Destroy All Monsters (1968) is one of the most celebrated Godzilla films of any era, with a title that has become a meme often referenced (such as in the original kaiju comic Kill All Monsters! and the Samuel J. Miller novel which just takes the title wholesale) and parodied (such as in the Destroy All Humans! video games). For many years, the movie was unavailable on home video; as a child of the eighties and nineties without cable, I would gaze longingly at the local TV guides whenever I saw the movie appear on channels I did not have access to, and when ADVision finally released a version of the film on VHS in the late 90s I was beyond ecstatic. There was no way the movie could live up to my expectations, but I still have a fondness for the concept and the bombastic stride of the property, and so manga adaptations of the film still grab me with some nostalgic force. One manga adaptation was included in the Battle History of King Ghidorah manga compilation, which I already discussed. That adaptation by Taku Horie was only 14 pages long and featured an expanded role for Varan (among other variations). The other most readily available adaptation of the manga, however, is by VPro members Satoru Inoue and Makiho Narita. While the manga was reprinted in Battle History of Mechagodzilla (for mysterious reasons), here I am reviewing the more recent 2017 reprint (it came with the Godzilla All Movie DVD Collectors Box Vol. 27—the one with Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah), which comes on larger print with a color cover. Of the two manga adaptations I have read, Narita and Inoue’s is certainly better, though with its simplistic storytelling and straightforward adaptation, this DAM doesn’t completely hold water.
The story is the same as the movie with only the mildest of deviations. The story begins with narration establishing the setting as the end of the 20th century wherein humanity has established a base on the moon and captured all the earth monsters on one of the Ogasawara Islands (dubbed Monsterland), where they live together minus their usual violent antics. We get a full shot of the crew—Godzilla, Mothra larva, Minilla (holding a shark as a snack?), Varan, Gorosaurus, Kumonga, Angilas, Rodan, Baragon, and Manda. Pretty soon, however—under mysterious circumstances—the monsters escape the island and appear in key cities around the world. Rodan hammers Moscow, Baragon crushes Paris, Mothra bugs Beijing, Manda squeezes London, and Godzilla fries New York.
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| The escaped kaiju smash up a few notable cities worldwide--and Baragon takes his role back. |
When news of the global catastrophe reaches the moon base, astronaut Katsuo decides to lead a team to Monsterland—he has a vested interest, as his girlfriend Kyoko was working there. Upon landing, the team discovers the Monsterland staff are all under the control of an alien race called the Kilaaks who have come from an unnamed asteroid in order to build a new culture on the earth. The astronauts resist, find their weapons useless against the might of their would-be conquerors, and manage to barely escape when the aliens counterattack with some kind of toxic gas. The earth monsters converge on Tokyo (there is a neat sequence where Tokyoites run away from Godzilla only to be railroaded by Mothra emerging from the subway), and Kilaak-controlled Kyoko arrives at the scientific base where Katsuo and crew are hunkering down. She declares that humanity must accept the Kilaaks and their presence under Mt. Fuji (where they have made a base) or else, but Katsuo notices she is wearing strange earrings and rips them off. Sure enough, the earrings were mind control devices and using them the scientists discover that the mind-controlling waves are coming from the moon. Katsuo and company board the SY-3, take a trip to the moon, blast the aliens’ base, and barely escape when the mind-control device explodes (perhaps a self-destruct). With their mind control device turned off, the Kilaaks unleash King Ghidorah as a back-up, and the humans take control of the earth monsters. A grand monster donnybrook ensues, and in the midst of the battle a dragon made from fire appears and attacks the human base, destroying their mind-control device. The earth monsters are free, but they continue to fight Ghidorah anyway, succeeding in wrapping him in webbing.
