Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again is a compilation of Gojira and Gojira no gyakushū, novella adaptations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again written by Shigeru Kayama in 1955. Translated into English by Jeffrey Angles in 2023, the novellas re-tell the events of the two films while making a number of alterations and incorporating elements from earlier editions of the film scripts and radio drama.
In 1954, a series of mysterious ship-sinkings draw Shinkichi Morita, Emiko Yamane, and Professor Kyōhei Yamane to Ōdo Island, where the locals believe the legendary sea-dragon Godzilla is responsible. When Godzilla—revealed to be a prehistoric reptile mutated by hydrogen bomb tests—attacks the island, the trio return to Tokyo to rally the government in mounting countermeasures, though while Shinkichi wants to kill the beast to avenge his family Professor Yamane wants to study it to unlock the secrets to its apparent immortality. Meanwhile, Emiko's fiancé, brooding chemist Doctor Daisuke Serizawa, reveals a dark secret to her that could prove the key to stopping Godzilla once and for all.
A year later, the discovery of a second Godzilla and new kaiju Anguirus by fishery pilots Kōji Kobayashi and Shōichi Tsukioka sends Japan into a panic regarding how to stop these devastating creatures before they lay waste to all of Japan.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- In the film version of Godzilla, Shinkichi Morita was a young teenager whose brother was a victim of Godzilla's ship-sinking spree, later being orphaned by Godzilla's attack on Ōdo Island; but who doesn't play a large role. In the novel, he's Emiko Yamane's childhood friend and largely fills Ogata's role from the movie, with Ogata being relegated to a supporting side character.
- The novelization of Godzilla lacks the love triangle between Emiko, Ogata, and Serizawa — or even between Emiko, Shinkichi, and Serizawa; though Serizawa asks Shinkichi to look after Emiko in his place before his Heroic Sacrifice.
- Adaptation Expansion: The Godzilla segment expands on a number of the supporting characters and includes a minor subplot with the Tokyo Godzilla Society—an apparent Apocalypse Cult worshipping Godzilla.
- Adaptational Villainy: In Godzilla, Godzilla is framed in less of a sympathetic light in the novelization. While Professor Yamane states that he was driven from his native habitat by H-bomb tests, he is treated as a horrifying entity able to survive for 2 million years and withstand both the explosion and radiation of an H-bomb largely unfazed, and even before being nuked he would ravage Ōdo Island to devour the livestock and villagers.
- Admiring the Abomination:
- Professor Kyōhei Yamane is a heroic example, insisting that Godzilla should be studied rather than slain, and when the Tokyo Godzilla Society—an apparent Apocalypse Cult worshipping Godzilla—starts up Professor Yamane is one of the prime suspects. However, unlike in the film version, he explains that the reason he wants this is so that Japan can atone for the war-crimes it committed during World War II by unlocking the secret to Godzilla's apparent immortality and sharing it with the rest of humanity.
- The Tokyo Godzilla Society—at least on paper—is an Apocalypse Cult that reveres Godzilla as a Destroyer Deity come to punish Japan for having surrendered at the end of World War II, though the ringleader—and sole member—turns out to be a conman seeking to stir up chaos, and who is unceremoniously killed by the very creature he claimed to worship.
- Age Lift: Shinkichi Morita was a child in the film version of Godzilla, but in the novella is around the same age as Emiko Yamane—in his late teens to early twenties—and a childhood friend of hers, having met her when they were evacuated during World War II.
- Ambiguous Gender: Jeffrey Angles' afterword notes that Godzilla is not identified with pronouns in the Japanese scripts, and that he originally translated the novellas using "it" before trying to follow contemporary trends by referring to Godzilla as the gender-neutral "they/them"... but the hardcore Godzilla fans among his students vehemently objected and insisted that Godzilla cannot be anything other than male, so he capitulated to their demands.
- Animalistic Abomination: Even prior to being nuked, Godzilla is noted to be a 2 to 150 million-year-old creature somehow able to withstand not only the march of time unfazed but the impossible crushing pressure at the bottom of the ocean and the annihilating heat of a nuclear explosion—with this being the reason why Kyōhei Yamane wants to study him. The inhabitants of Ōdo Island regard him as a terrifying dragon-god that comes out of the ocean to rampage and devour everyone and everything he comes across.
- Apocalypse Cult: The Tokyo Godzilla Society is framed as one, posting fliers all around Tokyo proclaiming that Godzilla is a god of destruction come to punish Japan for having grown soft and weak in the wake of its defeat in World War II. While Professor Yamane is the chief suspect due to his insistance on not killing Godzilla, it's later discovered the culprit was a con artist who'd been trying to spread panic and terror, and who gets crushed flat by Godzilla for his trouble.
- Artistic License – Paleontology:
- In Godzilla, renowned palaeontologist Professor Kyōhei Yamane states that the Jurassic Period was a mere 2 million years ago, and that during the transition to the Cretaceous Period some marine reptiles left the ocean and adapted to life on land. The Jurassic Period actually lasted from around 201 million years ago to 145 million years ago, with no known fossil evidence of marine reptiles transitioning to life on land in the manner Professor Yamane describesnote .
- In Godzilla Raids Again, Professor Yamane and his zoologist colleague Dr. Tadokoro state that Ankylosaurus — aka Anguirus — was a carnivorous dinosaur that was between 150 and 200 feet (45 and 60 meters) tall, had multiple brains all over its body, and lived concurrently with Godzilla between 150 to 70 million years ago. In actuality, Ankylosaurus were herbivorous dinosaurs that were between 6 to 8 meters long, and lived between 68 and 66 million years ago. As with most animals, it also had just the one brain.
- Asshole Victim: The ringleader (and as it turns out, the sole member) of the Tokyo Godzilla Society, a conman, is crushed flat by Godzilla's rampage through Tokyo.
- Author Tract:
- Shigeru Kayama was opposed to Imperial Japan's involvement in the Second World War, and uses Professor Kyōhei Yamane as a mouthpiece to air out his grievances by saying that Japan must use every available opportunity to atone for the war-crimes it committed during World War II.
- In his afterword, Jeffrey Angles speculates that Shinkichi Morita was made into the Godzilla novella's protagonist to emphasize Shigeru Kayama's anti-war attitudes, embodying the younger post-war generation rather than the generation that had lived through the war as Hideto Ogata and Dr. Serizawa had.
- Big Eater: Godzilla eats all the fish in the ocean, devours most of Ōdo Island's livestock — retaining a scene cut from the film of him looming over a cliff with a cow in his jaws — and even snacks on a hapless villager.
- Bowdlerise: The novelization goes out of its way to avoid naming the United States of America, simply referring to it as "A-".
- Breath Weapon: Godzilla's atomic breath is described as a beam of white incandescent light or column of white-hot fire that sets everything in its path ablaze. In Godzilla Raids Again, Anguirus is depicted as also having the ability to shoot beams of incandescent light just as powerful as Godzilla's from its jaws.
- Byronic Hero: While reduced to a side-character in the novella, Doctor Serizawa is a brooding chemist with an eyepatch and scars covering one side of his face—injuries from his time in World War II—whose work creates a device that could be used as a superweapon rivalling the H-bomb in destructiveness, a prospect that causes him no shortage of angst.
- Composite Character: The character of Hideto Ogata in the movie version of Godzilla is largely replaced by Shinkichi Morita, who in the film was a child orphaned by Godzilla's rampage across Ōdo Island.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: In Godzilla, Godzilla tears through the defences set up by the Ground Self-Defense Force with ease, crushing or incinerating everything in his path. In Godzilla Raids Again, Professor Yamane bluntly states that with the death of Dr. Serizawa there is nothing anyone can do to stop the second Godzilla should he attack Japan.
- Demoted to Extra: Hideto Ogata was one of the main characters of the film version of Godzilla, being in an Age-Gap Romance with Emiko Yamane, but in the novella his role is filled by Shinkichi Morita, with Ogata being his superior at the Tokyo Bay Rescue and Salvage.
- Dissonant Laughter: In Godzilla, Hagiwara—a reporter for New Japan News—is so disdainful towards the people of Ōdo Island's belief that a kaiju caused the disappearance of several ships that he starts laughing in the middle of a sacred kagura dance designed to ward off Godzilla, finding such antiquated superstitions silly. The villagers blame him for making the ritual go awry when an ill omen occurs and Godzilla attacks later in the night.
- Do Not Go Gentle: In Godzilla, even as the Oxygen Destroyer suffocates him, Godzilla identifies the Seagull as the source of his agony and makes an attempt to sink the vessel, but succumbs to the Oxygen Destroyer before he can do so.
- Driven to Suicide: As in the film version of Godzilla, Doctor Serizawa takes his own life to take the secret of the Oxygen Destroyer to his grave and prevent it from being used as a superweapon.
- A Father to His Men: The president of the South Seas Steamships company — which the Eikō-maru was owned by — was noted to be a kindhearted man seen as a surrogate father by his employees, and weeps openly upon learning the Bingo-maru — sent to search for survivors — was also sunk.
- Fury-Fueled Foolishness: When Shinkichi stops him from smashing the Oxygen Destroyer with an axe, Serizawa impulsively takes a swing at him and deals a glancing blow to his head. Emiko's horror snaps him out of his anger-fuelled fugue state and he profusely apologizes.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: Doctor Serizawa frames the Oxygen Destroyer as this, an incomplete stage of his experiments that would make a perfect superweapon, and refuses to reveal it to the public until he can find a peaceful use for it.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- At the end of Godzilla, Doctor Serizawa stays behind to detonate the Oxygen Destroyer and lure Godzilla into it, cutting his rope and air tube to commit suicide so that no-one can ever use it again.
