The Luminous Fairies and Mothra

by Takehiko Fukunaga

The original story that hatched Mothra, one of the most beloved monsters in the “kaijuverse”—available in English for the first time

Mystical and benevolent, the colossal lepidopteran Mothra has been one of the most beloved kaiju since 1961, when The Luminous Fairies and Mothra was originally published in Japanese. Commissioned by Tōhō Studios from three of Japan’s most prominent postwar literary writers (Shin’ichirō Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta), the novella formed the basis for the now-classic monster film Mothra, with a protagonist second only to Godzilla in number of film appearances by a kaiju. Finally available in its first official English translation, The Luminous Fairies and Mothra will captivate ardent, longtime fans of the films as well as newcomers.

Written just months after the largest political demonstrations Japan had ever seen, The Luminous Fairies and Mothra reflects the rebellious spirit of the time. In this original story, explorers visit a South Pacific island and capture a group of fairies, inciting the fury of the goddess Mothra, who sets out for Japan on a mission of rescue and revenge. Expressing a powerful social stance about Japan’s need to chart its own foreign policy during the Cold War, the novella’s political message was ultimately toned down in the Tōhō Studios film. Through this translation, Anglophone audiences will discover Mothra as a figure of protest fiction intricately reflecting the complex geopolitical situation in early 1960s Japan.

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra is translated into lively prose by Jeffrey Angles, who also wrote an extensive afterword about the novella’s cultural context, the unusual story of its composition, and the development of the 1961 film. Following Angles’s best-selling translation of the original Godzilla novellas, this new work will once again delight kaiju fans everywhere.

Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Classics, Fiction, Japan, Novella, Japanese Literature

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Takehiko Fukunaga (福永武彦) (1918–1979) was a novelist and poet. In college he was fond of Mallarmé, Rimbaud, and Lautréamont, and was especially influenced by Baudelaire. With Shin'ichiro Nakamura, Shuichi Kato, and other writers of his generation, he formed a literary coterie called Matinée Poétique. While striving to introduce the latest European literary trends, he wrote experimental novels such as Fudo (Climate) and Meifu (The Nether World). He also wrote detective novels under the pen name Reitaro Kada.

Source: http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/authors/...

Reviews

[Chewable Orb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Shin'ichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta; translated by Jeffrey Angles

4 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Kaiju. Monstrous beasts wreak havoc upon the landmark cities in Japan—Godzilla, and now Mothra. The movies birthed such terrifying memories, such as King Kong's menacing growls atop the Empire State Building.

In the writing of The Luminous Fairies and Mothra, three Japanese authors take turns at creating a new Kaiju, Mothra. Translated by Jeffrey Angles, readers are taken to a remote island simply known as Infant Island, the simple target of Rosilica for hydrogen bomb testing grounds. In the making of legends, a boat called the "Genyo-maru" had sunk in Typhoon No. 8, and yet somehow four officers clung to survival during their time upon the island. How, one must wonder? Certainly, the radiation from the bombs would have decimated all living beings on the land. In a twist, the survivors wrote a novel describing their experiences on Infant Island; of note, the book speaks of an indigenous tribe that helped them survive. This becomes the focal point of a new expedition, sent out by the political regimes with vested interests. Discovering the Aboriginal persons and unlocking the mysteries that lie within.

Due to the length of this novella, it would be a disservice to a future reader if I went further. However, once the story concludes, a fascinating in-depth look at how and why the novella was written finishes off the reading experience.

During this time of war and strife, the novel has several political undertones. Shin'ichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta wrote not only a novella to be used as a script for a subsequent movie made by Toho Studios, but they also infused the story with their personal beliefs, carefully melding the majority of Japanese sentiment about American occupation during this time.

I came away amazed at how much our authors’ styles differed and yet resonated with a similar theme. The novella felt taut and seamless. The authors' wholehearted attempt to be politically correct, while carefully placing suggestive words and characters, is an attempt to convey emotion and a call for peace and dignity.

Recommended reading! One that will have you wondering if we, as readers, take the necessary time to appreciate what goes behind the making of even the scariest of Kaiju.

Many thanks to the University of Minnesota Press for the ARC through NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion.

[Steve Chaput · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no clue that there had been a novela that predated the release of the Japanese film, Mothra. Contracted by Toho studios it was the work of three authors, each of whom wrote a section.

The first part of this book contains the story, while the second part discusses the history of the writing of the book, changes made in the film and how each was influenced. Absolutely fascinating.

[Nils | nilsreviewsit · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Shin’ichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga and Yoshie Hotta and translated by Jeffrey Angles is the original Mothra story that inspired the 1961 film by Tōhō Studios. Yet this is not just a Kaiju story, it’s a fascinating subtle reflection on the political and environmental issues circulating post-war Japan.

A mysterious island on the South Pacific known as Infant Island was believed to be uninhabitable, but after a tornado capsized a ship, four miraculous survivors were rescued by the natives. Chūjō is a Japanese linguist being sent with an expedition of other Japanese and Rosilican scientists to Infant Island to study and communicate with these mysterious indigenous people. On arriving at the Island they discover deadly plants, curious natives and a race of tiny women who worship a strange god.

I will be going into some detail about the narrative of the novella here so if you do not know the story of Mothra please be warned that there are spoilers.

On first impressions I was very intrigued by the structure of this novella. It is set into three parts, the first being by Shin’ichiro Nakamura and tells the tale of Chūjō and his time on the island. This was a great opening that really drew me in as we get a feel for this island and its unique beings who have survived for decades in isolation. It’s obviously an island that’s adapted to survive the nuclear blasts that the government have been experimenting with and the natives have found a way to stave off the deadly effects of radiation. There is also the mystery of the tiny women, the fairies. A Rosilican official named Nelson makes it clear he wants to capture them but Chūjō jumps to their defense which begins to show the political conflict between the two parties which is further explored as the novella unfolds.

We then move to Takehiko Fukunaga’s part which features Fukuda, a Japanese reporter, who befriends Chūjō and then goes to Infant Island to investigate the inhabitants. It is made clear that the government, particularly the Roscilian officials, do not want to publicly reveal the discoveries and have taken control of the media. Understandably this leaves the Japanese public angry and sparks Fukuda to see it for himself. I found this part to be my favourite because we learn even more about the Island, the fairies, which were called shōbijin, and their mythology, which involved a detailed story of the gods and of the creation of Mothra.

