Takayuki Sakai is the king of Heisei Godzilla manga adaptations. While other manga artists did more original stories (such as Hisashi Yasui and his Monster King Godzilla comics, or Yukio Sawada's Godzilla-Kun), Sakai created a whole string of crazy adaptations of the Heisei continuity films that ran in the Bessatsu Korokoro manga magazines—adaptations from Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah to Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, as well as Mothra Trilogy manga adaptations (which unfortunately were never collected into tankobon and so are harder to find). These manga adaptations have received at least some attention on Toho Kingdom, and the partial translations of how the manga narratives diverged from the movie canon eventually became a seed of interest in me that grew into an obsession to track down and document the Godzilla manga world of mostly lost literature (in the West). What makes Sakai's work so fun is that the differences in his versions are so far from the movies that it feels like he created an alternative timeline to the most narratively sustained set of Godzilla movies in the Toho canon. Even the sections of the narrative scanlated on the website, though, just touch on the differences that the manga introduce—and those differences often offer improvements and make the movie narratives more exciting, or just downright insane.
Of the Heisei Godzilla films, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla is probably the most widely reviled, but as with his other adaptations, Sakai polishes up a fresh and more action-packed narrative with his take, including many chaotic and dynamic new sequences and ideas. Let’s walk through the narrative first, and then jump into a brief analysis.
The manga opens with several color pages, and an unmanned space probe has just stumbled upon a distant planet where massive crystals have enveloped an alien city. The probe’s last transmission to earth is an image of a mysterious monster…
Back on earth, a beautiful woman is giving a JSDF member a tour of G-Force Headquarters. But just as she is showing him the impressive MOGUERA mech, he escapes into an airduct and, when she understandably protests his off-script behavior, he knocks her out with a blast of sleeping gas (delivered in a rather rude fashion between his legs in such a way as to resemble a fart to the face). The rogue agent then spies on a special secret meeting of the G-Force members who have gathered together to discuss the image sent from the probe. We get a good look at that image, which looks like Godzilla. When the members ask where earth’s Godzilla is, we learn he is currently hanging out next to Birth Island—so whoever that imposter is far out in space, it ain’t our Big G!
The spy in the airduct grows excited at the news of Godzilla’s current location—his angle all along was to find where the kaiju king was located. But before the spy can celebrate, Mothra and the Cosmos appear to those gathered at the meeting, warning the members that there exists not just one Godzilla. After some hullabaloo, the Cosmos explain that they are working with Mothra the guardian goddess and that they themselves are ancestors of the human race, the native people of earth. One of the members of the meeting, Kuroki, asks the Cosmos what it is that they want. The Twin Fairies reply that before they get to that prescient detail, it’s important that the committee realize that they are being spied upon by a creeper in the airduct. Members of the security then head off to confront the spy, and a physical altercation takes place as the Fairies continue to explain the situation.
As it turns out, the second Godzilla spotted by the space probe is making a beeline for the earth, and it was created because some of Godzilla’s cells managed to migrate out into space and combined with a crystalline lifeform which then destroyed one planet after another. Now that dastardly diamond dinosaur is headed for the third rock from the sun. They also say that the spy from before is tied with the fate of the earth.
As the Cosmos explain all this airy-fairy end-of-the-world hokum, the spy displays significant hand-to-hand combat capability against the security, throwing down with considerable skill, and eventually high-tailing it to the dock where MOGUERA is sitting ready for him to steal the thing. He jumps inside without anyone even attempting to shoot him down, and just flies the thing right out of there. Apparently MOGUERA had no security system, and was made in such a way as to be easily flown away by one-man interlopers like this schmuck. But just as it seems as if he has made it out clean and clear, a refurbished Mechagodzilla II (or maybe 2.5) jets out after him, zappy breath a-blazing. MOGUERA, though, can generate a Beam Barrier which deflects the attacks, and the spy sets one of MOGUERA’s drill hands to spinning and takes out MechaG with one punch.
