It was great fun reading about the history of this film. I love the monster as much as I did as a child, but I liked learning more about the character and concept development. This book deserves a key place in film history and popular culture.

Are you a Godzilla fan? Have you heard of Shigeru Kayama? I hadn't and I thought I was a pretty dedicated Godzilla fan. Jeffery Angles has translated into English, for the first time, Kayama's novelization of his original screenplay for Godzilla (1954). I absolutely love these novellas of the first two Godzilla movies. Angles has done such a fantastic job of translating Kayama's novellas. Go get them. You need them. I needed them. Everyone needs them!

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
THE BACKGROUND OF GODZILLA AND GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN
The movie producer, Tomoyuki Tanaka, brought some ideas (largely adopted from a Ray Bradbury story) to the novelist, Shigeru Kayama, and asked him to turn them into a story for a film. This story, in turn, was developed into a screenplay by Ishirō Honda and Takeo Murata (the director and assistant director) and became the movie Godzilla.

Godzilla was such a success that Tanaka had Kayama come up with a follow-up story, that became Godzilla Raids Again (although Godzilla Counterattacks is a better translation, that's not what the movie's title was originally titled in English).

About that time, Kayama was done with the movies and what they were doing to his idea about the monster—but he was helping to launch a series of books for young adult readers and adapted his original ideas for the movies into novellas for that series. These novellas came out around the time of the second movie's release. Now, they're being translated into English for the first time.

WHAT'S GODZILLA ABOUT?
The testing of some nuclear weapons in the Pacific Ocean has disturbed a long-dormant dinosaur/monster. Not only is it now awake, it may have mutated by the bomb(s). Angry and confused, it stumbles onto the Japanese islands and wreaks havoc on the people and cities it encounters.

The beast kills and destroys multitudes and seems invincible to every weapon that the nation has access to. But one scientist has been developing a new kind of weapon, that he doesn't trust any government to have access to—but he might be forced to unveil it to stop Godzilla.

WHAT'S GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN ABOUT?
It was theorized when Godzilla showed up in the first novella that he might not be the sole monster/dinosaur/kaiju to have been awakened by the tests. A pair of pilots* working for a fishing company stumble upon another Godzilla on an island near Japan—while they're trying to escape from that Godzilla, it's attacked by another monster/dinosaur/kaiju, later identified as an Anguirus. The two pilots manage to escape following the fight between the two monsters.

* One of those pilots is named Kobayashi, and any good Star Trek fan knows bad things are about to happen as soon as that name is seen.

They rush back to warn the Anti-Godzilla Task Force who begin to strategize a defense against the monster—they cannot access the same weapon used last time, so they're going to have to come up with something better, and quickly.

THE SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
In addition to the novellas, the book has some additional material—the first (and most useful) is an Afterword, "Translating an Icon," by the translator (obviously). These 30± pages contained answers to almost every question I had while reading—including a few things that I think would've been helpful knowing going into the book (the relation of the novellas to the films, the extent of Kayama's involvement with the creation of Godzilla, why he published the novellas, etc.).

But there's a lot of information that I'm glad I didn't know going in—the critique of the U.S. nuclear testing, why it had to be so subtle, why the films didn't include it as much as the novellas did, where (and why, sometimes) the films and novellas diverge, and the meaning of some of the more emotional moments. There were points where it was clear that something important or meaningful had happened, but I wasn't sure exactly what it was—Angles helped a lot.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that in a perfect world (at least perfect for me), we'd have gotten a foreword as well the afterword—but like just about every writer out there, Angles wasn't writing to satisfy my whims. And as an Afterword, he could really get into spoilers and things it's best to have explained after the text.

The whole thing was so interesting I could've easily read something twice the length (and something tells me that Angles could've done that without much effort, it was probably harder for him to leave out ideas and details). The part I enjoyed the most was his discussion of a few translation issues, for example, the excessive (for a contemporary English reader, anyway) use of onomatopoeias throughout the book—but particularly in the battle scenes, or scenes when Godzilla is angry and taking it out on human structures and devices. Those pages read like the Batman TV series from 1966—full of Bams, Pows, and the like. And Angles describes how he cut many of them by translating them somewhat differently. He also discussed how he chose to spell the roars of Godzilla and Anguirus, and I really enjoyed that.