In the third and final part by Yoshie Hotta the author reflects upon much political unrest between Japan and Rosilica, a fictional country akin to America. The author details how the protests against an alliance with Rosilica, along with their capture of the shōbijin and their continued interference in Japan became rather heated. Yet both nations then face a bigger threat as Mothra is discovered to be on its way to find its lost shōbijin. Though I have never seen the original film I have seen many clips and this is probably the most memorable and cinematic scene, where Mothra attacks two major cities, destroying a part of Tokyo.

Though this novella is written by three different authors, I felt each part followed on naturally, seamlessly and never felt jarring. The authors all build upon the story in clever ways, ranging from setting up the story, building upon myth and the legend and then including political history in subtle ways. In the translator, Jeffrey Angles’ afterword, which was presented as an essay at the end, he writes in depth how the narrative reflected upon the Japanese nation just after the Cold War with America and can indeed be considered as post war literature. I found this fascinating to read about because I was not expecting this inclusion. I was drawn to this novella because I have seen many of the modern Kaiju-verse films and so I was curious to learn about some origins. Angles’ essay also talks about the history of Japanese Kaiju films and the choices made during adaptation and I noticed that this novella was written with very little descriptions which would allow a film director much scope in how the island, characters and even the fictional country of Rosilican could be depicted. I also enjoyed Angles’ thoughts on Mothra’s symbolism as a mother, a being that transforms, which I actually hadn’t thought about before and so I enjoyed seeing this kaiju in a different light.

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra is a tale with hidden depths, a surprising narrative structure and powerful themes. It’s a Kaiju origin story that enthralled and enlightened me.

ARC provided by Nicola at University of Minnesota Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the copy!

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra is out now!

[Joe M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essential reading for Mothra, kaiju, and Godzilla extended universe fans. The newly translated novella (which clocks in at 44 pages) is more of a curiosity and an interesting creative writing exercise by its three authors, but the political context and the history behind the character and Toho Studios adaptation is fascinating. Will certainly watch the films again with new eyes after reading this!

Sidenote: My top five Mothra movies are always changing, but if I had to go on record today…

-Mothra (1961)
-Mothra vs Godzilla (1964)
-Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
-Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
-Godzilla vs Mothra (1992)
-Honorable mention, larval form only: Destroy All Monsters (1968)

[Victor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly, what's most impressive about this is how much BETTER this is than the translator's earlier book of the novellas used as treatments for the first two Godzilla movies, which, especially when compared to the first film (or Mothra, for that matter), were bland to excess. (Nobody's going to argue that either the second Godzilla film or its text source is in any way impressive as opposed to historically important.)

I wanted this, got it early straight from the publisher as a gift from a friend, but I didn't expect it to be remotely as interesting, layered, and different from the film as it is, and that's without taking Angles' great apparatus into account--the afterword is worth the price of admission by itself. If you have enough interest in this to have read this far, just get the book, it's absolutely worth it.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra is a three part novella written by three authors: Takehiko Fukunaga, Yoshie Hotta, and Shin'ichirō Nakamura. The novella was first published in 1961 and, at the time of writing, was crafted with the intention of serving as inspiration for a kaiju film. The novella itself is interesting – the three sections (one by each author) really read quite differently, and there are a lot of obvious themes despite the short length: environmental degradation + nuclear weapons tests, international relations and treaties, colonial theft, and the role of journalists in exposing injustice.

The majority of this book is actually taken up by a very interesting afterword by the translator Jeffrey Angles. Angles contextualizes the novella in the developments of Japanese literature and cinema as well as post-war Japanese politics. The afterword makes sense of a number of elements in the novella that might be perplexing to the unfamiliar reader – the inconsistent use of gendered pronouns in the text, the non-specific location of the fictional Infant Island, the colonial undertones to some of the language, and the breaking of the fourth wall at one point – while really clarifying some of the brilliant contributions of its authors. I did not know that this approach – what Angles describes as ‘relay’ writing where the text is passed between authors – was well established in a number of Japanese poetry and fiction.

If I hadn’t stumbled across this title online I likely never would’ve read it, and I’m glad I did. I think Angles did an excellent job with his afterword and would absolutely recommend this book to anyone interested in Japanese monster films or stories.

Thank you University of Minnesota Press, Jeffrey Angles, & NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

[Stacey ˗ ღ ˎˊ˗ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐️
I’ve never seen the film (gasp) so I will need to remedy that! This novella is a beautiful translation which is followed by thorough cultural, historical and political commentary from the translator situating the work in its time just after World War II in Japan.

I borrowed this book from my public library. The freedom to read and access information is at the core of American democracy. Libraries bring this principle to life by offering a wide range of viewpoints, opinions, and ideas. No matter your background, interests, or beliefs, libraries ensure you have access to knowledge without restriction.

Librarians don’t tell people what they should read. Instead, they create diverse collections that serve the needs of the entire community. But now, that freedom is at risk. Please support your local library 📚!

[Lanie Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Kaiju universe at its roots with Godzilla as its "King" is inherently political, it is one of the reasons these stories continue to be told and retold over decades. The Luminous Faeries and Mothra not only follows this rule, it may actually set the standard for some of the remakes we have recently received.

The three authors who contributed to making this novella were politically active in their own ways so it should not come as a surprise that this ends up being an open letter to the U.S. and Russia (but mostly the U.S.) that they need to leave Japanese politics to Japan. It is in turns petty and snarky and holds back nothing when alluding to real-life protests and deaths that had recently taken place in JP. The only female character is named after a student who died during the Anpo Protests. You genuinely can't get more blunt than that. I think what makes this stand out just as Godzilla did for its stance on Nuclear powers, it's not just these three authors' voices being projected. It is the will of Japan as a whole that Angles goes into great depth in his essay at the end. The essay is once again a treasure trove of information regarding the political situation in Japan at the time.

Truly an exceptional read and one that I think anyone interested in post-WWII Japanese history must read.

As always thanks to NetGalley and a very special thanks to The University of Minnesota Press for allowing me the opportunity to read this eArc!

[Emma Grave · Rating 4 out of 5]

This translation of The Luminous Fairies and Mothra reveals the origins of the beloved kaiju, who has stunned audiences in films and fought against the mighty Godzilla. First published in Japanese in 1961, it is split into three parts, each written by a different author. Toho Studios commissioned Shin’ichiro Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga and Yoshie Hotta to write this story and then adapted it into a film.

