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Synopsis for movie for theatrical release
Godzilla・Red Moon・Erabus・Halfon
No Man’s Land of the Monsters

☆Planning (stocks): Tsuburaya Productions
☆Production: Tetsuo Kinjō, Kazuho Mitsuda
☆Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes
☆Manufacturing (stocks): Tsuburaya Productions

☆Producers: Noboru Tsuburaya, Toyoaki Wada
☆Director: Shohei Tôjô
☆Special effects director: Kazuo Sagawa
☆Hoped-for period of release: Summer break

☆Characters
Shoji Uchida (25 years old, journalist for a boy’s magazine)
Keiko Igawa (21 years old, camerawoman)
Minoru Agarie (Elementary school 5^th grader, child of Habu Island)
Ippei Suzuki (Elementary school 5^th grade, Tokyo youth)
Onassis (a prospector who dreams of grabbing a thousand gold pieces)
Guchi-ken (25 years old, Onassis’ henchman)
Company commander​
Editor-in-Chief Hatakeyama
Minoru’s father
Moon expedition party (A)
Moon expedition party (B)
Moon expedition party (C)
Moon expedition party (D)
Houston official
☆Monsters
Godzilla
Redmoon (appears from the depths of the moon)
〔※in this text, this shall be mostly written as “Red Moon”〕
Erabus (appears from Habu Island)
Halfon (the child of Redmoon and Erabus)

 

①

“Hey, Norman, take a look at that!”

From the bottom of the ravine in the gigantic northwest crater, a single ray of light, almost akin to a searchlight, flashed like a streak of lightning across the pitch black world of the moon.

Just as the expedition member who went by the name of Norman had stuck his head out the ship window, the beam of light which had lit up the desolate ground surface had disappeared, vanishing as if it had never even been there.

“What could that have been?”

“Report! Are there are any abnormalities within the expeditionary vessel?”

Although there had been communication carried out between the command module and the expeditionary vessel, located at a distance of five kilometers, the origins of the flash of light remained unknown.

The crew, though they were now pervaded by a slight tinge of unease, when confronted by the thought of the intense cold of the lunar night saw no choice but to lay back down on the module floor in order to seek out some sleep.

During its unprecedentedly lengthy long-term stay of two weeks on the lunar surface, the United States Lunar Expeditionary Vessel Apollo XX had been given the duty of investigating the base of the crater and the makeup of the depths of the moon.

It had been on the third night of the expedition that they’d seen that mysterious beam of light, so akin to a searchlight.

And then, some days later at the Houston Space Center, strikingly abnormal wave readings came in from the seismograph that had been installed on the face of the moon.

Those in charge abruptly felt their nervousness increasing, and sent out instructions to those in their spaceships in the region of the moon to find out the origins of the seismic activity.

On the surface of the moon, the occasional earthquake caused some of the crew to wonder of at any moment the lunar surface might collapse.

So, the question was: to return home, or to investigate?

In the command module, discussion teetered back and forth on that subject. And yet, when the decision had been made, with what was unmistakably overwhelming courage and decisiveness, to continue with the investigation, the expeditionary vessel was launched towards the epicenter without a moment’s delay.

For the crew, there was a sort of mutually born desire to conquer the unknown world that stretched out in the depths of the moon.

The reason for this was that there were contained within the materials held as confidential by Houston the bone fragments of some mammalian, and these fossils had given proof to the existence of some creature up there on the moon. The bones had been discovered from amongst the lunar soil carried back by another expeditionary vessel.

“In the depths of the moon there lies a world apart.”

Every one of them imagined the above to be true. The mysterious beam of light and the earthquakes that even then shook the lunar surface made such imaginings seem even more conclusive.

A fearsome reality unfolded directly in front of the eyes of the crewmen as their expeditionary vessel alighted upon a certain crater.

Just as a protruding mountain burst forth like crumbling sand, a monstrous tornado emerged.

Without a moment of pause, the expeditionary vessel and the four souls aboard it were swallowed up like scraps of paper.

Then, from out of that sandstorm emerged a creature so large as to defy imagination – its face savage, one-eyed, and upon its back, wings, – a great monster (this was Red Moon).

