The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies Vol. 2: 1984-2017 by John LeMay

 The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies Vol. 2: 1984-2017 by John LeMay

Review: 2nd Edition

The follow-up to Lemay's Big Book of Japanese Giant Monsters is just as entertaining as the first, if a bit smaller (not Lemay's fault: fewer kaiju and tokusatsu films were made compared to Japan's heyday). It covers movies made from Return of Godzilla (1984) to Godzilla: Planet of Monsters (2017). The third edition was extended to 2019, which would have included the rest of the Godzilla anime trilogy and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Sadly, Lemay has commented that he probably won't do further editions to keep up with the Monsterverse and films like Godzilla: Minus One.

The format is the same as the previous book, focusing on Japanese Tokusatsu films that feature giant monsters, with the occasional exception included as a "bonus." An example would be The Adventures of Galgameth, an obscure kiddie fantasy from the 1990s that was a remake of the infamous North Korean film Pulgasari (also covered) and produced by Simon Sheen, aka Shin Sang-ok. Another exception was the 2006 remake of The Sinking of Japan, although Lemay missed out on reviewing that film's parody: The World Sinks Except Japan.

By the 1990s, original movies about Ultraman were just as common, if not moreso, than Godzilla films. They were generally tied to whatever Ultraman series was on TV at the moment, so they had a built-in audience. John covers all of those within the timeline of his book, from the Ultraman Zearth films to the extremely "toyetic" Ultraman Orb films. But for fans of later incarnations of Ultraman--Tiga, Dyna, Gaia, Mebius, Cosmos, etc--all of their movies get the review treatment.

The format of the write-ups is the same as before: The title and some basic cast and crew info; a short synopsis; and the review portion, split evening between production facts, LeMay's own opinions, and trivia tidbits that doesn't fit into the review structure. LeMay continues to show that he is both a fan and a scholar of the genre--for some writers, those two things get in each other's way. I don't agree with all of his reviews, but I respect them all and his love for the genre is always evident.