- At the end of Godzilla Raids Again, Kōji Kobayashi is killed keeping Godzilla distracted from leaving Kamiko Island, his plane crashing into a mountain and setting off an avalanche that partially buries Godzilla in snow.
- Immune to Bullets: Conventional weaponry does little more than annoy the Godzillas and Anguirus, with Professor Yamane lamenting in Godzilla Raids Again that with the death of Doctor Serizawa they have no way of stopping the second Godzilla and other kaiju, and instead must find ways of mitigating the damage done.
- Inconsistent Spelling:: Jeffrey Angles' afterword notes that the script for Godzilla uses Ōto Island rather than the more popular fan-spelling "Ōdo Island", but that he decided to go with the fan convention to avoid angering hardcore fans.
- Just Friends: Shinkichi is Emiko Yamane's childhood friend and mostly fills Hideto Ogata's role in the film version of Godzilla, but they lack the film's secret romance dynamic.
- Lightning Bruiser: Both the Godzillas and Anguirius are described as being remarkably fast for their huge size, are impervious to conventional weaponry, and rip through buildings like tissue paper.
- Must Make Amends: In Godzilla, Professor Yamane states that Japan must study Godzilla to unlock the secret to his apparent immortality and share it with the rest of humankind as a way to atone for the war-crimes it committed during World War II.
- Old Shame: When Hagiwara attempts to coerce Serizawa into discussing the Oxygen Destroyer by revealing he learned about it from speaking to some of Serizawa's "old friends" in Germany, Serizawa icily declares that he has no friends in Germany before telling Hagiwara to Get Out!. Jeffrey Angles notes that this implies that Serizawa had been involved with the Nazis during World War II, possibly even being involved with Project 731, but now deeply regrets his sordid past.
- Power Glows: In addition to Godzilla's spines glowing when he charges his atomic breath, in Godzilla he's described as passively emitting an eerie blue-white glow from his whole body due to having been irradiated.
- Prehistoric Monster:
- The two Godzillas are members of a species of amphibious theropods with crocodilian hides that lived between two and 150 million years ago, and were ravenous carnivores that grew up to 50 meters tall. Being hit by nuclear weapons testing did little more than piss them off and give them a fiery Breath Weapon.
- Anguirus is a carnivorous Tough Armored Dinosaur that lived between 150 to 70 million years ago, standing between 45 and 60 meters tall; and had multiple brains scattered throughout its body to maximize its speed and agility. Like Godzilla, exposure to the radiation from nuclear weapon tests gave it a fiery Breath Weapon.
- Real After All: The younger generation of Ōdo Island's inhabitants scoff at the elders' belief in the destructive sea-god Godzilla... until he shows up and ravages the island.
- Retired Monster: Jeffrey Angles notes that it's subtly implied that Doctor Serizawa was involved in Unit 731 or otherwise associated with the fascist regimes of World War II, as he is a veteran of World War II and German scientists are intimately familiar with the nature of his work. By the time of Godzilla, however, he is a staunch pacifist who is horrified by the idea of the Oxygen Destroyer being used as a superweapon, and icily states that he has no friends among Germany's scientific community.
- Skewed Priorities: In Godzilla, Professor Kyōhei Yamane is vehemently against Godzilla being killed, arguing that he should be studied so mankind can harness his unnatural longevity. Shinkichi Morita—who lost his mother and brother to Godzilla's attack on Ōdo Island—calls him out on holding this view even as Godzilla razes Tokyo, asking how he would feel if Godzilla had succeeded in eating Emiko on Ōdo Island. Professor Yamane mulls it over, saying that he would be just as devastated as Shinkichi is but that he would still insist that Godzilla be studied out of obligation as a scientist.
- There Is Another: At the end of Godzilla, Professor Yamane notes that unless humankind stops experimenting with atomic weaponry another Godzilla could surface... and is proven correct in Godzilla Raids Again.
- Time Abyss: In Godzilla, Godzilla is stated to be 2 million years old, having survived all that time due to his preternatural longevity. In Godzilla Raids Again the estimate is bumped up to anywhere from 70 to 150 million years ago.
- To Serve Man:
- In Godzilla, Godzilla is noted in legend to come ashore to devour people, snatches up and devours a young girl when he attacks ōdo Island, and tries to eat Emiko before she's pulled to safety by Shinkichi.
- In Godzilla Raids Again, the second Godzilla tries to eat Tsukioka and Kobayashi, furiously ripping at the crevasse where they hide themselves and almost managing to grab them before being distracted by Anguirus' arrival.
- Trauma Button: In Godzilla Raids Again, Professor Yamane notes that—while naturally a vicious predator—bright lights severely enraged the first Godzilla, likely having reminded him of the bright flash of the H-bomb exploding, and that it might be the same for the second Godzilla—which proves to be the case when flares are used to lure him back out to sea.
