#Kaiju Soshingeki

[moviecinepelis]

[namesisfortombstones]

So, in the most recent G-Fan, in a review of the new Godzilla Against Mothra/Mothra vs. Godzilla Completion book, J.D. Lees makes this rather outrageous claim: “the translation of the movie title’s Japanese characters reads ‘Mothra tai Godzilla’ [sic] but in Japanese sentence construction, the most important word is generally left to the end. Thus, it is reasonable to interpret that title as ‘Godzilla vs. Mothra,’ and at the time, publicity for the picture often included the English phrase ‘Godzilla Against Mothra,’ as does the cover of the new book. On a side note, this difference in primacy based on position between English and Japanese worked to Toho’s advantage with King Kong vs. Godzilla. To western eyes, Toho was modestly situating ‘their boy’ to follow Kong in the title, but Japanese audiences likely perceived the home-town hero as receiving top billing.” Christ All-Friday. Now, I’m 100% sure this is a big, fat no. Because IF this were true, Gojira tai Megaro should be translated as Megalon vs. Godzilla. Right? But I contacted a Japanese friend living in Japan and explained the situation before I got on an online high-horse and started railing against this. He wrote back to me just one word: “Bullshit.” I just don’t even know what to say to this. Please, for God’s sakes, PLEASE don’t let this get started as something online. “Mosura tai Gojira” is not “Godzilla vs. Mothra” in English. “Kingu Kongu tai Gojira” is not “Godzilla vs. King Kong” in English. Let’s just shun this nonsense like an Amish kid with a nipple ring and move on. On a side note, Toho’s international title choices have nothing to do with being a translation of the Japanese title. In Japan, the title is Mosura tai Gojira because back then, Mothra was more popular than Godzilla. However in the west, Godzilla was more known than Mothra was, so it was only sensical for Toho to sell the movie as “Godzilla Against Mothra” [”against” is the literal translation of “tai” but it sounds awkward, so we use “versus/vs.”]. “Destroy All Monsters” is in no way supposed to be a translation of “Kaiju Soshingeki.” But you guys knew this already, even if the editor of G-Fan didn’t. Doesn’t? Either or. This is what happens when you start to believe that you don’t need an editor.

[almightyrayzilla]

There’s only a few more hours of a sale going on (as of this posting), but here comes some new pixel art!

[daikaiju-arts]

Soshingeki-Goji is one of my favorite Godzilla design and Godzilla in general~

I love all the heroic Godzillas though! 

[namesisfortombstones]

This astronaut is sick of Ghidorah’s shit.

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

[rexsummeral]

The Journal of Dr. Rex Summeral Masterpost

The Journal of Dr. Rex Summeral is a daikaiju fan fiction series centered around American “kaijuologist” Dr. Rex Summeral and his adventures around the world (and even off-world). Taking place in a combined Showa-Heisei timeline, the journals were originally used as a framing device to showcase fantasy matches with both Toho and Daiei characters. Eventually, a regular cast of characters was developed and the stories grew exponentially. The journals are regularly published in G-FAN Magazine under the pen of Skip Peel.

The purpose of this blog was to share the magnificent and character-enriched stories that Mr. Peel has written with the online kaiju community. With the advent of the internet, publications like G-FAN are arguably inferior formats and the creative content held within their older issues is all but nonexistent on the internet, leaving it up to dedicated fans such as myself to keep it archived before those old pages wither away. 

I hope the current generation of kaiju fans can learn to appreciate the creative prowess of our progenitors and enjoy the phenomenal stories that Mr. Peel has written.

- Herr Kroenen

Without further ado, here is the complete masterpost of all the collected Rex Summeral stories from G-FAN Magazine.

The stories have no set order (bar the multi-part ones), but I have separated them into individual “seasons” based on tone and style of the story.

Season 1

The Legend of King Kong vs. Mothra

Whatever Happened to Jet Jaguar?

Mechagodzilla’s First Challenge

The Truth About Gabara

Of Mechanikong and Mogera

The King Ghidora Videos

The Titanosaurus Club

A Conversation with Zigra

The King Seesar Scrolls

Season 2

My First Kaiju

The Cheap Kaiju Battle Royal

Baragon’s Adventures Underground

The Odds Favored Gorosaurus

Dueling Otaku

The Godzilla Prophesy

The So-Called Kaiju Correspondent

The Museum of Kaiju Memorabilia

A Kaiju Zoologist’s Bachelor Party

An Evening in 1984

Season 3

To Catch a Kaiju

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Shadows of Threats Past

Part 1

Part 2

Kumonga’s Kind of Town

Season 4 - “In Search of Rex Summeral”

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Season 5

Otaku Soshingeki

Where Wilson Was (And When)