Receiving word of these goings-on, Houston immediately sent out an order of terrestrial repatriation to Apollo XX.

The Apollo XX managed to successfully escape the surface of the moon upon which they had lost four of their crewmates. The lunar surface grew more and more distant as the propulsion exhaust on the ship’s stern blasted forth crimson jets of flame.

“Gyaaaah!!”

After some time, one from amongst the crew let forth a monstrous scream. In the direction to which the crewmember’s finger, quaking in fear, pointed, was none other than the great monster Red Moon, soaring towards them!

“Go ahead!”

As the spaceship increased its speed, so too did the great monster.

“I have no intention of bringing that beast home as a souvenir!”

So had a crewmate yelled out. And yet, the spaceship contained not a single weapon capable of fending off the monster.

Nor was there anywhere in the vastness of space where they could hide themselves from the beast.

The great monster, while maintaining a degree of distance from them, still refused to give up the chase.

At this rate, it seemed inevitable that the creature would follow them all the way till they arrived at Earth.

“We must not land on Earth!”

“What can we do?”

“We need to remove ourselves from orbit! That’s our only option!”

The spaceship veered off from their orbital course towards Earth.

It was at this time that orders came in from Houston to cut their ignition and attempt to switch to inertial flight.

Perhaps the great monster, seeing the flames of the ignition, was chasing after the bright light of the conflagration – this decision has been based upon the judgment of an academic who has said as much. As it happened, his judgment had been right on the mark.

As the ignition flames stopped, and the starship entered into a steep curve, the giant monster simply continued to fly straight ahead.

“It worked! It worked!”

Apollo XX, having managed from escape from the evil clutches of the great monster, corrected its orbit and headed full speed towards the earth.

 

②

By this point in time, Agarie Minoru (elementary school 5^th grader), a young boy living on the solitary Habu Island in the Ryukyus, and Ippei Suzuki (elementary school 5^th grader), an efficient little boy raised in Tokyo, had been pen-pals for two years.

The contents of their correspondence was perhaps only a little stranger than the normal. If one were to describe it, one could say their letters were like scientific papers in the form of a list of research reportage.

To put it simply, the two were snake devotees.

Young Agarie specialized in the Habu pit viper, with young Suzuki doing so in mamushi pit vipers and exclusively in other such poisonous snakes.

One day an important research report was delivered to Tokyo from Habu Island.

Normally, a Habu pit viper can survive perfectly fine for around a year without eating any food, and the Habu pit vipers on Habu Island have particularly strong life forces, and were possessed of the power to live for three or even five years on water alone.

The nature of this phenomenon had still remained a mystery at both Tokyo University and the Habu Island research facilities.

And yet young Agarie had managed to explicate that exact mystery. The accumulative results of biological experiments carried out by the youth showed that those Habu vipers that lived in a valley known as Chiibishi in the jungles of Habu Island had particularly long lives, with the results of the investigation into the region in which these vipers dwell being that the snakes would absorb the sap from the roots of the trees that protrude from the valley floor. In other words, the secret key to the mystery of their long lifespan was in the extract of that sap.

Not a single person would believe what he was saying, and yet the boy had written “it’s the absolute truth!”

Ippei showed the contents of this report from Habu Island to his uncle Shoji Uchida, who worked as a journalist for Boy Magazine. Uchida, who had felt positively about the pen-pal relationship the two children had from some time before, yelled out a sudden “I’ll take it,” stuffing the letter from Habu Island into his pocket and heading out.

A few days later, Uchida set off with a camerawoman from the same magazine named Keiko Igawa towards Habu Island. When Uchida found his shoulder being tapped from behind on the passenger ship, he was surprised to see that the young Ippei had boarded the ship as well.

The three switching over from a jet plane to a small local line, then charted a smaller boat, and then finally arrived at Habu Island.

The two boys, finally meeting face-to-face for the first time, made quick work of the usual interpersonal communication and headed out towards the trees which excreted the sap in question.

The Agarie boy guided the three others to the habitat of the Habu vipers known as Chiibishi, and there he let out a gasp.

Two strange men stood there, loitering around the tree’s roots with guns slung from their shoulders.

