On goes my quest to watch as much Godzilla stuff I haven't already as I can before Godzilla Minus One arrives here in Australia in December. It's my favorite movie series (it's that or Tora-san; that's a real Sophie's Choice, actually), and even when Godzilla isn't even Godzilla - he's called "Gigantis" in this movie - I'll still watch it.
So maybe Gigantis, the Fire Monster isn't fully a Godzilla movie. It takes footage from the second film in the series, Godzilla Raids Again, and mostly seems to serve as a re-dub; maybe there are some editing changes, too. It's definitely not as interesting a re-cut as other Americanized versions of Godzilla movies, like the one from 1956, the King Kong vs. Godzilla re-edit in the early 1960s, or the 1985 version of The Return of Godzilla.
It might be the least essential one to watch, even for die-hard Godzilla fans. There are some name changes, the dialogue's changed, and I think some sound effects have changed, too. But it only has the bare minimum stuff required for this to count as a "separate" movie, rather than a redub, which are common.
As for Godzilla Raids Again, it's not a series high point, but it is interesting. I definitely didn't mind it and think it's decent. It's the second and final Godzilla movie shot in black-and-white, and the first one where Godzilla fights another big monster. And the monster's not King Kong, Rodan, King Ghidorah, or even Mothra, like one might expect - Anguirus. I feel like that would be a good trivia question, though Anguirus is still fairly well-known... just not as much as some of those other foes Godzilla took a few more years to encounter.
