Special Effect director Koichi
Kawakita's book on all of the machinery and
inventions to appear in Toho's science fiction
films. From the Oxygen Destroyer in Godzilla
(1954) to Kiryu in Godzilla
Against Mechagodzilla (2002), this giant
book is pretty much a bible for anyone interested
in the great number of, often fantastic, machines
to have been featured in Toho's movies.
The Mechanic Chronicle starts out with 16 pages
of color photos, most of which are the entire
page in size. The photos in this segment, for
the most part, look beautiful, and a couple of
rather rare production shots are seen as well.
After the opening 16 pages, though, the book becomes
entirely black and white. The content from here
on is pretty astounding, though, as Kawakita really
shows his dedication to the subject matter. From
page 20 on, the book slowly starts to cover all
of the machinery, in chronological order, seen
in the Toho films. Most of these are given several
pages worth of content, including numerous production
shots, multi-angle studies, stats, a bio (in Japanese,
of course), and often some concept art thrown
in for good measure.
For a total rundown, the book features machines
and inventions found in the following Toho films:
Godzilla
(1954), The
Mysterians (1957), Battle
in Outer Space (1959), The
Secret of Telegian (1960), The
Human Vapour (1960), The
Last War (1961), Mothra
(1961), Gorath
(1962), King
Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), Atragon
(1963), Invasion
of Astro-Monster (1965), The
War of the Gargantuas (1966), Ebirah,
Horror of the Deep (1966), King
Kong Escapes (1967), Son
of Godzilla (1967), Destroy
All Monsters (1968), Latitude
Zero (1969), Space
Amoeba (1970), Godzilla
vs. Hedorah (1971), Godzilla
vs. Megalon (1973), Submersion
of Japan (1973), Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), Terror
of Mechagodzilla (1975), The
War in Space (1977), Bye-Bye
Jupiter (1984), The
Return of Godzilla (1984), Gunhed
(1989), Godzilla
vs. Biollante (1989), Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah (1991), Godzilla
vs. Mothra (1992), Godzilla
vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993), Godzilla
vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994), Godzilla
vs. Destoroyah (1995), Godzilla
2000: Millennium (1999), Godzilla
vs. Megaguirus (2000), Godzilla,
Mothra & King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out
Attack (2001), and Godzilla
Against Mechagodzilla (2002). However,
it should be noted that, for what can assumed
to be legal reasons, Mechani-Kong is not shown
in the book. His bio and stats are present, but
the picture for him is merely a empty hanger,
and there is no concept art included either. This
was common practice in books released on Toho's
films starting in 2000, up until 2004 when shots
of King Kong and Mechani-Kong were once again
seeing the light of day.
After looking at the more noteworthy machinery
featured in the films, Kawakita does a run off
of the conventional weaponry, such as tanks and
jets, found in each movie. This portion of the
Mechanic Chronicle gives a small bios for each,
a picture, and some stats as well.
The book concludes with some interviews, one
done with Kawakita himself and another with art
director Yasuyuki Inoue and model builder Akinori
Takagi. As a closing note, there is also a segment
where Kawakita has taken pictures of most of the
surviving models from Toho's archive, showing
things such as the condition of the Oxygen Destroyer
from Godzilla
(1954) and the Goten's detachable drill from The
War in Space (1977) as they appear today.
The Mechanic Chronicle serves its mission well,
although it's not for everyone. The rather exorbitant
price for the book tends to reinforce this, but
it's still the pinnacle in regards to the niche
that it focuses on. |