The history of comedic Godzilla comics is surprisingly long, with even some of the earliest adaptations of the original Godzilla (1954) deliberately played for laughs—particularly the absurdist take by Shigeru Sugiura (who would also go on to draw the gonzo Yellow Man comic, which functions as a Godzilla spin-off of the weirdest sort). While I would say that many, perhaps even most, Godzilla movie adaptations have some humor elements added as well, the most laugh-focused manga come in the form of gag manga (like Gao Gao Me Godzilla or SD Godzilla World: Godzilla Kun) or the various yonkoma (four-panel) Godzilla strips. Usually, these Godzilla strips are scattered as back-up extras published alongside longer stories (such as in The Godzilla Comic, or in the collected version of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, or even as part of SD Godzilla World: Godzilla Kun with the longer stories). The biggest collection of these yonkoma Godzilla comics must be Godzilla World, a book I was extremely excited to find and introduce to the English-speaking Godzilla fandom world some years back. That book featured fifteen individual themed comic strip collections ranging from detective parodies to high school funnies to fantasy RPG versions of Godzilla and his monster crew, among others. Of nearly equal curiosity (for different reasons), published the following year, was an odd little printing called Adventure! Godzilland Gaiden by Eiichi Watanabe and edited by… ahh, Prof. Godzilla?!
Canny readers will already recognize that title—it is indeed the same as the variety TV program created to help promote Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) and Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993). The manga in this volume are based on (though not completely identical to) the yonkoma manga featured in that series. While Adventure! Godzilland was never released on video, and most of the episodes seem to be lost (despite reports that the entire series had been uploaded on YouTube at one point), one episode from the second season is easily found online, with one portion featuring colored versions of some of the yonkoma comics reprinted in this manga collection. Those yonkoma in the TV show are shown in color and with voiceovers for the dialogue and sound effects, but if you look closely, the linework is not quite identical to those printed here. Still, they are nearly the same as those broadcast, with matching layouts, and only minor diversions (like where King Kong is looking in one panel). I do not know if all the comics printed in this volume were utilized in the TV series, or if this publication has significant original material that never appeared elsewhers… such is the mystery of the book.
The manga has a similar feel to the Outrageous Flying Mothra and Gao Gao Me Godzilla parodies by Hirokazu Hikawa (who is more well-known for his Kirby gag comics, based on the Nintendo franchise). Hikawa’s comics sometimes VERY loosely adapt elements from the movies they were promoting (the Mothra trilogy and several of the Heisei Godzilla films). Hikawa’s comics put anthropomorphized (and human sized) Toho kaiju in comedic situations roughly aligning with the stories of the movies released at the time of publication. For example, in his “adaptations,” Mothra is roughly human-sized and can talk, befriends human children, and still faces off with the monsters from the Mothra trilogy of films—but in wackier battles, sometimes incorporating boxing or snowboarding or even wilder stuff. Eichi Watanabe, who so far as I know did not publish any other comics, follows a similar pattern with this book, though usually with shorter gags rather than ongoing stories. In the Adventure! Godzilland comics, most of the strips are loosely themed around particular Godzilla and Toho kaiju films—mostly from the Showa era. Which films are featured seems pretty arbitrary, but within the slim 48 pages you can find parodies of Godzilla (1954), King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), The Mysterians (1957), Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964), Invasion of Astro Monster (1965), Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), King Kong Escapes (1967), Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965), and more. These comics of course are not full recreations of the stories from the films they are referencing and are usually episodic gags based on events or scenes from each individual film. Some of these film parodies rate a full “chapter” (here called “parts”, of which there are 22), while others only get a quick singular gag. It may be worth briefly touching on the contents we have in the chapters. Note that along with the three comics, each chapter also has an accompanying illustration and title.
Part 1: I am the Kaiju King.
This chapter has three comics showing how Godzilla is the king of the sea, land, and air in that order. The first is a gag about how Godzilla treads water (thus answering that age old question of how he seems to always float half out of the water when he appears in the sea). The second has him climbing a mountain—and struggling to get to the top. The third, naturally, is a reference to Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) and has him attempt (and fail) to fly with his breath.
