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Japan's Green Monsters
Environmental Commentary in Kaiju Cinema
by Sean Rhoads and Brooke McCorkle
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Book Presentation:
In 1954, a massive irradiated dinosaur emerged from Tokyo Bay and rained death and destruction on the Japanese capital. Since then Godzilla and other monsters, such as Mothra and Gamera, have gained cult status around the world.
This book provides a new interpretation of these monsters, or kaiju-ū, and their respective movies. Analyzing Japanese history, society and film, the authors show the ways in which this monster cinema take on environmental and ecological issues—from nuclear power and industrial pollution to biodiversity and climate change.
About the authors:
Sean Rhoads is a film historian, Japanologist, and lifelong monster cinema aficionado. He has taught courses on East Asia and published on Godzilla and environmentalism in G-Fan magazine, and lectured on Japanese monster cinema at G-FEST. He lives in Ottawa, Ontario.
Brooke McCorkle Okazaki is an assistant professor of music at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. She has published in Horror Studies and the Journal of Fandom Studies.
Press Reviews:
• "An interesting study of both film and psychology…a must read"— Against the Grain
• "Rhoads and McCorkle’s study is a valuable contribution to Godzilla studies, kaiju eiga, and ecocriticism. Their work should be considered alongside that of William Tsutsui, Chon Noriega, and Yoshikuni lgarashi as necessities for serious scholarship of Godzilla. The strength of this study is the way in which it considers all of the Godzilla, Mothra, and Gamera movies as parts of a continuum larger and more complex than its individual components and as examples of a genre that has been undervalued for far too long."—SFRA Review
• "Rhoads and McCorkle also do an excellent job drawing connections between the scores of these films and their environmental commentary. …a useful volume for readers interested in the political potential of popular cinema. …Because Japan’s Green monsters successfully demonstrates that kaijū cinema provides a place for important conversations regarding rapid environmental changes and existential threats, undergraduate and graduate students, university faculty, and members of the general public interested in the intersections of film studies, music studies, visual studies, cultural studies, and environmental studies will benefit from this book."—Journal of Popular Film and Television
• "Detailed, scholarly and well-written…well worth reading and re-reading…Definitely recommended"—G-Fan
• "A meticulously documented work of seminal scholarship that is unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university collections"—Midwest Book Review
See the publisher website: McFarland & Co
> On a related topic:
Giant Creatures in Our World (2017)
Essays on Kaiju and American Popular Culture
Dir. Camille D.G. Mustachio and Jason Barr
21st Century Kaiju (2023)
The Resurgence of Giant Monster Movies
The Truths of Monsters (2021)
Coming of Age with Fantastic Media
Magic, Monsters, and Make-Believe Heroes (2019)
How Myth and Religion Shape Fantasy Culture
Dinosaurs Ever Evolving (2016)
The Changing Face of Prehistoric Animals in Popular Culture
Prehistoric Monsters (2009)
The Real and Imagined Creatures of the Past That We Love to Fear
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