When a group of small, mysterious ‘fairies’ are taken from their remote island, Mothra sets out for mainland Japan to rescue them and exact revenge. Told through the eyes of a linguist and researcher, we see the contrast between explorers who are in awe of the island’s inhabitants and those who only care about what they can gain from them. Mothra develops from a larva swimming across the sea, to a pupa attaching itself to the side of a large building, before finally emerging as a gigantic creature with brightly coloured wings.

A thought-provoking essay by the translator follows the novella, adding context to the story and explanations of certain decisions made in the text. This is a fascinating book for kaiju fans who would like to learn more about our favourite giant divine moth.

Thank you to NetGalley and University of Minnesota Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Sam B · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Luminous Fairies and Mothra” is a new translation of the short story that created the second best-known kaiju after Godzilla, in a culturally impactful tale chronicling the disturbance of a small island that resulted in large destruction on mainland Japan. The crew of a military vessel, comprised of both Japanese and outsider soldiers, land on Infant Island and discover several small, but powerful female beings - and promptly capture them. As the leader of the expedition, Nelson, exploits these fairies for his own enrichment, they use their voices to summon their goddess Mothra, who arrives on the mainland and undergoes her transformation from a silkworm into a moth in order to rescue the fairies. The story is then accompanied by a scholarly analysis of how the story relates to the cultural shift in Japan following the Cold War as well as its impact on film. This story was enjoyable, but does read as intended: a brief concept commissioned by a film studio to jumpstart their next project, and the work of three authors that clearly all had their own ideas which were then translated into English.

My thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Octopodey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always enjoyed Mothra of all kaiju, so this was a welcome read. The format of the tripartite authorship was interesting, and the sparseness of the prose in some areas was well explained by the fact that the novella was explicitly a blueprint/advert for the movie.

The enjoyment I found in the novella itself was overshadowed by the enjoyment I found in the translator, Jeffrey Angles', explanatory afterword. His deep understanding of the social and political world of 1961 Japan gave me much better understanding of not only this novella, but the genre as a whole. I enjoyed it immensely and recommend it highly.

(This is a particular delight for me, as I realized after requesting the novella that Jeffrey Angles just must have to have been the same person who TAed my two Japanese literature in translation classes with Prof William Tyler at Ohio State University in approximately 2003. It's a vastly small world and I'm just so thrilled to have discovered this.)

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an electronic ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Juli Rahel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Godzilla is the king of kaiju, absolutely, but let us not ever forget about Mothra, the giant moth who can be both enemy and companion to Godzilla. When I saw that Jeffrey Angles had also translated her origin story, I knew I wanted to read it, especially because I had no idea fairies were involved. Thanks to University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After reading the Godzilla novellas by Shigeru Kayama, also translated by Jeffrey Angles, I was naturally also very interested in the Mothra story. My first time seeing Mothra was in the otherwise not great (for me) 2019 film Godzilla II: King of Monsters. The whole film is very dramatic and full of big kaiju and big family problems for humans, but for me it was always Mothra that I liked most. I love her, in part because moths feel so fragile and yet, once you make it huge, it holds an enormous amount of power. Whereas with Godzilla, we initially were dealing with a monster that represents the destructive power of atom and hydrogen bombs, Mothra is something more mythical and other. She is of this earth, yes, but there is a mythology to her, as well as a divinity, which separates her form the other kaiju in my opinion. In this book we do not just get presented with the stories about her, which were the starting point for the 1961 film, but also again with a very detailed commentary essay by Angles. Here, the political and social climate of Japan in the late '50s and early '60s is discussed, much of which was new to me. Again, it is fascinating to see in what kind of cultural, social, and political cauldron a monster is formed.

So The Luminous Fairies and Mothra is fascinating to me because it is told by three different authors, collaborating but writing separately. Angles explains some of the process in his essay at the end, but I think it is super interesting to me that this new monster was created by committee. In many ways this is also true for Godzilla, as Shigeru Kayama wrote a treatment, inspired by a story Ray Bradbury, which was then shaped by script writers, by directors, and by special effects teams. Few monsters are solo projects. But how Nakamura, Fukunaga, and Hotta went about it is just such fun. Nakamura writes the first part of the story, where our protagonist, a linguist, arrives at a mysterious island, used for hydrogen bomb tests, where he encounters not just an indigenous population, but also fairies. Fukunaga takes over and introduces an additional protagonist, a journalist who simply has to know more about this island and therefore sneaks onto it. Not only does he, too, encounter people and fairies there, but he also gets to witness the presence of the enormous Egg and its mythical backstory. Hotta finishes the novella off by giving us the birth of Mothra, a takedown of capitalism, and destruction across two continents. As with Kayama's novellas for Godzilla, you can tell that these were script treatments. Especially the action towards the end is left very vague to allow directors and special effects teams to live out their own dreams. I really liked the fantastical and mythological elements they created for Mothra's origin, however, and how he/it/she is also connected to hydrogen bombs and yet also something entirely different.

The afterword/commentary essay after the story is again very extensive and, as said above, interesting. Two elements I especially liked were the exploration of Mothra's gender and potential literary inspirations. In the West, Mothra is generally gendered as she and this is, to a certain extent, due to the fact that many European languages, be they Germanic or Romance languages, have gendered grammars. Some languages, however, like Japanese and Chinese, do not grammatically require a strict he-she-it, meaning that these pronouns can be left out entirely. A translator into English, like Angles, naturally has to figure out what to with this so that it makes sense to English readers and reading his thoughts about this, and about the few instances where gender does play a role in the story, is really interesting. He also sets up a comparison to the Doctor Doolittle books form the 1920s, some of which feature an enormous moth. It is a new comparison and one that I think holds solid merit, based on what Angles represents. I haven't read the books for myself, but he traces how their translations into Japanese feasibly could have reached the authors and traces textual and thematic parallels that do suggest these works are in a form of communication with one another. Finally, Angles also carefully but sharply addresses aspects of colonialism and racism in the text, as it takes place on a Pacific island featuring an indigenous population. I think this is generally handled very well by him and provides extra nuance to the story as well as the film.