Part 2: I AM the Kaiju King.
The first of these is actually featured in that surviving episode of the TV show. It has Godzilla awakening at the North Pole and stuck inside a pile of snow. He can’t get out, even with liberal application of his nuclear breath. Mechani-Kong and Maguma show up at the end. The last two comics are combined, basically a joke about how the general in charge of the million-volt high tension wires recklessly increases the charge even when it appears that the shock attack is working to give Godzilla a bad time already. The engineer running the level of electric output gets into a fight with the general because if they keep increasing the charge, it will burn out.
Part 2: I am also the Kaiju King.
A set of three King Kong (or "Toho Cong") comics that play off their original face-off in 1962. The first comic, again, was featured in that surviving episode of Adventure! Godzilland. In it, Godzilla and Kong face off, and Godzilla makes fun of the ape for being just a monkey. Ebirah and the giant octopus also appear.
In the next comic (which features crudely-drawn black natives that appear horrifically racist to modern eyes), the mother that searches for her kid in King Kong vs. Godzilla is calling out his name and it keeps changing (I guess Watanabe couldn’t decide what she was saying in the film). The last comic is about giant monsters chanting “Hama Mie” as a way to summon her (the actress), apparently.
Part 4: I am the Kaiju King after all.
The first comic is more or less a retake on that old Looney Tunes Ralph Wolf vs. Sam Sheepdog comic, except with Godzilla and Gigan fighting for a day, and then basically clocking out in the evening (with the JSDF doing the same). The next comic is about Godzilla’s weakness, which is apparently his tail because Kong swings him by the tail and the Mothra larvae bite him there. So, he uses it (his tail) to secure his sumo belt in the last panel (where he faces off with Gabara). The last comic of the three has Godzilla in the thirtieth century attacking buildings, but he can’t cause any damage because everything is so well-made with the tech of the future.
Part 5: Even Though I’m the Kaiju King.
Mechagodzilla II is being unveiled after completion, and they test out his movements. But in the middle of the tests, people run onto stage and embrace—twice. I am pretty sure both couples are pop-culture references (Occhan and Jo? Hoshi and Tomo?). Then, in the end, Mechagodzilla turns out to be just Godzilla in a mecha suit.
Part 6: Earth Defense Force
This threesome focuses on The Mysterians (1957). The first gag points out that Moguera can only play “scissors” in Rock-Paper-Scissors (given his hands are claws) and so can easily be beaten. The second is a gag about the Toho kaiju entering middle age and breaking down, with Moguera’s nose drill cracking up, Rodan going to soak in a hot spring, etc. The last one features a Mysterian and his kid walking on a beach when a group of revelers approach, bury the adult Mysterian in the sand, and use his head for a watermelon because of its similar appearance. (This is a reference to the game of splitting watermelons with a bat on the beach, so we can assume Papa Mysterian isn’t long for this world.)
Part 7: Sky Daikaiju
This chapter puts Rodan to the fore, with the first strip displaying the pterosaur performing a diving attack on human-sized Jet Jaguar, splitting the robot in two. The next two comics are about Godzilla presumably sneaking a Godzilla egg into Rodan’s nest so the big bird can raise his son—which ends with Rodan kicking Minilla off a cliff to teach him to fly.
Part 8: Space Daikaiju
These three gags center on King Ghidorah. The first spotlights KG’s difficulty in making decisions, as the heads always get into fights about what to do (similar jokes could also be found in Godzilla World). The second portrays monster sleep postures, with the punchline being that Ghidorah’s heads rarely sleep all at the same time, leaving at least one head to keep watch (and ponder life’s meaning, etc.). The last brings in Emi and the Dorats, with the cute Futurian setting up the three Dorats to become King Ghidorah… but one of them skips out, resulting in a deformed two-headed, one-tailed monstrosity of questionable utility.
Part 9: Kaiju Big War
Yes, this is the Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) parody section. The first strip shows the coming of the Xiliens—but we just see one alien man fall from the sky and splat on the ground near Godzilla and Rodan. The other two are directly connected, with the Xiliens attempting to nab Rodan and Godzilla from the water. Instead, they keep finding other things—they dredge up Nessie, a treasure box from Tokugawa Ieyasu, and finally Kong and Mothra, prompting someone to suggest calling upon real-life “psychic” Aiko Gibo to give them directions.
