Despite the perceived longevity of the tokusatsu genre (which has been going since 1954), many of its subgenres repeatedly come and go. There have been times when a franchise, such as Toho's Godzilla, went on hiatus, only to resurface again. This caused a general consensus amongst tokusatsu creators and fans to categorize the whole of the genre into eras. While each franchise has their own specific timeline for these eras, they do tend to coincide with each other.
When tokusatsu films and TV were first created, it ushered in what would be called the Showa era, named after the historical era in Japan that occurred at the time. Showa jidai (meaning "period of enlightened peace") corresponded with the reign of Emperor Hirohito, who ascended to the throne in 1926. In daikaiju terms, Showa referred to the time between the mid-1950s to about 1980. For Toho, their last Showa film was Terror of Mechagodzilla in 1975. Daiei, the creators of Gamera, ended their Showa period with Super Monster Gamera in 1980.
When Emperor Hirohito died in 1989, the Showa era ended with him. His son, Akihito, assumed the throne the next day and ushered in a new era with a new name: Heisei (a word that was taken from Chinese historical and philosophical texts and has come to mean "peace everywhere"). However, the daikaiju Heisei era began before the death of Hirohito. Toho brought daikaiju back with The Return of Godzilla, also known as Godzilla 1985 in the US five years before the Showa era ended (its Japanese release was in 1984). Daiei, however, waited six years after Hirohito's death before they resurrected Gamera in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe in 1995.
For these two franchises, the Heisei era characterized the 1980s and '90s. Despite not being as long as the Showa era, both franchises made great movies during the Heisei era. Gamera, whose movies were starting to get stale toward the end of the Showa era, found a new lease on life during the '90s. Granted, they only made three Gamera movies, but the general consensus is that each of them were of superior quality to many of Gamera's Showa era movies.
These two eras did not just pertain to daikaiju eiga, though. Many tokusatsu TV shows, such as Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and the Super Sentai series, had their own Showa and Heisei eras. For Ultraman, the Showa era began with Ultra Q, a predecessor to Ultraman, and ended with Ultraman 80. For a few years after that, Tsuburaya Productions allowed Ultraman to be made by foreign countries, such as Australia and the US. When that didn't pan out, they ushered in their Heisei era with Ultraman Tiga and continued the series ever since. Kamen Rider had a similar run, but the hiatus between eras was divided by a time when the franchise only did stage shows. The enduring Super Sentai series, however, seemed to have been going on since its inception, making it a bit harder to determine where the Showa era ends and the Heisei era begins.
One era that you will only find amongst daikaiju eiga is the Millenium era, which was heralded, of course, by the new millennium. When Toho bid farewell to the Heisei era with Godzilla's sad death in Godzilla vs. Destroyah, Tri Star Pictures decided to try and "Americanize" the franchise with their own take on Godzilla. Needless to say, the movie sucked so much ass, that Toho decided they needed to make more Godzilla movies just to get the bad taste out of everyone's mouths. They kicked off the Millennium era with Godzilla 2000 Millennium, which, while not as good as some of the Heisei era movies, did herald the return of a proper daikaiju eiga. The remainder of the Millennium era movies were mostly better, though. While Daiei did, officially, bring Gamera into the Millennium era, there has only been one movie to show for it: Gamera: The Brave, before the era seemed to slip back into hiatus.
Right now, neither company seems to be working on any new movies. However, as I write this, there is talk that Legendary Pictures, the guys who make the DC Comics movies (as well as that goddamn terrible Clash of the Titans remake - did you know they're talking about a fucking sequel?!), are working on a new reimagining of Godzilla. My opinion? It's probably gonna suck, because Americans can't seem to understand the soul of daikaiju eiga. That's why the 1998 Godzilla movie sucked, it wasn't about an unstoppable force of nature, but a dumb, giant lizard. My only hope is that Toho will be offended by this new Godzilla that they're trying to shit out and be inspired to make new movies and give us another era to enjoy.
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