There were some things that he wanted to do a more accurate job of translating, but given the history fans have with the films, etc. he chose to stay consistent with the films, so he wouldn't have to fend off accusations of bad work from those fans. I absolutely get why he'd make that choice, and feel so bad for him that he had to make it.

I'd noticed that there was a Glossary of Names, Places, and Ideas at the end of the book, but completely forgot to use it while reading the novellas. I don't know that using it would've helped me too much during the reading—almost always the context was clear enough to get the meaning across. But reading it afterward helped clarify a thing or two, but by and large, those were minor details that not knowing them didn't detract much from the text. The things I really needed (and some I could've guessed at) were in the handful of footnotes throughout the novellas. The Glossary was pretty interesting to read, I should note.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT GODZILLA AND GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN?
Before I get into this, I want to take a moment to say how cool it was to get to read a book about Godzilla. From the time I can remember this monster has been something I've been aware of in some way. The old movies, cartoons about him (and his goofy nephew, Godzooky), the toys, the newer movies, and everything in between. He's just been one of the coolest creatures in my pop culture awareness—there've been few times that I've clicked on "Request" so hard on NetGalley. Now, I do have to admit, it's been decades since I watched the original films—I'm much more familiar with the Gamera movies than Godzilla. So I had to wait until the Afterword to know what was different between what I was reading and what audiences saw in the 50s (it was certainly different enough from the Emmerich movie from 1998, that I remember more of than I want to).

I did think some of the dialogue was pretty stilted, and some of the character reactions seemed overwrought (and some underwrought). It actually reminded me a lot of the Gamera films and other English-dubbed live-action shows/movies I've watched—and while reading the book, I frequently thought that I owed those who wrote the scripts for the dubbing an apology—their work felt a lot like Angles' translation. I don't think that the dialogue or characterizations damaged my appreciation of the work, it just underlined for me that this is the work of another culture (and another time). So they'd better not sound like native English speakers, and should probably act/react in ways that don't seem particularly American. What might be slightly off-putting at first quickly becomes part of the charm of the novellas.

The intended audience for these novellas were young adults, and throughout Kayama would insert asides "You may not understand..." or "You've probably seen something like..." to help his reader understand what's going on, or perhaps the feeling behind it. The first time it happened, it was entirely unexpected, but I enjoyed the idea. I liked each successive one more than the last and was disappointed that we didn't get nearly as many as I'd hoped. I don't know if this was characteristic of his writing (I suspect it wasn't), but for these novellas, it really worked.

We don't see Godzilla right away, and Kayama did a great job of building the tension until we do—he's there, doing damage and terrifying people, but the reader doesn't get an idea of what they're seeing until we're about one-third of the way through the first novella. As impatient as I was to see the monster myself, I wish he'd been able to hold out a little longer. Now in the second book, we know what Godzilla looks like, so we can skip the build-up and throw him in right away—and then add Anguirus just a couple of pages later.

I found everything about Godzilla more satisfying than Godzilla Raids Again, but the latter was more fun and action-packed. I can see where some might be put off by the not-at-all-subtle messaging of Godzilla, but I thought it fit the story and the need at the time.

The Afterword and Glossary added a lot to my understanding and appreciation of what Kayama was seeking to accomplish and say, lifting the impact of the book as a whole. The novellas on their own would've been entertaining and satisfying, mostly as an artifact of another era (see what I said about the dialogue and characterizations)—but the supplementary material added the necessary context and definition to the novellas so that I walked away with a better understanding and appreciation for the book. Don't skip those bits.

I've said a lot more than I expected to—and have only scratched the surface of what I'd hoped to say. So let me cut to the chase—I really enjoyed this experience—fun novellas, a deeper understanding of the creature and the themes the original movie was trying to explore, and a glimpse into Japan of the 1950s. And, once again, it's a book about Godzilla, do you really need me to say more? I heartily encourage you to check this book up. Now, I've got to go track down some black-and-white films.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from University of Minnesota Press via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again are novelizations of the first two Godzilla movies. Both novelizations were written by Shigeru Kayama, a science fiction writer who was credited with writing the story for first two movies for Tōhō Studios. The novelizations were published in Japan in 1955, around the time the second movie was released in Japan (one year after the original was released). Despite all of the attention paid to Godzilla movies over the years, this book contains the first English translation of these two novellas.

