One more thing to mention; the soundtrack is absolutely gorgeous. Like even aside from the original Mothra song, it’s just,,, whimsical and charming, but in a muted way. Akira Ifukube’s later Mothra vs Godzilla soundtrack tends to hog the spotlight but I earnestly believe this movie rivals it

I wish I could recommend the movie in earnest but I really do have the emphasize the blackface, like that is an actual dealbreaker for many people and reasonably so. Even if a product of its time it absolutely must be acknowledged for a truly honest opinion of the film

would easily be in my top 5 kaiju films, which is a massive shame. But I don’t think this movie’s worth ignoring either. It’s a lovely groundwork for who has grown into probably my favorite kaiju, and reading the book has only made me like this film even more.

Now what is the big flaw I mentioned? It’s blackface. Extremely disappointing to see, and in general the infant island natives were not represented super tastefully or really like other humans, which is my absolute biggest problem with the movie. Were it not for this holding it back a lot, this-

While some lore is lost from the book, what we get is very intriguing. The Shobijin are really lovely, moreso than expected, and ofc Mothra herself is spectacular, the effects used for her at the time were something special. They work very well with Mothra’s role as an unstoppable force of nature.

I really do love this little story, and I’m happy I finally have the chance to read the first piece of Mothra fiction. No doubt it’ll serve as good inspiration for some of my own stories

I’ve yet to read Angles’ afterword and might talk about that seperately, but what I’ve read so far offers a short but interesting commentary of the Cold War era and its politics that still bear much relevance today, even if some aspects of it truly show their age and ignorance.

I was hoping this book would have some juicy new Mothra lore we hadn’t seen in the movies, and so far it’s juicier than I could’ve ever imagined

I’ll prolly read this when I have time to watch the 1961 movie afterward