Overall, I had another excellent time with Angles' translation and commentary, as well as with the monster and story that Shin’ichirō Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta have created. If there are any further kaiju-related books from Angles and/or University of Minnesota Press in the future, I will be all over them.

URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...

[Skjam! · Rating 4 out of 5]

The remote Infant Island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, was believed to be uninhabited. Thus the nuclear superpower Rosilica has been using it to conduct their atomic bomb tests. Now, word has come in that there are in fact indigenous people on the island who have survived the bombing. A joint Japanese-Rosilican expedition is formed to investigate. Among the team is linguist Shin’ichi Chuujou, who looks forward to learning the native language. The expedition leader is Mr. Nelson, whose scientific specialty is unclear, but who is clearly used to giving orders.

Once on the island, Chuujou quickly becomes separated from the others and almost immediately gets captured by a vampire vine. Fortunately, he’s able to set off a distress siren, which attracts a tiny woman who frees him. At first, the other expedition members don’t believe this wild story, but soon it becomes clear that the shoubijin,
“tiny beauty” really does exist. Mr. Nelson seems very interested in this, but not in a scientific way.

When the expedition returns to Japan, Mr. Nelson clamps down on all discussion of what they’ve found, bringing political pressure to bear. Reporter Zen’ichirou Fukuda is naturally dissatisfied with the news blackout, and manages to make friends with Chuujou, who can’t break the silence, but does encourage Fukuda to go see for himself.

Fukuda, armed with basic vocabulary by the linguist, manages to get to Infant Island and meet the locals, a tribe that primarily lives underground, explaining their survival of the tests. They tell him their creation myth, and that the four tiny women are called Airena, handmaidens of the cosmic egg Mothra.

Mr. Nelson also returns to the island, but this time he’s brought gunmen. They kill several of the unarmed natives and capture the four Airena. Fukuda, also unarmed, is unable to stop them.

Back in Tokyo, Mr. Nelson reveals the existence of what he calls “fairies.” He plans to exhibit them to the public for high prices, and develops an entire stage show based around them. The Airena disconsolately sing at every show, calling again and again, “Mothra…Mothra…” Mr. Nelson pooh-poohs criticism. Everyone knows fairies aren’t humans, and therefore have no human rights.

And on Infant Island, the egg begins to hatch. Mothra has heard the pleas of its people! Mothra is coming!

This is the novella the classic monster movie Mothra (1961) was based on. It was created at the behest of Toho, with the three authors each taking a section.

The story itself is short, and skeletal in places. The authors were aware that this would be turned into a movie, so left plenty of space for specific special effects and choreography. Just from the summary above, fans of the movie will be able to notice several changes made to the film. Reducing the number of “fairies” from four to two and having an actual song written for them was an especially good change based on the casting.

Rosilica is a pretty clear stand in for the superpowers of the late 1950s and early 1960s, mostly America, but with a bit of the Soviet Union included. There’s a heavy political undertone in the novella, softened somewhat for the movie.

There’s as much space dedicated to the translator notes. Professor Angles discusses how the novella came to be (including a quick recap of the history of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again for those of you who missed that book), the biographies of the authors up to that point, the history and culture of the time that influenced the story,

Of special interest is a section on how the Doctor Dolittle series by High Lofting, especially Doctor Dolittle in the Moon (1928) might have influenced this story. I had not read that book, so was unaware of the similarities.

As a standalone novella, this isn’t much, but as the source for a classic movie, it’s of great interest to kaiju and monster movie fans. Thanks to University of Minnesota Press!

"Mosura Ya, Mosura!”

[Kim Novak (The Reading Rx) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra was originally published in Japan in 1961, and this version is a fresh translation with substantial academic commentary. Having recently visited Japan for the first time, I felt I had a quality experience reading the story and could completely imagine Mothra circling the Great Buddha of Kamakura. What a sight that would be to behold! That being said, I do not have a deep understanding of Japanese politics, and the symbolism involved in the story would have gone completely over my head without the wonderful historical, political, and pop culture commentary by the translator. This took my understanding of the story and of kaiju stories/movies in general to a whole new level. Just absolutely well done! I would definitely recommend this book if you are a fan of Mothra, Godzilla, King Kong, and other kaiju artistic forms and are seeking a deeper understanding of this international pop culture phenomena. While it is quite a bit academic, as an academician myself, I truly appreciated it!

Thank you to University of Minnesota Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating. The first half is the novella published in 1961 before the film based on it came out later that year, and the second half is the translator’s interpretation. While the novella was essentially commissioned for the movie to create a new kaiju following the success of Godzilla, the three authors had their own political agenda to express. The afterword explains not only the relationship to post war protests in Japan, but also sympathy with the colonized islands of the Pacific, including Hawaii as the newest state of America. As to why a moth, the images of metamorphosis and cultural importance of silkworms are explored, as well as a connection to three of the Dr. Doolittle book series from the 1920s. I find this deeply interesting, as Mothra (1961) and Mothman (1969) are some of the few moth related stories I have found.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra is a fascinating read - both as a piece of kaiju history and as a newly accessible English translation of the 1961 novella that introduced Mothra to the world. Shin’ichirō Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta crafted a story that feels surprisingly restrained by today’s monster-fiction standards, and that restraint is part of what makes this such an interesting companion to the film. The novella is quite short, but you can clearly see where it inspired the movie, as well as where the film chose to expand, embellish, or deviate from the source material.

What stood out to me most is how much of the action is intentionally absent here, left for the cinematic adaptation to realize, while the book itself focuses more on tone, atmosphere, and the political anxieties of its era. The influence of politics and Cold War tensions runs unmistakably beneath the narrative, grounding the fantasy and sci fi elements in a very real historical moment.

Jeffrey Angles’s translation is smooth, thoughtful, and thoroughly researched. His final chapter is a standout: a rich, contextual chapter offering background on the authors, the political climate in Japan and globally, the state of the entertainment industry at the time, and additional details about both the writing of the novella and the making of the original film. It added so much information I wouldn’t have had otherwise and made the whole reading experience even more rewarding.

Having loved the English translations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again released in 2023, I’m thrilled to add The Luminous Fairies and Mothra to my collection. It’s a wonderful and important piece of kaiju history finally made accessible to English-language readers.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the University of Minnesota Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Ronit J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn’t consider myself a die-hard kaiju fan, but I do love watching giant monsters fighting it out on the big screen. Seeing that this was the first ever appearance of Mothra, I thought it’d be a pretty cool classic novella to read. To my surprise, the book even came with a very comprehensive ‘Translator’s Note’, which reads like an academic essay explaining the context behind writing this novella.

