Released in 2016, this book celebrates the work of artist Shinji Nishikawa done for Toho. Suffice to say, Nishikawa has been working with Toho for a long time, dating back to meeting Koichi Kawakita on the set to Gunhed (1989) before officially joining for Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989). This book does a great job documenting his design work by showcasing concept art for films and TV shows for Toho along with various art related to the Godzilla franchise.
First off, it’s worth noting how big this book is. At about a foot tall, this size means that there are fairly large presentations for the artwork. That’s important as not only does it make details easier to see, but also helps to have this book stand out in contrast to others that feature concept art from these films, which are often presented quite small on the page.
In terms of contents, the book starts off by covering concept artwork done for the Godzilla films in chronological order. This lasts for about 100 pages. For some of these films, a lot of this art has been presented before, like for example everything from Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) can be found in the book Godzilla X Mothra X Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. Fantastic Collection. That said, there is some new art here, and again it’s hard to compare as the images are presented very large here which is definitely noteworthy.
Anyway, after the Godzilla section comes coverage for the three Rebirth of Mothra films. This is followed by coverage of Yamato Takeru (1994) and then his television work, for shows such as The Gransazers (2003) and Super Fleet Sazer-X (2005). There is then a good size section devoted to scrapped concepts, which showcases stuff like Bagan designs. The book then concludes with displaying his art created around Godzilla from 1999 to 2016. This art always lists the date it was created, but not always what it was created for. For example, there is a drawing of Godzilla and Megaguirus from 2001 that it states was for a model kit, but then another with Kiryu, Mothra and Godzilla from 2015 that is just credited as “Tokyo SOS”. While most of this work is done in a serious fashion, Nishikawa’s humor does show through in some drawings, such as a scene of the Black Hole Aliens putting on Mechagodzilla’s disguise or a shot of Biollante playing with a kitten.
Overall, this is a fantastic publication. While pricey, it’s very import friendly, as there is very little text found inside and a lot of imagery, meaning one doesn’t have to understand Japanese to appreciate it.
As a side note, in 2019 we interviewed Nishikawa and you can read that interview here. The interview actually makes a nice companion piece to the book, as we asked for clarity on things that were included, such as the Meganulon design sketch from 1991 that’s found in the book. |