These men had arrived in order to gather up the Habu pit vipers in order to make a “Habu Drink” that would become an elixir of long life, allowing the drinker the unnaturally long life of the Habu snakes of Habu island. So the Agaraie boy said.

They had just so happened to have heard about the tree roots from Agarie and had been searching for them by themselves, and had just at that moment finally found them.

“This is the tree! So that means that this red sap is the elixir? Boy, I’ll be taking this for myself!”

This is what Onassis, the senior thug from among the two, had said.

As Onassis said he wouldn’t allow the group to come any father and as Unchida argued with him, Onassis’ junior thug let out a scream.

A Habu pit viper had just jumped on to him.

“Guchi-ken! Shoot!”

At Onassis’ words, his underling called Guchi-ken started to rapid fire his gun.

BRAT-BRAT-BRAT-BRAT…

The Habu vipers clinging to the roots of the tree fell to the ground, shot through.

Then, in the next moment, the roots of the tree abruptly began to move of their own accord. Onassis and Guchi-ken, standing nearby, were sent cartwheeling back to the ground.

“The roots of the tree moved!!”

Ippei yelled out, his eyes fixed forward and astonished.

“Keiko-chan, photograph it!”

Uchida yelled out to Keiko, who, beyond shock, had been standing dumbfounded.

The roots of the tree, moving like some living creature, then disappeared into the ground.

That night the three of them, having returned to their lodging, heard a strange roar from the earth like some rumbling in the ground, deep in twilight.

 

③

At a Tokyo radio station, the early morning broadcast, “Good Morning, This is Ryuzo Katayama,” was in the midst of being on-air. All sorts of city-centric information came rolling in one after another, from the photochemical smog​ information to the overhead traffic report, and more.

Then, an emergency report came in from a listener telling of the outbreak of a mountain forest fire.

The Early Morning FM car headed towards the scene. Strangely, nothing more was heard from the FM car, even after it should have already arrived at the scene.

The radio station, finding the absence of contact strange, ordered the helicopter on sky patrol to search for the car.

As the helicopter drew close to the mountains, it caught sight of the FM car, burning. Looking farther ahead into the valley, it discovered a giant monster lying on its side! The helicopter crew let out a yell.

“A monster has appeared!”

The monster in question was the very same that had come from the lunar surface – Red Moon. From wherever it had wandered and however it had ended up on Earth, it now seemed to be fast asleep, resting its completely exhausted wings.

At Uchida’s company, “Boy Magazine,” crew after crew of data collecting parties headed off to gather information on the monster’s appearance, an event so loved by children.

A phone call came in for Uchida, still on Habu Island, from his Editor-in-Chief, who was all of a flutter.

“This isn’t the time to be focusing on pit vipers! There’s a m-m-monster! A monster has appeared!”

“Chief! That m-m-monster showed up in Habu Island, too!”

“What did you say? There too?!”

 

The huge tree roots of Habu Island had in fact been the tail of an elder beast (written name: Erabus). Guchi-ken shooting off his gun had awoken it from its long, long hibernation.

The “red sap” that the Agarie boy had pegged as the source of the Habu pit viper’s long life had in truth been the extract of an ancient beast.

The two youths confirmed with each other that they had in fact solved the mystery of the Habu’s life force.

Uchida and Keiko were busy with the collecting of photos of the monster and taping its roars.

Besides them, the boys discussed how the monster seemed to have an extremely docile manner.

The beast made no attempt to harm those humans that it saw around it and lay out, exposing its giant, glossy body to the sun of the south seas, all the while letting out a comfortable-sounding roar.

On the other hand, the men who had been after the Habu Drink, having seen that there was a huge amount of the life elixir inside the body of the monster, began to make a “monster drink” and started selling it on a large scale. They soon became eager to move that one step closer to making Onassis the envy of all.

Then, skirmishes broke out time and again between the youths, who were trying to protect the monster, and Onassis and his men, who were trying to bring down the beast.

Of course, knowing that the people of the island stood no chance if the monster began to act violently, Uchida and Keiko also went about hindering Onassis’ group’s plan to kill the great beast.