Reverse Sushi

The Censoring of Rex Summeral

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

The Turtle’s New Voice

The Gutload Diamond

Season 6

Troubles With the Yurei of Kaiju

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

A Diagnosis of Corns

The Battle That Almost Was

King Kong vs. Frankenstein

Part 1 - The Past

Part 2 - The Present

Part 3 - The Future

Showdown on The Sly Lyson Show

The Attack on Dojo Studios

Borrowing Kamakiri - The X-M Extermination Project

The Dubious Daikaiju Film of Sasashima Island

Bonus

Gorgo vs. Reptilicus (Non-canon story that mentions Rex Summeral)

[asiantvatitsbest]

Kaijû sôshingeki / Destroy All Monsters

Destroy All Monsters, released in Japan as Kaijū Sōshingeki (怪獣総進撃?, lit. "Attack of the Marching Monsters"), is a 1968 Japanese science fiction kaiju film produced by Toho. The ninth entry in the original Godzilla series, it stars Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yukiko Kobayashi and Yoshio Tsuchiya. Produced in celebration as Toho's 20th kaiju film, it was also originally intended to be the final Godzilla film, and as such, was given a bigger budget than the past few productions. Set at the end of the 20th century, the film features many of Toho's earlier monsters, eleven in all. The film was also the last to be produced by the main creators of theGodzilla character, with Ishirō Honda directing, Eiji Tsuburaya supervising the special effects, Tomoyuki Tanaka producing, and Akira Ifukube handling the film's score.

The film was released theatrically in the United States starting in May 1969 by American International Pictures.

—————————————————————-

Initial release: August 1, 1968

Type: Movie

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Aliens have released all the giant monsters from their imprisonment on Monster Land and are using them to destroy all major cities on the planet. It is up to the daring crew of the super rocket ship X-2 to infiltrate the aliens' headquarters before the Earth monsters and King Ghidrah annihilate the planet.

[jaypeff1205]

Ishirō Honda (7 May 1911 – 28 Feb 1993) - Kaijū Sōshingeki (1968)

[funtitled]

Destroy All Monsters / Kaijû sôshingeki

Dir: Ishirô Honda

imdb

>submit yours<

[namesisfortombstones]

The next time somebody tries to tell you there's a newspaper in Destroy All Monsters that sets the action in 1994 (Japanese, included), you tell them to produce a screencap or shut the fuck up.

There is only one newspaper to be found in the entire run time (a man reading one next to Yukiko Kobayashi on a Tokyo train) and there is NO way to see a publication date on it. Or really, anything else on it for that matter.

[namesisfortombstones]

It’s never gonna stop amusing me that the new television closed captions for the international dub of Destroy All Monsters captions Minya’s warbling after he climbs onto King Ghidorah’s corpse as “Whoo-hoo.” And the last shot of the movie, as Godzilla’s waving, they caption Minya’s mumbling as “Whoo-ah.” I can’t stop hearing them in Homer Simpson and Al Pacino’s voices every time.

[namesisfortombstones]

What???

[namesisfortombstones]

The article about Destroy All Monsters in the most recent G-Fan was an improper draft with many mistakes in it. This is the version I turned in to be further refined for print. If you don’t know, the editor’s notes are not meant to be included in the text, but more of a warning sign to the author. The Secret History of Destroy All Monsters

By John LeMay            

           Fan dogma has usually assumed that Destroy All Monsters was created as the grand finale to the Godzilla series due to Son of Godzilla’s poor performance at the box office with a record low 2,480,000 admissions. [editor's note: rewrite a new opening completely; no they don't and ticket admissions are irrelevant to a film's success] 

          However, a first draft script for the 9th Godzilla film was submitted on November 22, 1967, before Son of Godzilla had even been released in December of that year. Furthermore, several sources attest that Kaiju Soshingeki/Attack of the Marching Monsters (the Japanese title of Destroy All Monsters) was announced alongside of Son of Godzilla, possibly as a competing project! In either case, Toho’s inspiration for their grand monster opus was probably the Monster Boom of 1967 in which Shochiku, Nikkatsu, Daiei, and even Keuk-Dong Entertainment (in association with Toei) in South Korea produced at least one giant monster movie and Toho felt they needed to up the ante to prove that they were still masters of the genre.

