YMMV / Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

• Awesome Music: For his final outing in the franchise, Masaru Sato provides a nice, jazzy soundtrack which complements the film very well. Stand out tracks include The Appearance of Mechagodzilla, Godzilla vs. Anguirus and Miyarabi's Prayer used to summon King Caesar.
• Americans Hate Tingle: This was the only Japanese giant monster film released in Hungary, where it was screened without any context in 1989, a time when high-budget contemporary Hollywood movies were all the rage. It baffled audiences and got dismissed by critics; as such it's generally regarded as one of the worst movies ever made, up there with the likes of Manos: The Hands of Fate and the worst Asylum outings. There was a good reason no company bothered importing the rest of the series.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Godzilla using his own body as a magnet to attract Mechagodzilla and other metal objects to him looks quite a lot like he's using The Force, and he even does a pulling gesture with his arms and hands while using his magnetism to stop Mechagodzilla from flying away. The very first Star Wars film, A New Hope, premiered in theaters not too long after this movie.
• Memetic Loser: King Caesar has become something of a joke amongst kaiju fans. He’s built up as the last hope for mankind, yet he spends all his screentime getting his ass kicked by Mechagodzilla. The ridiculously long song that’s the only way to summon him doesn’t help his case either.
• Memetic Mutation: The shot where Godzilla angrily swings his arm (with a fist) down out of frustration emitting a "Damn it!" expression. This plays when his atomic breath missed Mechagodzilla who simply flew upwards in time (his breath ended up hitting a bunch of rocks right near poor King Caesar instead).
  • Fans of Jojos Bizarre Adventure make jokes about King Caesar, expecially going "SHIZAAAAAA!" in reference to Caesar Zeppeli.
• Older Than They Think: Godzilla wasn't the first Toho monster to get a robotic duplicate—just the most famous. "Mechani-Kong" from King Kong Escapes made his debut about six years before Mechagodzilla.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While opinions on the overall quality vary, it's still generally considered an improvement over Godzilla vs. Megalon.
• Ugly Cute: Mechagodzilla in his disguised form. Even his roar counts.
• Vindicated by History: The film was bashed by most critics at the time for its unfocused plot and inconsistent special effects, and it was largely unsuccessful at the box office. It came out when the franchise's popularity was starting to wane, and—thanks to a long string of duds—it was widely believed that it was on its last legs (indeed, the series went on a decade-long hiatus after this film's direct sequel). Since then, though, opinions have generally softened, to the point that it often appears in "Top 10" lists of the best Godzilla films. Mechagodzilla himself has emerged as one of the franchise's most popular monsters, and he went on to star in five later movies, giving him almost as many appearances as Mothra and King Ghidorah. Notably, Toho eventually released Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II in 1993, making this the only Godzilla film ever to get a numbered sequel.^note  Despite the title, though, it wasn't actually a sequel and it is generally believed by fans that the II refers to the second Mechagodzilla itself rather than the movie.
  • The numbered sequel status did not apply in Japan because the first film in 1974 was called "Gojira Tai Mekagojira" while the 1993 version had "vs" in english characters.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: While it's mostly a pretty standard Showa Godzilla film, the scene where Mechagodzilla unleashes its full arsenal of weapons on Godzilla and King Caesar sees a simply phenomenal amount of pyrotechics being set off as the alien war machine shows off its true power. One can only admire the courage of the stuntmen in the kaiju costumes as enough explosions for a full-on war scene go off around and even on them.