Godzilla And Godzilla Raids Again

By (author) Kayama, Shigeru; Translated by Angles Jeffrey
Short description/annotation:
This book finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The novellas reveal valuable insights into Kayama’s vision for the Godzilla story, feature plots that differ from the films, and clearly display the author’s strong antinuclear, proenvironmental convictions.
Description:

The first English translations of the original novellas about the iconic kaijū Godzilla

Godzilla emerged from the sea to devastate Tokyo in the now-classic 1954 film, produced by Tōhō Studios and directed by Ishirō Honda, creating a global sensation and launching one of the world’s most successful movie and media franchises. Awakened and transformed by nuclear weapons testing, Godzilla serves as a terrifying metaphor for humanity’s shortsighted destructiveness: this was the intent of Shigeru Kayama, the science fiction writer who drafted the 1954 original film and its first sequel and, in 1955, published these novellas. 

 

Although the Godzilla films have been analyzed in detail by cultural historians, film scholars, and generations of fans, Kayama’s two Godzilla novellas-both classics of Japanese young-adult science fiction-have never been available in English. This book finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again. The novellas reveal valuable insights into Kayama’s vision for the Godzilla story, feature plots that differ from the films, and clearly display the author’s strong antinuclear, proenvironmental convictions.

 

Kayama’s fiction depicts Godzilla as engaging in guerrilla-style warfare against humanity, which has allowed the destruction of the natural world through its irresponsible, immoral perversion of science. As human activity continues to cause mass extinctions and rapid climatic change, Godzilla provides a fable for the Anthropocene, powerfully reminding us that nature will fight back against humanity’s onslaught in unpredictable and devastating ways.

 

 

Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly.

Table of contents:

Contents

Note on Japanese Names

Godzilla: Godzilla in Tokyo

A Strange Bright Light from the Ocean Floor

The Kaiju of Ōdo Island

The Eerie Island of Ōdo

Godzilla Appears

The Mysterious Trilobite

The Underground Laboratory

We Mustn’t Kill

The Tokyo Godzilla Society

Godzilla Attacks the Metropolitan Center

The Oxygen Destroyer

Prayer for Peace

Godzilla Raids Again: Godzilla in Osaka

Flight over the Ocean

Two Kaiju

Professor Yamane

Godzilla Approaches

Crowds of Evacuees

The Escaped Prisoners

Godzilla Makes Landfall

Anguirus

The Hokkaido Branch

The Far North

Celebrating the Big Catch

Godzilla Appears in the Northern Seas

Kobayashi’s Plane Meets Its End

Nature’s Victory Song

Afterword: Translating an Icon

Jeffrey Angles

Glossary of Names, Places, and Ideas

Review quote:

"At long last, the pathbreaking novellas by Shigeru Kayama that launched the Godzilla franchise are finally available in English. It was well worth the wait: Jeffrey Angles’s lively translation captures all the action, emotion, and political edge of the original Japanese texts. This engaging volume will be a revelation for Godzilla fans, a rich resource for students of Japan, and a rewarding read for anyone who enjoys classic tales of science fiction and adventure."-William M. Tsutsui, chancellor of Ottawa Universit