During all this, the beast Erabus once again dug into the earth.

 

The envoy from the Moon that had appeared in Tokyo, Red Moon, was taken aback by an all-out attack by the Self-Defense Force, and began using its exhausted body to carry out a counter-attack.

It employed a terrifying battle tactic in which it flew into the air, eating up whatever was near its body.

Red Moon, having come to the skies above the city center, for some reason found its attacking power dulled. Finally the great winged beast toppled into the skyscrapers of downtown Tokyo.

“What could have happened?”

It was just at that moment that the paratroopers’ assault began anew.

Just then, Red Moon’s eye, thought crushed, began to slowly open, shining forth a powerful and mysterious beam like a searchlight!

The paratrooper’s advanced machinery burned up and disappeared one after another.

The mysterious pillar of light that had been seen by the American lunar expedition had been the mysterious death beam of this monster. The fact that it kept its eye closed had meant that it had been hiding this greatest of weapons.

Red Moon flapped its massive wings, almost weakly, and flew into the sky, heading off to places unknown.

However, the citizens of Tokyo – and, indeed, of all Japan – shivered in fear, not knowing when the monster would appear again.

 

④

On Habu Island, Onassis and his crew had been using money to mobilize villagers, and having gotten ahold of a massive quantity of dynamite with which to try to kill the monster Erabus, they had already started operations to dig up the depths of the earth into which the monster had disappeared.

For Onassis, killing the monster had become an obsession.

At that same time, a battalion from the American military, having learned of the appearance of the monster on Habu Island, had landed on the island in order to defend it.

This battalion has arrived in order to protect a top-secret base that stored poison gas, as well as the missile base on the nearby A Island, from the monster. If the beast was to perhaps force itself into the base, there would be the danger of it bringing about a state of emergency.

One night, Uchida, Ippei and their crew were visiting young Agarie’s house, and were being treated to dinner.

There, they were surprised to hear from the boy’s father about how he overheard Onassis’ crew’s plans to kill the monster using dynamite.

Watching the living room television, they become aware of the news that the monster Red Moon had appeared over the skies of Tokyo. However, the news also added the information that Red Moon had once again crashed to earth for causes unknown, and had weakly flown off.

Ippei said, “I wonder if it could be because of the smog.”

Smog – somehow, it would seem that when Red Moon came in contact with smog or photochemical smog​, it experienced a sort of brain paralysis, something which was being spoken about at the Self-Defense Force emergency headquarters.

It had been figured out that at the instant of Red Moon’s arrival, the highest records yet seen had been made for photochemical smog.

To defeat Red Moon, a huge amount of photochemical smog would have to be produced. In other words, a lethal dose of smog.

This would mean the complete cooperation of Tokyo Prefecture. Governor Minobe ordered the evacuation of the citizens of the Tokyo.

Then, he went about giving a strange speech to the various industries and car manufacturers.

“I implore you to scatter as much smoke as possible from your factory chimney stacks into the skies of Tokyo. In order to save Tokyo Prefecture, there is no other way but to pollute! There is no other way but through photochemical smog! Managers of the factories, ladies and gentlemen car producers, please do as I have said!”

A few days later, Operation Photochemical Smog had gone into effect, and a few fighter planes had been dispatched to the environs near Mt. Mihara to provoke Red Moon, guiding the beast towards the skies above Tokyo.

Having done this, at the signal of the roar of a single cannon, the industrial zones and all the factories began to spew out dark smoke from their chimneys, sending the exhaust into the sky. Equipment had been installed in the automobiles which had been tightly parked in the roads that would automatically spew out exhaust fumes.

The PPM gauge slowly rose up.

Just as they could ascertain that the strategy would appear to be a success, the skies above Tokyo became cloudy, and drizzle began to fall down.

All those involved were aghast.

Without the light of the sun, the photochemical smog could not be produced.

Red Moon, having regained its might, overran the city in a seeming fit of rage.

Because of an error in the weather report, the photochemical smog strategy has ended in abject failure.

The results of this were a ruined city and an eventual battle of recrimination of responsibility amongst the humans.

 

⑤

Boom! Boom!

