I think it’s all up for grabs. As soon as a notion enters the hive mind of monster movie fandom, there are enough people who will get the joke that I figure it’s open season. There’s an example here:

The idea of the real-world decade of 2004-2014 being one without a Godzilla movie taking on some sort of additional significance (and I honestly don’t really know what kind) in this world is funny to me. 

Also, the Green Humongo (the rapper here) makes a couple references to Pacific Rim here, in that the robot he’s talking about has two pilots, and are “best mates”. 

All that said, I do tend to keep the monsters themselves as pastiches of 60s and 70s Japanese monsters based on my own personal preferences. The fact that they’re so silly and harmless that making them hardcore gangbangers or murderers is funny. 

My story logic for that was in this panel:

I liked the idea that the various sons of Godzilla through the years (Minya, Godzilla Jr., Baby, Godzooky) seemingly sprung fully formed from the big G’s head. There was never a mention of a mother, or even another Godzilla-type monster. Certain alternate versions of Godzilla (notably SpaceGodzilla) were also formed by something like his blood hitting something in space and spawning the creature. 

There’s also something slightly seedy about the phrasing “my DNA fell into that volcano”, though I can’t remember if I intended it at the time.

I do think that Godzilla would have the edge here. What’s kind of shaken out over all the movies is that he’s almost elementally powerful, and much of the drama of his stories is how the rest of the world counters something so terrifying (”territorial hurricanes”, as James Stokoe called Godzilla and his ilk in Half Century War). Ultraman is a protagonist, however – not just sometimes but all the time – and despite all the momentary setbacks, loss of nerve, self-doubt, and competing priorities that plague every good hero, he always triumphs, especially when it’s Earth at stake. A good story would kind of have to end with an Ultraman victory. 

Perhaps in the mix there is an Ultra who is so vain, arrogant, and foolish that a trouncing from Godzilla – who he critically underestimated – would feel rewarding. But then there’s just the patient mentor, the month of training on a distant planet, and the crucial long-lost weapon to turn the tide. He’s gotta win. Godzilla’s only real hope is to accomplish his goals (wrecked city, killed worse kaiju, drove off alien armada) and then head off to the sea to sleep for a decade so we can call it a draw.

Here’s a confession: I haven’t seen Final Wars yet. Yikes. I’d already seen an awful lot of monster movies before Kaijumax, but now that I’m working on this series, I’ve been trying to fill in the gaps, and I’m making an effort to be very broad in my approach (that is, watch a few Ultramans, a few Kamen Riders, a few Super Sentais, a few Gameras, a few Godzillas…) and that’s one I haven’t gotten to yet. But to answer your question, once I do see it, I very likely will incorporate that into the story.

I like the Godzilla Jr. in Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla, designwise, but he and “Baby” from one of the Millennium MechaGodzillas are pretty boring to me, since they seem to end up being targets or helpless things without much to do. Obviously, I like to draw references from everywhere if I can, but I haven’t had much luck with them so far.

The factor is usually that it’s a movie that I love, and typically that means it’s a ‘60s or ‘70s Toho movie. I briefly considered reviewing some of the weirder Millennium Godzilla movies, like Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, but despite the fact that the costumes and special effects are vastly superior, I tend to find them all a bit draggy. What I enjoy so much about the mid-Showa-era movies is mainly how they are aimed so squarely at children and seemingly couldn’t give less of a damn how much sense they make. That, and the fact that Toho and its imitators were producing them so quickly, gave them a “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” vibe that I quite enjoy.

I might change up the format for the second season of Kaijumax to include TV series/episodes, mainly so that I can find an excuse to discuss Ultraman at great length.