The final disc in this set and, to date, the final chapter in Makoto Inoue’s Godzilla Legend series, Godzilla Legend IV brings back old music while introducing new tunes as well. Originally titled “Godzilla Legend 4”, it was renamed with roman numerals for this release and will use that distinction to take about the 2011 release versus the 2014 one.

While the original series was done back in the 1980’s, it has picked up a number of long-term fans. Among them was the a cappella group Bukimisha Weird Secret Society. That group has been incredibly busy doing a cappella work around Akira Ifukube’s music. In 2011, though, they teamed with Inoue to bring another chapter into his Godzilla Legend series. Inoue is given reigns for this entry, although the vocal work, rather than sampled from the films, is taken from Bukimisha.

While the series is no stranger to reworking themes, Godzilla Legend III already did that, this attempts to rework a number of them. The results are varied, though. “Lost Continent of the Sacred Mu Empire Song”, for example, pales in contrast to the version heard in Godzilla Legend II. Part of the problem here is that in the 1980’s Inoue was much more experimental. He would use exotic sounds and infuse different flavors into the music. For Godzilla Legend IV, the music either sounds similar to his stuff from the first Godzilla Legend, which did not experiment, or adds in a generic rock-like tempo as with “Mahara Mothra”. This isn’t always the case, as “Sacred Springs” sounds down right depressing on this version here.

In contrast to earlier releases, the best of this entry are the ones that are devoid of lyrics, which oddly were the best of the older work historically. The disc devotes 25% of the music to the Toei animated production Little Prince and the Eight-Headed Dragon, which also starts off the CD and features no lyric work besides a light hymn which works. In terms of the best theme off this disc, it’s probably “Godzilla’s Theme” which tops off the disc rather than starting it, as it did on the 2011 release, but even that doesn’t stack up to the 1980’s work.

Now there are two tracks contained on this release that weren’t originally in Godzilla Legend 4. “The Rock Door Opens” was not included on the original CD release. It was previously found on the Godzilla Legend Box release in 1991 as a bonus track for Godzilla Legend III. “Kimuta an Kamui” is an oddly named track, the only track title written out in English too, and another example of a theme not on the original CD. It’s actually “The Music of an Ancient Plant” from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993). At this time I’m not sure on the history of this track, and it’s the only theme in this set based on the 1990’s films. The track starts with screaming children, so can’t be classified as particularly enjoyable.

As for how this release compares to the earlier CD edition, oh boy… These releases contrast each other a lot. First off the order is nothing alike. This release favors a film sorted order, while the 2011 Godzilla Legend 4 one was mixed up. This release contains 16 tracks, while the original had 19 plus two bonus tracks masking hidden content. The runtimes are also much different with 45 minutes for this versus 79 minutes for the original, although 2 minutes of the cut portion was dead silence in order to mask “Easter egg” tracks. Of the tracks cut out, these are ones not related to the science fiction work or were found in the bonus themes at the end. In total, the following were cut:

• Theme from Snow Trail (1947)
• Main Title from Daiei’s The Great Wall
• Theme from Nikkatsu’s The Burmese Harp
• Golden City from Nikkatsu’s The Burmese Harp
• Theme for the third part of the Sakuma Dam documentary
• March for the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II
• “Boys” song for elementary school
• A cappella bonus track: Godzilla (1954)
• A cappella bonus track: Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)

As seen, the stuff cut was pretty obscure and only one of the synthesized themes was Toho related. The bonus tracks were a cappella oriented, and one could see why they were cut since they weren’t Inoue related.

Overall, the original was more of a celebration of Ifukube than Godzilla. In adapting that to this series, a lot was cut out. Fans who only care about Toho’s science fiction productions aren’t liable to care, as the cuts were focused outside of that area. Regardless of the cuts, volume 4 was a low point in the series. The original Godzilla Legend laid the foundation while the second two chapters sparked with some creativity. This entry goes back to the well to adapt earlier, already used themes with less enthusiastic results and the new content is largely based outside of the science fiction films.

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