to his Toho counterpart instead of his father who was a Cowardly Lion who could get shot down.
• Complete Monster: Cameron Winter takes control of Godzilla and makes him destroy properties so he can collect insurance money, even making Godzilla attack a military base and endanger the lives of 500 soldiers. Defeated by H.E.A.T., Cameron returns for revenge and creates a giant monster called the Chameleon to have it attack humans and frame Godzilla for the attacks, before having the Chameleon defeat and kill Godzilla so Cameron can be seen as a hero for creating the thing that kills Godzilla. Foiled again, Cameron breaks three men out of prison and equips them with battle mechs to kill Godzilla, ordering them to also attack H.E.A.T. and the military when they get in the way. Though the hunters are defeated, Cameron denies any connection with them and claims they stole his mechs and attacked Godzilla on their own.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • N.I.G.E.L. is quite popular, with him being a genuinely hilarious Comic Relief voiced by a pre-SpongeBob Tom Kenny.
  • Several of the recurring or one-off kaiju are very popular, such as C-Rex, Komodo, and King Cobra.
  • Then, of course, there's Monique, for obvious reasons.
• Fan Nickname: This one's nickname is "Toonzilla." "Junior" is also used, but "Zilla, Jr." when having to differentiate from "Godzilla, Jr."
• Fan-Preferred Couple: The fandom may not be huge compared to other fandoms, but Nick and Elsie is considered to have more chemistry than Nick and Audrey or Mendel and Elsie by several who watch the show.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The series, unlike the film it preceded from, is well-loved in Japan that even Toho loves the series.
  • In Serbia, where Godzilla as a franchise tanks horribly on regular basis, the series was popular enough to become one of only four American cartoons in history to be given a Serbian language dub. Particularly notable was that the entire series was given this, which had only happened once before. Ever.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • From the episode "Future Shock", Randy's line of "Who's been playing dominoes with the World Trade Center?"
    • Almost as bad is seeing Sears/Willis Tower crumbling down in an almost identical fashion in "Metamorphosis".
  • The episode "S.C.A.L.E." treats the idea of terrorists willing to bring widespread death and destruction much more laxly than any media (never mind media with children as its intended audience) in the post-9/11 world would certainly allow. The antagonist at the end, despite having plans that surely would have led to hundreds, if not thousands of deaths, is even allowed to release a document that she explicitly says will help spread their cause and is given a filmed interview with the media after being arrested.
  • And speaking of S.C.A.L.E., their endgame is eerily similar to the plot of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) where they intend to release the monsters from their imprisonment, which in no doubt would cause a massive global-scale destruction as seen in Monster Wars three-parter to the point that Godzilla was needed to intervene before more destruction happens. Luckily, King Ghidorah doesn't exist in this universe so there's a sigh of relief. Unless you consider Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack! part of this universe, but with an eviler undead Godzilla instead of Ghidorah.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • This Sony Pictures-produced series features a monster named the Crackler. Sony would later purchase the streaming service Crackle and owned it for 10 years.
  • The plot of "Future Shock" is basically Reign of Fire with some Time Travel thrown in.
  • Also, the next time Sony Pictures Television created an animated series with dragons and other bizarre creatures (about a year after this one), it was pretty much the antithesis of this show...
  • Speaking of Godzilla references, in one arc the original 'Zilla, from the film, is resurrected and is used to fight against the new Godzilla. Funnily enough, that's pretty much the origin of Kiryu.
  • "An Early Frost" has a group of soldiers tracking down the Chameleon, only to be ambushed by it when it is revealed to have camouflage abilities. The same thing happens to the Asset Containment Unit sent to recapture the Indominus Rex in Jurassic World.
  • "Shafted" feature Mae Whitman and Robbie Rist as the voice of two Siblings, the two would later star in Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012).
  • The Gameboy Color adaptation of "Monster Wars" differs from the animated series in that Godzilla is never put under mind control and instead battles his way through the other mutations one at a time, who remain under the Leviathan aliens' control, which is pretty much the entire plot of Godzilla: Final Wars.
  • The Nanotech Creature is very similar to both Hedorah and Mechagodzilla City in the Godzilla anime trilogy. Like Hedorah, it is a colony of microorganisms created to consume pollution which went rogue almost immediately after being released. Like Mechagodzilla City, it consumes matter and converts it into more of itself.
• Just Here for Godzilla: The reason why this show was made. Considered better than the film nonetheless.
• More Popular Spin-Off: A number of entries on this very page should clue you in on how much so.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Did this to the original movie... sort of. The movie is still considered not good, but it made the characters from the film, and Zilla, Jr. himself, much improved from the original form, and powerful enough that they could call it Godzilla again, fixing his Meaningful Name as "God incarnate".
