One of the great joys and frustrations of Godzilla fans comes from the great swath of mostly unattributed pics you can find from various books, magazines, and comics related to the fandom that pop up online. There are simply so MANY paintings and drawings of Godzilla that appear in Tumblr or on random spaces, shared on Facebook, Twitter, and the like—and often posted and reshared to the point that asking  about the origin of said images can prove fruitless. In the case of Godzilla, you can find the usual anatomical deconstructions, strange remixed versions of his enemies, surprising matchups (such as Ultraman vs. Ghidorah), and wild images from comics (which are sometimes just fan-made). For me, some of the most interesting of these confusing reposts come from the Toho Kaiju Picture Book series of publications from 1972.

These publications, of which there were ten, each included around eighteen pages of gloriously painted imagery featuring a surprising cross section of monster combatants from the Toho monster films—including many second-and-third stringers like Maguma and Dogora, among others. However, making these texts even more enticing, each book also came with 8 millimeter films and accompanying records (for the sound). The films were all re-edited from the movies, and sported the same title as the accompanying book, but with different stories along with music from the films and new narration and dialogue. The movie stories tended to be much less ambitious than the picture books, given that they could only work with already existing imagery and situations from the films, but that didn’t stop the creators from occasionally crafting the odd alternative version of canonical film tales. However, given that these books were all published more than fifty years ago, finding affordable copies in the resale market was a daunting prospect for a budget-conscious schlub like me. Compounding the frustration, while many images from the picture books can be found online, complete with text on the pages, the books are nearly impossible to read—even if you can understand Japanese. For reasons I fail to fathom, each book printed the text of the story directly on the paintings of the monster mayhem—generally on highly detailed art, with text that does not stand out well, and which likely has faded with age. It’s a real recipe for eyestrain! Also, while many of the books in the series have interesting titles (the most evocative might be Kaiju Olympic—if I was more attentive to timing, I would be writing a review of that book now instead, given the event taking place in France currently), the book that captured my attention the most was Godzilla Journeys to Space! (ゴジラ宇宙へ行く！). This book, the seventh volume, is also the only tale to feature an original monster enemy—the Dorakyundo Aliens.

Still, I didn’t hold out a lot of hope for finding these books at an affordable price and asking collectors to share scans of their precious tomes also seemed impossible (and obnoxious). Thus, it was to no small delight on my part that I discovered the entire series had been included as extra material on Toho DVDs and Blu Rays over the years—including Godzilla Journeys to Space! This treasure was stuck as an extra on the Japanese DVD release of Invasion of Astro-Monster (for obvious reasons that will become more apparent momentarily), and, even better, they included a narrator energetically reading the nigh-illegible text from the picture books out-loud as you click through the pages on your screen! While I couldn’t get the same level of satisfaction from peering at digital recreations of the paintings on my computer that I might have from holding the physical originals, still, the fact I could listen to and decipher the story is a worthwhile trade.

Though, to be frank, the “stories” in this series can barely be deemed narratively fulfilling, if I am being honest. But I will also let you judge for yourself.

I translated the entire text by listening closely to the narration from the DVD, so I will include it below, with brief descriptions of the two-page visuals that accompany each section of text. Note that the book includes a lot of sound effects, which I just transliterated rather than attempting to render English equivalents.

Pages 1 and 2 show Godzilla and Rodan gazing up at the night sky where King Ghidorah is attacking spaceships and flying saucers near the moon. (Godzilla and Rodan appear as if they are floating in space, too, really.)

Text: “Hey, Godzilla Kun! Ghidorah is rampaging on the moon.”

“Yeah, he’s a nasty guy. Rodan Kun, let’s take this guy down together.”

On earth, Godzilla and Rodan are discussing what to do.

Pages 3 and 4 feature an image of King Ghidorah standing on a rocky portion of the moon while blasting at a moon base of some sort.

Text: King Ghidorah is attacking the moon base and destroying every last bit of it! Dodon! Gasha! The moon base buildings explode!

Pages 5 and 6 show a pair of flying saucers carrying Godzilla and Rodan in the bubble-force-fields from the film, and a rocket is blasting the bubble containing Godzilla for no apparent reason—all while a trio of space soldiers or scientists look on.

Text: The Space Defense Force sent Godzilla and Rodan to the moon. Sticking them into capsules, both Godzilla and Rodan are going on something like a space hike!