However, the pilot of MechaG is an even bigger badass than the spy, having managed to somehow leap from the robo-dinosaur’s exploding carcass onto MOGUERA almost completely unscathed. MechaG’s pilot shimmies across MOGUERA’s shoulder and slips inside through an access door, only to be captured at gunpoint by the spy (I guess he set MOGUERA to autopilot). The spy forces the MechaG pilot to take off their helmet, and we discover it’s the hottie from before—that knockout gas must not have worked very well on her since she is herself such a knockout (ba-dum-ting!). The spy, upon seeing who she is, starts tearing off his clothes, which makes the MechaG pilot quite uncomfortable. But our spy, who reveals his name to be Akira Yuuki, just wants to bandage her up given that she has like a minor scratch or something from pouncing from one ultra-expensive battle-mech onto another. Yuuki claims he is going to be history’s first man to kill Godzilla.
Meanwhile, at the space station Dora, things go south fast when SpaceGodzilla appears and shows himself to be an uncharitable alien neighbor by quickly blowing up the base with an energy attack before swooping down on the earth.
Back to Yuuki and the girl, MOGUERA has arrived at Birth Island, and Yuuki has spotted Little Godzilla. He comes up with the idea of menacing the tike to lure adult Godzilla into the open for execution, a plan that the lady objects to, and before he can fire, she bites his shoulder. Just then a bright light appears from the sky, streaking down and creating a massive explosion on the island. The fiery event drives Little into the ocean and pelts the MOGUERA with rocks and dirt and shockwaves, smashing the robot into the ground.
SpaceGodzilla has arrived.
The giant alien organism begins spewing gas and creating crystals across the island, and as a result Little is encased in one enormous crystalline structure. Little alerts Godzilla to the predicament via what appears to be a telepathic link, but by the time the Big G arrives, the island is like a field of diamonds. Godzilla and Spacey face off against one another, and Space breathes a long, sharp crystalline spear into existence. Godzilla unleashes a blast of radioactive breath, which Space deflects with his newly created spear, then hurtles the weapon at Godzilla. Godzilla smacks the crystal missile with his tail, shattering it, and shards rain upon the earth.
Meanwhile, Yuuki is prepping a small bazooka and proclaiming that he will snuff Godzilla. The bazooka is loaded with anti-nuclear bacteria—that same stuff that nearly killed G in Godzilla vs. Biollante. Yuuki has a sweet motorcycle in MOGUERA, and, with the bazooka strapped across his back, he takes off to find a good vantage point from which to murderize Godzilla.
Speaking of the king of the monsters, he ain’t having such a great day already, as he finds himself surrounded by enormous sharp crystals that seem to have sprouted from the ground around him. As Goji struggles amongst them, Space chucks another crystal-spear at his head, which Godzilla manages to catch with his mouth. Then G charges up another nuclear blast, channeling it through the crystal-spear which he is holding horizontally so that the energy transfers across the thing’s length. Godzilla’s blast, then, comes out not as a stream of fire but like a thin sheet of energy, which shaves through one of Space’s shoulder crystals.
Now having attained the upper hand, Godzilla bashes his way out of the confining crystals that have grown up around him and moves in for the kill. However, the kaiju king is hit in the shoulder by an explosion! It was a rocket from Yuuki, who is trying to get G to open wide so he can nail the kaiju king in the mouth with the anti-nuclear rocket—he only has one.
However, Yuuki’s attack has given Space time to form another crystal spear and lob the thing at G, who isn’t prepared this time. The spear stabs all the way through G’s thigh. Yuuki roars epithets at Space that Godzilla is supposed to be HIS prey, but then the rogue agent collapses holding his side.
Back to Godzilla, the monster hero is bleeding bad and falls on his back in the field of crystals. Space G powers himself up, with another good ten crystals sprouting from his back. But instead of attacking, we find Spacey is just switching to flight mode, and the alien-Godzilla hybrid shoots off into the distance, leaving the fight, and Godzilla, behind. The kaiju king struggles to his feet, then howls in agony over Little’s frozen body.
