Godzilla: Encylopedia by Godzilla artist, Shinji Nishikawa, is a must for G-fans and anyone interested in kaiju! Godzilla has had a resurrgence at the box office and in pop culture. There is the brilliant Godzilla Minus One which won the Academy Award for visual effects and a parallel series with the Legendary Pictures MonsterVerse. This book covers the original 1954 Godzilla to the Reiwa era and Shin Godzilla (2016) and the anime films including Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018). I had previously picked up The Official Godzilla Compendium (1998) by J.D. Lees and Marc Cerasini. It was illustrated by Arthur Adams, only covered up to the Heisei era (1984-1995), and was not updated.
Nishikawa is a designer who started with Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) to Godzilla: Final Wars (2004). He provides incredible commentary on each kaiju’s features with full color illustrations, details of action scenes (some have the cartoony chibi style), and characters. It begins with the Godzilla Anatomical File which has a summary of each kaiju and film starting with the Showa era (1954-1974). The first film, Godzilla (1954) has two pages with details like the left arm of the suit couldn’t be raised! There is inserts of a chibi Nishikawa that gives factoids. Interestingly, there is no notes about the roar or sound effects of the kaiju since they give character to them.
The second page covers the clay model and the Guignol puppet used for closeups. This is followed by Anguirus who has a face like a Hannya mask. Nishikawa explains that it is a female demon. One of my favorite kaiju of that era is Mothra who had starred in her own film in 1961. Mothra fought Godzilla three years later. The fairy-like Cosmos are noted by Nishikawa as a link between kaiju and speaking characters. The best kaiju though is Minilla. Nishikawa explains that the newborn Minilla was a puppet. He also says that Minilla is considered “ugly” in Japan, what?, and thought to be more kawaii to Americans. I like him because he is chubby and kinda dopey looking. Relatable.
Another great part is to see the all-star line-up of kaiju Destroy All Monsters (1968). It would have been an excellent finale to the Showa era, but there was still some energy left in the franchise. Jet Jaguar introduced mecha into the series and a year later there was Mechagodzilla! Still, the Showa era closed with Titanosaurus in Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975). It does have a topless picture of Katsura from the unedited version of the film. She has a plastic cast of her upper body. It took nine years until the Heisei era (1984-1995). The robot version of Godzilla was a change from the suitmation. Godzilla looked vicious.
It is great to see Nishikawa cover Biollante in four pages. I like the Godzillasaurus from Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991). It is like the early Godzilla in Godzilla Minus One. I was riveted by the section on Godzilla melting down in Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1995) that finished the Heisei era. For me, the Millennium era (1999-2004) is a mixed bag, mostly fun. There is four pages for Mechagodzilla, the Multi-Purpose-Fighting System Kiryu, in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002). I’m not a big fan of Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) which had epic kaiju battles, but the film was more interested in its Matrix meets X-Men characters. I was surprised that Nishikawa found some good in the 1998 Tristar Zilla.
Shin Godzilla (2016) was ok, Nishikawa details the different forms of Godzilla, and points out the fourth form is rendered in CGI. The anime Godzillas are interesting including the classic kaiju redesigned in Godzilla: Singular Point (2021). Nishikawa’s inclusion of them unifies the different Godzillas. There is a section on how to draw Godzilla’s different faces and the heroines connecting to Godzilla. I like the manga version of Miki Saegusa. It is apparent that Nishikawa has love of the characters and films that shows in his artwork, knowledge, and fun with this book. Highly recommended!, Godzilla: Encyclopedia is a handy tome on all of the Godzilla kaiju with fantastic art and a designers’ perspective on all of them!
Five Guignol Puppets out of Five!
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