Pages 7 and 8 feature Godzilla and Rodan on the moon bursting from their “capsules” with the assistance of zappy rays from a Markalite while spacecraft whiz by above.

Text: We have arrived on the moon! Godzilla and Rodan are bathed with alpha light rays from the Markalite. Biribiribiri biribiribiri! Ah, the capsules started to melt!

Pages 9 and 10 bring on the sudden appearance of the Dorakyundo Aliens, with a close-up of one (the leader?) sending out electric signals to an entire army up on a hillside. The alien soldiers are wielding silver zappy bazookas which they are using to kaboom the base.

Text: If you’re going to come, then come! The Dorakyundo Aliens are lying in wait for an ambush.

“Fire!”

The aliens begin their attack all at once!

Next, on pages 11 and 12, we get a better idea of just how big the Dorakyundo Aliens are. Godzilla and Rodan face off with the aliens, and they trade shots—Godzilla blasts one of the aliens with his breath, and both Rodan and Godzilla get lit up with the silver energy bazookas. Rodan is carrying one of the Dorakyundo in his claws, so it looks like maybe they are much smaller than Rodan and G… but the sense of perspective is all wacky. The other Dorakyundos appear much larger than the one Rodan is carrying. Also, Godzilla is… drooling? Some kind of sparkling blue ooze is dribbling out of the corner of his mouth.

Text: Bufaa! With one puff, Godzilla knocked over the Dorakyundo Aliens in a great commotion. Rodan also came flying in for a full-speed attack! Byuun! Kiiin!

On the following two pages (13 and 14), Godzilla and Ghidorah face off—and we also get a clear view of a spinning-top-shaped—I am assuming it is a Dorakyundo ship given that it is attacking Godzilla. Ghidorah is wading through a massive explosion and sending out gravity beams thither and yon while Godzilla grapples the right head and blasts the left.

Text: “Hey, Godzilla! Take me on for size!”

King Ghidorah stages a powerful counterattack. Gao! Ueeenn! Kyeeehhh! Is Ghidorah going to win? Is Godzilla going to win?

Rodan shines on pages 15 and 16 as flying saucers of various shapes square off with him in space, and the monster pterodactyl brings them down with beak and claw.

Text: The space aliens mount a flying saucer attack. Dadan! Byuuun! Kiin! Bashih! However, Rodan is unstoppable!

On the last two pages, Godzilla is grabbing at two of Ghidorah’s necks while Rodan bites the third. A moon base explodes in the background, and Godzilla lets loose with another atomic ray.

Text: Is that enough? Godzilla grabbed King Ghidorah’s neck and stretched it out like chewing gum. Kyeeeehh! Kyeeehhh! Ghidorah is gasping for breath.

The end.

Note that “the end” is not included in the text. Really, the story doesn’t have a proper ending. We don’t know if Godzilla and Rodan win. We don’t know what happened to the Dorakyundo, if they were all killed, if they were in proper kahoots with KG, why they were attacking in the first place… Really, we don’t know much of anything! It’s implied that KG is losing given that he is getting beaten down pretty badly in that last visual, but we don’t have a proper conclusion—plus Rodan and Godzilla are stuck on the moon! One of the weirdest parts of this story is that both Rodan and Godzilla are transported to the moon via flying saucer, but who happens to be operating that saucer is never revealed—and a rocket ship can be seen attacking the bubble in which Godzilla is riding. Rocket ships like that are usually depicted as human in origin in classic sci-fi, so I wonder if originally the Dorakyundo were meant to be kidnapping Godzilla and Rodan, with the humans staging a rescue that succeeds once the kaiju duo reach the surface of the moon. The saucers carrying Godzilla and Rodan don’t look EXACTLY the same as the ones that later attack the two monsters, and on the first two pages of the book KG can be seen blowing up what appears to be a saucer of some design, but… Man, I don’t know. The saucers that carry G and R look patterned after the Xilien saucers, so maybe the Space Defense Force is in league with the Planet X denizens. Who knows.