The dynamite sticks exploded one after another, shaking Habu Island.

The concussive sounds of the explosions shocked Uchida, Ippei, Keiko, and young Agiarie, sending them running, and there they saw Erabus.

Onassis and his cronies were firing two guns at the monster of all things, trying to bring it down.

“I’m begging you, die already!”

Onassis was deadly serious. However, the bullets being shot out of the guns had no results beyond those of a child’s fireworks.

However, Erabus reacted to this by becoming more violent.

Onassis and his crew, shocked, withdrew, and the American troops moved in. Using flamethrowers and firearms, they seriously laid in to the creature.

Erabus responded by going crazy with rage.

Onassis ran out directly in front of the troops, begging them to sell the body of the beast to him in the event that they brought it down. He had previously made a killing buying the US military’s scrap metal, and he requested that the monster scrap certainly be sold to him in the same manner.

However, the troop commander wasn’t in a position to do this.

Surrounded by the sensation of being assaulted by the power of the monster, soldiers were struck down by giant boulders flung by the beast.

It was then decided that the poison gas stored on A Island would be used, and that a strategy of dropping poison gas from the sky would be put into effect.

The poison gas so feared by humanity had suddenly become of use in a most unexpected way. Just as had been the case with the photochemical smog, this was a reality that could only be described as ironic.

However, not a single person would have imagined that this poison gas strategy would rather transform the beast into a poison gas monster, capable of putting forth an enormous power.

Having inhaled the gas shot forth from the poison gas squad, Erabus faltered not at all; rather, it began to utilize the poison gas it had inhaled as a weapon with which to attack the humans.

The boys, knowing the behavior of animals as the adults did not, directed their anger at the behavior at the adults in their midst.

At the same time, a strategic meeting was taking place in Tokyo. They knew not when Red Moon, lurking in the Mihara mountains, would again attack Tokyo.

Far-away Houston was keenly aware of their responsibility regarding the appearance of Red Moon, and they had dispatched a three-person investigative team.

As their discussion was reaching its climax, there came a proposal asking about sending forth Boy Magazine Editor-in-Chief Hatakeyama to stage a showdown with the monster of Habu Island. An eye for an eye and a monster for a monster; what could be better?

If everything went well, perhaps the two would destroy each other. However, for the Editor-in-Chief, the purpose of this all was simply to obtain photos of the monster-on-monster duel.

However, this proposal gained the support of all the members and was put into action.

The problem was the place where the battle would be made to occur. As it was thought that there would be few places better to prevent danger to others that on a lonely island in the south seas, it was decided that this would all take place on Habu Island, where Erabus currently was. An additional reason was the theory that had arisen stating that it would be easier to guide the winged Red Moon than to convey Erabus elsewhere.

Now then, the next question would have to be how to lead Red Moon to Habu Island?

This was a rather difficult question.

“I’ve got it!”

One of the academics from Houston slapped his knee. They just needed to set off jet propulsion flames. After all, hadn’t Red Moon come to Earth following a spaceship?

So it came to be that they would make it so that a jet fighter plane could let off a light similar to that of spaceship propulsion flames.

And thus they initiated the Red Moon Transport Strategy.

While Uchida and the gang expressed displeasure at the selfish methods of the Editor-in-Chief, he yelled back that “Boy Magazine will sell more than 2 million copies!”

He had flown out to Habu Island, one step in front of those who were setting up the strategy that he himself had proposed, intending to use the gathered materials to create a great sensation.

Here, at this missile base known as A Island, the standoff between the American troops and Erabus continued as the beast slunk ever closer.

 

⑥

The F6s, flying in formation, flew towards the skies to the south, spewing forth their jet propulsion flames.

Just as predicted, Red Moon trailed behind their formation.

The strategy was progressing perfectly.

But then?! The propulsion flames of one of the F6s seemed to suddenly malfunction, spewing out black smoke. Something abnormal had happened with the engine.

Taking a steep angle, the fighter careened down towards the sea.

An unlucky 25,000 ton-class tanker was happening to pass by. The F6 crashed directly into the ship’s prow.

The flames reached the crude oil stored therein, and the massive tanker sunk amidst a gigantic explosion. Ah, what a terrible thing to happen during an oil shortage!

A part of the south seas had been turned to an ocean of flame. Red Moon, spotting the inferno, changed course, enraged at the sight of the fire.

A true, terrifying coincidence, the tanker just so happened to sink deep into the ocean floor of the south seas where at that very moment lay Godzilla himself. The ship landed with a bang! directly on the slumbering monster’s head.

Godzilla was suddenly awoken as the surface of the ocean became a literal sea of flame.

“SKREE-ONNK!!”

As Godzilla let out a roar, looking up towards the sky, the monster began to follow after Red Moon, chasing the squadron of F6s.

However, soon Godzilla, seemingly uninterested, again disappeared beneath the waves, returning to his peaceful slumber.

As the fires on the ocean surface abated, Red Moon once again began his chase of the F6 squadron, heading directly towards Habu Island.

“It’s here, it’s here!”

The squadron leader yelled out as he looked towards the north skies.

At last! The death match of the two great monsters could commence. The Editor-in-Chief, of course, as well as Uchida and the rest, the company commander, Onassis’ crew, and the villagers were all watching over the the fight of the century.

Red Moon, having seen Erabus, stilled its wings and descended to earth.

The two great creatures let forth unnerving roars at each other! Perhaps a tactic of pre-battle intimidation, the roars of the beasts shook the south skies and rang in the ears of the people.

As the they had sized up the other’s strength, glaring while they circled each other, it had looked as though the two great beasts were closing the distance in order to challenge their opponent.

“They’re gonna do it! They’re gonna do it!”

Onassis gripped Guchi-ken’s shoulder and yelled.

The soldiers of the American military surrounded the beasts from afar, watching over the scene in the hopes of the two creatures destroying each other.

Ten minutes passed, then thirty, and finally an entire hour had gone by.

Just as they thought the titanic battle was finally about to ensue, a strange thing occurred. The two gargantuan monsters suddenly dipped their heads and, rubbing their shoulders together, began to display the loving expressions of a couple of young lovers.

“This is a love scene!”

Uchida and the boys informed the company commander that the beasts had no desire to fight one another, appealing to him to not engage in any more attacks.

Red Moon, who had come from the lunar surface, had fallen in love at first sight with the beautiful Terran monster Erabus.

Onassis and the Editor-in-Chief were unwilling to let that happen. They were in a tizzy over the idea of a peaceful resolution — something which would result in a situation in which not even a single lucrative photo could be taken.

The two were all worked up over assuring that the two beasts somehow end up doing battle, and yet the two lovers –- no, the two great beasts — had not a speck of aggression in their eyes.

The two creatures then fled from human sight, disappearing deep into the jungle.

Under the fervent appeals of the two boys, who swore that if the humans did not attack that the monsters would cause no more harm, even the American army had no choice but to withdraw.

Finally, even the Editor-in-Chief and the others had no choice but to leave Habu Island, praying for the peaceful lives of the two monsters.

Young Agarie returned to his everyday life.

And yet, the only one who refused to give up was Onassis. Having already poured a significant amount of money into the enterprise, he could simply not reverse course.

“I won’t give up on my Monster Drink!”

Every day, Onassis would head out into the jungle.

However, the two monsters had disappeared somewhere, and refused to again show themselves to him.

 

⑦

The hot summer months had arrived on Habu Island.

During one of the Agarie boy’s regular gathering expeditions into the jungle, he found a young monster the size of a human.

“Huh? This is kinda weird!”

The boy chased after it. When he did, the young monster dropped down into a valley towards the island’s headland. While he looked onwards, young Agarie saw Red Moon and Erabus lying on their sides, as the young monster rushed to snuggle into the space between them.

The boy’s eyes sparkled.

The two gargantuan monsters had come back to the island with their child in tow. The young monster (written as Halfon) had undeveloped wings passed down from his father, and his face was like that of his mother’s.

The boy surreptitiously wrote what he had seen in a letter to Ippei, back in Tokyo, and sent it off.

Rumors that the monsters had returned reached the ears of the villagers, eventually making their way to Onassis and his crew on the Okinawan mainland.

Onassis rushed off to Habu island.

In the insular jungle, Onassis witnessed the pleasant, intimate life of the parents and child.

Young Agarie kept a detailed journal of the daily life of the monsters and sent it off to Tokyo.

One day, something terrible occurred.

Onassis and his underlings had killed the young monster Halfon.

Erabus clung to the body of her child, expressing great sorrow. Then, taking up the fleeing Onassis and his cohorts in her grasp, she squeezed them to death.

Because Halfon had been murdered by humans, Red Moon and Erabus, showing clear hostility, were transfigured into violent monsters. They set out, attacking the village and assaulting its people.

Habu Island was once again transformed into an island of fear, and hearing the news of these events, Boy Magazine writer Uchida, camerawoman Keiko, and Ippei all headed back to the island.

Young Agarie informed them that this had all occurred because of the evil actions of Onassis.

However, it was impossible to persuade the two giant beasts. They had given in to rage and were on a rampage.

Then, there also arose the possibility that the two great beasts would invade the missile base, A Island.

The American military was mobilized.

Red Moon and Erabus approached from sky and sea, smashing through the A Island guards posted to prevent the invasion of the military base.

A terrible battle commenced!

At that time, young Agarie and Ippei spotted Godzilla approaching from the seas to the far north.

“Godzilla!”

“Godzilla!”

The people began to go berserk. They had already been dealing with the two great beasts, and now they had no choice but to contend with the violence of Godzilla on top of all that.

The American military also looked on with unease.

A Island had now become an island of monsters, a monstrous no man’s land.

“Godzilla has come to take care of both of them.”

As young Agarie spoke, Ippei nodded.

The ones who had truly been evil were the humans. However, there was simply no choice but to defeat the two monsters who had now been made so barbarous. These boys were not the sort of simple children who could not understand the truth of the world.

The gunpowder magazines of A Island exploded. Red Moon had attacked them from the skies.

Erabus had also come ashore, and had begun her attack.

Seeing the fire, Godzilla furiously headed to make landfall on the island.

The three giant monsters clashed!

The American military retreated, seemingly giving over the fight to Godzilla, moving to watch over the two-against-one grudge match.

While Godzilla fought Erabus, Red Moon hovered above the King of the Monsters, showering attacks down on him from on high.

Godzilla is struggling!

Looking at the sky, Godzilla let his atomic breath burst forth, and Red Moon answered with his mysterious light beam.

Erabus also had her poison gas. All those watching could only admit that that this would be an unexpectedly difficult battle for Godzilla.

Godzilla, having taken on their attacks, was finally pushed by the two monsters back into the sea.

The onlookers were in an uproar. Even Godzilla couldn’t beat them?!

But Godzilla, the King of Beasts, no, the Kind of Monsters, was not the sort of weakling to be beaten by an attack of such a measly order. No monster could best him in willpower.

Godzilla, having washed his face off in the waters, kicked off against the seafloor with a crash, and climbed back into the ring.

SKREEEEEE-ONNNNNNNK!!

Godzilla, with rage in his heart, reversed the tide of the battle in a flurry of fierce attacks against his two giant opponents.

Suddenly A Island had become Godzilla’s territory.

Godzilla threw Erabus into a sea of flame, finishing her off with his atomic breath.

Finally, Red Moon, with his wings half burnt, lost his fighting ability.

Ippei yelled out, saying “Godzilla, that’s enough – let Red Moon return to the far-off moon!”

Perhaps those words had moved him, for Godzilla let the ferocity of his attack slacken.

As Godzilla backed off, Red Moon used its weakened wings to fly upwards, heading in the direction of the moon.

Red Moon, who had chased humanity to Earth after they had ravaged his native Moon, had found a wonderful love on that Earth, and had even raised a child with the mixed heritage of both Moon and Earth on that planet.

However, his dreams had again been turned to dust by humanity, and, injured and exhausted, he fled to his distant home on the lunar surface.

The egoism of humans is a terrifying thing.

Godzilla turned his face to the sky, and let out a great “SKREEEEEE-ONNNNNNNK!!”

“Never return to the land of the humans again!”

