Shogakukan's first volume in a two series
set, Movie Godzilla: Final Wars 1 is a pretty image heavy book. This statement, though, is true for all of the entreis in the
company's "movie" series line, also known as 小学館のテレビ絵本 (Shogakukan TV Picture Book). In fact,
there is very little written content to be found
inside, which is probably a boon to most importers,
as about the only text present is for captions
on the many images. The book itself is fairly
thick, although only runs for 16 pages, 17 according
to the numbering system inside the book but they
count the cover as well. The reason why the book
is so big is that each page is roughly made to
the same thickness as a sheet of cardboard, allowing
for it to withstand the toughest abuse a child
could throw at it I assume.
As for the contents of the publication, it covers most
of the monsters found in Godzilla:
Final Wars (2004): Godzilla, Rodan, Kamacuras,
Manda, Zilla, Anguirus, Hedorah, Kumonga, Ebirah,
King Caesar and closes with one shot of Minilla.
The Gotengo is also covered fairly extensively
inside. For those unfamiliar with Shogakukan's
"movie" line, the book is mostly comprised
of two page layouts with numerous images, some
placed on top of one another as seen on the cover,
to be found on each. The amount of coverage for
each of the characters found in the book tends
to be fairly even, with the sole exception of
Zilla who has one picture and a couple of tiny
still shots from the film.
The monsters skipped over in this book (Mothra,
Gigan, Monster X and Keizer Ghidorah) are covered
in the next volume: Movie
Godzilla: Final Wars 2. The two books don't
retail for a whole lot, the set can be purchased
for around $12, but if one is trying to pick between
the two, the first is generally regarded as the
better of the pair because it has more (although
smaller) pictures and covers more monsters. |
