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.
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By:
Shigeru Kayama
Translated by:
Jeffrey Angles
Imprint: Miscellaneous
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 210mm,
Width: 140mm,
Spine: 10mm
Weight: 312g
ISBN: 9781517915230
ISBN 10: 1517915236
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 08 February 2024
Audience:
General/trade
,
Young adult
,
ELT Advanced
,
Preschool (0-5)
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
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
Shigeru Kayama (1904–1975) was a science fiction writer and scenarist whose early stories about monsters and mutated sea creatures attracted the attention of Tōhō Studios, which asked him to draft the first two Godzilla films. The film Half Human by Tōhō Studios was also based on one of his stories, and he contributed to the screenplay for the Tōhō film The Mysterians. 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.
Reviews for Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again
"""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 University and author of Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters ""The contributions of Japan’s speculative fiction writer Shigeru Kayama to the Godzilla film franchise have long been overlooked in the West. Jeffrey Angles’s translation of Kayama’s Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again novellas, along with Angles’s own afterword with a biographical sketch of the writer, correct this longstanding oversight. An invaluable addition to the history of Japanese science fiction cinema and literature.""—Steve Ryfle, coauthor of Ishirō Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa "
