Released as part of a big Godzilla 70th anniversary push by Universal Music, this disc features the soundtracks to the two Gemstone shorts. Those are Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex and Godzilla vs. Megalon 2023. Both were released for Godzilla day events, and are written and directed by Takuya Uenishi. As a whole, this release feels more like a compilation CD rather than a pair of soundtracks. The reason being so much of the content here is stock music. In fact, 10 of the 14 tracks are culled straight from the theatrical films. While I jumped to get this CD, as I love obscure stuff, it’s hard to recommend to more casual collectors.
In terms of the contents, the disc is broken out by short and then some bonus tracks at the end. Starting with the Godzilla vs. Megalon 2023 content, this is the more interesting selection here. It actually features three musical tracks that were created specifically for the short, orchestrated by Tsubasa Handa. While these are based on existing themes, Handa does his own take to make them distinct. “Unstoppable Megalon” in particular sounds almost nothing like the original, in fact most would probably miss the connection unless told it was a large reimagining of a theme from Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973). He follows these up with two renditions of music by Akira Ifukube, adding some synthesized vocal-like work to his version of the Godzilla theme to make it a bit unique.
Moving on to Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex, there is more music here but it’s all or mostly stock, depending on how you define the Ludwig van Beethoven track. What’s kind of odd is that it’s missing the title card “stinger” music from the short, which is only a short riff… but hey this CD could have used an additional track so not sure why it was excluded. In terms of the music included, it’s a good collection of themes. That said, it feels like the tracks taken from Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) and music from Ifukube’s Ostinato appear so frequently that something a bit less common would have been nice. To be fair, there is a track from The Return of Godzilla (1984) here, which while it contrasts heavily with the Ifukube tunes it at least stands out as something a little different. Sadly, the track titles are all based on the original names for the songs, and don’t correlate with the events of the short at all. For example, the “Godzilla Appears” theme is actually used for the scene where the Gigan Miles are attacking the city.
Clocking out the runtime is a collection of bonus music… disappointing bonus music at that. These three tracks are essentially the original themes that inspired Handa’s themes for Godzilla vs. Megalon 2023. While their inclusion is fine, all the same it’s more stock music from a CD that’s already got a lot of stock music. On top of that, the CD is so short it feels it would have been much more fitting if Universal Music went the extra mile to include some interesting bonus material. What could have gone here? Something obscure would have been welcome given how fringe this CD is already. Maybe the Godzilla the Ride (2021) music? Anyway, something to give this release some added value would have been ideal.
In terms of the booklet, it does feature a brief interview with director Uenishi. The exchange mostly goes over the aspect of selecting the music, and choices made there. While not overly deep, it does have some nice trivia tossed in.
Overall, this disc is for diehard collectors only. It simply has too much stock music and the runtime is far too short. As a result, you’re left with a mildly interesting CD in terms of the fact it was actually released, but hard to recommend purchasing.
As a side note, the order of the Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex section is slightly random. The correct order would have been as follows. In addition, I added in brackets what would have been better titles for a few of the tracks based on the events in the short:
- From Miki to Baby [Legacy]
- Get King Ghidorah [Get Gigan]
- Godzilla Appears [Gigan Miles]
- Start the Attack [Counterattack]
- Piano Sonata No. 14 "Moonlight" 3rd Movement [Gigan Rex]
- Requiem [Resolution]
- Ending Title
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