What Books Are There Left to Write?

[H-Man]

Today I read the interview with Stuart Galbraith IV (great) and revisited the Toho Kingdom Podcast where they interviewed August Ragone. As I pondered their remarks, I wondered to myself: What subjects in the realm of Japanese sci-fi/fantasy/horror cinema are there left to write about?

If we look at a sample of the books published thus far, we have:

- A biography/filmography of Eiji Tsuburaya (courtesy of August Ragone);
- A book about Godzilla up through 1998 (Steve Ryfle);
- A biography/filmography of Ishiro Honda (Steve Ryfle and Ed Godzisewski)
- A biography/filmography of Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa (Stuart Galbraith IV)
- A filmography of Japanese FX films and collection of interviews (Stuart Galbraith IV)
- More than a few books that are surveys/overviews of Godzilla's career (Ian Thorne, etc.)
- A collection of posters and whatnot of Japanese monster movies (Sean Linkenback)
- Two Volumes of "The Big Book of Japanese Monsters" (John LeMay)
- The Dinosaur Filmography (Mark Berry)
- A book about Lost Films
- The Kaiju Film: A Critical Study of Cinema's Biggest Monsters (Jason Barr)
- Apocalypse Then: American and Japanese Atomic Cinema (Mike Bogue)
- A Critical History and Filmography of Toho's Godzilla Series (David Kalat)

What else there is to explore, in your guys' opinion?

[mikelcho]

You forgot The Dinosaur Scrapbook by Donald F. Glut, which has a section on kaiju films that is seriously (no, I mean it) in need of a major updating.

[H-Man]

As I said before, the list above was a sample of what we have today, and the inclusion of The Dinosaur Filmography indicates that our dinosaur movie book bases are more-or-less covered.

Anything missing from the list in terms of thematic material?

[tbeasley]

After reading their Honda biography I'd love to see Ed G and Ryfle write a new all-encompassing history of the Godzilla series, sort of a hybrid updating of their previous books (Japan's Favorite Mon-Star, the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Godzilla). The clean, simple layout of the Honda book was really nice and easy on the eyes.

I'd also like to see anything (Godzilla, Gamera, anything!) by the SciFi Japan guys... Keith Aiken's massive Godzilla Unmade article was amazingly comprehensive.

[The Octopus]

How about a book on the guy who actually created Godzilla. Tomoyuki Tanaka.

[H-Man]

Thread bump!

[Zarm]

For me, a making-of/behind the scenes book for many of the film entries would be excellent! (Age of the Gods seems to fit the bill, but it is rather hard to track down, as far as I can tell, and I'm not even sure if it's in English; likewise for Godzilla Heisei Perfection and the like).

[H-Man]

I personally want to read a book about the post-Tsuburaya work of Teruyoshi Nakano, especially in a format similar to August's book.

[Maritonic]

I would love a collection of behind the scenes photographs. There was one recently released for John Carpenter's films and it was incredible to see all the behind the scenes shots. No text or anything, just a collection of various behind the scenes effect shots or of the actors being relaxed or whatever exists out there in the void.

Edit: The book in question - https://www.amazon.com/Set-John-Carpent ... 178329468X

[UltramanGoji]

After reading their Honda biography I'd love to see Ed G and Ryfle write a new all-encompassing history of the Godzilla series, sort of a hybrid updating of their previous books (Japan's Favorite Mon-Star, the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Godzilla). The clean, simple layout of the Honda book was really nice and easy on the eyes.

Steve has mentioned that he wants to do an updated Mon-Star book in the future with a better layout for the text.

I also talked to Ed at G-FEST about future book plans and he mentioned something like a compilation of interviews from the past which I'd like to see.

As far as what's left to write, there still isn't a really good, up-to-date guidebook on the Godzilla series like the Compendium from 98. Something that details everything about the series, from kaiju to the films and impact on the world, that's geared more towards casual fans.

Also missing are a lot of biographies. Akira Ifukube, Haruo Nakajima, Tomoyuki Tanaka, these are the three I'd say could get their own books but even people like Teruyoshi Nakano, Yasuyuki Inoue, Keizo Murase, Koichi Kawakita etc. could all be written about and compiled into one big volume.

