Book Review: Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again novelizations

Cody reads the Godzilla novelizations by Shigeru Kayama (translated by Jeffrey Angles).

GODZILLA AND GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN by Shigeru Kayama, translated by Jeffrey Angles

When Japanese film producer Tomoyuki Tanaka had the thought to make a film that would cash in on the successes of both King Kong and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (potential title: The Giant Monster from 20,000 Miles Beneath the Sea), the first person he hired to craft story ideas was author Shigeru Kayama, whose stories often featured monsters and mutants. Kayama’s story would later be worked on by both writer Takeo Murata and director Ishirô Honda, but Kayama did lay the foundation for what would become the 1954 classic Godzilla (or Gojira). When the movie did so well that a sequel was greenlit, Kayama was brought back to come up with the idea for 1955’s Godzilla Raids Again. And, being an author, he also wrote novelizations of both Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again that were published in ‘55. Almost seventy years later, those novelizations have finally gotten English translations, thanks to University of Minnesota Press and Jeffrey Angles, who is a professor of Japanese at Western Michigan University.

Although Kayama’s initial story for Godzilla wasn’t exactly what ended up on the screen, he was very happy with the film – and for his novelization, he mostly sticks with what we saw in the movie. He didn’t want fans of the film to buy a copy of his book and then find it didn’t match up with the Godzilla story they were familiar with. However, he did make some changes when it comes to the characters. In the film, there’s a love triangle between the characters Emiko, Ogata, and Serizawa... but there’s no love triangle to be found in the pages of the book, and Ogata is barely in it. Kayama was writing these novelizations for young readers, so he decided to make the primary character a teenager: an 18-year-old boy named Shinkichi, a native of the place where the stories of Godzilla originate, Odo Island. Shinkichi has a small role in the film, but in the book he’s around for every major moment. In the movie, he isn’t introduced until Godzilla starts causing trouble for Odo Island (and soon kills some of Shinkichi’s loved ones). In the book, he’s introduced very early, and he's not only an Odo Island native. He’s also an employee at Tokyo Bay Rescue and Salvage and a friend of Emiko, the daughter of paleontologist Professor Yamane. Ogata is his rarely-present boss and was also a classmate of Dr. Serizawa, who Emiko knows because he’s her father’s protégé. But there’s nothing romantic going on with anyone. Emiko and Shinkichi know each other because they met while being evacuated to the same area during the events of World War II.

Love triangle aside, the book plays out much like the movie, with Shinkichi being present for scenes he wasn’t around for on film. There is a notable addition where characters start getting threats from an organization called the Tokyo Godzilla Society, who worship the giant monster as their Lord and Savior – and their existence even gets people wondering if Godzilla might be a robot that’s controlled by the TGS instead of a living creature.

The novelization is a quick and fun read, and Kayama took an interesting approach to the writing of it, packing it with onomatopoeia and even including a few notes to the readers. If anything is making noise at a particular moment, Kayama makes sure to write out the noise on the page. (One example featuring Godzilla: “The next thing to catch his eyes was a tall television tower. Crack!! He broke it off with a single paw, then – crunch, crunch!! - he bent it nearly double with his ferocious strength, leaving it a twisted mess.”) The notes to the reader come when he’s explaining moments during Godzilla’s attacks and what's happening around Tokyo. Like when he has to describe Godzilla’s ability to shoot white-hot fire out of his mouth, Kayama writes, “Dear readers, I imagine you must be familiar with the weapon known as a flamethrower.” There’s also a paragraph that starts “Those of you readers who live in Tokyo know this already” as he begins to talk about the city’s public transportation, and a note that references the experiences they might have had during the war. “Some of you readers probably know how weird and unsettling it can be when terrified people are running around in a panic as sirens wail overhead”...

The Godzilla Raids Again novelization is a more straightforward adaptation of the film. Kayama didn’t really make character changes in that one. And since the movie is rather short and action packed, so is the book version.

This book consists of around 240 pages, with 188 of those being taken up by the two novelizations. The Godzilla novelization ends at page 111, leaving just 77 pages for Godzilla Raids Again. Translator Jeffrey Angles then provides a 30 page afterword that discusses Kayama’s writing and the translation process, and the book wraps up with a helpful glossary of names, places, and ideas.

I’m very glad the Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again novelizations have finally been given English translations, as I really enjoyed having the chance to read them and I’m sure a lot of my fellow Godzilla fans will as well. Kayama wrote the stories in a fun way, and the afterword and glossary provided by Angles were interesting and appreciated. If you’re a fan of the classic Godzilla movies, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of this book. Paperback and Kindle editions are available now, just a couple clicks away. Here’s one click: Amazon.