Young Agarie and Ippei knew in their hearts that there was no doubt that that’s what Godzilla had meant to say.

Fin

 

 

Kazuho Mitsuda
Interview

An invaluable reflective interview about the background of the writing of this synopsis

Mitsuda: Back when I was involved in this synopsis, because Tsuburaya Productions was a subsidiary of Toho, there was this discussion within Toho of how it might be alright to put forth a plan for a new production from our company in the “Toho Champion Festival.” But, at that point in time Tsuburaya Productions was lacking a planning department, and at the time I was directing “Chibira-Kun” (1970), and the result of talking with Hajime Tsuburaya, who was doing the planning of the project, was that if we were going to go to the effort of using Godzilla characters, we should ask Tetsuo Kinjō, who had returned to Okinawa, to do it. Then it ended up that I would be going to Okinawa, but Okinawa in that post-war period was still under American control, and for Japanese citizens to go to there they needed a special sort of passport.

When I arrived at the airport in Okinawa on August 8^th, 1970, Koichi Takano and Yoshio Suzuki, who just so happened to be involved with work in Taiwan, met up with me, and together the three of us headed to Kinjo’s house, which was called “Matsukaze-En.” At the time, Kinjo had a Monday-through-Friday live broadcast radio show, so even though we’d stayed in Okinawa for a period of five nights and six days until the 13^th, we were only able to hash out the synopsis by bits and pieces during Kinjiro’s free time. He wrote it up for me in a single flash on my last day staying at the Ginza Hotel in Kokusai Dori street after being at Matsukaze-En. So, Kinjiro thought up the plot, and I made it into a proposal document.

Having said that, although we hadn’t done any scenario hunting in the actual location, because the names and images of the new monsters and the characters on the human side that appear in this synopsis and the love story between the two monsters were all things Kinjiro came up with, it’s pretty incredible that I can remember the names of the likes of Yamashi’s lackey, “Guchi-ken.”

This story used Kinjiro’s radio show as a starting point, encompassing the “military base problem” found in the true story of the American military storing poison gas on Okinawa, as well as the episodes of pollution that were happening at that time back in 1969. By taking these together, our story really portrays the greed of humans who are so fixated upon making money, making it quite the Kinjiro-esque screenplay. Really, the title itself was also something Kinjiro came up with. Back then, the Ken Takura-starring yakuza movie series “Abashiri Prison” (1965~) was very popular, and Kinjiro was quite the fan.

While there may have been a feeling that Kinjiro wanted Tsuburaya Productions to come to Okinawa for a filming location, at the time Okinawa wasn’t exactly a realistic place to film. If we had actually made the film, we might have just done scenery filming in Okinawa proper and would have done the real filming in another place that appears similar to the scenery of Okinawa.

From there, this synopsis was of course only meant to have been delivered to those involved people, and I’d guess that only around 20 copies were printed. At that stage, we needed to go ahead and at least put down the names of the main staff, like the director and the special effects director. We had the name of producer Toyoaki Wada, and as he was in the initial stages of creating “Mirror Man” (1971), he was like a cooperating producer working together with me for TBS.

At the time, Toho was doing their best to move towards the production of new tokusatsu films in-house, and perhaps they had thought to devote themselves to only distributing our film. And even though the Tsuburaya Productions films being shown at the “Toho Champion Festival” at the time were the revised version of “The Return of Ultraman” (1971) and the blowup version of “Mirror Man,” with the only new film making an appearance being “The Monsters’ Desperate Battle – Daigoro vs. Goliath,” (1973), it would likely have finally been made after those.

If this synopsis had seen the light of day, and if the film had been completed and released, it may have changed the course of the new products Tsuburaya Productions made from then on out in a variety of ways. Even so, I can safely say that I never thought I’d be interviewed about this for “Abashiri Prison”…

(From Tsuburaya Productions, Shibuya, on September 2^nd, 2014)

Kazuho Mitsuda …… Born in Nagasaki Prefecture in 1937. Started work at Tsuburaya Productions by way of his work as an Assistant Director at TBS. After his early work as a director for the Ultraman trilogy, his later work was generally focused in managing production planning.