Heisei era

The **Heisei era** is a term used to identify the current political era of Japan. The Heisei series is named after the political Heisei era in Japan, which started in 1989 with the ascension of Emperor Akihito to the throne, and continues to this day. Technically, the Millennium and Legendary series Godzilla films are also part of the Heisei era due to being released during the political Heisei period, but are considered to be separate series from the Heisei series due to coming after hiatuses in the Godzilla franchise. Other major kaiju franchises have not followed this convention despite having similar hiatuses; for example, *Gamera: The Brave* is considered to be a part of the Heisei series, despite being released seven years after the previous film, *Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris*.

## Films

### Godzilla Series

The Godzilla Heisei era lasted from 1984 to 1995. The Godzilla Heisei era was also nicknamed the "VS Series"  (VSシリーズ,   *Buiesu shirīzu*?, lit. *Versus series*) in Japan, due to the word VS (*Buiesu*) being featured in most of the films' titles. The Heisei era of Godzilla films follow a different continuity from the Showa films, ignoring every movie except the original 1954 *Godzilla*.

* *The Return of Godzilla*
* *Godzilla vs. Biollante*
* *Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah*
* *Godzilla vs. Mothra*
* *Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla 2*
* *Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla*
* *Godzilla vs. Destoroyah*

### Gamera Series

The Gamera Heisei series began in 1995 with the release of *Gamera: Guardian of the Universe* and ended in 2006 with *Gamera: The Brave*. The first three Heisei Gamera films were directed by Shusuke Kaneko and all share continuity, while *Gamera: The Brave* was released much later by Kadokawa and is a standalone film.

* *Gamera: Guardian of the Universe*
* *Gamera 2: Attack of Legion*
* *Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris*
* *Gamera: The Brave*

### Mothra Series

Mothra received her first standalone film since the original *Mothra* in 1996 following the temporary close of the Godzilla series. The *Rebirth of Mothra* trilogy lasted from 1996 to 1998.

* *Rebirth of Mothra*
* *Rebirth of Mothra II*
* *Rebirth of Mothra III*

## Monsters Introduced

### Godzilla Series

* Biollante
* Shockirus
* Godzillasaurus
* Mecha-King Ghidorah
* Battra
* Super MechaGodzilla
* Fire Rodan
* Baby Godzilla/Little Godzilla/Godzilla Junior
* M.O.G.U.E.R.A.
* Fairy Mothra
* SpaceGodzilla
* Destoroyah

### Gamera Series

* Super/Hyper Gyaos
* Legion
* Iris
* Toto
* Zedus

### Mothra Series

* Mothra Leo
* Desghidorah
* Dagahra
* Barem
* Ghogo
* Garu Garu
* Cretaceous King Ghidorah

## Trivia

* Technically, *The Return of Godzilla* was released during the Showa era rather than the Heisei era, but is considered part of the Heisei series due to being the beginning of a new series and sharing continuity with the Heisei films that followed it.
* It is a common misconception that *Gamera: The Brave* is counted as part of the Millennium series. The Millennium Series only applies to the *Godzilla* series, as the rest of Japan is still in the Heisei era. In Japan, *Gamera: The Brave* is sometimes referred to as the "Shinsei version"  (新生版,   *Shinsei-ban*?) to distinguish it from the trilogy. It is currently unknown as to how the upcoming *Gamera* film will fit into this trend, and whether it will start a new era or be another standalone film.
* No Godzilla monster introduced in the Heisei series reappeared in the Millennium era, not counting stock footage.
* Godzilla monsters from this period were generally very large; much larger than monsters from the Showa era. Most of Godzilla's opponents were at least 20 meters taller than him.
* The Heisei era set several records in various statistics for Toho's kaiju at the time; some of these records have been surpassed by later films, while others remain current.
	+ SpaceGodzilla's flying form and Biollante's final form are the heaviest kaiju on record respectively, not counting Bagan from the video game *Super Godzilla*.
	+ The 1991 incarnation of King Ghidorah is the tallest version of King Ghidorah, as well as the tallest Toho kaiju, along with Bagan.
	+ Currently, the incarnations of Godzilla from 1991 to 1995 are the tallest versions of him to appear in a film produced by Toho. This is set to be surpassed by the Godzilla in the upcoming *Godzilla: Resurgence*.
	+ Destoroyah is the oldest kaiju on record, being from the Precambrian era.
* This is the second era to have a series in a complete continuity. The first being the Showa era, while the Millennium era only had separated continuity throughout most films.
* In this era, almost all the monsters Godzilla faces can fly, the sole exception being Biollante, who is still able to travel through the air in the form of energy spores.
* All of the Heisei Godzilla films from *The Return of Godzilla* to *Godzilla vs. Mothra* end with Godzilla falling or being dropped into a natural object of some sort; a volcano in *The Return of Godzilla* and the ocean in the other three films.
* In the Heisei *Gamera* trilogy, all of Gamera's opponents can fly. The only monster in the entire *Gamera* Heisei era thus far that is unable to fly is Zedus.
* The Heisei era of Godzilla films introduced a filming technique where shots of the set were blended into footage of cities from ground level. While this did provide an ability to save money in building massive sets and also was an easy way to introduce a sense of scale, it meant that in many scenes people can be seen casually walking or even driving vehicles while the kaiju rampages nearby. This is especially evident in some of the Haneda Airport scenes in *Godzilla vs. Destoroyah*, where a Boeing airliner that belongs to ANA can actually be seen *taxiing* towards the runway whilst Destoroyah flies into the air, pulling Godzilla along.

## See Also

* Showa era
* Millennium era
* Legendary era

## References

This is a list of references for **Heisei era**. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]

1. ↑ Cover of Heisei Gamera Perfection