When you think of the old Godzilla movies, you probably think of cheesy, B-movie nonsense involving Godzilla fighting some other strange monster(s). And Godzilla Raids Again is exactly that. Somehow, a second Godzilla has returned, and this time he’s fighting an enormous ankylosaurus called Anguirus. The story is largely ridiculous, and its ridiculousness apparently led Shigeru Kayama to stop working on Godzilla movies thereafter.

But the original Godzilla, unlike all the sequels, remakes, and reboots, is really about something. During the Allied occupation of Japan after WWII, the Japanese were not really permitted to use the media to discuss the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While it later became something sillier, the Godzilla in Godzilla was mysteriously symbolic. Seemingly awakened by America’s recent and nearby testing of the hydrogen bomb, some saw Godzilla as a symbol of nature’s wrath against humanity’s use of atomic weapons. Given his unstoppable destruction of Tokyo almost without warning, some saw Godzilla as a symbol of the Americans use of the nuclear bombs against Japan. But just when you think you’ve got the story figured out, there’s a scientist, Dr. Serizawa, who has developed a different weapon of mass destruction (the awesomely named “Oxygen Destroyer”) and is correctly worried about humanity having such a weapon. Yet he ultimately decides that its use to stop Godzilla is for the greater good—exactly the same kind of ethical calculation American scientists and military made in deciding to use the very atomic weapons that Godzilla so solidly criticizes.

In many ways, the most interesting part of the book is the translation notes at the end. There’s a discussion of some of the biggest changes that were made between the original story and the movie, changes that show the competing concerns the filmmakers had about the movie being perceived as anti-American.

The first major problem with Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again is that the novelizations were written for a young adult audience. An adult novelization could have gone deeper into the emotions, the meaning and the context, and the scenes of destruction. But somewhere between the intended audience, and the nearly 70 years evolution in what passes for quality YA fiction, the writing here is often flat, and even comical at times:
Godzilla versus modern weaponry! Once the battle started, no doubt the fireworks would fly!

The second major problem with Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again is that it’s a novelization of a monster movie. While I usually prefer the book to the movie, I doubt I’m alone that I’d rather see Godzilla smashing his way through Tokyo than read about it. There are so just many images in the movie that land a more emotional punch than what is contained in these two YA novelizations. As a matter of movie history, I’m glad these works are finally available in English. But I’m not sure there will be much of an audience for this book. More than anything, reading this book made me want to rewatch the original Godzilla movie. 2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

P.S. When you go to find the original Godzilla movie, you are looking for the 1954 version with an all-Japanese cast. If you find a version with Raymond Burr (sometimes called Godzilla, other times called Godzilla, King of the Monsters), just stop watching that Americanized trash and keep looking for the original. 😀

The translation of the original Godzilla novellas is everything I hoped for and more.

As a lifelong Godzilla fan, I had a blast reading these novellas. The first, Godzilla, was definitely a 5 star read- bringing me back to the original film. Fans will hear both the iconic roar and theme as Godzilla rises out of the ocean. There were moments that brought chills, and I had to really appreciate the classic sci fi horror that Shigeru Kayama depicts with Godzilla. In this first novella, which is very similar to the film, the focus is on science and what terrible things humans can create with their actions.

The second novella, Godzilla Raids Again, is much shorter and more action-packed (also closely following the second film), and more of a 4 star read as it lacked the science fiction themes from the first. However, the second novella introduces the idea of multiple, different, kaijū and the destructive monster battles that result.

I particularly enjoyed the Afterword that Jeffrey Angles included. It was fantastic and extremely informative. He makes sure to address Shigeru Kayama's original message for Godzilla, and America's actions during the hydrogen bomb testing that heavily influenced it. I really appreciated the history he included here, the translation explanations, and the added notes from Shigeru Kayama's original writing.