  • Nick is much better received as The Protagonist in this series than in the movie proper. Helps that he gets actually awesome moments, has character development and isn't just an awkward character that really annoyed people.
  • The original monster, as was stated previously, was not popular. He gets brought back from the dead as an alien-controlled cyborg monster, in one of the most memorable stories in the series.
• The Scrappy: Audrey is just as disliked here as she was in the movie. Probably doesn't help that she doesn't seem to have learned her lesson and to top it off comes across as really clingy and selfish.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • The series has quite a bit in common with The Godzilla Power Hour: a team of scientists travelling around the world on a Cool Ship (bonus points for the Heat-Seeker having a hydrofoil mode for high-speed travel, just like the Calico) who can summon Godzilla with an audio signal, a heroic Godzilla that heavily deviates from standard depictions of the character (both in appearance and abilities), and a Monster of the Week format that pits Godzilla against all manners of giant monsters.
  • Alienators: Evolution Continues could be considered as one to this series, with a specialized team fending off the Genus, an alien Monster of the Week species whose character designs are quite similar to the mutations of this show.
• Strangled by the Red String: Many fans wonder what Nick even sees in Audrey at all and why he continues to put up with her. The relationship has been criticized to feeling very forced. And while not as criticized as Audrey and Nick, there are several in the fandom who have criticized the Relationship Upgrade for Mendel and Elsie. It has been argued that while not as bad as Audrey and Nick, their relationship is almost just as forced.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: The animated series fixed a number of the main criticisms leveled against Godzilla's portrayal in the 1998 film, giving him an Atomic Breath and showing him in combat with other monsters.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Sydney Walker's situation from the episode "What Dreams May Come". In order to destroy the Crackler, the heroes have to cut off the rage Sydney's subconscious is feeding it... this involves Randy provoking him until he finally snaps, angrily ranting at his boss, neighbors, and incompetent sports team and him breaking down in tears and begging everyone to just stop screaming. Anyone who has ever been in stressful situations can empathise.
  • "Future Shock". An episode that sends most of the gang from HEAT to an alternate, Bad Future version of the year 2028, where humanity is on the run from a race of genetically engineered monsters called the D.R.A.G.M.A.s. The show intimates that every intelligent Kaiju on Monster Island was unleashed to fight them, and they all failed. Then Nick asks what happened to Godzilla. We're then shown a memorial statue, where Mendel tells us that Godzilla took a Last Stand against the Dragmas to protect the last few million or so humans from them. He succeeded. Proving to be utterly Defiant to the End, it's further implied he killed at least a few of them before he went down. Godzilla was very much a Hero with Bad Publicity in the regular timeline and more or less remains so even after this timeline is averted. So to see him memorialized this way was both a Heartwarming Moment, as well as a heartbreaking gut punch to know that this is what it took for him to go from being a barely tolerated monster to a genuine hero in the eyes of humankind.
  • The episode "End of the Line" has Godzilla falling in love with a female monster named Komodithrax. The relationship the two end up sharing is very sweet and Godzilla even becomes the surrogate father to her unhatched egg. However, the two of them get attacked by a giant mutant turtle who tries to destroy the egg. The turtle succeeds in beating down Godzilla and almost breaks the egg, but Komodithrax fights him off and throws him down a ravine... though tragically she and her egg fall to their deaths as well. The final shot of the episode is Godzilla mournfully roaring.
  • The episode "Deadloch" was one of Roddy McDowall's last roles before his death in October 3, 1998, the episode aired four months after he died.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: A notable issue some fans have is that the kaiju that show up in the series usually die in their first episode and the ones that survive are quickly Demoted to Extra.
• Ugly Cute: Junior himself, especially as a baby◊ and when he figures out that Nick is "dad" during his juvenile stage. Partly it's the look, partly it's the surprised noise the great lizard makes.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: The series has an incredible amount of violence compared to the film, such as the lead monster dismembering various kaiju, melting some of them, and even burning one alive. You have to wonder what the FCC thinks about this. It also showed military characters using guns that had the looks of real life guns (despite some Off-Model issues) during a time when Family-Friendly Firearms was the norm for most US animation. And in the second episode, Animal flat out calls some soldiers "stormtroopers" to their faces, though the "Stormtroopers" comment might have simply been a Star Wars reference.
• The Woobie: Sydney Walker, the man who inadvertently creates the Crackler, in "What Dreams May Come". By the end of the episode you'll wanna give the poor guy a hug.