The late 1970s were a time of transition for Godzilla. The last Godzilla film, Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975), was released in 1975, and while the film brought back some big names in from the monster king’s past (including Ishiro Honda as director and Akira Ifukube providing the soundtrack), the film was a flop, capping an overall downward trend from the series and landing Godzilla’s movie career on ice until 1984. However, in the interim, Toho made several abortive attempts at restarting the franchise in one form or another. As the child-centric Godzilla from the early 1970s films had bottomed out, perhaps Toho felt free to move in new directions, and 1979 began with one of the most outlandish chapters of the kaiju king’s history—“A Space Godzilla,” a wildly original take wherein Godzilla is reimagined as an alien entity, with a story progression so bizarre it not only feels like the child of a fever dream… reading it might trigger psychedelic visions even without the use of drugs. That story, reportedly intended originally as a cinema production, was published as an illustrated short story in the Japanese version of Starlog magazine over two issues, in February and April of that year. Not long after, a pair of original Godzilla manga stories would follow in Monthly Shonen Magazine. These two tales would move Godzilla into a more conventional space but also recover something long missing—a feeling of fear, a Godzilla of genuine horror.
The first of these Godzilla shorts, and the one under discussion today, was published in the July issue to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the publication. Godzilla is also prominently featured on the cover, and a short, illustrated article early in the issue collects full-color reproductions of the Showa Godzilla cinematic posters. The manga itself stretches out across a hefty sixty pages and was written by Rei’ichi Numa, with art by Shin’ichi Ishi. Who these artists were, however, is not entirely clear to me. An internet search of Rei’ichi Numa does produce some results—someone with the same name wrote the story for the manga that would become Teacher Deer from 1978, an erotic film from Nikkatsu about an unorthodox female teacher making waves at a Japanese high school. He also seems to have worked on several other manga, including The Goofy Detectives of Kichijoji, Kaikan Suiri: Girl Annamisu Akirakoromo and a series of manga about a sexy secretary. Numa was never established enough to become particularly famous, so I am not 100% certain these other works are by the same individual, but I suspect it’s the same guy. If it is the same writer, however, it doesn’t seem like there is much crossover material given this manga chapter has little titillation. Meanwhile, Shin’ichi Ishi is even more mysterious, as the only manga I can easily find that were drawn by him are this one-shot and the follow-up released later that same year (which also appears to have been written by Ishi). Whoever these two were, though, they contributed an underrated, overlooked pair of chapters in Godzilla’s legacy that deserves more attention in the English-language fandom.
The story begins with junior high school wannabe photographer Koichi Okabe and his friends out on an excursion to the Ogasawara Archipelago, accompanying their student-teacher, Mr. Nemoto, a fourth-year attending a science-and-technology university. Nemoto is performing some kind of research surrounding a volcano in the Ogasawara area, but he lets Koichi, his girlfriend Sakurako, her kid brother Isamu, and Koichi’s buddy Shojiro tag along and goof off without much oversight. Soon, when Sakurako goes swimming alone near the coral reefs, however, she gets menaced by an enormous shark. Koichi and Shojiro attempt to help, but before they can manage to do anything, suddenly the shark is cleaved in half right before it has a chance to perform the same operation upon Sakurako. When Shojiro and Koichi dive in after Sakurako, they soon discover the shark-killer—Godzilla himself, who appears with half a shark torso in its mouth. The king of the monsters takes a predatory interest in the trio of teens, and it’s only Koichi’s quick thinking that saves their collective bacon: the camera-crazed kid realizes that Godzilla comes from deep underwater and likely can’t stand bright light, and so he uses his flashlight to disorient the monster long enough for them to escape.
 |
| Godzilla retaliating after the camera's flash |
The youngsters make it to shore and, nearly frightened to death, debate the nature of the thing which they encountered. When Nemoto arrives, they tell him of the monster, and he theorizes that the beast may have some relation to a reported nuclear submarine that exploded in the area some time previous and may have driven the creature from its resting place. When Nemoto and the kiddos head back home by ship, they imagine they are safe, but soon Godzilla appears, swimming along with the vessel. Much to their relief, Godzilla doesn’t attack them but is rather attracted to a nearby stretch of sea where the JSDF is practicing maneuvers.