As a Godzilla fan, this is a must read. Classic science fiction fans will definitely enjoy these novellas, as well as readers interested in translated Japanese literature. A huge thank you to Jeffrey Angles, for an incredible job in translating these novellas for the fans. I am very much looking forward to my preorder copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and The University of Minnesota Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Did you know that this was originally written only in Japanese? ''This book finally provides English-speaking fans and critics the original texts with these first-ever English-language translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Agains. In the book you see human activity continues to cause extinctions and rapid climatic change, Godzilla provides a story for the Anthropocene, reminding us that nature will fight back against humanity’s onslaught in unpredictable and devastating ways. The translation is excellent. It shows the reader the emotion and action of the two novellas.
It is slightly different than what is seen in the films. I remember the difficulty of trying to kill Godzilla due to his destruction of a city. I also saw Godzilla being helpful destroying monsters that were bad in future films. Still, I’m not sure what to think about this portrayal of Godzilla. Is Godzilla good or bad?

I really wanted to enjoy this - I really did. But when I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it. The descriptions of locations felt lacking, as if the author didn’t feel the need to give the reader anything beyond the bare bones of what was needed to establish where the scene was set. The dialogue felt incredibly clunky and had very little in the way of flow, and the characters seemed all the flatter for it. (It didn’t help that the author didn’t seem to do much to make the characters stand out or feel alive, making me wonder if the trend of kaiju movies not giving the viewer much reason to care about the human cast members started here.) Then came a scene where one of the female characters is being menaced by Godzilla, and the author actually wrote out the scream itself, something that I personally feel is a very big no-no when it comes to dialogue, writing character actions, etc.

That was the point at which I realized that I wasn’t going to enjoy this book very much, and put it down.

For what it’s worth, I appreciate the efforts to bring Godzilla’s roots back into the public eye - just don’t read this with high expectations.

Before reading this, I wasn’t too familiar with the Godzilla franchise or story. I found these novellas were easy to read and I didn’t have a difficult time getting into the story. I enjoyed the Afterword that was included to give more information about the franchise and original author.

Thank you to Net Galley for allowing me to read this before it’s release.

The movies Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again are historical classics, which were originally written in Japanese, but while the movies written from these novels were dubbed in English, the original novels have not been translated to English until this time. This combined volume contains both novels, translated into English.

The original novels were intended as cautionary tales about the misuse of technology, and that concept is clearly visible in this translation. The translation appears to be true to the original, and thus may be somewhat difficult to follow, both because of the cultural norms that are different between the US and Japan, and because they were written in the 1950s, so some of the cultural norms of the time, and the fears and concerns brought on by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were so fresh in peoples' minds when the novels and then the movies were released, in a way that can be hard to understand today. The accuracy of the translation, however, is what makes this release important, because it has not been updated to reflect current behaviors and ideas; instead, it shows an accurate picture of the time in which it was written, and thus provides a valuable perspective. Recommended for teens and adults.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced reader's copy. I'm not going to lie, my only knowledge about Godzilla before reading this book were the most recent movies released by Hollywood. I knew this famous Kaiju had originated from Japan and the original Japanese movies from Toho, but I didn't know that he came from books first. This translation is obviously a work of love as evidenced in the notes section by the translator, and I learned quite a lot more about not only the original Godzilla movies but about the author and creator, and how the events of World War II heavily influenced and informed things. The translator's notes made the reading of these novellas more thought provoking, and has led to a deeper reading of the work. It was quite well done overall, definitely one of the more better translations of any work I've read.

This is the first English translation from the original Japanese books written in 1955. Kayama was the original Screen Writer of the first two movies.

You can really tell how much they tamed down Kayama’s views on America’s nuclear program. I can’t blame him and it’s honestly refreshing to finally know how Kayama truly felt. He had a viewpoint none of us could possibly understand. Writing these had to be therapeutic in some small way.

For any lover of Godzilla this is a must read. The first two films truly are beautiful landmark moments in time. The books stand as historic records of the times.

