Shigeru Kayama's Godzilla Novels Official English Release!

[lhb412]

The sci-fi author who was hired to develop the plots of Godzilla and several other Toho genre flicks also wrote tie-in novellas for Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again, both published in 1955. Now, we're getting both books bundled together in an official English language translation!

https://www.amazon.com/Godzilla-Raids-Again-Shigeru-Kayama-ebook/dp/B0BYR59YB4/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1EAV2H5GAXYZL&keywords=godzilla+shigeru+kayama&qid=1679183994&sprefix=godzilla+shigeru+kayam%2Caps%2C278&sr=8-2

Love that we're finally getting Japanese print stuff that's toku related (Godzilla artbooks, original Kamen Rider manga and the like). I hope it continues with biographies, behind the scenes and making ofs, and more artbooks!

[Benjamin Haines]

Now this is exciting! I've never heard of the translator Jeffrey Angles before but if this description from the Amazon page is true then it seems like this is in good hands:

"Jeffrey Angles is professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University. He is author of Writing the Love of Boys (Minnesota, 2011) and award-winning translator of Orikuchi Shinobu’s The Book of the Dead (Minnesota, 2017) and Hiromi Ito’s The Thorn Puller."


And it's being published as an actual paperback book, not just a digital Kindle release!

[lhb412]

Well, took me over a year (I got the book for the Christmas before this previous Christmas) but I've finally read this thing!

The novelization of the original will be of most interest just because of how different the character relationships are. Mostly the same plot, same characters, but exactly how those characters link up with one another is quite different. Thanks to Angles' substantial essay in the back I now know that the characters are different still in the radio drama that aired in the months leading up to the film's release! Kind of wild there was so much drift between the different versions.

Godzilla Raids Again is much closer to the movie in Kayama's novelization. It feels like Honda really put his stamp on Kayama's work when the original was made because the book and movie just feel so different even if the story is mostly the same. Raids Again, however, feels like they adapted Kayama's scenario onto film in a very straightforward way. I do think that under Kayama's pen the comradery between the characters and the thrilling moments of adventure just pop a bit more on the page than in Oda's film. Lot of the stuff with the planes reminds me of action in Minus One.

[Benjamin Haines]

I actually just started reading this last week too even though I've had it for more than a year. So far it seems like the character of Shinkichi has Ogata's role from the movie, being forced to cancel his plans with Emiko because of the Eiko-maru's sinking. That's wild.

[Benjamin Haines]

I've finished reading the novelization of the first film. Of course the major differences from the movie stand out the most but it's cool how just about every scene plays out differently from what happens in the movie to some extent. I wonder how many of these differences were in Shigeru Kayama's original story treatment before Takeo Murata and Ishiro Honda wrote the screenplay, as opposed to Kayama making these changes from the film when he wrote this novella in 1955.

Most of Ogata's role in the movie is filled by Shinkichi in this novella. Shinkichi is still a native of Odo Island but he's living in Tokyo and working for Tokyo Bay Rescue and Salvage at the outset of the story. The introductory scene for both Shinkichi and Emiko depicts him canceling plans to go to a concert with her due to the unexpected sinking of the Eiko-maru. The two of them are described as childhood friends who haven't seen each other in years, having met when they were each evacuated to the mountains of central Japan during the war. Shinkichi still loses his mother and his brother during Godzilla's arrival on Odo Island, which is pretty much the extent of his role in the movie, but here he goes on to do most of what Ogata does in the movie: rushing to help Emiko when Godzilla first appears over the hillside, accompanying Emiko to convince Dr. Serizawa to let them use the Oxygen Destroyer, and diving down into Tokyo Bay with Dr. Serizawa. Ogata's role in the novella is much smaller and he isn't even introduced until after Godzilla's Odo Island scenes. Ogata is Shinkichi's employer and the president of Tokyo Bay Rescue and Salvage, implying that he's much older than Akira Takarada was when they shot the movie.

One of the most interesting elements of this novella that isn't in the movie is the whole Tokyo Godzilla Society subplot. As public dread of Godzilla builds in Tokyo after Godzilla's initial attack, people start receiving anonymous paper notes with threatening messages promising that "Our Lord Godzilla" will return to kill all who want him dead, signed by the Tokyo Godzilla Society. That makes Professor Yamane wonder whether Godzilla is even a real animal or some kind of machine controlled by people. Interestingly, the scene in which Ogata argues with the professor about killing Godzilla makes much more sense in the context of the novella. In the movie, Ogata tells Emiko that he's going to ask her father for his approval that evening, then when the professor arrives a moment later and he's openly distraught about the efforts to kill Godzilla, the first thing Ogata says is that he agrees with those who want Godzilla killed, which leads to the professor telling Ogata to get out as he storms off. It's a dramatic scene but it doesn't really make sense for Ogata to even broach that subject when he's seeking approval to marry the professor's daughter. In the novella, this confrontation happens soon after Shinkichi shows the first Tokyo Godzilla Society note to the professor. After Shinkichi departs, Ogata arrives to visit the professor and their dialogue is much like it is in the movie, which makes more sense here because Ogata isn't involved with Emiko. When the professor tells him to get out, Ogata instead moves in front of the professor and shows him the same Tokyo Godzilla Society note, revealing that around 20 people have received them and that the public suspects the professor to be the head of the Tokyo Godzilla Society because of his unpopular position that Godzilla shouldn't be killed.

When Godzilla attacks the metropolitan center later that night, Ogata and Shinkichi are watching from a building rooftop when they see a pair of shadows dash down the fire escape after leaving one of those Tokyo Godzilla Society notes there on the roof. They chase the shadows down to the street, only to turn around and see that Godzilla has obliterated the building they were just in with his atomic ray, forcing them to forget the chase and keep running for their lives. All of that makes for an interesting subplot but the resolution is underwhelming. In the aftermath of Godzilla's rampage, the newspapers describe the body of a man being found trampled to death by Godzilla with a bunch of those Tokyo Godzilla Society notes in his pockets, a man with a criminal record of trying to scheme and extort people, and it's believed that the man acted alone to create the false perception that there was a Godzilla-worshiping cult in Tokyo. The fact that Ogata and Shinkichi saw two shadows fleeing from that rooftop rather than one isn't addressed again. It's a major cop-out for what was an interesting subplot. I think there's a lot of real story potential in the concept of a Godzilla-worshiping cult of brainwashed people who welcome his rampages against all logic and reason.

I have more to say about this novella later.