So, without further ado, let’s dive in!

Spoilers Ahead!

What I liked:
I love Japanese cinema. From Kurosawa to Kitano, to Miike and Kore-eda, to even those low budget gore-fests and iconic kaiju films, I’ve watched a bit from everything Japan has to offer. While I’m not the biggest kaiju fan out there, I have enjoyed the Japanese Godzilla films way more than I did their American counterparts. So, I was intrigued to find out that Mothra—one of the most iconic kaijus ever—made her debut to the world not on the screen, but in the form of a novella! What’s more, it isn’t just one, but three authors who wrote the novella in a round-robin relay format, each building off what came before.

I want to start my praise by commending Jeffrey Angles’ translation. Despite there being three authors, the translation makes the transition seamless between the three voices. Of course, the narrative treatment changes within each section, but the voice feels very much consistent.

Part 1 of the novella is written by Shin'ichirō Nakamura, following Chujo, a linguist who visits Infant Island. Believed to be infected by lethal levels of radiation, Chujo’s exploration of the island brings humanity in touch with the ‘luminous fairies’ or ‘shobijin’ (beautiful little women). This imagination of this strange island with its predatory plants and its mystical fairy-tale inhabitants was charming enough to make this an almost cozy read. However, as expected of the classic, the story quickly takes a darker turn. Nakamura’s section explores the discovery and subsequent reaction of humanity to the existence of this fantasy world.

Continue reading on SFF Insiders…

[long2 -`♡´- · Rating 4 out of 5]

⊹ ࣪ ˖𝒎𝒚 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈
ᯓ★★★★

⊹ ࣪ ˖ 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒔 𝑨𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈
When it comes to Toho’s kaiju films, my childhood memories are mostly about watching Godzilla and King Kong roar on the big screen and destroy everything in sight without ever realising there was a deeper mythology behind it all. I feel really lucky to have received this ARC on NetGalley, which finally allowed me to understand and appreciate the larger Toho kaiju universe.

At its heart, Mothra is a simple yet powerful story about living in harmony with nature. Knowing the postwar background of its authors adds another layer, the story mirrors Japan’s recovery and the moral conflicts of the era.

The novella is divided into three sections, each written by a different author, forming a complete narrative of Mothra’s emergence. We encounter Infant Island (a pure, untouched land), its nature-worshipping people, the fictional superpower Rosilica symbolising the U.S. and Russia, the tiny fairies (Shobijin) bridging humans and the divine, and of course, Mothra herself — the guardian of nature.

I was amazed by how distinct the authors’ voices were, yet how beautifully they harmonised into one vision. The novella felt taut, lyrical, and surprisingly cohesive. I need more!

(And yes, I watched the 1961 film right after finishing the book.)

⊹ ࣪ ˖ 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒐𝒏
╰┈➤blog ╰┈➤ instagram

⊹ ࣪ ˖𝒑𝒓𝒆-𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅
I’m expecting a poetic kaiju tale blending mythology and postwar reflection, where faith, greed, and nature collide under Mothra’s luminous wings.

The novel was originally serialized in Weekly Asahi magazine as a tie-in for the 1961 Toho kaiju film Mothra. The three authors were prominent literary figures, so the collaboration between serious novelists and a monster movie project was quite unusual at the time.

₊˚ʚ Thanks to NetGalley and University of Minnesota Press for the ARC. The Luminous Fairies and Mothra will be published on January 13 2026.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

As background literature for an iconic kaiju, I have to stan. As an independent work absent from that context, it was fine I suppose.

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra is exactly that. The origin story of the one and only diva supreme Mothra and the island she comes from, an island of native peoples and "fairies". In this very short story, we get the quick mythology of how this island is initially explored after having been a test site for nuclear weapons by the obvious USA-coded country (seriously, Japan exists here. They could easily have just made the other country the US, but I suppose I understand their hesitation). We also briefly get a taste of Mothra's destructive power, and her devotion towards her "people".

I mean the book is like 40 pages long, and it is a Japanese translation. Japanese text translation is always a bit hard to localize to English without it feeling stilted or clinical, but it doesn't help that a lot of story is packed into very few pages here. It almost felt more like a fable or mythology than an introductory story. So the writing, or the translation, was not the most pleasant experience, but it got the job done, and by all metrics I think it did the job well.

What was a bit tougher to parse through was the fact that notes on the translation took up the majority of the book. The book is 100 pages and ~60 of those pages are translation notes. I often find translation notes to be interesting, but boy was there a lot of tedium here. Feel free to check it out if you're into that, but if you aren't I'd just stick with the story. Overall this was fine, but not as interesting as I hoped it would be.

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The original story that hatched Mothra, one of the most beloved monsters in the “kaijuverse”—available in English for the first time

Mystical and benevolent, the colossal lepidopteran Mothra has been one of the most beloved kaiju since 1961, when The Luminous Fairies and Mothra was originally published in Japanese. Commissioned by Tōhō Studios from three of Japan’s most prominent postwar literary writers (Shin’ichirō Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, and Yoshie Hotta), the novella formed the basis for the now-classic monster film Mothra, with a protagonist second only to Godzilla in number of film appearances by a kaiju. Finally available in its first official English translation, The Luminous Fairies and Mothra will captivate ardent, longtime fans of the films as well as newcomers.

Written just months after the largest political demonstrations Japan had ever seen, The Luminous Fairies and Mothra reflects the rebellious spirit of the time. In this original story, explorers visit a South Pacific island and capture a group of fairies, inciting the fury of the goddess Mothra, who sets out for Japan on a mission of rescue and revenge. Expressing a powerful social stance about Japan’s need to chart its own foreign policy during the Cold War, the novella’s political message was ultimately toned down in the Tōhō Studios film. Through this translation, Anglophone audiences will discover Mothra as a figure of protest fiction intricately reflecting the complex geopolitical situation in early 1960s Japan.