That night, Yuuki comes back to his senses with his head in the aforementioned lady’s lap, and she informs him that he fainted from loss of blood. The lady wonders why Space G ran away, and Yuuki bashes his head against a wall out of frustration that he didn’t get to kill Godzilla when the kaiju was weakened. As the couple are chit-chatting in their own unique way, a G-Force reconnaissance ship arrives to scope out the scene. Yuuki tells the still-nameless lady to go hitch a ride with the G-Force ship as he doesn’t want to kidnap her, and he is going to take MOGUERA to go and off Godzilla. However, the lady insists that she accompany him as she has unfinished business with G as well. She says that Godzilla killed her brother, which seems to satisfy the dumb nut. So Yuuki tells her to buckle up and takes off to continue the hunt.
The reconnaissance craft phones back to headquarters, asking whether they should pursue the fleeing battle mech, but Sho Kuroki (a reoccuring character added in from Godzilla vs. Biollante) tells them to hold off, that they need to focus on the investigation of Spacey. Kuroki is disturbed by the extensive growth of the crystals, making the obvious observation that, dang, this is the same stuff that destroyed that planet they saw in outer space—and earth is next.
The crystalline creature makes his next appearance in Fukuoka and starts barfing crystals everywhere, with buildings and people getting caught up in the diamond-like towers. Some lady named Susan Haan from CCN news reports on the attack.
Returning to Yuuki and the woman with no name, he has her tied up because she wants to go take out Space and save people, and Yuuki is still focused on killing Godzilla. Yuuki has MOGUERA under a camouflage net in some forest somewhere. The lady argues that they can’t just let oodles of people die, but Yuuki refuses to allow his focus to deviate from his target. At that time, we get an important news update—the G-Force has named the crystal beast SpaceGodzilla!
Thankfully the report goes on to more important details, with Kuroki being interviewed and speculating about how the G-cells may have gotten into space (maybe Biollante, maybe Mothra carrying some G-meat with her when she went off for her crazy mission from Godzilla vs. Mothra). We discover from the results of the military’s research that, if the crystals don’t receive sunlight over a period of twenty minutes, they collapse. However, that only works if Space G doesn’t build a really big tower crystal that can collect energy even without direct sunlight, and of course that’s why Space Godzilla is in Fukuoka—so he can use the Fukuoka Tower as a base for such a structure. With that tower in place, Space G can accumulate energy food all day and all night through the crystals.
Yuuki speculates that after Space left Birth Island, the crystals in that area must have fallen apart, and given that there wasn’t a tower for the alien nasty to use to create a steady food stream, he flew away for brighter pastures, so to speak. Kuroki announces on the news that G-Force is planning to destroy Fukuoka Tower as a means of starving Space G. When Yuuki isn’t looking, the mysterious lady begins chewing on her ropes…
A pair of jets fly in to take out Fukuoka Tower, and they shoot their missiles. Space G creates some kind of energy wave, however, which takes the missiles out before they can reach him or the tower. Yuuki, who is watching the attack, exclaims his shock at the extent of Space’s power. The lady, who has chewed herself free, puts Yuuki in a headlock and proclaims that they must go and join the fray to blow up Fukuoka Tower! Yeehaw!
But then, before the quarreling lovers can act, Godzilla appears off the shore of Fukuoka—and the monster king still has the crystal in his leg. Having located Godzilla, Yuuki jumps into action to get over there, kicking MOGUERA into drive and flying straight for the city.
Back to the ongoing monster clash, Godzilla and SpaceGodzilla face off, and a number of new crystals emerge from his back. The pilot of one of the jets (which are still on a mission to blast Fukuoka Tower into oblivion) announces that Space G is transforming into a battle form, and that this is a great chance to attack and destroy the tower. The jets go in for the kill, but as they approach, they suddenly explode.
