Happy Birthday, TERROR OF MECHAGODZILA

It was the end of an era, literally. Toho had announced that the movie that debuted on this day in 1975, MEKAGOJIRA NO GYAKUSHU (1975) (aka TERROR OF GODZILLA & TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA in the US) would be the last Godzilla film in the franchise for the time being. It was the final effects film made by three out of the four ‘creators’ of Godzilla (Special Effects Director, Eiji Tsuburaya passed away in 1970) Ishiro Honda directed, scored by Akira Ifukube and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka.

Godzilla’s descent into a kiddie super-hero was complete, and the Showa Era of the Godzilla series ended with this fifteenth entry, that was marked by the lowest attendance than any of the previous fourteen. Between the diminishing box office (for all of Japanese cinema) and the oil crisis of the late 70s, Toho felt production needed to go on hold, and Godzilla would not return until nine years later and the dawn of the Hisei Era with RETURN OF GODZILLA (1984).