| Seiji Yamada's extensive book covering the numerous
posters of Toho's Sci-fi films is an extraordinary resource.
Released to commemorate the death of Godzilla, and the
closure of the Heisei Godzilla series, the book covers
Godzilla
vs. Destoroyah (1995) in the beginning with 3
pages dedicated to it, containing 27 color photos, before
the book dives into the meat of its contents: the posters.
The Godzilla Large Complete Works has quite
a few of the posters to Toho's Sci-fi films, from Godzilla
(1954) up to the, then recent, Godzilla
vs. Destoroyah (1995). Containing mostly Japanese
posters, and including the numerous posters dedicated
to the re-releasing of the films, the book also has
some of the English, International and other foreign
posters of these films. The book only covers Toho produced
Sci-fi films, with the sole exception of the Daigoro
vs. Goliath (1972) poster featured inside. In
terms of picture quality, the brightness and contrast
on a lot of them is turned down, but the pictures appear
sharp and very appealing none the same. Below each poster
is a short blurb on the film, in Japanese, along with
the date of release, for the Japanese posters, of that
particular version. For example, a re-release poster
of King
Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) will list 1970 as the
date.
What makes the book note worthy compared to other books
dedicated to Japanese posters, though, is the sheer
size of it. Measuring in at an impressive 11 1/2
inches tall and just under 8 1/2
inches wide, some posters, like the US Godzilla vs.
the Smog Monster one, have never looked this good
in publication before.
Although there are other books out there with more
Japanese posters than the Godzilla Large Complete
Works, none can really compare in terms of the size
of its presentation. For that reason alone, some might
be interested in picking this book up, or for some of
the rare Godzilla
vs. Destoroyah (1995) pictures shown in the
books introduction. On a final note, probably the most
intriguing picture in the book is that of the poster
for the Lost Project: Nessie.
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