There are a few clunky moments in the book but I chalk that up to it being a translation. Jeffrey Angles has done a service to the world and I will always appreciate him and the University of Minnesota Press. I never thought I would have the opportunity to read these books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers at University of Minnesota Press for allowing me to read this Novel. All thoughts are of my own. Reading this book was so much fun. I sincerely hoped that Jeffery Angels got paid good for translating this book to English. Going into this book, I read as if I was watching a movie.

I loved the world building, the dialogue , and the action. You can feel every emotion and you re transported to a universe that was built by Shigeru built himself. I loved with each fact there is a number and there are side notes on the facts regarding the time, place, coordinates of each island in and around Japan.

Shigeru Kayama has done an amazing job giving the world Godzilla and of course, you can't forget the Anguirus. Their are some references some historical facts and this story is on how Humanity's thirst for war created a monster that was bent on destroying everything in its path, and how each character all had to deal with the consequences of their actions. I have highlighted so much and did my note taking because of how good this book was.I will be buying a physical copy and will recommend it as well to my friends. I am so happy I got the arc of this to read.

Honestly, while I am a kaiju fan, I found this translated story dated with awkward dialogue.

This is definitely a book that will appeal to Godzilla/Japanese Literature fans, as it is the first time being translated. Possibly some of the context and connections between characters gets lost, or it could be like that in the Japanese version too.

Don’t expect a classic like Frankenstein or Dracula, but hopefully it does find the right audience that can appreciate this tale.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author & translator, and University of Minnesota Press for a copy.

I have never really gotten into Godzilla movies, so I was reading this blind to the pop culture surrounding it. But reading an English translation of the origins stories that created Godzilla, I was surprised that this is the first time it has been done.

The formatting of the digital ARC made this book hard to read for me, but the translation was good. Recommend.

I admit that my Godzilla experience is mostly limited to episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. That doesn't stop this book from feeling familiar in a wonderful way. Godzilla himself is a cultural artifact, a combination of nightmare and camp, and seeing where it begins in print is pretty fantastic. Until I read this, I hadn't quite put together that Godzilla is meant to be a warning about the dangers of nuclear war, but it makes sense: an ordinary being, out of time, transformed by man's dangerous hubris becomes a rampaging monster, which is, it must be said, a pretty accurate description of war. Warfare awakens the monster in the man, and so it's only right that man's monstrosity should in turn affect the natural world. This isn't a subtle book, and it at times blatantly spells out its message, but it is one that it's worth revisiting in our current world. Our monsters may not be literal dinosaurs, but we make them more monstrous all the same.

If I was reviewing this on the nostalgia factor, it would get an easy 5 stars. If, however, I reviewed it based on this translation, I’d give it 2 stars at best.

On the bright side, this book is written kind of like how ridiculously bad the American dubbing was for the original films. So, it won’t surprise me if you laugh at a few times.

My favorite part? The pure ridiculousness of having two characters yell at each other about being idiots, lol.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher University of Minnesota Press for an advanced copy of this new collection featuring English translations of the original novellas that introduced the mighty kaijū Godzilla onto an unsuspecting people.

The creature came up from the depths, about 30 stories high, breathing fire from his head in the sky. I'm paraphrasing from one of my favorite television cartoon themes as a child that featured Godzilla, King of the Monsters, and Godzooky, the Scrappy Doo of the relationship, and the less said the better. I loved the cartoon, and one Saturday came across a movie that seemed so real, with Godzilla destroying a city, fighting other beasts and I was in love. Soon I found that Channel 11 in New York would have Monster Week, featuring all Godzilla all the time. This combined with Ape Week on Channel 7 really cut into my cartoon time. Eventually I picked up the Marvel comics, VHS tapes, and finally saw the original movie, without Raymond Burr and was surprised how different it was, how darker, and the meaning became clearer. Sadly that message is something lost on the American remakes, but those are not for me. As a fan I was surprised to find that the original novellas were never published in the United States. And reading them brought me back to those days of monster movies. Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again by Shigeru Kayama translated by Jeffery Angles tell of how nuclear testing has drawn a far older, far deadlier danger back from the past, a danger that will leave death, destruction and sadness in its wake.