The JSDF spot Godzilla on their equipment and initially identify him as a huge submarine or a school of fish. The king of the monsters disabuses them of their misapprehension, and a battle ensues, with the Big G making short work of the array of battleships and ordinance. The beast then marches on to Tokyo, where it menaces Nemoto and the children, bodily chasing them through the streets and smashing buildings in a predatory rage. I’m going to drastically foreshorten the story here, but as tragedies mount, and terror crescendos, Nemoto hatches a wildly dangerous plan called Operation Firefly to lure Godzilla to his death using super submarines piloted by Koichi, Shojiro, and Nemoto’s old classmate… but can they survive?
The most striking aspect of ’79 Godzilla: Tokyo Invasion is that the manga plays itself as straight up horror. We had not had such a strait-laced scary Godzilla since the original film, and even then, Godzilla never personally hunted humans (in the 54 novelization, he seems to be eating a woman at one point, however, and in the Godzilla Raids Again illustrated story version, Godzilla actively chases Shoichi into a crevice/cave). Here, Godzilla personally chases after Koichi and Sakurako and nearly kills them on purpose. The creature is depicted as an unstoppable, merciless creature of terror. When it first appears, it rips apart the terror of the seas—a great white shark, almost certainly a reference to Jaws, which had become a massive worldwide hit just several years previous, and would go on to be the cockeyed inspiration/instigation for Toho’s own House (1977). (Jaws remains a big property in Japan; you can buy delightful Jaws bath bombs that make the bath blood-red, and the Jaws ride remains in operation at Universal Studios Japan.) Shojiro loses loved ones to Godzilla’s rampage (his brother, his grandmother), adding a tragic helplessness to the scenario. The end, too, has Godzilla in vicious pursuit after the youngsters in their submersibles, and not everyone survives. The monster acts as a wicked, bloodthirsty, raging menace—and that ferociousness is reflected in the design as well.
This Godzilla is easily the scariest Godzilla to have yet appeared up until this point. Sometimes depicted with evil, blank eyes ala GMK, other times with fiendish beady eyes like ’54 Godzilla, the creature also possesses freak-out sharp teeth in a howling, gaping maw. Over and again darkness and shadow and effective use of camera angles highlight Godzilla’s devilish mien. While tame compared to more recent horror kaiju efforts like Creature by Shingo Honda or the more grounded Kaiju Self-Defense Force by Junya Inoue or the grotesque sexually charged mayhem in The Island of Giant Insects written by Yasutaka Fujimi, Tokyo Invasion still retains a surprising edge that is almost never seen in Godzilla manga (which often are far goofier than their cinematic counterparts). It certainly wasn’t the first horror-themed kaiju manga; famed horror mangaka Kazuo Umezu of The Drifting Clasroom fame had “Daikaiju Doragon” in 1966 and “Kaiju Gyou” in 1971, which have similar levels of peril. “Kaiju Gyou” also has more realistic art than the average 1970s manga, though it’s much different from Tokyo Invasion. Still, best I know at least, this was the first horror-themed Godzilla manga, despite some creepy moments in previous Godzilla film adaptations like Daiji Kazumine’s Godzilla vs. Hedorah.
 |
| Godzilla on a rampage |
Also of note, Tokyo Invasion presages The Return of Godzilla (1984) and that films lava-fueled finale, with the manga utilizing super submarines that lead Godzilla to an underwater volcano well before the cinematic version took his own magma plunge. Godzilla’s demise (?) in Tokyo Invasion is brought about by a missile barrage that triggers an eruption just as the monster king swims over the crater of the volcano. By contrast, Godzilla’s almost drunken stumble-fall into the volcano in The Return of Godzilla as he blindly follows the bird call is relatively bland; the manga has a perilous and terrifying chase before the explosive conclusion that the eventual film version also lacks. Note that in some of the 1954 Godzilla adaptations, Godzilla needed to be lured to the right depth for the Oxygen Destroyer to work properly, and the human characters used lights to do so—it’s possible Operation Firefly may have been inspired by those story tweaks.