I'd also like to see someone republish Age of the Gods by Guy Mariner Tucker as that book is filled with all kinds of obscure information and it's sad that its publication was very miniscule.

[Gerdzerl]

I think in-depth books about the production of and the design influences/inspirations behind the kaiju designs and their aesthetics (like, how Destoroyah was inspired by Devilman, Godzilla's design was a hybrid of three dinosaurs, and so on) would be really awesome. The Toho SFX Movies Authentic Visual Book (東宝特撮 公式ヴィジュアル・ブック Tōhō Tokusatsu Kōshiki Vijuaru Bukku) series sorta do that, but those are apparently only 36 pages long and kind of bare bones, being much more picture-heavy than text-heavy. It'd be cool to learn what Eiji Tsuburya and Koichi Kawakita and so on's design aesthetic tastes and influences.

[Godzillian]

I'd love a book disussing each kaiju in the franchise and discussing how they were created and brought to life on film

[Tyrant_Lizard_King]

A new edition of The Unofficial Guide to Godzilla Collectibles. So much has come out since then plus Tamashii, Xplus, and other companies having entered the scene in recent years.

Also as Gerd and Godzillian mentioned an in-depth English language book covering all of Toho's kaiju over the years. A book covering both in-universe and behind the scenes information. There's a ton of different kaiju encyclopedias in Japan but we've never gotten anything like that in English.

A book covering the history and evolution of Godzilla as a character, a metaphor, and as a living creature within the context of the films. I don't know if anything like that has ever been done. Or hell a book of the evolution and creation of the various designs, suits, and incarnations of Godzilla would be really cool. Hell one book covering all those things would be awesome. Some books have touched upon those things but I'd love a book solely dedicated to it.

I'd also really really love a English language version of the making of Shin Godzilla book.

[Gigantis]

There was a ton of books that shed more light on kaiju (whatever was the one that told DAM Baragon's stats as an example) so why not continue on that?

[Terasawa]

I'd say there are plenty of books left to write because it's not like any one English language book on the genre is perfect. They all have flaws and all present some information that is demonstrably false, and as long as we continue to learn more about these films from other sources (including original research), it becomes clear that there's still much more to be said.

[mikelcho]

I see that John LeMay's series of three books on Japanese kaiju films have all been revised and updated recently.

Anyone got any opinions on these? I'd like to know if they're any good and if any reviews for them are coming here.

[H-Man]

Last year I sent some old reviews from my now-defunct "It's a Beautiful Film worth Fighting For" website to an author friend for his teenage daughter, who's getting into Godzilla, to read. I found out today that after reading them, she thought I should compile them into a book. But review-based books aren't very popular with the more hardcore fans, are they?

What were your guys' reactions to:

Titans of Toho: An Unauthorized Guide to the Godzilla Series and the Rest of Toho's Giant Monster Film Library

There Goes Tokyo! A Celebration of Kaiju Eiga

Memories From Monster Island: A Fun Stomp Through Toho's Godzilla Films

[UltramanGoji]

Review-based books aren't really interesting to me as most of the ones out there can't really provide anything new that I don't already know aside from the author's opinion which...sorry to say I'm not paying $5+ for in the age of the internet. I'm way more interested in books like the Honda/Tsuburaya biographies and Norman England's: books that talk about the history of the genre with new information that hasn't been translated before.

The reviews for those books on the main site seem to pretty much echo my sentiments, so I've no interest in ever checking them out.

[darthzilla99]

I would love to see a book on both Teruyoshi Nakano and Koichi Kawakita. Both SPX directors have done lots of work outside of Godzilla. In particular it would be fun to see behind the scenes for the Super Star God (toho's own short lived super sentai knockoffs) series since Kawakita did the works on them. I would also love the thought process on the stiff flying kaiju in the heisei series.

[UltramanGoji]

Yeah, if there's any time frames in tokusatsu history that are sorely unrepresented in academic books, it's Heisei onwards. That's why I'm excited to read Norman's book since he was on set for many of the Millennium series Godzilla movies. But some stuff on the 80's/90's output from Toho would be really cool to see.