By: Matti Keskiivari
Movie: Godzilla: Tokyo SOS
Music by: Michiru Oshima
Record label: Toho Music
Running time: 77:19/74:19
Discs: 2
Year of release: 2010
Review: ***1/2/*****
Right after the Godzilla: Final Wars set, this two-disc set is probably the most "interesting" in the sixth Godzilla soundtrack box. The first disc features the score of Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003) and the second disc has the rest of the GFW bonus tracks.
First, let’s talk about Tokyo SOS. This movie is a sequel to the previous one, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, so naturally the music is once again composed by Michiru Oshima. The score is not quite as fantastic as GXMG since a smaller orchestra is utilized again, but it is a bit more stellar than Godzilla vs. Megaguirus in my opinion. Oshima brings back many of the themes heard in GXMG while also delivering some new ones. Godzilla’s theme is still as great as ever, as well as the theme of Kiryu (Mechagodzilla), but of course they lack some of the power they had in GXMG. The Kiryu Squadron march is used a couple of times too. Moving on to the new themes: There’s a main battle theme that’s heard for the first time in "Toho Logo~Mothra in Flight~Main Title", one of the highlights of this score. There’s also a secondary battle theme for the fight between Godzilla and Mothra, which is heard in all three "Adult Mothra X Godzilla" tracks for example. Yoshito Chujo, the film’s hero, is given his own impressive theme, very much like Akane Yashiro in GXMG. Also, like with Akane, the theme has both an action-oriented version (heard in tracks 32, 33 and 35) and a more soothing one (heard in tracks 7, 13 and 19). Mothra has a new theme of her own, heard n tracks like "The Shobijin Visit", "Adult Mothra Comes Flying" and "The Mothra Larvae Cross the Sea" (one of the cues that weren’t used in the movie). Not too surprisingly, the always-memorable "Mothra’s Song", originally composed by Yuji Koseki, makes a return, this time performed by Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka who play the Shobijin (the little fairies). Another track that has to be mentioned is the "End Credits" cue. It’s simply one of the best pieces of music Michiru Oshima has composed for the Godzilla series. It sounds really distinct from the rest of the score, as it’s very calm and soothing, and it features some great choral work. Tracks like this show how versatile Oshima is as a composer.
Tokyo SOS has only got four bonus tracks. The first one, "Send-Off Party BGM", is a real gem. Like the name says, it’s the background music heard during the party scene early in the movie. However, unlike some of the other BGM-style tracks from other Godzilla/kaiju movies, it’s very memorable and enjoyable to listen to as it’s got a fitting classical sound. The next two extra tracks are certain cues mixed together like they’re heard in the movie. These tracks are supposedly taken from a 5.1 channel film source, as sometimes the volume level changes according to the events in the movie. The final track is the "pop song" version of "Mothra’s Song", which is a welcome addition.
The second disc, as I mentioned earlier, has the remaining bonus tracks of Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), most of which are composed by Keith Emerson. The disc starts off with all the edited cues that were included on the original album, although for some reason the edited "Gotengo vs. Manda" cue (track 4 on the original album) is left out. Speaking of which, there are two more Emerson tracks that aren’t included here: a longer version of the Infant Island track and an arrangement of the Earth Defense Force theme. These tracks can be found on the third disc of Emerson’s At the Movies set, which has music from all of Emerson’s other scores too. Getting back on topic, next up on this disc there are several outtakes, including Emerson’s unused music for the battle between Godzilla, Rodan, Anguirus and King Caesar, which is actually his medley of a couple of Ifukube themes: the Great Monster War March and the Maser march from War of the Gargantuas. He also composed a piece for Godzilla’s short fight with Hedorah and Ebirah, which sounds much better than the Nobuhiko Morino cue that was ultimately used for the scene. On the other hand, his "Xilien Ship" and "Parody Spy Music into Serious" tracks are quite awful, so fortunately they weren’t used in the movie.
The last 15 tracks are Emerson’s original demos, some of which are interesting and others are not. Many of them sound fairly identical to tracks that were either heard in the movie or not. For example, track 23 is an early version of the "Highway Battle" cue, track 30 is an early version of "Rodan Attacks New York" and tracks 22, 24 and 32 are early versions of the Earth Defense Force theme. Interestingly enough, track 32 is recorded in mono, while all the other tracks are in stereo. A couple of the demo tracks (tracks 25-26) feature music that hasn’t been heard before (not even in the outtake cues). The first one is totally bad and forgettable, while the second one sounds intriguingly more like Emerson’s score from Nighthawks (1981). Some of the demos with familiar music sound expectedly worse than the final cues, while others actually sound more interesting than the versions used in the movie, like the "Highway Battle" demo and thefirst of the two demos featuring the "Ending" theme (track 27). The second "Ending" demo is the last track on this disc, and it starts out interestingly, utilizing Godzilla’s footsteps from the original 1954 movie and Ifukube’s main theme as well, but then it takes a turn for the worse as Emerson, for some odd reason, decides to add annoying beeping synthesizer sounds over the Ifukube theme.
The booklet has got a nice picture of Godzilla from Tokyo SOS on the front cover and images of Miho Yoshioka and Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Otsuka on the back. Included in the booklet is an interview with Shusuke Kaneko, the director of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001).
In the end, this two-disc set is definitely the weakest link of the sixth Godzilla soundtrack box. The score of Godzilla: Tokyo SOS is great, but the content of the third GFW disc is mostly a disappointment. There are some worthwhile tracks, but the rest fails to keep the listener’s interest up. But still, if you’d like to get both the Tokyo SOS soundtrack and the GFW material, get the sixth box.
NOTE: ROUGH TRANSLATIONS AHEAD!
