Released
by Random House in the mid-1990's, this was one of several
books from the firm that was aimed toward catering a
very young audience. Unfortunately, this publication
makes for a rather tepid experience all around. In terms
of the story, it focuses on a oval shaped object washing
ashore Monster Island that Anguirus and Godzilla decide
to protect. As expected, a number of the other inhabitants
of the island want to destroy it, as the pair fight
off Kumonga, Kamacuras and Gigan (whose inclusion as
an inhabitant of Monster Island is bizarre). Eventually,
humanity catches wind of the object, and sends Mechagodzilla
to defend it, causing Rodan, who is drawn in the hideous
"Trendmasters look", to join the fray as Godzilla
eventually defeats his metal doppelganger. Following
this skirmish, the object hatches to reveal that it
was a cocoon with Mothra, Imago, inside.
Overall, the story is more complex than one would expect
from the title's target audience, although there isn't
much to praise about it all the same. The idea of having
Mechagodzilla sent to defend the cocoon is an odd one,
and the writing clashes with this explanation as details
like "cruel yellow eyes" are used to describe
the mech. Unfortunately, in that vein, the quality of
writing in general is pretty bad, even with the given
age group in mind. The biggest problem is simply that
it moves from point to point at such a rapid pace that
the words sometimes feel like they are leaving the images
behind. In retrospect, it probably would have benefited
if the action was condensed, like removing one of the
battles in order to better explore another. Despite
the writing's faults, though, the biggest blemish here
is simply the rather unappealing art, which was done
by Tom Morgan and Paul Mounts. It's unfortunate, but
really the only decent shot in this book is the one
on page 6 and 7 that show Varan and Anguirus looking
over the cocoon. Otherwise, the book is just filled
with drawing after drawing that misses its mark, with
many looking like it was a rough sketch that was then
going to be replaced with a more fleshed out drawing
that never came. Bottom line, unless you are a diehard
collector, there is little reason to search this book
out compared to most of the others that Random House
distributed.
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