Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G"

by Steve Ryfle

The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G". Bigger, badder, and more durable than Hollywood’s greatest action heroes, Godzilla emerged from the mushroom cloud of an H-Bomb test in 1954 to trample Tokyo. More than sixty years later, he reigns as the undisputed king of monsters, with legions of fans spanning several generations and countless international boundaries. Japan’s Favorite Mon-Star is the first authoritative guide to the Godzilla legend published in America. This thoroughly researched volume includes in-depth production details on all 22 Godzilla movies produced by Toho Co. of Japan between 1954 and 1995, including several “unmade” features, plus the 1998 big-budget U.S. Godzilla remake by the producers of Independence Day. The book dispels the myths and illuminates the mysteries of Japan’s enigmatic mon-star, and is loaded with background information, trivia, and interviews with the people who created Godzilla ― then and now.

Genres: Nonfiction, Japan

350 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1998

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite a shortage of photos (quite understandable, given this book's "unauthorized" status), JAPAN'S FAVORITE MON-STAR is a superb package, with a wealth of behind-the-scenes and other related facts on each of the Godzilla films (up to 1999). With numerous interviews with the filmmakers, actors, and even American distributors, the amount of information in this volume is prodigious yet consistently entertaining. The reviews reflect the author's heartfelt, fannish connection to G films, and help lighten the overall tone of the book with their informal and highly personal sentiments. Godzilla fans will probably find much to agree--and disagree--with here; that said, I found that in most cases the author and I were on the same wavelength in our views of the Godzilla films. Whether this is the definitive volume on the Godzilla series is debatable, but after JAPAN'S FAVORITE MON-STAR, one would be hard-pressed to publish a book on the subject that isn't superfluous.

[Noah Soudrette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun and thorough filmography of the Big G's films. My favorite section has to be about the Godzilla films that almost were. There is another Godzilla filmography out there, but I'm not sure how it compares since I don't own it.

[Joey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way way way way way way too much time is spent on the abortion that is the Roland Emmerich Godzilla and the Heisei era material feels like a slightly expanded wikipedia entry, but the fist half of the book focusing on the Showa era films is quite interesting and thorough.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some good information about film production and crew, but I wanted a bit more. Perhaps that's the problem when majority of your sources are in foreign languages. Maybe things get lost in translation.

[Mark Matzke · Rating 4 out of 5]

informative, humorous without being condescending, everything you'd want in a Godzilla guide

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a fan, this book is a great source of information about Godzilla and all the movies made. This book covers movies made up to 1998.