Really, the loose threads of the story are only there to set up monster mayhem and carnage as the aliens and monsters and various tech clash and explode. The painterly imagery is pretty inconsistent as far as Godzilla goes (his head changes shape in nearly every shot), but Rodan is mostly model-accurate (other than his bat wings????). Naturally, I am most thrilled to see the Dorakyundo aliens—and while it’s a little frustrating not knowing how big these blokes are supposed to be, their offbeat design feels plausible as a latex suit. The stiff, metallic head could be interpreted as a helmet (though we can see bug-like eyes and teeth in the bolted puckered “beak”), and while they are alive the Dorakyundo seem to stay in constant connection via pink electric rays that spring from one antennae to the next. They seem to be wearing red-and-blue striped robes (assuming they aren’t simply naked from the neck down), and each of them sport mitten-like hands and  tube-shaped bazookas that look profoundly simple in design—like corrugated tubing with a tiny sight on top. My dudes, these guys would be pretty easy to do as a cosplay.

Unfortunately, even for as delightful as the paintings in the book are, I couldn’t find any part of the book that identified the artist—which is strange. The only text on the cover is the title of the book, the Toho logo, and the text identifying the name of the series and the number of this entry. (Note that King Ghidorah on the cover looks a bit like he has his more rainbow-colored wings rather than his finalized gold design.) There is some text on the back, but it is so small and blurry that I couldn’t read it from the shots used in the DVD scans. On the last page, you can find the name Seiji Tani identifying the author, but nothing for the artist. Other entries in the series identified the artists—Takeaki Tsukada did the paintings for Giant Dragon Manda, for example (thanks to August Ragone for helping me with some of these names.) Does that mean Seiji Tani did the art? Maybe—he most likely was the same Seiji Tani who worked as an assistant director on several Toho effects films alongside Ishiro Honda, such as Destroy All Monsters (1968) and Space Amoeba (1970). He also worked under Tsuburaya Productions on Chibira Kun and Ultra Fight (both 1970-1971)—the latter of which was just a bunch of fight sequences (both stock footage and new stuff) featuring Ultra Seven facing off against sundry Ultra monsters. These episodes were each five minutes long (or less—you can find many of them on YouTube) with narration by sports announcer Jiro Yamada, who gives commentary as Seven whomps the monsters—sometimes several beasties show up in one go. Was this TV series the inspiration for the Toho Kaiju Picture Book series that I am discussing today, perchance?

After all, the Toho Kaiju Picture Book series was released in 1972. Seiji Tani was involved. The stories are mostly just fights, and each book was released with short 8 mm movies that are narrated and are largely re-edited stock footage with a focus on the fights, each of which is about five minutes long. The project mirrors Ultra Fight very closely in style and substance.

Speaking of which, how about that short film that was released with Godzilla Journeys to Space, huh?

The short film begins in the year 1980 with messages received by Planet Patrol. The Xilien (who have this hilarious robotic high-pitched voice) are calling for help from humanity to save them from King Ghidorah, who is wrecking the planet and causing all sorts of suffering. According to the Xilien, the only way they can take down Ghidorah is with the assistance of Godzilla and Rodan. The people of earth agree and pretty soon Godzilla and Rodan are taken up to fight Ghidorah. The fight is over really fast (remember, this stuff is just five minutes long), and KG retreats. We see Godzilla and Rodan celebrate, banzai! The end.

Perhaps the most fun things about the short film are the little tweaks to the story. The tale is resituated in time to 1980, and features a new (apparently friendlier) version of the Xilien with their robo-child voices. It appears that these Xilien really did just need help from humanity to take care of their Ghidorah nuisance, though of course it’s possible that right after the film ends it turns out they double-crossed us in this version, too. Still, it’s great fun to just imagine that there are some decent Xilien in the universe (more than just Miss Namikawa at any rate) who can cooperate with humanity against greater threats. Also, the film has several music clips from Akira Ifukube favorites to enhance the on-screen shenanigans, and while they are stitched together awkwardly, they add to the flair.

All said, this book-and-film combo is splendid fun for fans. I really wish these suckers were released in English so fans across the globe could enjoy them, though having them as DVD extras at least opens up the enjoyment to many more who would otherwise never know of their existence. Yes, the stories are simple to an extreme with no payoff and confusing art, and arguably (like some other kaiju picture books I could name) they are too violent for really little kids… but I mean, this stuff is a ton of fun for kaiju fans, and the painted art is beautiful and colorful. I also got an original art piece done from kaiju scholar and mega-fan Raf Enshohma to accompany this review. Mr. Enshohma illustrated a pair of warrior Dorakyundo.

What I would LOVE to see is for these guys to become far more represented in fan conversations and art, as they are obscure delights in the world of alien species from Toho and more interesting on a visual and conceptual level than the usual humanoids that appear in the movies. Come on, Toho! Bring these guys back!!!