Thread:Shanethefilmmaker/@comment-397235-20141030013340

I rewatched War of the Gargantuas and Rodan a few weeks ago, and it brought something to the forefront of my mind.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe isn't the only series with continuity between seemingly unreleated films.

Obviously, Gojira, Mothra, and Rodan are connected, as the three team up to take down Ghidorah in his title film. Furthermore, the movies are also connected to Atragon (Manda shows up in DaM and is mentioned by name in Terror of Mechagodzilla), Frankenstein Conquers the World (another Baragon shows up in DaM), and Varan the Unbelievable (Varan also shows up in DaM). However, what people don't often key into are the other films which are never directly referenced but are still part of the series.

War of the Gargantuas is a prime example of this. An indirect sequel to the above Frankenstein film (one of the few in which the title monster is accurately not the bad guy), WoG shows lots of evidence that the JGSDF are well aware of daikaiju and how to deal with them, beyond just the humanoid monster and Baragon from the previous film. Essentially they've gotten smarter. They immediately accept the idea of a friendly kaiju (Sanda, the orange giant), which suggests they've had experience with them in the past (Frankenstein, Mothra, and almost certainly Godzilla himself). When the JGSDF engages the brothers at the end, they make a point to only target Gaira, who's made a habit of eating civilians. And as a legacy of Doctor Yamane, the military is willing to listen to the advice of their experts without any hesitation; essentially, they've stopped thinking all the crazy scientists who play around with giant monsters are idiots.

There's also the two maser tanks deployed against Gaira. They're an evolution of the technology first deployed (unsuccessfully) against Mothra in her debut film and they're later used against Gigan and King Ghidorah in the former's first movie; they are, in fact, the staple of the JGSDF's anti-monster forces for the rest of the series, even though at no other point are they useful against a kaiju. They're more than enough to drive Gaira into the ocean, though, which is why the military keeps trying them against every future monster.

As for the music, this is one of Ifukube's lesser known scores, but what immediately stood out to me is how much alike Gaira and Godzilla's themes are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejHSTLamlQA

It's almost as if Ifukube was trying to convey the two characters come from the same place, but while Godzilla has found a place in human society as their somewhat destructive protector, Gaira isn't capable of being anything more than a monster. 