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| All the monsters take a bite or two out of King Ghidorah--ouch! |
The fiery dragon tries to help KG by buzzing Godzilla and the others, nearly managing to roast them alive. However, Katsuo takes the SY-3 for a spin and hits the fire dragon with freeze missiles, revealing its true identity—it’s a flying saucer. Knocked from the sky, the saucer collides with the immobilized Ghidorah and blows him to bits. The earth monsters are returned to Monsterland, and earth is saved!
While the story is nearly identical to the movie, there are a few differences worth mentioning—though most were made in the name of trimming the story down. For example, in the movie, Katsuo and crew rescue Dr. Otani (Yoshio Tsuchiya’s character) from Monsterland—but in the comic, they just get a nameless employee. In the movie, Dr. Otani commits suicide, and the mind control device is discovered hidden underneath the man’s skin in his neck. In the comic, the nameless employee is spared, and the scientists find the mind-control device behind his ear. In the movie, mind-controlled Kyoko has a larger role, including scenes of her traveling around Tokyo, but those scenes are completely cut. Both the movie and the comic feature Katsuo noticing the mind-control devices built into Kyoko’s earrings (Katsuo knows Kyoko only ever wears the earrings he sent her) and ripping them off. (Taku Horie’s adaptation is slightly different, with Katsuo noting that Kyoko never wears such big earrings, and they appear to be clip-ons!) The attack on the moon is much shorter—while both versions include a sequence wherein the Kilaaks attack the SY-3 with fire after the ship lands, the comic excises the moon buggy and the intense dismantling of the mind-control device. The monster fight (which wasn’t particularly long to begin with) is also shorter here, with most of the memorable parts cut out (such as Gorosaurus and his kangaroo kick and Godzilla curb-stomping KG). However, Minilla gets in an atomic breath blast in the comic (as opposed to his smoke-ring attack in the film), Rodan gets a nice body-slam in, and we have all the monsters biting and attacking simultaneously. I really like the extra touch where the “fire dragon” saucer really looks like a fiery dragon (in Horie’s version, the saucer actually changed into a dragon!), and I especially love how this version combines the downing of the UFO with Ghidorah’s demise. Pretty epic!
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| The fire dragon in the comic looks actually takes on the image of a flaming wyvern dashing through the sky. |
I really like the art in this one, which is a marked improvement over the stiff and sometimes quite weird art in Horie’s version. VPro also did the art for the All Monsters Attack manga adaptation that I reviewed some years ago, and I am guessing this same duo worked on that later manga as Minilla looks quite similar (though in the last shot of Godzilla’s “son” he looks a bit girlish—maybe an early version of the female Minilla that recently appeared in the Chibi Godzilla Raids Again cartoon?). Honestly, I think all the monsters look nice—they aren’t hyper-detailed, but they look good, with a strong sense of character. The individual city attack sequences usually last only one or two panels, but we get a little taste of the destruction, and the final fight has a wonderful build up as the monsters rally together before crushing King Ghidorah. KG is much larger than the other combatants, so he can put up a bit of a fight before getting cremated, and I even like the ferocious predatory takes on Anguirus, Gorosaurus, and Baragon. The people aren’t quite as charmingly done, with everyone sparsely detailed in a simplified, hyper stylization. I can’t really say that Katsuo looks like Akira Kubo outside of being noticeably short, and Kyoko resembles Yukiko Kobayashi most closely with her short haircut—though her clean facial design kind of looks like Kobayashi at a squint. The Kilaaks… well, they have almost no detail, looking like illustrations for a coloring book as their flowing cloaks hardly rate more than a wrinkle and no shading or finer design. Still, the head Kilaak appears menacing enough. Turning to the tech, the SY-3 looks sharp, closely following the model, with tanks and bases and saucers generally exhibiting more-than-adequate levels of artistic flourish and complexity (definitely more consistent, say, than the Godzilla vs. Power Rangers II comic).