A female scientist with Kuroki looks at her notes and states that with Space G’s transformation, the light pressure inside the energy field produced by the sea of crystals has increased to such a point that anything that enters that field is destroyed… everything, that is, except Godzilla.
The two Godzillas continue to face off against one another, and Space G creates an energy ball in one hand. He sends that energy ball careening towards Godzilla, and it fuses with the crystal spear that is sticking out of Godzilla’s thigh. Once the energy makes contact, the crystal explodes with growth, spiking out in all directions, and piercing Godzilla’s flesh even more so as to make his right leg like a pin cushion. Space Godzilla pushes more energy into the crystalline torture device, and the crystals grow even larger, with some of the spikes growing their own smaller spikes even. Ouch!
While the mysterious woman with Yuuki finds Space’s attack horrendous, Yuuki is thrilled, thinking that this is his chance to kill the king of the monsters. He wants to issue the fatal blow and thinks that with MOGUERA he can enter the crystal light-pressure zone using the robot’s beam barrier. The woman kicks Yuuki, sending him sprawling, and before he can fight back, she manages to separate MOGUERA into two. She takes the ground vehicle, but she mocks Yuuki, telling him that with just his Star Falcon, he can’t use the beam barrier.
Yuuki, however, is undeterred, and he flies the Star Falcon right into the crystal field anyway while crying out that he will be an agent of Gondo’s revenge. As the Falcon takes on damage, Yuuki sweats, his skin bursts into flame, and the woman asks him over the video link why he is willing to go to such lengths in order to kill Godzilla.
Why indeed?
We go into flashback, back to Yuuki’s first mission, which was to search the forest near Mt. Fuji for a secret stash of G-cells spirited away by Biomajor there. Due to an electromagnetic anomaly, however, they couldn’t use compasses nor communication equipment—it was up to them, as a team of three, to find the G-cells alone.
That mission was spearheaded by Colonel Gondo, who Yuuki initially wrote off as an annoying dumbhead. For the first few days, even with the clues in their possession, the team failed to ascertain the location of the goods. Then, on the third day, they managed to find the case with the G-cells inside, and Yuuki was so excited he dashed forward to open the thing without checking it for traps. Unfortunately for him, the case was set so that were it tampered with, projectiles would fire off of the case from hidden mechanisms. Yuuki is seriously injured, and the third member of the party was killed on the spot. Gondo then, despite having an injury to his own stomach, despite the prospect of returning only to be demoted for the mission screw-up, carried Yuuki out on his own back.
Yuuki suddenly awakens, and we see that the above was a dream sequence. The mysterious woman has rescued Yuuki and the Star Falcon, the latter of which was pretty scorched and beat up, so she is working hard to get it fixed. Yuuki wants to know who won, Godzilla or Space, but she is too focused on the repairs to give him a proper answer.
We cut to the action outside, and Godzilla has approached SpaceGodzilla despite his wounds. The mysterious woman praises the monster for his wherewithal but says that it’s only a matter of time before G succumbs to his wounds.
As if on cue, Space reaches out and grabs one of the crystals that is poking out of Godzilla’s thigh, sending in another surge of energy. The ball of spikes that has grown out of his flesh once again lengthen, the spikes surging in all directions, blood spattering.
Yuuki is concerned that he can’t get his revenge, and we enter another flashback, this time to 1989—five years after the G-cells incident in the woods outside Mt. Fuji. This time it’s a flashback to a sequence from Godzilla vs. Biollante where Gondo and others (including Yuuki) are packing the anti-nuclear bacteria and prepared to fire them into Godzilla in the streets of Osaka. Both Gondo and Yuuki had managed to hit the monster with ANB missiles, but Kuroki soon calls for a retreat. In order to allow for those under his command to safely escape, Gondo remains behind to distract Godzilla. Yuuki sees Gondo, his back turned to the Big G as the monster approaches. Yet Gondo doesn’t even flinch. He is a total stud, not even twitching an eyebrow at the big lizard’s looming presence before firing an ANB rocket into Godzilla’s mouth and taking the brunt of the beast’s counterattack--RIP. Gondo saved Yuuki again, incurring an even greater debt that Yuuki wants to repay.
