The first
in Toho Music's highly anticipated Godzilla Soundtrack
Perfect Collection line, a series of six box sets containing
the soundtracks to all 28 Toho produced Godzilla films
complete with unreleased content and newly remastered
for superior sound. Box 1 contains the scores for the
first five Godzilla movies and an extra CD which is a
reproduction of an earlier LP compilation. The stand
out feature of this set, at least at the time of release,
was the inclusion of the rare stereo score to King
Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), although the impact
of this has been significantly hampered since it was
later released by La-La Land Records (LLLCD-1041)
in the United States.
Like a lot of Toho Music's releases, the overall design
and layout of this set is very attractive and well done.
Each disc comes in its own jewel case and includes a
thick booklet printed on very nice stock paper, not at
all the flimsy material one is used to for these. The
discs all carry a similar style with a color scheme similar
to that of a faded newspaper with a slight red tint,
except the LP reissue. The covers themselves though are,
oddly enough, the least attractive aspect of this release,
as each contains just a close up head shot of the particular
Godzilla suit seen in the movie. This gives the releases
in general a fairly boring look when all placed together,
and why they didn't just place the much more enticing
back cover shots here instead, which are often action
oriented moments or great sequences from the films, is
beyond me. The booklets themselves, though, show Toho
Music's excellent attention to detail, containing nice
black and white production stills before ending with
color shots of things like pamphlets and other promotional
material for the films.
In terms of the remastering process, Toho Music has succeeded
in making this music sound better then ever before, and
for that they deserve some credit. Unfortunately, those
expecting a vastly improved experience are probably going
to be disappointed as one is literally going to have
to play these tracks back-to-back with the older releases
to really notice any difference in quality. To that point,
it's suffice to say that if you own these earlier releases
and are considering purchasing this set simply for the
improved sound, don't bother. The difference in quality
along is, in no way, worth the $125 or so price tag of
this set. In fact, if one owns the earlier Toshiba discs
covered by this set, just skip this first box and buy
La-La Land Records' releases for both Godzilla (LLLCD-1022)
and King Kong vs. Godzilla (LLLCD-1041).
One won't be missing much at all in doing so, and it's
infinitely cheaper considering each retails for $16.
If one has never purchased a soundtrack to one of these
films before, though, then this could be an excellent
way to start one's collection, although its still a sizeable
investment anyway one slices it.
It should be noted that these boxes are limited, with
each being given a run of, reportedly, 1,954 units. Each
is also given a unique number on the back in the form
of a sticker placed above the copyright information.
Expectedly, there is no need to rush though (assuming
they are giving them out in order), as they have only
hit about 700 exactly two years after the first was released.
This shouldn't be surprising either given that the 2001 Toho
SFX Champion Festival box set was also limited, yet
is still widely available online today as these more
expensive box sets just simply don't seem to move. It
should also be mentioned that all of these sets are also
sold exclusively online at Toho Music's site or Arksquare.net.
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