Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE: the Japanese cut of King Kong vs. Godzilla is available on the "supplementary disc" while the US version is on the main movie discs. This is likely due to licensing issues. But it is available. ******** For decades I thought a set like this would never exist. The Showa Godzilla films, outside of Japan, have always had different distributors even since their initial theatrical releases in the states. In the 90's Paramount owned a nice portion of the VHS distribution rights but they only owned 7 out of 15. By the mid 2010s, five different companies owned distribution rights to different films- Classic Media, Universal, Media Blasters, and Kraken Releasing. Two in particular: Son of Godzilla and Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla were out of print and no one owned distribution rights (formally owned by Sony). King Kong vs Godzilla was especially elusive. Because Universal owned the rights to King Kong, they released their US cut of the film internationally and Toho domestically (in Japan). Universal's US version had some different music, missing scenes, and new scenes with American actors. The only way to watch the original Japanese cut of King Kong vs. Godzilla was to import the film from Japan (with no English subtitles). So with a few exceptions, the films were obtainable but with varying degrees of quality and one complete Blu-ray box set was no more than a pipe dream. Now all this has changed. Criterion, a company known for its expectional quality and for treating each of their releases less like 'movies' and more like works of art, are releasing all 15 Showa Era Godzilla films in one set. They have even given the king of the monsters the honor of being their 1000th release (spine #1000). Finally, the original Japanese cuts of every Showa Era Godzilla film is being released together in Criterion level quality. What a time to be a Godzilla fan.