Back to the present, Yuuki yells and carries on at Godzilla, proclaiming that he will clear his debt and making various insults. Godzilla, meanwhile, is struggling to move with the horrendous crystals digging through his body.
But then Godzilla’s eyes flash with rage, and he charges forward, impaling SpaceGodzilla on his own crystals imbedded in G’s flesh. In delivering such a devastating blow, Godzilla also throws Space G off balance, sending him hurtling backwards into Fukuoka Tower. The building is destroyed, and the pokey-sharp top section flips over perfectly as the building is destroyed, falling just right so as to lance through Space’s neck. With the tower destroyed, Space’s energy sphere built up from his field of crystals also dissipates. The crystals, too, should fall apart within twenty minutes without sunlight. (I bet you can guess where this is going.)
Yuuki and the mystery girl celebrate, and she has timed her own repairs on the Star Falcon to coincide with Godzilla’s victory. The Land Moguera and the Star Falcon recombine into MOGUERA, and Yuuki is once again determined to kill Godzilla now that Space has been taken care of.
But before Yuuki and the MOGUERA can attack, the sun rises, and the light energy hits the crystals directly. Underneath MOGUERA, the field of crystals suddenly begin to grow dramatically, bursting up into an enormous crystalline tree-like structure, and knocking MOGUERA over onto its side. The sudden growth of crystals further brings Space Godzilla back to life—and more powerful than ever.
Now Space’s entire body is glowing with energy. The space mutant strikes a dramatic pose as the light energy courses through his flesh. Then the diamond-like alien scum unleashes a beam of energy that emits from across the monster’s entire body—one hundred meters across. The intense attack nails Godzilla straight on, burning away at his flesh.
Just then, Yuuki pilots the MOGUERA into the blast, using the Beam Barrier feature to act as a shield to protect Godzilla (because he wants to be the one to kill him). Godzilla takes a breather as the astonishing energy attack washes against the barrier, but the kaiju king gets impatient. The Big G steps out from behind the barrier and unleashes the biggest nuclear breath attack that Yuuki has ever seen!
The beam of radioactive energy arcs right into SpaceGodzilla, and… Space sucks the blast and its energy right into himself with no effect. Godzilla, undeterred, follows up the biggest attack of his life with an even bigger nuclear attack after charging up with sparkly energy. Once again, Space G starts sucking the energy into himself with nary a care, but Godzilla doesn’t let up! He continues unleashing a constant stream of incredible, overwhelming nuclear-pulse level power. Eventually Space can’t take it anymore, and the diamond-zilla begins melting. Godzilla senses weakness, and redoubles his nuclear ray again.
Space is turning to soup, his shoulder crystals oozing. Godzilla takes a break from zapping Space, then, and somehow manages to yank the entire spikey contraption from his own thigh (which should be impossible—he would basically end up eviscerating whatever is left of his leg muscles). Anyway, he does it, then uses the thing like a battering ram, charging into Space G’s head with the forward spike. A gargantuan explosion results, sending shards of Space Godzilla in all direction, and we get a totally bad-A shot of a chunk of glass-like SpaceGodzilla face stuck in the ground as Godzilla roars in triumph.
With the destruction of SpaceGodzilla, the giant crystal tree flower will also collapse in about ten minutes. MOGUERA, too, is basically totaled in the explosion. A rescue helicopter comes to pick up Yuuki and the mystery girl. But Yuuki isn’t willing to give up yet, and he tells her to go on without him because he has unfinished business with Godzilla.