           On the other hand, many believe Tomoyuki Tanaka planned to end the series due to rising production costs and the advent of television drawing potential ticket buyers away from theaters. In the book Godzilla Days, effects director Sadamasa Arikawa is quoted as saying, “They were going to end the Godzilla series then. Producer Tanaka figured that all the ideas had just run out.” However, the commentary track by assistant director Seiji Tani for Destroy All Monsters' Japanese DVD release denies that the film was ever meant to be the final Godzilla movie at the time

           Kaiju Chushingura ("The Treasury of Loyal Monster Retainers", a title which would hold little meaning to anyone outside Japan), the earliest version of what would eventually become Kaiju Soshingeki/Destroy All Monsters, was titled after the famed Japanese tale of 47 Ronin (the Kilaak aliens are named after that story’s villains, the Kirakozukenosuke). Supposedly in this version, there was to be included every monster suit in Toho’s arsenal, even King Kong, Sanda, and Gaira. In fact, in an interview with David Milner, Ishiro Honda even said, “The original idea was to show all of the monsters.” Of course, this statement is open to interpretation as to what “all of the monsters” really means (is an H-Man a monster? Is the Human Vapor a monster? Or Matango?). In any case, this idea came directly from the Toho brass.

           The first draft script, Total Monster Attack Directive, by Kaoru Mabuchi submitted on November 22, 1967, included a confirmed roster of Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Rodan, Varan, Mothra (larva), Manda, Baragon, Kumonga, Ebirah, and Magma. Everything presumably plays out just as in the finished film except that Magma and Baragon guard the Kilaak base and Baragon actually attacks Paris. Also in this version, Varan teams up with Rodan to take on King Ghidorah in the final battle. [Editor's note: you can't just drop that on us and walk away. How do they team up? We readers demand details!] Ebirah would have most likely stuck to the water and it’s presumable the scene of Godzilla destroying an ocean liner at sea in the finished film was meant for Ebirah. However, a Japanese website dedicated to tokusatsu scripts, cyberkids1954.com, seems to imply that Ebirah would have made it onto land for the final battle. The author of the website writes, “Apart from the smaller number of monsters, it is a very well-written script.”

           How the second draft script differed is unknown, but the monster roster of the third draft script, submitted on January 9, 1968, is known to be Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra (larva), King Ghidorah, Baragon, Varan, Manda, Kumonga, and new additions Minilla and Anguirus. By this point, Ebirah and Magma were discarded… or were they? There is a curiously written scene for the very end battle that says Godzilla leads a charge flanked by Rodan, Anguirus, and Mothra and behind them is Baragon and Manda, plus more monsters making for exactly a dozen earth monsters (who are never named in this script) against King Ghidorah!

           The listed monsters only number six, and if one adds in Varan, Minilla, and Kumonga, that ups the number to nine. Naturally, one can speculate Gorosaurus is among the unnamed monsters, but his was a very last minute addition—more on that later. As this script was post-1967, King Kong was no longer a candidate for consideration at this point and was probably dropped by this time. The gargantuas, or possibly just Sanda, were a possibility. Frankenstein, being free of copyright unlike King Kong, was another possibility, but still very unlikely. Second rate kaiju like Kamacuras, the Mondo Island Sea Serpent, the Giant Condor, and the Giant Octopus are also possibly candidates, but those were probably never seriously considered due to the required extensive wireworks. As it was, Kumonga and King Ghidorah alone were nightmares for wireworks, so the Toho special effects crew likely shot down any more heavy wireworks monsters (look carefully when Kumonga's onscreen and you'll see that very few shots feature all of the spider's legs moving at once, as they had in Son of Godzilla). The likeliest candidate for one of the other mystery monsters was still giant walrus Magma; cyberkids1954.com features an excerpt from the third draft script that mentions the beast:

#93 Scene of Security Headquarters/Liaison Conference (between Director Sugiyama and Moonlight SY3 Captain Katsuo Yamabe) Director Sugiyama: “At Izu all the hot springs are dried out, the same situation as in Monsterland.” Katsuo Yamabe: “Is it also proof that it is Kilaak?” Director Sugiyama: “I am checking the underground monsters at Amagi.” Katsuo Yamabe “Magma...”

           In the finished film, this line was naturally changed to Baragon, and it’s possible the mention of Magma (who guarded the base in one earlier version) was just a mistake. As stated earlier, Baragon was initially supposed to attack Paris but his ears proved too difficult to manage (actually, the ears may have been in danger of being damaged) and so the part was taken over by Gorosaurus towards the end of production. However, there curiously do exist storyboards of Gorosaurus emerging from under the Arc de Triumph! Since his 1965 debut in Frankenstein Conquers the World, the Baragon suit had been loaned out to Tsuburaya Productions and converted into new monsters. They did this by removing Baragon’s head and placing new heads on the body creating Pagos for Ultra Q and Neronga, Gabora, and Magular for Ultraman. After that, the suit was kept at Tsuburaya Studios until Toho requested it back for Destroy All Monsters. As to why Toho had even bothered to repair the suit, chances are it was because Baragon was a very popular kaiju and toy sales of the beast were high. Sources say a new head was created just so the monster could have a cameo, but the body of the suit couldn’t be repaired because, supposedly, too much money had already been spent repairing King Ghidorah and Kumonga, in addition to creating new Godzilla and Anguirus suits. [editor's note: only Godzilla and Angilas are new costumes. All the other suits or props are from previous films] As it was, Haruo Nakajima crawled into the Baragon suit for scenes on Monsterland that play in a Monsterland base monitor as well as the shot in the final moments. As Baragon is still blamed for the attack in the finished film, one can assume that despite the storyboards, Gorosaurus’s attack on Paris was a last minute change. Perhaps the storyboards were drawn on set?

