Translations
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A compilation of six of the earliest GMK drafts, as seen in the 2022 Japanese publication Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack Completion (ISBN: 9784798627793), and a follow up to an earlier article. The section covering these proposals in the book starts with its own foreword, which is included below.
As usual, VERY special thanks to Noah Oskow for the following translations!
~ Joshua S.
Translations // February 19, 2024 -
Included in this article is a collection of 12 early draft synopses for several Heisei (VS) Series Godzilla movies, including Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992), Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993), and Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994). These translated synopses and subsequent images are from the special features of the Japan-only DVD releases of their respective movies. The descriptions paint a timeline on how the manuscripts subtly changed over time to the movies as we know them today, though most of the presented information may already be fairly familiar to international fans.
As usual, VERY special thanks to Noah Oskow for the following translations!
~ Joshua S.
Translations // July 8, 2023 -
A complete translation of one of the earliest available drafts for 2004’s Godzilla: Final Wars, as seen in the Japanese publication Godzilla: Final Wars Completion (ISBN: 4798631353). Though this early proposal differs from the final product in many ways, it’s easy to see just how many of the same beats it hits even this early in the movie’s planning stages.
Starting off this article is a brief breakdown of the earliest manuscripts and the dates they were completed, then following the proposal translation are snippets from other drafts, namely the monsters that were considered to appear and a brief rundown of the final battle in each draft. As usual, VERY special thanks to Noah Oskow for the following translation!
~ Joshua S.
Translations // June 4, 2023 -
A translation of a 4-minute video interview with screenwriter Kazuki Omori and special effects director Koichi Kawakita, from the special features of the 2002 DVD release Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992). It can also be found in the 2016 DVD re-release and 2019 Blu-ray release of the movie.
The video interview is divided into 3 segments, with Omori appearing in the 1st and 3rd, and Kawakita appearing in the 2nd. This interview headlines a “Making of Godzilla vs. Mothra” section of the special features, touching upon the history of events that led to the movie’s inception, and how the “bad” Mothra, Battra, came to be.
As usual, special thanks goes to Noah Oskow for the following translation! This article was made as something of a trial run, which can hopefully lead to more interesting discoveries from older video interviews like this down the road.
~ Joshua S.
Translations // December 22, 2022 -
Conducted 30 years ago this month (December 1992) by journalist David Milner for “Cult Movies” magazine, this is what would be the original Godzilla film (and various sequels and other films) director Ishiro Honda’s final interview prior to his death in February 1993. When the interview was originally published in “Cult Movies” magazine in 1993, it was printed as a largely complete interview. Now, for the first time, the interview is being published in its completed form (although lightly edited for flow and no information lost).
In the interview, conducted at his home in Setagaya, Tokyo, Mr. Honda covers a wide range of subjects from the Godzilla series to his work in other films. Coming in at 17 pages long, there’s quite a bit of information to digest. For those of you who have read the old transcriptions of the “Cult Movies” Magazine either found online or have the older issues, there’s a bit of new information here in this new transcription, which has remained unreleased for 30 years. For those of you who have found Godzilla either by the Legendary Pictures films or the Toho films by yourself, via a friend or a loved one, and wanted to know more about Godzilla, I hope you find this interview educational and inspiring!
In addition to the interview text, I’m also adding the audio of the full interview which has never been released. The audio has been digitized from the original cassettes and while it isn’t the BEST quality, the interview is preserved (it does have a few hiccups here and there) and has a total running time of 3 hours 12 minutes and 9 seconds.
This interview is the first of many with other Toho luminaries, most of which will be posted with the original audio alongside each transcription. Because of the workload required, I cannot guarantee a time frame for releases but I will do my very best to post as quickly as possible.
Thank yous:
First off, I’d like to thank David Milner for entrusting me with his full interview archive for sharing on Toho Kingdom and for digitizing the original cassette tapes so the interviews would not be lost to time. I sincerely hope that you not only enjoy them, but find them useful as reference when writing/discussing the Godzilla franchise, and the words of those interviewed continue to inspire and educate for many years to come.
In addition, this re-translation was originally done by Yuuko Honda-Yun (granddaughter of Ishiro) for Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski as part of their research for their book Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa. VERY special thanks to Mr. Ryfle and Mr. Godziszewski for sharing this complete translation with Toho Kingdom, and to Miss Honda-Yun for giving permission to share it. Toho Kingdom also wishes to thank the interview’s original translator, Yoshihiko Shibata.