Naturally, she gets mad at him, and suddenly calls him First Lieutenant Yuuki. He is shocked she knows his ranking, and finally she reveals her true identity (some of you may have guessed by now): She is Gondo’s little sister, Chinatsu! She says she also entered the JSDF to avenge her brother’s death, and tried to say as much over and over again when Yuuki was yakking about his own story and plans. She thanks Yuuki for going to such lengths for her brother, but tells him to knock it off, that her brother wouldn’t want him to die for him.
Yuuki then runs off to take MOGUERA into action to kill Godzilla because he is so stubborn, and Chinatsu takes the helicopter. As she is flying away, Yuuki calls Chinatsu on the wireless and tells her that he isn’t fighting for revenge, but rather because he wants to be like Gondo, and wants to in fact overtake Gondo in awesomeness. Chinatsu then says that she also is the same way, that she was a total “older brother girl,” and that he can’t beat him either in that regard—even if it’s a little perverted that she likes her brother in that way. This confession freaks out Yuuki, and he cuts the wireless.
Yuuki pilots MOGUERA into a reckless charge, and Godzilla blasts the robot, causing massive damage. However, Yuuki still manages to swing one of the drill arms right into Godzilla’s neck, grinding through the monster’s flesh. After the collision, the pair of giants smash to the ground with MOGUERA on top. Yuuki climbs out of the machine and claims that Godzilla can’t get up given that MOGUERA weighs nearly three times as much as the monster king. Then the absolute nutjob runs towards the Big G to deliver an ANB rocket blast to the face.
Chinatsu calls Yuuki, telling him to watch out as Godzilla is getting ready for another nuclear blast. Yuuki is shocked that Godzilla could do that with a neck ripped apart by the drill, but he is like the donkey-ist donkey in the world and runs to shoot Godzilla anyway. Chinatsu tells the helicopter pilot to fly in front of Yuuki to stop the utterly insane man from killing himself.
However, just then, the pilot confesses that he was also at the Osaka business park where Gondo had shot Godzilla, and that he had also seen Gondo turn his back to the kaiju king and how much he had been moved by that display. The pilot tells Chinatsu that Gondo was showing his way of life in that moment, and that Yuuki is doing the same thing, that this seemingly looney behavior is his way of feeling alive and fulfilling his life’s mission. The pilot suggests letting the guy do what he wants.
Yuuki faces down Godzilla, and, remembering Gondo and his act of bravery and declaring his attempt to chase after that level of machismo, Yuuki fires his rocket at Godzilla. But just as Godzilla is about to fire off his nuclear breath, he closes his mouth, and the rocket bounces off of his teeth. Yuuki realizes what the G-monster is doing and jumps back into MOGUERA.
By closing his mouth, Godzilla has reversed the nuclear breath back inside of his body, which seems to create massive heat and energy to radiate off of Godzilla’s body, giving Yuuki and MOGUERA a toasty situation.
JUST THEN the crystalline tree breaks down, which presumably causes a big burst of energy too, but Yuuki manages to get away by using an escape module in MOGUERA.
In the aftermath, Yuuki searches through the crystals under the watchful eyes of Police Inspector Kotorii. Yuuki finds the broken shell from the ANB rocket and says goodbye to Gondo. Chinatsu comes to say something to Yuuki, and the inspector permits it. Chinatsu tells Yuuki that she had always held doubts about Gondo’s death, and that she had felt that what he had done was the same as suicide. But now, having gotten to know Yuuki and seeing him in action, she feels that she could understand her brother a bit better now.
The inspector comes for Yuuki and begins to lead him off. Chinatsu calls out after him, asking him to call her once he gets out of prison. Yuuki promises to do so and says he is looking forward to seeing her again—as well as Godzilla.
The end.
