''When those fleeting lives destined to die, forget their humbleness and sing praises of their glory, such will shake the very heavens and split the earth, and they shall know the wrath of the divine. The inevitable incarnation of destruction. So, you show yourself at last. Since we last saw each other, it has been 20 years for us and 20,000 years for you. It's been a while... Oh, King of Destruction.'' 

— Metphies (GODZILLA: Planet of the Monsters)

Along with Godzilla Filius, Godzilla Earth is the first incarnation of Godzilla to appear in an animated film, and is also the largest onscreen incarnation of the character to date. This incarnation of Godzilla first appeared in the year 2030, at which point mankind had already endured over a quarter of a century of repeated attacks from huge creatures called kaiju. Godzilla established himself as the most powerful kaiju, eliminating many of the others and resisting all of mankind's attempts to defeat him, even with the assistance of humanity's alien allies. By 2048, humanity realized it stood no chance against Godzilla, and fled the planet to colonize a new home on the planet Tau-e in the Cetus constellation. When conditions on Tau-e were found to be uninhabitable, a group of humans returned to Earth only to find that 20,000 years had passed, and that a bizarre new ecosystem had sprung up around Godzilla, now the dominant being on the planet.