Godzilla VS Space Godzilla is about reconciliation and moving forward with life, even while it talks about revenge, hate and pride. Because of Godzilla, so many characters in this movie, and in Japan at large presumably, are stuck where they are in life. Yuki cannot ease the pain of his friend's death. Dr. Gondo spends all her efforts trying to manage the living disaster, and working feverishly helps her not dwell on the loved ones she lost. Miki tirelessly works, trying to find a peace between humanity and Godzilla, but the rest of her life goes nowhere. So many characters are in a constant state of panicked working, they don't make time for friendships based on anything other than shared trauma.
Over the course of this film, these characters learn to move forward in their lives. The human portion of the story is very different from the other Heisei films. Knowing that this film is a romance film going in can help you enjoy it more; because the film doesn't present itself as a romance.
In the other Heisei films, much darkness and brooding is brought about by individuals who refuse to confide in others; and Yuki seems close to that. However every character in this movie comes to depend on others over time, and ultimately teamwork and cooperation is triumphant, which makes budding romance possible.
Godzilla VS Space Godzilla has many of the familiar elements of Heisei Godzilla films: strong acting, awesome monster designs, rampant destruction. However in one way it is very different from the first four films in the series. It has an ending where people come together to recover from tragedy rather than spiraling in anguish. The end of Godzilla (1954): a man is filled with dread for the future. The characters in Godzilla VS Space Godzilla are much further along on an emotional journey: the characters here were traumatized long ago but are now learning to heal.
When Shinjo talks to Miki about love, he hurt her; not through his words, but by reminding her of her loneliness. Its fairly clear to us the audience that Shinjo has moved past war all the time — after all he stayed at the island in an act that removed him from the present war grind — but Miki in a bit of emotional non-sequitur whataboutism logic confronts him with his unrelenting will to fight that he exhibited in the past.
This scene shows how Miki is not moving forward in her life. She cannot see how Shinjo is moving forward in his. You see in her emotional reaction that she is not content to live her life for work, while not knowing what else to do.
Yuki comes across as threatening to Godzilla, but it is intentional on the part of the production to show him loving towards Baby Godzilla very early in the film. While the men Yuki fight alongside with, in addition to the audience, have doubts about the eagerness to kill Yuki presents himself as having; Dr. Chinatsu Gondo does not see through that facade. Yuki and Dr Gondo make the other romantic coupling, and theirs is based on shared loss. Yuki and Dr Gondo's commitment to work interspersed with mourning has put their lives on hold. That is, until they decide to step into the future together.
This shared admiration extends to humans cooperating with Godzilla. In this movie stubborn hate by humans towards Godzilla gives way to reconciliation and even appreciation. The humans should appreciate Godzilla in this one: Space Godzilla may have been the first Toho monster to threaten the entire Earth simultaneously via teraforming.
Ultimately human and Godzilla cooperation triumphs over the one character who did nothing but dream of fighting all day — Space Godzilla. The human characters renounce their hatreds and open themselves up to new emotional experiences again. Godzilla shows the depth of their caring for Baby Godzilla. This film is the emotional high point of the Heisei series in terms of the characters moving towards joy and away from sadness.
