YMMV / Godzilla vs. Gigan

• Awesome Music: While the music was indeed lifted from other sources, one cannot deny that the editors were very wise with the selections that they chose, since this would be the last film until Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II to feature Godzilla's theme as it was heard in Mothra vs. Godzilla. The music from Mitsubishi Pavilion is also very wonderful and when it's used during Anguirus's friendship moment. It strikes a chord. What's not recycled, is Kunio Miyauchi's catchy Godzilla March as sung by Susumi Ishikawa.
• Badass Decay: King Ghidorah is often seen as this. While he's undeniably threatening when paired with Gigan, they turn into mediocre fighters when the aliens lost control over them, shifting the victory in favor of Godzilla and Anguirus.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: There are scenes where Godzilla talks to Anguirus with comic-book style speech bubbles. The kaijus never talk again after this. The English dub takes this further by having Goji and Angy speak outright, complete with voice actors!
• Common Knowledge: It is often asserted that Gigan is the first monster to make Godzilla bleed, and while this would certainly seem to be the case given how much blood he makes Godzilla shed, that honour actually goes to Hedorah in Godzilla vs. Hedorah, as Godzilla begins bleeding from the top of his head after headbutting Hedorah away during their final battle.
• Complete Monster: The titular cyborg monstrosity, Gigan, was nearly as vicious as his compatriot Ghidorah, burning most of Tokyo to the ground, laughing all the while. What truly made Gigan stand out, however, was his sadistic love of hurting others. During his and Ghidorah's battle with Godzilla and Anguirus, Gigan repeatedly opted to go for torture rather than finishing an opponent off, dragging the other monsters in close and using his buzzsaw to carve pieces off of them, and showing a distinct preference for targeting those who could not fight back, attacking a severely wounded Godzilla while he lay bleeding on the ground, and later, in Godzilla vs. Megalon, teaming with Megalon to deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Jet Jaguar. Prone to abandoning his allies as soon as the going gets tough, and hating a fair fight, Gigan was Toho's reigning king of Kick Them While They Are Down.
• Contested Sequel: Not as divisive as other Showa Era films as it’s often agreed to be one of the lesser entries, but depending on the fan this film is either a bland espionage film with an overuse of Stock Footage and really, really bad effects, or a good throwback to the 60’s Showa Godzilla films with a well rounded human cast and great monster fights and cinematography that’s not stock footage. This film is also seen as the point where the Showa era began to regain some steam, as its quality began gradually improving through the next few entries in the franchise. As discussed under Ensemble Dark Horse below, one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Gigan is a pretty awesome addition to the monster cast.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • If Anguirus wasn't this already, he certainly was after this film.
  • Gigan's only other movie appearance in the Showa-Era would be the next film, Godzilla vs. Megalon, which is just as bad, but was so popular he came back as one of the major villains in Godzilla: Final Wars. He also appeared in the Zone Fighter TV series, where he went another round with Godzilla and was finally killed, and appears in just about every Godzilla video game.
  • Amongst the human cast, Shosaku Takasugi ("Corn Guy") is fondly remembered as a likable and funny hippie who kicks serious ass when times get tough.
• Fan Nickname: Fans have commonly named Shosaku Takasugi as "Corn Guy" after his introductory scene where he accidentally makes the main character faint, believing he assumed his corn was a gun.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Godzilla Tower bears a rather strong resemblance◊ to Godzilla's 2014 design, with prominent eyebrows, stumpy legs and smaller, straighter back plates.
• Memetic Mutation: Shosaku "Corn Guy" Takasugi is popular amongst G-Fans for being so fascinatingly inexplicable◊.
  • From the dub; "I think it stinks!". And of course, the infamous speaking scenes between Godzilla and Anguirus.
• Narm Charm: Like many Showa-era Godzilla movies, this one is most definitely not a cinematic masterpiece but it has its moments. Fans really seemed to like Gigan himself, and the climatic battle (when its not using Stock Footage) has some memorable moments such as the ample amounts of bloodshed and Anguirus's Friendship Moment.
• Special Effect Failure:
  • At the Sagami bay sequence, Anguirus's mouth doesn't move even once, thus ruining its sound effects.
  • During King Ghidorah and Gigan's entrance, they are clearly completely stiff toys.
  • When Gigan steps on a car, it is clearly a toy car.
  • The Godzilla suit, SoshingekiGoji (which had been made in 1968 for Destroy All Monsters and used in subsequent films up to this one), was in such bad shape that it was visibly falling apart - pieces can even be seen flying off in some scenes!
  • King Ghidorah's suit, being the only one made during the first half of the Showa era and having already been in three previous films, was in pretty bad shape as well. In all of its non-stock footage scenes it's very still most of the time with only some slow head movement to prevent it from falling apart during filming.