The Luminous Fairies and Mothra is translated into lively prose by Jeffrey Angles, who also wrote an extensive afterword about the novella’s cultural context, the unusual story of its composition, and the development of the 1961 film. Following Angles’s best-selling translation of the original Godzilla novellas, this new work will once again delight kaiju fans everywhere.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: You remember Mothra . Saturday afternoon after the teens woke up, the monster movies went on as we all stared hungrily at the weirdness onscreen (I was always most interested in the Japanese cars, natch). It was a window into a world whose anxieties never messed with my head (unlike In Cold Blood, Bonnie and Clyde , and their realistic like), but were riveting to my story-starved brain.

This translation is the first time I've ever encountered the stories that brought Mothra to our screens. I don't know that I was ever aware these stories existed as source materials for the film franchise before now. The three authors of this...novella? story cycle?...focus on the stranger who arrives on Mothra's island and what he learns of the culture, the man he tells his story to after he returns to Japan, and finally the geopolitical implications of the island between Japan and a stand-in for the USA. Like Godzilla the story is thinly disguised anti-US messaging intended to inform the ongoing debates in Japan about how much good it will really do to subjugate their political will to the worldwide hegemon. I chose that word for the US position because it sounds as ancient as Mothra's existence, yet like Mothra, is of very recent coinage and was coined in service of another imperial power.

A kid's-eye view was, "cool! Monsters blowin' shit up!" In the stories a much more thoughtful and nuanced argument is presented...the "fairies" are colonized, infantilized people of little individual agency, whose one hope of survival is collective action and a version of the violence inflicted on them. It is in reading Author/Translator Angles' essay around the text that I saw the kaiju phenomenon as the protest literature it is clearly and possibly for the first time...at least with any clarity it was the first time. It's very saddening to me that Mothra's source document was so invisible to my culturally developing self. Had I been in possession of the texts I might've cut ages out of my emotional maturation.

Seeing clearly what makes other cultures upset enough to create protest art around is extremely valuable. Even if you never walked into the TV room when one of these films was on I hope you'll look into the fascinating subject of where Mothra fits into Japan's literary culture just after their catastrophic defeat in WWII and the subsequent social and economic transformations enforced by the US victors. It was ongoing as the idea for this new mythology was being created. It's also the reason, we learn in the translator's essay, there is almost no evocative description of the world. It was to be left to the filmmaker to do the worldbuilding with as little hampering as possible.

What a delight to encounter this story familiar from childhood as an old man, and not only enjoy it again but enjoy it more now than I did then. Thank you, Jeffrey Angles. Thank you, University of Minnesota Press, for this and for everything else Minneapolis is giving the entire country in this winter of our discontent.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and University of Minnesota Press for an advance copy of this collection of stories that combined tell the origin story of the kaiju known as Mothra, its ties to the island it protects, as well as an essay detailing how the story came to be made, the influences and why these stories seem so real and relevant today.

I was introduced to Kaiju, or as I thought of them big monsters that were supercool and superviolent and ruled, through Channel 11 television out of New York city and their more than annual event of Monster Week. These also served as my introduction to the country of Japan. Once a week a few times a year it seemed, as the ratings based on my schoolmates all watching them, must have been good. Godzilla fighting other monsters, robots, aliens, or just being a jerk and destroying Tokyo, for well reasons. Even at my young age I could notice that there were some problems from movie to movie. The cities looked pretty easy to knock over, tanks and planes seemed to have a lot of plastic. Even the monsters seemed different. Except for Mothra. I always thought of Mothra as females, something addressed in this story. Mothra would be called on to help those in need, like her companions, or to fight for the planet. Mothra even beat Godzilla for a time, calming him down from a rampage, focusing his rage. A nuturing spirit, who could destroy a city if needed. Except for Godzilla I know little about the past of many kaiju, nor did I care. Mothra always seemed different, and after reading this book, I know why. The Luminous Fairies and Mothra is a collection of short stories written by Shin'ichirō Nakamura, Takehiko Fukunaga, Yoshie Hotta and translated from the Japanese by Jeffrey Angles and tells the origin of this Kaiju, the ties to the Island and its people, with an essay describing the influences and reasons for the stories creation, and the kaiju's legacy.

A boat is sunk in the South Seas, with the crew being washed up on an island that had been subjected to hydrogen bomb testing. The rescue team fears the worse, but find the men fine without much nuclear exposure. They have no memory of how they were saved, but talk of wonders that fill the island. An expedition of both Japanese and Rosilica, a recent country that has been testing bombs in the Pacific travel to the island. Chūjō, a linguist is one of these explorers and finds his life saved from a particularly aggressive plant by a group of very small women who sing to the plant, saving him. Nelson is a member of the Rosilica team, a man of undetermined origins, but with a need to exploit everything. Nelson returns to the island and kidnaps the four tiny women for both study and exploitation, making them preform every night at sold out shows. However there songs all seem the same. A song about Mothra. And up from the depths, Mothra responds, leaving a path of destruction across both Japan and Rosilica.

The story is told in three interconnected short stories written by three different authors as part of what the Japanese would call Rensaku, or work wrote in relay with others, or Gessaku shōsetsu a collaborative novel. The Mothra story is not that long, even with three writers. One did the set-up, one wrote the reason why Mothra attacks Japan, and the last was the aftermath and about Mothra returning. The styles are all different, with Mothra even jumping in gender from it, to him to she, and back to it, depending on the writer. There is a bit of breathless pulp writing a 50's edge to making up countries and science, when one doesn't want to insult say America. However it is an enjoyable story. The best part is the essay by the translator that is almost longer than the story, but tells the events in both history, politics, and even the Japanese mindset that led to the stories. Angles looks at the authors, what their past brought to the story. Political unrest, what was happening with the Godzilla franchise and much more.

A story for kaiju fans, with an essay that will fill in much for those who take their kaiju seriously. Much more than I expected, as I found the history very revealing and interesting. A really nice git for big lizard lovers. I hope to see more books like this.

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first third of this book was the actual novella, and then the final two-thirds was an essay by the translator.

My first impression of the novella was that I liked it well enough. It was interesting to read the origin story of a famous kaiju, but I did find sometimes that the super short novella format constricted some details that I would have liked better fleshed out, but it was the essay by the translator, Jeffrey Angles, that really brought the whole thing together - and brought my overall rating and appreciation up with fresh understanding. As it stands right now, my rating is around an upper leaning 4 (the essay is like a 5 for all of the work Angles does to analyse and contextualize Mothra).