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| Yeah, the Kilaaks just wear white sheets in this version I guess. |
My overall impression of Destroy All Monsters the manga is positive if only slightly underwhelming. The story is quite basic at 31 pages with simple dialogue (I translated the whole thing for an acquaintance without much difficulty before buying my own copy), and most of the changes are not especially interesting outside of that final fire-dragon saucer and King Ghidorah’s finisher. Still, the art holds up well, with some great action, solid monster work, and smashy-crunchy buildings. Sure, the human designs are a little too simplistic for my taste, and maybe the book could’ve used ten more pages or so, but I still admire the effort. While this movie adaptation doesn’t destroy the competition, it’s competent and enjoyable to read—and it’s great for intermediate learners of Japanese with its simple script! Definitely read it if you can.
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To preface, I don't have any of the "classic" mangas related to the Godzilla franchise, or for that matter the modern day reprints of them. My collection, now quite dating me, is solely on the Heisei series. So this is somewhat of an abnormal review, although was lucky enough to have Nick, who already reviewed it above, give me access to his copy.
Now this particular subject matter is for the July 1968 manga adaptation of Destroy All Monsters (1968) by Satoru Inoue and Makiho Narita. Interestingly, the manga predates the film, although probably by a magnitude of days since the movie came out on August 1st of 1968. Still, it's possible some fans had the story spoiled in advance. Anyway, I won't rehash the plot, as Nick already did a great job of that above, but I'll touch on the differences and share my thoughts on them.
First, I'll admit that it's easier to forgive a source material for being short or incomplete when you already have the missing context in mind. So take the next statement with that frame of reference, but overall I feel like the manga's approach to the plot is an improvement. It pivots away from elements that I didn't care for in the film, like it avoids the SY-3 crew unflinchingly gunning down the mind-controlled personnel of Monsterland. While at the same time it changes the order of things, generally for the better, while also wisely focusing on some of the better aspects of the story.
Starting off, the monster action in the manga is stronger overall. The global siege sequence is more detailed, the Tokyo attack is longer, and the battle with King Ghidorah is better structured. For example, in the final battle, more monsters are involved instead of just a few main combatants. Additionally, the mind control aspect is handled differently. In the film, earth loses control of the monsters after King Ghidorah was already beaten and the "hurrah" moment was seeing Godzilla attack the Kilaakian base anyway. Here the "hurrah" moment after the mind control is broken is seeing the Earth monsters simultaneously dog piling on King Ghidorah anyway, which is immensely more satisfying.
Continuing on the monster front, the publication does omit the SDF battle against Godzilla and Anguirus. However, its exclusion really isn't missed and just highlights that it wasn't really important to the narrative. In fact, the film would have been stronger with a longer and more elaborate Tokyo set piece in its place, like the manga did.
As Nick mentioned, the Fire Dragon is also much better handled in the manga. Not only is its design more memorable, but its integration into the action works far better here. In the manga, the Fire Dragon is introduced while King Ghidorah is still fighting the Earth monsters, which removes the anti-climactic feeling it had in the film when it was introduced after the three-headed monster's defeat.
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| The Fire Dragon emerging while King Ghidorah is battling Earth's monsters |
While I have praised the comic quite a bit, there is some faults worth highlighting. One issue is the uneven artwork, especially in how the monsters are depicted from panel to panel. Godzilla, for example, fluctuates from looking somewhat friendly to appearing demonic with white eyes, a look that's reminiscent of his appearance in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001). He's not alone in this, as Baragon also shifts from looking somewhat friendly to utterly menacing from panel to panel. Varan, who is only shown here with white eyes and no pupils, also has at least one appearance where he's drawn as a mostly black figure with white spikes, looking down right frightening. The art aside, the ending is also pretty abrupt here, with King Ghidorah perishing with the Fire Dragon in an explosion while a few panels later the monsters are then back on Monsterland, safely contained.
Despite these flaws, I still believe the manga is an overall improvement over the film. It showcases some elements that could have been handled better in the movie, in ways I hadn't fully appreciated before. If you can track down a copy, I'd say it's definitely worth reading. |