A quiet day at sea soon ends with a ship lost, and much confusion in the shipping company that owns it. Another ship is sent to the scene, and it too disappears, with only a few survivors, rescued by a fishing boat. Which also disappears. Their is much confusion in the government, but on an island where the fishing boat was based one old man has an idea. Godzilla. Soon the fish around the islands are gone, and a savage storm destroys buildings and kills many people. However an investigation finds a footprint, and a creature, a crustacean that has long been thought extinct, loaded with radioactivity. American testing of nuclear bombs has caused something old, and long thought dead to rise from it's home under the sea and feast, and burn those that have awoken him. And this creature is not alone.

The two stories are very similar to the movie, with a little more post-atomic fear and atmosphere. At the time Japan really couldn't complain about the Americans and their bombs, destroying island, hurting their fisherman, and ruining the tuna catch. The fear that nuclear weapons weren't the worst that humans could create to kill each other was a very prevalent idea. A weapon like one destroying the very oxygen one needed to breath, as was the weapon used on Godzilla not only made sense, but seemed like something a scientist would think of. And a military would deploy. Much of this could not be shown in a film due to censorship, but the novellas make this idea quite clear. Also there is the idea that there is an early Godzilla Cult I wish could have been expanded on. The idea is mentioned in letters, but just falls away. The writing is science fiction writing of the time, a little distant, a little more interested in the how of the story rather than the why, and characters are either super noble, or just noble. However I had a lot of fun reading this, and it really gives a deeper insight to the movies and what they were getting it. And even after all these years still hold up.

The translator's notes at the end are really very good too. Angles talks more about the creation of the movie, the writing, the author and about the censorship they were trying to get around. I found this section very intriguing, as was the explanation for the noises that Godzilla makes. Recommended for fans, and for science fiction fans who like stories from the 1950s. The story really holds up quite well.

I can't believe that the novellas haven't been translated up until this point! My son is a huge fan and collector of Godzilla comics and merch, so I enjoyed giving him a hard time that I got to read this first. As stories, "Godzilla" and "Godzilla Raids Again" are very short and simple. The main premise of the stories are that Godzilla shows up and terrorizes everyone, the scientists and military must find a solution, all is saved...until next time. This work is special because we can read the inspiration to the iconic monster movies, and have all the background information that inspired the author to write this in the first place. I had a great time reading this novella and it is a must read for anyone who is a fan of Godzilla.

I received a digital copy from NetGalley in order to provide an honest review of this book.

Godzilla/Gojira was one of the twentieth century's three unforgettable horror movie monsters, a radioactive mutant "gorilla-whale" that would be remembered along with Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster. His gigantic size (created by trick photography) allowed him to throw buildings about like toy blocks, but his all but unstoppable weapon was his deadly nuclear-powered light. The two movies about him were based on novels. Since genre fiction is not considered as literature until it's survived through a couple of generations, only now have those novels been translated into English. Terse, tense, and readable, written with an eye on their cinematic possibilities, these novels will be required reading for courses in the art of filmmaking.

I give the books four stars as books, but any movie whose characters are still part of pop culture after fifty years can be said to deserve five stars as a movie.

Finally, to get to the source material of a monster that has lived on and on through the decades. My only connection to the monster was from the 1998 version with Matthew Broderick, and from then on, action figures from Chinatown, though Mothra was a kaiju I was particularly more fond of.

But I was surprised to find that the original Godzilla stories came from novellas written for teenage boys.

𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘻𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢 was mostly this:

RAWRRRRRRR!
WHOOSH!!!
Glubglubglubglub...
whoosh!
Click!
RAWWRRRRRRR!

𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘻𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘙𝘢𝘪𝘥𝘴 𝘈𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯:

Comes with a bit more poeticism in its prose to develop aid in appreciation to landscape, but the novella bogs itself down with its weird marriage subplot. Do kids really want to read about marriage??

What I found most compelling from this was the author's note at the end of the two novellas by Jeffrey Angles, where he goes into the actual lore behind the movie-making process and adaptation. How the director of the original 1954 film was inspired by 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 20,000 𝘍𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘮𝘴, which was inspired by a Ray Bradbury short story. His knowledge of Japanese history, as well as literature and cinema directly after WWII is illuminating and lent a greater appreciation to the two novellas.