Part 10: The Guardian God of Infant Island
This is the Mothra-themed chapter, and probably the most questionable in terms of gags within the entire book. It features more (arguably) racist depictions of black people and an image of a naked woman. The natives of Infant Island are shown as broad black stereotypes (complete with massive lips). The first comic is about the twin larvae, with one evincing a lazy attitude, and the other exhibiting a personality of personal growth and hard work. Hardworking Mothra grows big and strong, and lazy Mothra dies of old age as a caterpillar. The second comic has the natives encouraging a Mothra larva to make a cocoon, but they encourage him/her too much, and it creates an overly-thick shell. The last one has an artistic Mothra larva that creates a cocoon separate from himself on Tokyo Tower and draws a naked female human torso on the outside.
Part 11: The Twin Tiny Beauties
A parody of Mothra vs. Godzilla, but no kaiju. The repulsive money-grubbing human villains scheme and sneer in all three comics, chatting about how they can make money on the giant egg that has washed ashore. All the while, the Twin Fairies are off screen pleading for the dirty entrepreneurs to cease and desist until one of them loses patience and squishes the pair with a flyswatter.
Part 12: Destroy All Monsters
This is just an image of a parade of monsters heading off to fight King Ghidorah as the SP-1 flies overhead. The monsters, of course, are the DAM crew—Varan, Manda, Kumonga, Mothra larva, Baragon, Gorosaurus, Anguirus, Rodan, and Godzilla. All the monsters have a quip or comment, such as Rodan remarking that every time KG shows up, he is weaker than last time, and Godzilla calmly asserting that they can hurry things along and finish the fight before sundown.
Part 13: All Monsters Attack
Similar to the above, this time with only Gabara, Minilla, and Godzilla. Minilla asks where all the other monsters are, and Godzilla makes a comment alluding to the others being stock footage.
Part 14: Lord Baradagi’s Rage
Although ostensibly focused on Varan (hence the title reference to his more religious name), the first comic is about Dr. Serizawa trying out his Oxygen Destroyer. When the device kills a fish in an aquarium, he is distressed… and proceeds to a local swimming pool stocked with humans playing in the water, and he is going to test the device again. The other two comics are about Varan feeling left out and neglected when the flying monsters have a flying monster party without him—including Godzilla in the mix (because of that Hedorah outing), but never inviting Rodan. Ho ho.
Part 15: Counterattack Kong
This episode features Kong again, partially in King Kong Escapes (1967). Love seeing Dr. Hu as the accompanying illustration! The first comic has Kong and Mechani-Kong racing for the top of Tokyo Tower, and MK wins because he has more gear. Kong also drops Susan—yikes! The second comic has Kong using a Maser canon to break up a fight between Sanda and Gaira—but the brothers call him a monkey, and he gets upset. The last one has Kong being pulled behind a boat ala King Kong vs. Godzilla, and when they let him go, he sinks and cannot swim because monkeys can’t swim. (This is a reference to how many primates really cannot swim well, and one of the reasons why I always thought it was dumb that Kong seems to “win” in the conclusion of King Kong vs. Godzilla.)
Part 16: Furabara (FrankenBaragon)
The illustration accompanying the chapter this time refers to the alternate cut with the enormous octopus, with Frankenstein complaining about how the foreign cut is no joke. The next strip has Frankenstein peeking into a house to watch Asunaro Hakusho, a college-age drama show from 1993 based on the comic of the same name. (Somehow, Frank’s face peering in reminds me of Attack on Titan).
The next two comics are about Baragon chasing a meal—he eats what appears to be a normal human, then has a stomachache as it turns out he swallowed Jet Jaguar.
Part 17: The World’s Biggest Decisive Battle
Like with Destroy All Monsters and All Monsters Attack, this is one big illustration, this time of Princess Salno in her Venusian guise complaining about how no one will believe her—and on the opposite page Jet Jaguar proclaims he trusts her. (It’s because he is an ally of justice who cannot doubt people, apparently.)
