The University of Minnesota Press will publish Jeffrey Angles' English translation of the Japanese novella for the Toho classic MOTHRA. TM & © TOHO CO., LTD.
The first English translation of the original novella about the iconic kaijū Mothra
Source: University of Minnesota Press press release
Special Thanks to Jeffrey Angles, Heather Skinner and Lyndsey Wanner
In the earliest days of developement for the Toho motion pictures GODZILLA (ゴジラ, Gojira, 1954) and GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN (ゴジラの逆襲, Gojira no Gyakushū, 1955), producer Tomoyuki Tanaka hired award-winning author Shigeru Kayama to write the original stories that would then be adapted into the films' screenplays and later fleshed out and published as novellas. Years later, Tanaka sought to recreate Godzilla's incredible box office success by repeating that formula for Toho's 1961 production MOTHRA (モスラ, Mosura), turrning to authors Shin'ichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga and Yoshie Hotta. The trio's The Luminous Fairies and Mothra was first serialized in Asahi Weekly prior to the film's hit release and then published as a novella In Japan.
While the Godzilla movies and MOTHRA were exported to America and worldwide, the novels were never released in English-speaking territories. That finally changed when GODZILLA AND GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN: THE ORIGINAL NOVELS was released in 2023 by the University of Minnesota Press with new English translations by Jeffrey Angles, professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University. Now, Angles and the University have announced that the English translation of The Luminous Fairies and Mothrawill finally be released this winter.
The following press release is courtesy of University of Minnesota Press. Look for more coverage here on SciFi Japan in the months leading up to the book's release...
Photo courtesy of University of Minnesota Press. TM & © TOHO CO., LTD.
THE LUMINOUS FAIRIES AND MOTHRA
BY SHIN'ICHIRO NAKAMURA, TAKEHIKO FUKUNAGA AND YOSHIE HOTTA
TRANSLATED AND WITH AN AFTERWORD BY JEFFREY ANGLES
$19.95 (US) paperback
SBN 978-1-5179-2001-2
128 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/4
PUB DATE: January 13, 2026
The original story that hatched Mothra, one of the most beloved monsters in the “kaijuverse”—available in English for the first time
Mystical and benevolent, the colossal lepidopteran Mothra has been one of the most beloved kaiju since 1961, when The Luminous Fairies and Mothra was originally published in Japanese. Commissioned by Tōhō Studios from three of Japan’s most prominent postwar literary writers (Shin’ichirō Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta), the novella formed the basis for the now-classic monster film MOTHRA, with a protagonist second only to Godzilla in number of film appearances by a kaiju. Finally available in its first official English translation, The Luminous Fairies and Mothra will captivate ardent, longtime fans of the films as well as newcomers.
Written just months after the largest political demonstrations Japan had ever seen, The Luminous Fairies and Mothra reflects the rebellious spirit of the time. In this original story, explorers visit a South Pacific island and capture a group of fairies, inciting the fury of the goddess Mothra, who sets out for Japan on a mission of rescue and revenge. Expressing a powerful social stance about Japan’s need to chart its own foreign policy during the Cold War, the novella’s political message was ultimately toned down in the Tōhō Studios film. Through this translation, Anglophone audiences will discover Mothra as a figure of protest fiction intricately reflecting the complex geopolitical situation in early 1960s Japan.
The Luminous Fairies and Mothra is translated into lively prose by Jeffrey Angles, who also wrote an extensive afterword about the novella’s cultural context, the unusual story of its composition, and the development of the 1961 film. Following Angles’s best- selling translation of the original Godzilla novellas, this new work will once again delight kaiju fans everywhere.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Shin’ichirō Nakamura (1918-1997) was a critic, scholar, and author of dozens of novels, many of which feature the experience of intellectuals during and after World War II.
Takehiko Fukunga (1918-1979) was a prolific poet, translator of French fiction, and novelist, known for his sensitive, poetic writing style and interest in existential themes.
Yoshie Hotta (1918-1998) was an essayist and novelist involved in leftist politics and the international nonalignment movement of the 1960s.
Jeffrey Angles is professor of Japanese literature at Western Michigan University. He is author of three books and translator of several works in Japanese, including Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama, also published by the University of Minnesota Press.
For more information, visit the book's webpage: https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517920012/the-luminous-fairies-and-mothra/
TM & © TOHO CO., LTD.
About University of Minnesota Press
The University of Minnesota Press is recognized internationally for its innovative, boundary-breaking editorial program in the humanities and social sciences and as publisher of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), the most widely used objective tests of personality in the world. Minnesota also maintains as part of its mission a strong commitment to publishing books on the people, history, and natural environment of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. Established in 1925, Minnesota is among the founding members of the Association of University Presses (AUP).