The human cast is serviceable, given enough personality to push the story forward and allow for some level of personal drama. Shojiro is the most tragic character, suffering multiple losses in his family before he himself gives his life in the final moments of the underwater chase. Koichi and his girlfriend have basically no chemistry, but they do run and scream well as Godzilla bears down on them in the city and the underground shopping area. Nemoto is one of the few teacher characters to appear in Godzilla fare (not just another military man, scientist, or journalist), so I give props for that—but he doesn’t initially watch over his students very well. Sure, he may get his bad-a moments later and near-death action sequences, but he lets the kids do his death-defying final maneuvers for him. I can’t give him THAT much respect (alright, he was injured in the Godzilla attack from before and has his arm in a sling so he can’t drive a submersible, but still—sending kids?!?! We got Mr. Teacher-of-the-Year here!)
Another character I appreciate is Mr. Yamazaki, Nemoto’s former classmate, and a sort of punk who wants to be treated like a hero. Yamazaki is a diamond-in-the-rough type. He has a bruiser exterior, and his goals may seem a little less than ideal, but he genuinely cares for the youngsters and is willing to use his more developed talents at operating a submarine to protect them, even if it puts his own life in danger. He is kind of cool, actually.
A few comments about Shin’ichi Ishi’s artwork. My initial impression was that Ishi probably didn’t have a lot of experience drawing comics, possibly because I knew he didn’t have any long-running series. However, when I look closer at his work, I honestly think his art here is more than serviceable. His characters are diverse enough to be easily recognizable most of the time (though Koichi looks like a young Nemoto sometimes). Expressions tend to be somewhat similar (there is a lot of concern, terror, and fear throughout), but Ishi creates a strong sense of tension and mood through speed lines. Action sequences are a little awkward, with characters clumsily rendered when they are leaping away from danger in some shots. Still, for the most part, the panicked, generally realistic human characters are executed well, and background buildings, cars, and vehicles are rendered with solid, reliable detail. The super submarines, too, are a nice addition to the Godzilla world of fanciful technology—they look like something out of the 1980s Starcom line of toys, and I love to see it.
One other aspect of this manga worthy of note is the “Popular Kaiju Well-Informed Quiz,” a series of surprisingly varied and occasionally downright difficult monster quiz questions sketched out along the sides of many of the pages. These multi-choice questions don’t limit themselves to Toho films, but extend to Daiei, Toei, even P-Productions, etc. You can learn a surprising amount of tokusatsu lore just reading the monster quiz questions along the side—maybe we can include all the questions as a special feature for Toho Kingdom.
While Godzilla horror tales are surprisingly rare (in the West, Godzilla in Hell probably comes closest, or that very first Dark Horse one-shot), it’s great seeing this short tale and its sequel fill that void until The Horror of Godzilla from IDW comes along with a new chapter in the genre, and Kong got his with Kong: The Great War a few years back (come to think of it, Kong: Skull Island is the most horror-adjacent entry of the Monsterverse as well, with the novelization written by an established horror writer). Tokyo Invasion includes a healthy dose of scary monster mayhem with a workmanlike crew of scared heroes, decent and well-executed art, a wicked-scary Godzilla, and it may have served as some kind of inspiration for The Return of Godzilla. And this is just the beginning—the follow up manga one-shot from that same year features a plot point that anticipates Godzilla Minus One (2023) by over forty years. Tune in next time for more! |