           Other mysteries concerning Destroy All Monsters include why recent creations Minilla and Gorosaurus, whose suits were in pristine condition, weren’t included in the first draft. [editor's note: Minya is NOT in pristine consition. You can see the suit falling apart in stills] Equally curious is why Sanda was axed, though supposedly, the third draft script featured Sanda hanging around Monsterland (likely glimpsed in a monitor early on), but he doesn’t partake in any of the action afterwards. As for Anguirus, his inclusion is slightly more surprising since, at least in part, this film revolved around using existing monster suits. Naturally, the 1955 suit had now deteriorated—not to mention behind the times—and a new suit was constructed. The new suit would pay off for the studio in the 1970s when the monster replaced Rodan as Godzilla’s main battle ally.

           The film’s manga adaptation could shed some light on early script concepts as well. At the beginning, Minilla can be seen holding up a giant shark he has caught. Manda’s attack of London is shown and considering it is mentioned in the final film’s newscast, chances are high the London sequence was meant to be filmed as well. Other notable differences include the Fire Dragon resembling an actual dragon! And naturally, Baragon destroys Paris. Most exciting of all, Manda wraps himself around King Ghidorah’s wing during the final battle and Baragon and Varan also participate.

           As fantastic as the finished Destroy All Monsters is, it’s too bad Toho didn’t produce it when they still had rights to King Kong. Fanaticized artwork of King Kong vs. King Ghidorah has appeared in at least one Sonorama book, and had he been included in the film this fantastic battle could have finally taken place. It would have also been interesting to see Kong team up with his old enemy Godzilla. Coincidentally, a European release of Destroy All Monsters renamed the film The Heirs of King Kong and features a giant ape on the poster.

           Another concept dropped to the wayside in one of the later scripts was that of lunar colonies and interbreeding the monsters—Ishiro Honda’s ideas. What these creations would have looked like was anyone’s guess. Specifically, Honda told David Milner, “We then started thinking about undersea farming... You see, we imagined that undersea farming would be required to feed all of the monsters. I very much wanted to explore that idea but because of financial constraints, I was not allowed to do so. Only the idea of an island of monsters survived.” Another, even more in depth quotation from Honda exists telling of his original hopes for Destroy All Monsters:

“[Kimura] and I... agreed it would be crazy to make each of the monsters just somehow appear. Eventually, we came up with an island on which all of the monsters had been collected for scientific study. We imagined that undersea farming would be required to feed all of the monsters... What would happen if that got developed on a super scale? I thought about the idea of a marine ranch... Scientifically, it would be what we now call aquaculture... From there, we started to develop the storyline. Initially, I had a lot more underwater scenes in the script. I was going to use special effects and set filming to depict them. But because of financial as well as time constraints, what you ultimately see is what we were able to do, the bare minimum. In a way, those things [that I could not do] were the scenes I wanted to film the most. Back then, the notion of aquaculture and biotechnology was already there, and we knew that things were going in that direction in the future.”

           One concept that most people think was abandoned, but in fact survived, was Honda’s idea of the creation of new sea life. The evidence is the strange whales with odd fins that Rodan attacks and eats. [Editor's note: wait, they're just ordinary dolphins, aren't they?] In later years shortly before his death, Honda would reflect that the film had the same premise as Jurassic Park (the book, of course, as the movie didn't come out until after he'd died) and this included an unused idea of raising the new crossbred monsters on the island. These crossbred monsters wouldn’t be due to forced mating of the monsters, but biotechnology!

 [Editor's note: that's it? It needs a proper ending. A conclusion wrapping things up]

[namesisfortombstones]

50th anniversary topic...

Where was Minya during most of the events of Destroy All Monsters?

Discuss.

[namesisfortombstones]

You can’t prove the Human Vapor isn’t in Destroy All Monsters.

[namesisfortombstones]

After seeing The Five Doctors, I don't want to hear anyone badmouthing Varan’s appearance in Destroy All Monsters ever again.