The novella is split into three parts, each penned by a different author, following the events leading up to Mothra's eventual attack on Japan, and then, of course, the attack itself. Some of the parts are quite brief about details that longer books definitely would have delved deeper into, but it helps understanding that the authors knew that they were making a rough outline for the movie to come. As Angles observes, certain parts, such as climatic action scenes, were purposefully drawn with broader strokes to give the filmmakers more freedom. However, that isn't to say the authors passed off everything of import to the film crew - putting aside the action scenes, they still said quite a lot in a very short span of time about the current state of affairs in Japan, and not all of their political commentary made it as clearly onto the silver screen. It's for this reason that, even if you have already watched Mothra, you would be wrong in assuming that, therefore, the novella is pointless to read. I understood a bit of what the authors were saying in my first read-through, because it wasn't entirely unlike the anxieties that were being expressed through Mothra's fellow kaiju, Godzilla. However, I have even more appreciation and understanding of Mothra now, thanks to Angles' essay in the last two-thirds of this book, which shone a light on the authors' full intent and where Mothra resides in the context of post-WW2 Japan.

Angles' essay was so thorough and so interesting, diving into not just what brought these three authors together to write Mothra in the first place, and Mothra's place in the kaiju universe, but the layers of historical/political/social context in Japan that lead to Mothra's inception. The essay shows that this isn't just a book/movie about a giant moth god (which was my basic understanding at first), but direct commentary on Japanese society's anger and anxiety at that time. Angles covers a lot in his essay to the point that I can't fully summarize (just read it!!), but particular points in the novella feel so much more poignant with his provided context, such as references to Japan's Security Treaty with America, the Anpo Protests, the anxiety about nuclear force during the Cold War, etc; all of this and more covered in the essay are so important to really understanding Mothra and all it represents.

[Ostap Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars)

Reading the original Mothra story held some degree of interest as a novelty, but it’s really just a sketch across its three authors that it’s hard to recommend for its writing. The subtext, however, is fascinating, and what I enjoyed most was the analysis provided by Jeffrey Angles in his Translator’s Afterword, which took up more than half of this edition.

There are of course obvious things, like Japan’s fear of nuclear radiation which had spawned Godzilla previously, and the decoding of “Rosilica” as a stand-in for America. As Angles points out, never mind that the word itself combines “Russia” and “America,” everything about this country’s behavior is American, something I assumed while reading the novella based on the nuclear bomb testing, the haughty attitude, and the greedy colonial exploitation and monetization.

Going beyond this, Angles fills in the historical context very well. I learned that the book reflected the rising unpopularity of security treaties with America, which along with the murder of a Japanese housewife by an American serviceman resulted in the Anpo protests of 1959-60, but in order to be more mainstream, the filmmakers softened these references considerably.

While reading the book I thought it was a little bit much that the authors wrote of Japan not being able to “trust the rest of the world” so shortly after Japan’s absolutely brutal militarism in the first half of the 20th century, but as Angles points out, the novella also “reminds readers that people with power and conscience have a moral obligation to open their ears and listen to people in vulnerable positions.”

He also points out that while the film has the cringeworthy element of Japanese actors in blackface among the natives looking like “throwbacks to an earlier stage of human evolution,” the novella has none of this, and shows the natives to be “noble and kind,” “far more openhearted and environmentally savvy than their colonial Rosilican masters,” certainly a positive treatment.

Lastly, it was fascinating to read of the connection to a character in Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Doolittle series of books, Jamaro Bumblelily, which had been translated into Japanese and were very popular. In a rather meaty section, Angles makes quite a case for what was certainly a reference for the authors of Mothra, something I was completely unaware of.

Recommended for those interested in Japanese kaiju, or this period of Japanese history.

[Stephanie Dyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will confess that Mothra is one of my favorite kaiju, in some ways even more so than Godzilla, so having found the previous book, Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again, both interesting and informative I was looking forward to reading this one.

The first part of this slim book is the novella origin story of Mothra while the majority of the book is the afterword which delves in to the political atmosphere in Japan during the period, how it was reflected in the novella, and, of course, how the studio toned things down to make sure the movie was marketable as well as the influence of the Doctor Doolittle books on aspects of the story. The story portion is very bare bones, as is to be expected of what was very much written with two purposes, as a rough outline for the film, and, as a novella, advance publicity for the 1961 movie, Mothra. There are three distinct sections, each one written by a different author so it can be a bit disjointed as a story.

As noted, the majority of the book is the afterword which dives quite deeply into the political climate in Japan which most Western viewers will be unfamiliar with. While the political anti-nuclear warnings of Godzilla were obvious even to those unfamiliar with Japanese society and politics, the political messages shaping much of the Mothra novella will be unfamiliar to Western readers and certainly were not, at least in my memory, as apparent in the movie. The afterword also covers the similarities between many of the choices the authors made and the Doctor Dolittle books. I do need to go watch the film again to refresh my memory and, honestly, to see how its message is viewed differently now that I have a brief grounding in the political message the authors were trying to convey as well as the influence of the Dolittle stories. The afterword here was not as easy a read as in Godzilla but it showed me a slice of Japanese history I was pretty much unaware of and, to be honest, a link to British children’s literature I’d not have considered if it had not been pointed out to me. The hard core kaiju fan will want this book as an integral part of their collection but even the casual fan will find it of interest. Recommended

[Nick LeBlanc · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with Jeffrey Angles’ previous kaiju translation, the adequately and clearly translated text takes a backseat to the extensive and informative endnotes. Without them, you’re left with a disjointed story that—save for a folktale-esque origin story for our favorite lepidopteran—doesn’t do much to enrich what is already a perfect little mid-century monster flick cum critique of colonialism. The movie does just fine relating what we’re supposed to get out of it. The novellas are really just a delight for fans to dive into and recount the differences. The writing is much more spare than you’d like to see, with more telling than showing. If nothing else, it demonstrates just how good Ishirō Honda was at conceiving action sequences. But again, that’s what makes Angles’ notes so essential.

The Dr. Dolittle parallels were news to me, but Angles does a great job drawing the connection between the two. It even made me want to check out that old series. Funny how this mirrors the type of multicultural volleying we also see with samurai films and spaghetti westerns. To that point, the relationship to exotica and the (at that time) recently established US state of Hawaii was enlightening as well.

