The “Dengeki Hobby Book: Heisei Godzilla Perfection” to be released February 10th!
Kaiju No Mura has brought a pretty interesting new release to light within the fandom: The Dengeki Hobby Book: “Heisei Godzilla Perfection” published by ASCII Media Works. The book will cost 3,990 yen (approximately $52 USD), and will be released on Feb 10th, 2012. This exciting new release will also will be made available at Wonder Festival on Feb 12th, 2012. The First 30 books signed by Koichi Kawakita (book supervisor)!
The ever-reliable August Ragone has some more information on the book, via the Godzilla Collector’s Group:
The book is 164 pages about the movies themselves. A retrospective of the Heisei series with rare photos, production designs, and interviews with the staff and cast of the films (all in Japanese, of course).
When asked by a fellow fan “how the book compares to the Godzilla Chronicles book released a few years back”, Ragone replied:
This is a larger-format, A4 size (8-1/4″x11-3/4″), as opposed to “paperbook”-sized format of the former publication… The new book is purported to be more heavily illustrated.
I am sincerely looking forward to this book. The Heisei films are very unique in style, and offer up the strongest continuity out of any grouping or era of Godzilla films; Godzilla vs Biollante thru Godzilla vs Destoroyah especially demonstrating an unrivaled connective tissue.
Admittedly, the Heisei era is not my favorite – I’m much more of a Showa guy myself (if you can’t tell by all of my Skreeonk and Marketplace graphics already), but I have a great deal of nostalgia connected with these colorful films from the eighties and nineties. The Heisei era saw the return of not only Godzilla, but of Ghidorah, Rodan, Moguera, Mothra, and MechaGodzilla – all with neocontemporary makeovers. This in itself is a truly incredible feat, one that is often overlooked by the fandom. The Heisei era was also very successful in expanding Godzilla’s rogues gallery, giving us new favorites and incredible creature designs with the likes of Biollante, Battra, SpaceGodzilla, Grand King Ghidorah, and Destoroyah (among many others). All of this, combined with reoccurring characters such as Miki Saegusa, make the Heisei series a beast all of its own – one that fans could follow and connect to.
This new book, creatively entitled “Heisei Godzilla Perfection“, looks to be an excellent tribute to a unique era in Kaiju history – And you can bet your tails that we’ll be updating with more information as it’s released, such as where you can get your hands on one of these books!
I will try to pick this Godzilla book up on Feb. 10th if I can find it. I currently live in the country side, so I might not be able to find it at the books stores around (for example, I never could find any of the recent Yosensha "Mooks" out here....thankfully I am moving to Tokyo in March) and I will post a review of it. I am not the biggest fan of the heisei series, but nevertheless, I always welcome a new Japanese book on Godzilla.
