Godzilla (1984 novelization)

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Godzilla
Godzilla (1984 novelization)
Author(s) Shunpei Kaibara
Publisher Kodansha
Publish date October 11, 1984
Pages 255
Genre Novelization, science fiction
ISBN ISBN-10: 4061900072
ISBN-13: 978-4061900073

Godzilla (ゴジラ,   Gojira) is a 1984 novelization of the 1954 film of the same name. It was written by Shunpei Kaibara and published as part of Kodansha's Kodansha X Bunko paperback line on October 11, 1984.

Plot

The freighter Eiko Maru mysteriously vanishes in Japanese waters after sending out a distress signal. The Coast Guard sends a rescue ship, the Bingo Maru, to search for survivors, but it meets the same fate. Survivors from one of the accidents are picked up by a fishing boat, but it too is mysteriously destroyed at sea. One survivor, Masaji Yamada, manages to swim back to his home of Odo Island, where he testifies that a monster destroyed his boat. The villagers suspect that the monster is Godzilla, a legendary creature from the island's folklore which will come ashore to feed on humanity. A team of reporters heads to the island to gather information, but a typhoon strikes the island overnight, destroying several buildings as well as the reporters' chopper. The villagers and reporters testify about the damage at the National Diet Building, where Professor Kyohei Yamane proposes a fact-finding expedition to the island. Yamane leads the expedition and discovers a large radioactive depression in the ground, which he hypothesizes to be the footprint of a giant creature. This creature soon appears over a hill on the other side of the island, revealing itself at last. Yamane names the creature "Godzilla," according to the island's folklore, and proposes that he was a prehistoric amphibious reptile roused from his ancient underwater slumber by an H-bomb test.

Depth charges are used to attack Godzilla at sea, but are proven useless when the monster surfaces from Tokyo Bay. One night, Godzilla comes ashore and rampages through part of Tokyo, destroying a train and several buildings. The government frantically seeks information about a way to destroy Godzilla, but Yamane is opposed to the idea, wanting the creature to be studied for his miraculous resistance to radiation. The JSDF erects a barrier of high tension wires around Tokyo to try and hold off Godzilla when he next comes ashore, but it proves useless as the monster tears through the wires and melts the pylons with his atomic breath. The JSDF opens fire on the monster, but he proves immune to any of their conventional weaponry. Godzilla storms into Tokyo, setting the entire city ablaze and transforming the metropolis into a sea of fire overnight. The monster makes his way back toward Tokyo Bay, where fighter jets lead him out to sea using flares.

In the aftermath of all the destruction, Yamane's daughter Emiko confides in her lover Hideto Ogata a secret that her chemist friend Dr. Daisuke Serizawa asked her to keep. While visiting Serizawa at his lab, Emiko asked to see what he was working on. Serizawa showed her a tank full of fish, then dropped a pellet into the tank. After pulling a switch, Serizawa ordered Emiko to stand back. The two watched as bubbles began spewing from the pellet and violently churned the water. Before Emiko's very eyes, the fish were asphyxiated, then reduced to skeletons before finally disintegrating entirely. Serizawa warned that just one drop of his Oxygen Destroyer could turn any body of water into an aquatic graveyard. Emiko had agreed to keep the secret, but after witnessing the destruction brought on by Godzilla believed it was the only way of stopping him. The two go to Serizawa's lab to ask him to use the device, but he angrily refuses. After a brief scuffle between Serizawa and Ogata, Serizawa apologizes and explains why he could never use the device in its current state. It is nothing but a weapon of mass destruction, he says, and in the wrong hands could doom all of humanity. However, his mind is changed after watching a television program broadcasting a nationwide "Prayer for Peace." Reluctantly, Serizawa agrees to use the device to stop Godzilla, but burns all of his research to ensure the Oxygen Destroyer can never be recreated.

Serizawa, Yamane, Emiko, and Ogata board the ship Shikine which searched for Godzilla's location under Tokyo Bay. When the monster is finally located by Geiger counter readings, Serizawa and Ogata don diving suits and dive beneath the surface to locate Godzilla and activate the device. After drawing Godzilla's attention, Ogata is lifted back to the boat while Serizawa remains behind and activates the Oxygen Destroyer. Serizawa watches as the water begins to boil and cause Godzilla to writhe violently. Seeing that the device is working, Serizawa tells Emiko and Ogata to be happy together and severs his lifeline. Ogata and others try to pull the line up, but find nothing at the end. Everyone aboard the ship watches as Godzilla rises from the sea and emits a defiant death cry before his lifeless corpse sinks beneath the waves and disintegrates. While the monster is gone, everyone aboard the ship is aggrieved at Serizawa's sacrifice. Ogata embraces Emiko, saying Serizawa wanted them to be happy. Yamane warns that Godzilla was likely not the last of his species and that another Godzilla could appear somewhere in the world again if nuclear testing continues.

Differences from the film

To be added.

Appearances

Monsters

Gallery

See also

Comments

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