Part 18: Kaiju King the Second
The first comic here shows an egg hatching, and a group of monsters argue over whose child it is as it initially looks like a baby Godzilla, but it has back spikes like Anguirus, it eats meat like Baragon, and one of its arms has a claw like Ebirah. The next two comics are a two-parter in which Minilla is replaced with Baby Godzilla, so the kid goes to kill himself (!!!) by jumping off a cliff and is rescued by Jet Jaguar. But Minilla whines and weeps about why he wants to die. Eeessshh!
Part 19: Vs. the Final Weapon to Stop Godzilla
The rest of the comics (parts 19-22) are all about Mechagodzilla II. This chapter brings in Garuda, who repeatedly flies in to ostensibly graft onto Mechagodzilla II, but each time connects with Godzilla instead, leading to Mechagodzilla’s repeated defeats. Garuda apologizes each time but seems to be doing it on purpose. While not so funny, the image of Godzilla flying with the Garuda backpack is cute and reminds me of the second Godzilla vs. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers comic series wherein Godzilla bonds with the Dragonzord in a similar fashion. M-maybe the author had a copy of this comic?
Part 20: Mecha Guy’s Birth
The last three chapters continue Mechagodzilla’s adventures but recast him as a parody of Wakadaisho from the “Young Guy” films. The original series was a light and breezy comedy franchise featuring the adventures and antics of the titular “Young Guy” Yuichi Tanuma, a superior athlete who gets all the girls. The general idea is that he and his friends get into trouble and sports tournaments in each “episode,” there is some light romance, plenty of humor, and often travel sequences to various places around the world. Mechagodzilla II essays the Young Guy parody role because he doesn’t want to keep fighting Godzilla (given Garuda’s betrayal). Thus, we see “Mecha Guy” kicking back and playing music or drinking wine at home while Godzilla runs wild. We also see Mecha Guy failing to pass a college entrance exam and reverting to elementary school. Note that the titles for most of these episodes are parodies of the titles of films from the “Young Guy” series.
Part 21: Mecha Guy Fights
In “Hawaii’s Mecha Guy,” Mecha Guy is sleeping on the beach, and a reporter tries to guilt him into doing his job—but she repeatedly gets his name wrong and is eventually pulled away by her colleague. In “Mecha Guy of the Sea,” he is still dozing on the beach, and the crazy reporter from the previous episode curses him using a voodoo doll. Mecha Guy rusts on the beach. In Eleking’s Mecha Guy (the original film had “ereki” or “electric guitar” in the title), Ultraseven and Eleking briefly appear. But Eleking just looks around until Mechagodzilla kicks him out of the comic for not doing anything interesting.
Part 22: Do Your Best, Mecha Guy
In the final three comics of the book, Mecha Guy flies to the Alps and tries to land next to Godzilla and Minilla—but sinks into the snow. Then, in the next strip, we see that Mecha Guy sank through the entire earth and ended up in Rio. Finally, Mecha Guy flies to meet Mechani-Kong—or Mechani Guy. Mecha Guy tells Mechani Guy to shut up and listen to his song and begins to play on the guitar, but Mechani Guy asks Mecha Guy if he is “Mecha Guy of the North Pole.” For some reason, Mecha Guy is offended by this title and thinks it is unbecoming of the greatest weapon made to fight Godzilla. The end.
There are a couple more inclusions after the comics themselves but let me offer up a few critical comments about the yonkoma on display before going forward. The comics are drawn in that now-classic Godzilland style that was featured on so many goods stretching back to 1984. Monster Island Buddies covered a lot of these goodies in a two-part video, and the breadth and depth of material on this multi-media push was pretty impressive and seems to have included the SD Godzilla World: Godzilla Kun comics and the Gao Gao Me Godzilla comics, as well as the Godzilland OAVs, and (yes) Adventure! Godzilland the TV show… and this comic. I don’t think Watanabe originated the Godzilland art style (if you go back to the original line-up from the 80s, the art looks more refined than the shaky linework on these comics), but these strips certainly ape the style and are attractive and amusing in their execution—at least on a visual level. I just really like seeing the Godzilla cast back and in this big-headed, Pac-Man-mouthed, goofy-as-heck style. Plus, this printing has a wide cast of monsters recast with this unique visual aesthetic. Some of the monsters are nigh unrecognizable (I think Gorosaurus, Varan, and sometimes Mechagodzilla II look enough “off-model” to confuse fans), but still—the execution is cute and charming.