Hopefully reading the above plot description makes you feel totally pumped! Sakai takes the sometimes convoluted movie story (which featured not only Yuuki’s mission to kill Godzilla, but also an attempt to create a psychic link to control Godzilla, and a double cross against the psychic) and streamlines it, focusing hard on Yuuki’s story and redoubling the connection to Gondo. The beloved Miki Saegusa is completely drop-kicked from the narrative, and Chinatsu Gondo is plucked from her position guiding the psychic strategy T-project into being a totally kick-butt pilot herself. While I miss Miki, I think focusing so much on one central drama helps galvanize the script—and Yuuki is so much more awesome because of it. In the film, Yuuki kind of seemed pathetic, cursing and crawling around, taking pot shots at Godzilla with blood coagulator bullets instead of the ANB. While Yuuki does manage to pilot MOGEURA in the movie, too, he does so with a team, and when he goes AWOL he gets summarily knocked out by his compatriots in order to get him under control. He is just so LAME. Here, he has so much testosterone he might be able to turn around the lowered birthrate in Japan by himself. It’s true that he is one-note, but that note is played up to eleven and I’m there for it.
The changes with SpaceGodzilla are also highly entertaining, with a more complex and fleshed out explanation for his crystal powers. Spacey also possesses a wider variety of abilities, and the way he can create crystal spears with his breath and blast energy from his entire body, the way that the crystals create a massive tower, all of it just makes the crisis more exciting and wild and absurd. The fact that Space G was apparently also traveling around the universe and wiping out other civilizations and planets further gives him a major King Ghidorah vibe. The way Sakai illustrates Space deviates somewhat from the movie incarnation—if anything, I think it looks a bit closer to Super Godzilla from the Super Famicom game, which was the original inspiration for the monster.
Speaking of the art, if you have followed any of Sakai’s work in the past, you know what to expect. His style in these books tends to be highly dynamic and kinetic, but low on overall detail. Backgrounds are often overcome with speed lines and textures rather than sketched out. The monsters sometimes suffer from low detail, too, and can look a bit deformed at times. I think his MOGUERA tends to come out better as far as being a bit closer to model. But criticisms aside, Sakai produces bombastic and enthusiastic art with massive panels and dynamic layouts which are usually easy to follow. So. Fun.
Human characters… I don’t think they look like their actor counterparts. When I rewatched the movie after reading the comic, I couldn’t recognize pretty much any of them. Yuuki looks younger and more muscular than actor Akira Emoto, and Chinatsu—well, they have a similar body type, if not quite the same hair. I think Kuroki (who doesn’t feature in the film, but again was in Godzilla vs. Biollante) looks the most like the actor.
Arguably if anything Sakai’s comic can become a bit too crazy. When I was reading, there were times when I wanted to hit Yuuki upside the head and get him to calm down and stop trying to get himself killed all the time. And sometimes, as mentioned in my rundown above, the fights can get so whacked that I just can’t buy into them fully—particularly when Godzilla somehow manages to pull the spikey crystals out of his leg. Nevertheless, for the most part, I am all aboard for the craziness.
At the back of the book, Sakai includes a humorous look into his office and how he works with his assistants. On a two page spread, he includes a “Godzilla Tower” (like in Godzilla vs. Gigan), but this tower is supposed to be where he draws manga with his crew. The tower is carved up like the classic anatomy illustrations of monsters, but instead of guts, we get a glimpse at the rooms for each of the assistants and Sakai himself—plus their pet cats and an iguana. Each assistant gets their own amusing details, such as one girl fishing for handsome men in a bath, and another assistant possessing a room full of Toho figurines. Sakai gets a room in the head of the tower, and he just has piles of papers everywhere, in which he is buried.
I think Sakai’s Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla manga is a wonderful companion piece to the film, and much more entertaining. The storytelling is fast-moving and exciting, filled with surprises and close escapes and humor, and the battles are (as with his other adaptations) visceral and extreme. I wish someone would release these in the USA so fans around the world could enjoy them, since so many of the IDW and even the Dark Horse comics are recently getting Japanese releases. Toho! You have a lot of fans in the world who would like to read these comics in English! Hire me, I will translate them for you for cheap! Anyway, if you get a chance, I totally would recommend getting these comics. Read my summaries if you can’t read the Japanese. They are just crazy stupid fun. |
