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 |
Title |
| Godzilla vs. Biollante |
| Author(s) |
| Kobayashi Tatsuyoshi,
Kazuki Omori, Shinichiro Kobayashi |
| Pencils:
Kobayashi Tatsuyoshi |
Inks:
- |
| Language:
Japanese |
Release:
1990 |
| Publisher: Shogakukan |
Pages:
192 |
| Colors:
- |
Cover:
Kobayashi Tatsuyoshi |
| |
| Monster
Appearances: |
Aliens,
SDF, & Misc Appearances: |
| Godzilla, Biollante |
Super-X2, Psychics, MBT-92, UH-1B
Huey, Super-X,DDH-142
Haruna Class Destroyer, F-15J
Jets, M6000
T.C. System, AH-1S |
|
|
Released
in 1990, this book contains a comic adaptation of Kazuki
Omori's first entry in the Godzilla series. If one is
familiar with the mangas from Shogakukan that followed,
specifically Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah through
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, they will probably
be pretty surprised to discover that this publication
is actually pretty faithful to the movie. The few changes
from the source that are present are largely derived,
or inspired, from cut scenes. The most notable example
of this is the ending, which uses the infamous
animated sequence of Biollante "eating" Godzilla in
the final battle before decending into the sky. However,
the changes to the battle with the Rose form don't
seem to have any parallel with what was shot for the
movie, and seem to be Kobayashi Tatsuyoshi's slight
touch to the material.
As for the manga as a whole,
as expected the pacing is noticeably quicker, although
just for the human elements. Tatsuyoshi's take on Godzilla
vs. Biollante (1989) is also slightly more
comedic than the movie, such as Gondo casually tripping
the Saradia employee as Kirishima takes the
briefcase while sticking out his tongue, although
these don't impact the plot in any way. In regards
to the artwork, it's definitely nothing like Takayuki
Sakai's work, who would pen the later Shogakukan books.
Tatsuyoshi is definitely talented when it comes to
portraying the monsters here, especially Biollante
who looks stunning in some of the panels in her final
form, although a few uneven efforts slip in. The human
part of the book is less refined, though. The biggest
problem is that a couple of the characters look notably
similar, such as Kirishima and general Sho
Kuroki, while a select few also look down right goofy,
which is on account of the humongous lips he places
on some of them in an effort to make them more distinct.
His take on the Saradian Agent, SSS9, is interesting,
though. In fact, he looks pretty suave, tough and muscular,
the latter of which shouldn't be surprising as nearly
all of the male characters have roughly the same build.
The end result looks almost nothing like its source,
save the sunglasses and stripped suit, but it's still
very satisfactory as the assassin is imposing in the
manga.
Overall, if one is itching for a faithful adaptation
of the often hailed film, among Godzilla fans at least,
this isn't a bad effort. It's not really remarkable
in any particular area, save a few drawings of the
two titular characters, but if one enjoys the movie
enough it's certainly an amusing book to thumb through.
Personally, though, I was disappointed that it didn't
take more artistic license with the material. I'm
sure some disapprove of Shogakukan's often drastically
different takes on the movies, but for me the changes
are what make the publications so note worthy and in
that respect I was a little disheartened to find this
one stayed so true to the script in many regards. |
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