Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

When the original Gojira arrived in Japanese cinemas in November 1954, it was a film shaped by real grief: the memory of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the Lucky Dragon No. 5 incident earlier that same year. It was sombre, considered, and genuinely unsettling. The pressure to follow it up was immediate. Toho moved quickly, and by 1955 they had a sequel in front of audiences. Godzilla Raids Again, directed by Motoyoshi Oda, arrived less than six months after the original, which tells you something about the pace at which it was assembled. It is, in that respect, one of the earliest examples of a studio rushing a franchise into existence before anyone had quite worked out what the franchise was for.

Motoyoshi Oda was a reliable hand at Toho rather than a distinctive auteur. Fans of the blog may recognise his name from my look at Invisible Man (1954), another Toho genre picture he directed, and the curious case of Gigantis, the Fire Monster (1959), which is, in a roundabout way, this very film repackaged and re-released for American audiences under a different title and with considerable creative interference. His work is competent and watchable, polished but unremarkable, and Godzilla Raids Again sits comfortably in that description. The film introduces a second giant creature, Anguirus, a spined quadruped drawn loosely from the ankylosaur family, and sets the two monsters against each other as the city of Osaka finds itself caught in the crossfire. The premise is straightforward, and Toho's team of practical effects artists and miniature builders were, by this point, well-practised at reducing scale-model cityscapes to rubble on camera.

The principal cast is a mix of familiar Toho faces and reliable supporting players. Hiroshi Koizumi, who genre fans will know from Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), leads as one of the two fishing scout pilots at the centre of the story, bringing a straightforward, earnest quality to the role. Minoru Chiaki plays his fellow pilot, and the two have an easy, natural rapport that gives the film much of its warmer human texture. Takashi Shimura, one of the great faces of Japanese postwar cinema and a returnee from the original Gojira, appears in a supporting capacity, lending a touch of weight and credibility to proceedings. Setsuko Wakayama and Masao Shimizu round out the cast in roles that keep the human story ticking over between the monster sequences. It is worth noting, for context, that the 1950s in Japan was a period of rapid cultural reconstruction, and the kaiju genre, born directly out of nuclear anxiety, was already beginning its slow drift from allegory towards entertainment. Godzilla Raids Again sits precisely at that crossroads, and whether that transition was a gain or a loss is very much the question at the heart of the film.

Godzilla Raids Again (1955) is a landmark in kaiju cinema, not because it’s great, but because it’s the film that started the monster vs. monster tradition and officially kicked off the long-running Godzilla franchise. As the first sequel to the original 1954 classic, it introduces Anguirus (or Ankylosaurus, as some might say), setting the stage for decades of titanic battles, city-crushing chaos, and rubber-suited mayhem. For fans of the genre, it’s essential viewing just for its historical significance. The story is simple: two pilots crash-land on an island, discover Godzilla and Anguirus locked in battle, and barely escape, only for the fight to follow them back to civilization. The military scrambles, cities burn, and eventually, our heroes defeat Godzilla by luring him into an iceberg (yes, really). It’s pulpy, fast-paced, and packed with the kind of practical effects and miniature destruction that defined Toho’s golden age. That said, it’s aged very badly. The suitmation looks stiff and unconvincing even by 1950s standards, the pacing is uneven, and the human drama is flat and forgettable. Compared to the depth and dread of the original Godzilla, this one trades social commentary for spectacle and ends up feeling more like a B-movie action flick than a meaningful continuation. The now infamous American edit (Gigantis, the Fire Monster) only made things worse, but even in its original form, it’s rough around the edges. Decent as an early kaiju romp and a must-watch for franchise completists, but not much more. A stepping stone, not a classic. Still, without it, we wouldn’t have Ghidrah, Mechagodzilla, or half the fun of giant monsters punching each other. So… thanks, I guess?

I think that tension between historical importance and actual quality is what makes this one so genuinely tricky to write about. It is the kind of film you feel obliged to respect more than you enjoy, and there is something a little melancholy about that. It sits in a long line of sequels, across every genre and every decade, where speed to market clearly won out over considered craft, and the science fiction cinema of the 1950s is full of examples of studios chasing a first film's success without quite understanding what made it work. None of that diminishes the curiosity value here, and if you have any fondness for the era or the franchise, it is an hour and twenty-two minutes well spent as a footnote, if not as a film. Sometimes a footnote is all something needs to be.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 1955  | Watched: 2025-10-29

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Trailer

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Motoyoshi Oda: Invisible Man (1954) · Gigantis, the Fire Monster (1959)
More with Hiroshi Koizumi: Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) · Gigantis, the Fire Monster (1959)
More from Japan: Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025) · Blue (1993) · The Ghost of Yotsuya (1959)
More from the 1950s: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Letter from Siberia (1957) · Invaders from Mars (1953)
More science fiction: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Fantastic Planet (1973) · Nightmare City (1980) · The Long Walk (2025)
More horror: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Viy (1967) · Nightmare City (1980) · Angst (1983)