I said on the air when I interviewed Shawn Pryor that I would write a review of his book Kaiju Unleashed for Kaiju United, but then I discovered they’d already published a review. So, I’m instead going to publish my review here. The book will be cited in a future episode of MIFV, so it fits with my decision to write podcast book reviews. However, I’m making this one public since I originally intended to post a public review on KU.
Anyway…
Kaiju Unleashed: An Illustrated Guide to the World of Strange Beasts is a coffee table book chock full of information and images pertaining to tokusatsu’s heaviest hitters and then some. You’ll find chapters dedicated to Godzilla, Kong, Gamera, and Ultraman but also chapters about outliers like Daimajin and kaiju from countries outside of Japan. The information is by no means extensive, as each chapter could easily be expanded into entire books (and in some cases, that’s happened). However, Pryor dedicates pages to information that is rarely mentioned in the fandom, such as listing all the suit actors who’ve played Godzilla (including those in the Godzilla Fes short films) and not just mainstays like Haruo Nakajima and Kenpachiro Satsuma. Pryor aims to make each chapter, as packed as each one is, to be a primer to get readers interested in the media or as a starting point for further research. This is why he includes a bibliography in the back of the book, which gets a thumbs up from this former graduate student.
Surprisingly, Pryor doesn’t stop at movies. He has chapters on prose books and comic books, which are typically ignored in tomes like this. Given that Pryor has extensive experience with comics, it’s no surprise he would include them. It’s in this chapter where I learned the most and discovered a few titles to track down.
Given the wide breadth of Pryor’s research, the book understandably gets some details wrong. These are never egregious, but they may annoy hardcore fans. For example, Pryor casually mentions that 1955’s Godzilla Raids Again, the first sequel to Gojira (1954), was directed by Motoyoshi Oda but later says that 1966’s Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (aka Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster) was the first G-film not directed by Ishiro Honda. A few of the image captions are also incorrect, labeling them from the wrong movies. Given that the primary audience for this book is new fans, it would behoove them to fact check everything they read in this book, but that’s a generally good rule of thumb, anyway.
All that being said, the book’s greatest strength is its presentation. It’s laid out like a magazine with eye-popping colors, multiple sidebars, and text boxes. No two pages look exactly alike, making each page turn a new surprise. The fonts are always legible and the layouts are rarely daunting. The sheer volume of images, which is the biggest sticking point when it comes to licensing, is almost overwhelming. They add even more color and context to what’s being discussed.
Kaiju Unleashed is a great “gateway” to the wide world of kaiju and tokusatsu for new fans, but it may have a surprise or three to offer fandom veterans. Either way, it’s a colorful new addition to any kaiju lover’s bookshelf.
Score: 8/10
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