Interviews // December 19, 2022 -
A complete translation of the 150 page considered draft for Godzilla X Varan, Baragon and Anguirus: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, as seen in the 2022 Japanese publication Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack Completion (ISBN: 9784798627793). Following the story translation is a “staff message” interview with GMK modelers Fuyuki Shinada and Takuya Yamabe from the same book.
Director Shusuke Kaneko penned 3 early drafts – Varan x Baragon x Anguirus Giant Monsters All-Out Attack: Godzilla 2002, Varan X Baragon X Anguirus Giant Monsters All-Out Attack: Godzilla 2002 PROT2ND, and Godzilla 2002 ver.3 – before a significant amount of the story and characters were further fleshed out by Keiichi Hasegawa in his 49 page draft, Varan X Baragon X Anguirus: Godzilla Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
In this 5th version of the story, much of the foundation has already been laid for the familiar characters Yuri Tachibana and her father, as well as a majority of the supporting cast. In previous iterations, the Gotengo (or equivalent) was to play an important role in defeating Godzilla, but the familiar superweapon would be phased out over time by the D-03-equipped Satsuma. The draft shared here would also be the final one to prominently feature Varan and Anguirus as the Yamato Guardian Monsters before the two were replaced by Mothra and King Ghidorah respectively.
As usual, VERY special thanks to Noah Oskow for the following translation!
~ Joshua S.
Translations // May 22, 2022 -
A complete translation of one of the earliest available drafts for 2016’s Shin Godzilla, as seen in the Japanese publication The Art of Shin Godzilla (ISBN: 490503308X). As an aside, this translation was the winner of a poll held on our Twitter account back in November 2020!
Many similarities between this and the final product are easy to spot, but there are also some wildly unusual elements that give this early draft a unique flare. Since this manuscript begins with its own preface, it may be best to let that do the talking. As usual, VERY special thanks to Noah Oskow for the following translation!
~ Joshua S.
Translations // January 22, 2022 -
A few years ago I translated a few pages of Terebi Magazine that described an early take of Mecha-Ghidorah that came from the 1980s—long before Mecha-King Ghidorah became a part of the Heisei canon. I had seen images of this fully-mechanized version of the monster floating around the Internet for years, and so I was pretty happy when I finally got my hands on a reprinted copy that came as a bonus with one of the Godzilla All-Movie DVD Collectors’ Box volumes. Many of these sets come with interesting bonus materials, and while I usually picked them up only if they had rare manga reprints of things like the manga adaptation of Godzilla vs. Megalon or Kazumine Daiji’s adaptation of Godzilla vs. Hedorah, sometimes a particular article reprint also caught my eye—and such was the case with vol. 47, which included the movie Varan (1958), and a set of six short stories titled “Giant Monster of Justice Godzilla,” published as a serial in Terebi Magazine from October 1972 until March of 1973. (more…)
Translations // June 11, 2021 -
A complete translation of the manga The H-Man Continues, which acts as a sequel to the 1958 movie by director Ishiro Honda and the manga based on it. Credited to author Hideo Unagami and artist Shigeru Fujita, this manga was released on July 20th, 1958. Consequently, this was less than a month after the H-Man (1958) movie, which was issued to theaters on June 24th, 1958. The publication starts with a recap of the events in the movie, and the manga that was released for it, before it dives into the story of the events after the film.
Note that the translation approach is that of writing it out as a simplified novella so you can enjoy the entire story. I sometimes had to fill in some small details just to make the scenes make sense, but I tried to keep as close to the script of the comic as possible with a minimum of additional commentary or description. This can make the reading a bit bland, but I hope you can still enjoy the story. Note that there are some sections with narration from the comic which I tried to straight translate. Usually I do not add much of my own narration in the text that follows. All of this is captured in the translation below. (more…)
Translations // June 11, 2021 -
Included below is a collection of nearly 40 synopses, ranging from translations of early movie drafts such as ones for Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) and Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999), to unrealized projects such as Bride of Godzilla? and Mothra vs. Bagan. When applicable, years and authors are also listed, and hyperlinks are available for easier navigation between the synopses.
VERY special thanks to author John LeMay for sharing this wealth of detailed information! A number of the stories shared are further elaborated upon in LeMay’s The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Films: Mutated Edition (ISBN: 9781701683945).
With that, we hope you enjoy some of the most ambitious and wildest ideas left on the cutting room floor.
Translations // November 22, 2020