It’s unfortunate that some of the more outwardly political commentary baked into the novella had to be neutered by an overly cautious Japanese film industry. A longtime fan of the film, I had always wondered what the whole New Kirk City thing was about. Thanks to the book, now I know!

The five stars I gave this book are more for this specific edition and translation. The object as a whole—notes and novella wrapped in a beautiful cover—is of much greater value than strictly the novella itself. There’s a potential elective graduate course baked into this, the film adaptations, and the Godzilla translations. If only I had the time!

Someone should now let Angles do Rodan and the environmental critique that it embodies—as hinted in the endnotes.

Read on an ARC of the beautiful and sturdy paperback publication by University of Minnesota Press.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1961, Japanese film company Tōhō Studios commissioned three prominent fiction writers to develop a monster story. Mothra was their creation, frenemy of Godzilla. Taking place on a South Pacific Island named Rolisica—an amalgamation of U.S. and Russian islands near Japan that each nation used for its nuclear tests—a group of explorers rescue four sailors marooned after a typhoon destroys their ship. No sailor shows signs of radiation poisoning despite the nuclear tests, and each speaks of island inhabitants who saved them. How any creature could endure multiple hydrogen bomb explosions is what the expedition hopes to discover, hazmat suits in tow. What they discover is perhaps more fantastic than what the sailors had told them of, involving a race of people about two feet tall who sing rather than speak and seem possessed of an ability to communicate telepathically. The small race of people worships a large egg protected by four tiny women; i.e., the luminous fairies (the film version has only two). Developing within the egg: Mothra.

An American (of course) sees big bucks to be had by exploiting the luminous fairies on the lecture circuit, so he kidnaps them, forcing them to ululate on command. . . The egg holding Mothra decides it’s time to get cracking.

Translator Jeffrey Angles provides an insightful afterward explaining Mothra’s backstory and the historical context its creation was in reaction to, as well as demonstrating the unlikely connection between Mothra and Hugh Lofting’s Doctor Doolittle series.

For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars.

Book received from Publisher in exchange for a review.

Mothra is a short, 40-page novella about one of the most well-known Kaiju. Being an avid reader of Japanese fiction and loving the Godzilla films (in some of which Mothra appears), I was very excited when I was offered this book through my IG.

The thing I liked the most wasn't really the story itself - it is very simple and lacking in detail, as it was originally written as an advertizement for an upcoming movie -, but the 60-page afterword by the translator explaining, among other things, the historical context behind it.

Mothra was published in the early 60s during the Cold War between the US and USSR. Whereas Godzilla reflected the fear of nuclear weapons and radiation, the story of Mothra can be seen as a critical reaction of Japans complicated position during the Cold War, with its unbalanced Security Treaty with the US - making many Japanese feel that Japan wasn't an independent country - on one side, and the USSR breathing down its neck on the other.

There is so much symbolism and history behind Mothra, explained in a thorough and detailed manned in the afterword. From the political aspect already mentioned, to movies, events and books that inspired it. The translator adds some commentary as well that I really liked, finding it intelligent, creative and sometimes touching. All of this makes this edition of Mothra & The Luminous Fairies a book I think many readers will enjoy.

[Persephone Underwing · Rating 5 out of 5]

While it becomes retroactively obvious that this reads as an "advertisement" for the movie that follows, and indeed, the dialogue between the characters, particularly from Nelson, is as clunky as the 60s movie. However, once over the hump of "oh this is just a light novel that will form the bedrock if not all the details", it is great exploration of Mothra's conception. Within the story itself, I particularly loved the mythology of Infant Island and how Mothra was born. As an entomologist, I derived such joy from the great goddess figure creating the moths and the great god growing angry at how many were created that he throws a tantrum and kills half of all life. Poetry.

The translators notes were greatly insightful. The description of the "relay novel" concept, the discussion of Japanese culture surrounding the novel, and the Doctor Doolittle connections were all fascinating. There are some entomological errors and taxonomic standards in Angles summary that I take some issue with, but they are minor in the grand scheme.

Far worse than conflating a pupa with its cocoon is the cover art: While butterflies are taxonomically moths, the Lepidoptera on the cover is very clearly a nymphalid, a butterfly that does not spin silken cocoons and whose larva would never be confused with a silkworm. Butterflies get enough popular attention; why deny the one great representation of a non-butterfly moth in popular culture?

[Vals · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always struggle with reviewing novellas, especially really short ones, because creating a captivating story with good characters is difficult to do in a limited amount of pages. However, this is an easy 5 stars.

First, I had honestly never heard of Mothra before and didn't know she was such a pillar creature in Japanese folklore, thus I really appreciated the afterword in the book. In fact, the translator masterfully analyses the figure of Mothra and her role in Japanese culture, from folklore to cinema, also diving into aspects of the Japanese language that are important to the story.

Regarding the novella per se, I found the translation on point since it explains the decisions made and how the original is written when it comes to aspects deemed important. The story is very appealing and the characters manage to be interesting and well-characterized even in a such limited amount of pages (and words).

I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone who'd like to learn a bit more about Japanese folklore or is interested in worldwide legends in general. Also, now l absolutely want to read the translation of the original story of Godzilla.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this tiny gem!

[Julie Ditton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kaiju Classic

Many Westerners may not know the term Kaiju, but they familiar with them. Even if you have never watched King Kong or Godzilla, these giant animals that destroy cities are part of pop culture. I remember watching these movies on late night tv during my childhood, but somehow, I had never seen Mothra. The Luminous Fairies and Mothra was originally commissioned by Tōhō Studios as a novella to serve as a basis for a new Kaiju movie. Shin'ichirō Nakamura recruited two other authors, Takehiko Fukunaga and Yoshie Hotta to help out, and the story is written in three distinct sections, each with it's own style. I welcomed a chance to read the 1961 novella which served as a blue print for the movie and is finally available in an English translation after six decades. I had no idea that these movies were actually political commentary about nuclear testing, war and American Imperialism. Each section centers on a different political message and yet despite the distinct sections and individual styles, the novel combines into an engrossing story. The afterward is an essay by the translator that discusses the origins of the novel and all the background behind the scenes. This well researched section was fascinating and added immensely to the appreciation of the novella and the genre as a whole.

I was lucky enough to read an electronic advanced reader's copy of this book from the publisher through a review service. I can honestly say that this book is a must-read for any fan of Japanese literature or 1960's pop culture.