The humor, on the other hand, often leaves something to be desired—at least for me. Granted, many of the jokes are heavily reliant on pop-culture references that may not hit as hard (or at all) with foreign audiences, but even the jokes not steeped in connections to obscure TV shows and celebrities frequently employ weak or inappropriate (from a Western perspective) humor. What’s funny about Minilla trying to kill himself? How is it a laff for Mothra to paint a naked woman’s torso on his cocoon, particularly for a series presumably made for tiny kids? Godzilla failing to melt snow, or Kong missing a slap-attack on the panicking mother looking for her kid, or Rodan slicing Jet Jaguar in half outside of any meaningful context—so many of the jokes are just baffling or lame.
My opinion was definitely influenced by all the hand-written text in every strip, though. While the USA has a long history of hand-lettered comic books which are eminently readable, whenever I have encountered hand-lettered manga in Japanese, I have suffered. Shigeru Sugiura used hand-written Japanese in his absurdist Godzilla comics, for example, and I really struggled trying to squint my way through those wacky publications. (Jujutsu Kaisen also has hand-written explanatory texts and gags between chapters, and gosh do those give me headaches.) Still, when I got lost reading this puppy, I could throw the images into Google Translate and often, miraculously, the AI could recognize the scribbled logographs that I was befuddled by.
After the comics are over, we get a spread showing a series of images depicting Godzilla dancing to the Adventure! Godzilland theme song, “Godzilla So Fa Mi Ray Do”. The idea is that you can get in some calisthenics while watching the TV show (which I believe also had this dance), but the moves are immortalized in the pages of the comic, too. Certainly, the images of the frog-like Godzilla busting his limited oeuvre of moves is delightful in its way.
The book ends with an afterword that includes playful commentary on the making of the TV show and the origins of this printing. This afterword is written by “Prof. Godzilla,” who must have been a Godzilla fan who worked on the TV show but who was too embarrassed to put his name on this project. He says he appeared in a crowd scene in Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) as well, and he went to karaoke with the Cosmos from Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992). The text also features memories of a staff member (no real names are given) who neglected his editing duties to go watch F-1, or the CG budget going into the red, and etc. The comics that appeared in the TV show started as just one or two apparently, and then the viewers were asked to send in their own comics—but Watanabe ended up drawing twelve himself, followed by the dance illustrations. All of these apparently were free labor, unpaid for, because of someone identified as “Mr. I”. According to Prof. Godzilla, this printing (Adventure! Godzilland Gaiden) was done as a way to get Watanabe some small measure of payment for his art—I guess most of the funds gathered for the sales of this humble volume went to Watanabe. In fact, I am not convinced that this was an official Toho release through a traditional publication house. It was printed through a small printing company called Hiromi—you can find their Tokyo site and its terrible consumer rating (ONE STAR currently) on Google, but it doesn’t look like an official publication to me. I can’t help but wonder if this is actually a doujinshi—it wasn’t listed in the remarkably thorough Godzilla manga guides from Pancake Shinden, for example.
Still, whether an official publication from Toho or not, some of the manga found in this book certainly appeared in the TV series, and they represent a neglected corner of Godzilla fandom. Personally, I really like the Godzilland product lines, and while much of the humor in this collection is blunted by culture difference and hard-to-read handwriting (often very small!), certainly the sheer number of Toho cameos and reference-heavy humor can hit the tickle bone occasionally. And I love that art! The book ends with a modified quotation from Dr. Yamane about how he doesn’t think this book will end with one publication alone, and while Yamane seems to be wrong in that assessment, I am glad that this book exists, and I hope more fans can dig it up and enjoy its shenanigans. |