Kent Reviews “There Goes Tokyo!” by Michael Grant

In late 2013, we were approached, via email, by Michael Grant to read over, and possibly review, his ebook, There Goes Tokyo! A Smashing Celebration of Kaiju Eiga a.k.a. A Fan’s Love of Giant Monster Movies.

Mr. Grant’s ebook attempts to give hilarious synopses of the Showa era Godzilla films while, at the end of each chapter, include such things as alternative movie titles and how many pagodas were destroyed in each film among other things. He even includes four other movies at the end of his book that aren’t part of the Godzilla franchise.

Before continuing, I must say up front that Mr. Grant is a huge fan of the genre. One can easily say that throughout much of the book…even though, unfortunately, this review will be a negative one.

I downloaded his ebook (it’s the only format it comes in)  for $3 on my Kindle and began reading with great anticipation.

Unfortunately, even after a few pages in, I began to fear that what I was reading was a work that needed more time being polished. Now, I understand that even completed, published works still have mistakes. We all can point to at least one book where we’ve found some errors. So I gave these a pass. Mr. Grant self-published his book and some errors are bound to be discovered.

As I continued reading, I began to notice errors piling up at a tremendous rate: spelling, grammar, and factual errors abound. Words were either mis-spelled or missing all together. Punctuation was missing or placed in the wrong place. Facts about some of the movies were either downright incorrect or mixed with another Godzilla movie.

Here is a list of the errors I found just in his Godzilla: King of the Monsters review and his Godzilla Raids Again review:

1. In his description of Dr. Yamane talking about the formation of Godzilla, Grant writes that Godzilla was created with Spandium-90. There is no such element in the periodic table. It is Strontium-90 that Yamane refers to.
2. Grant writes that, to win Emiko’s love back, Serizawa “tosses a small disc-invention into a fish tank.” I find it odd he doesn’t mention the invention, the Oxygen Destroyer, by name here. Not only that, the item is like a metal ball-bearing. Not a disc.
3. During Godzilla’s attack on Tokyo, Grant writes, “Godzilla huffs some acid.” We all know what he should’ve written there instead.
4. After Godzilla destroys the building where Martin is broadcasting the carnage from, Grant writes that Godzilla has time for one more bridge flip. The bridge flip occurred in Godzilla’s initial attack on Tokyo. Not this second, and more thorough, attack.
5. Grant writes that Steve Martin says, after Godzilla has perished from the Oxygen Destroyer, “People of the world, Godzilla is dead!” Martin didn’t say this. Someone else on the ship did.
6. In making his case that Anguirus is a weak foe for Godzilla, Grant writes, “Some speedy camera work makes the giant monsters appear to zip around at a brisk pace but it still doesn’t help Anguirus build any combat credibility.” Grant’s implying the camera speed may have been intentional to make it seem as if Anguirus has a shot against Godzilla. The camera speed was, in fact, an accident, but approved by Tsuburaya upon viewing the finished product.
7. Grant writes that Kobayashi, on a routine flight, spots Godzilla swimming towards a collection of islands. It was Tsukioka who actually spotted Godzilla.

Earlier I mentioned that Mr. Grant attempted to give hilarious synopses of the films. It must be noted that Mr. Grant’s approach to humor in the book is that of poking fun at the material while inserting dialogue with the kaiju in certain circumstances. One example, and this is my own example to illustrate how Mr. Grant does this, is he’ll write something along the lines of, “Godzilla and King Ghidorah again meet up for a throwdown. Godzilla essentially tells Ghidorah, ‘Not this time, bitch!'”

I found myself chuckling at some of these moments, but was annoyed at them for the most part. While I do partake in sophomoric humor, putting it in a book that’s supposed to, as the subtitle of the ebook says, celebrate kaiju eiga, I’d assume Mr. Grant would want to take a different approach to his humor as those new to the genre may be continued to be put off by it, because they’ll believe the movies are tremendously silly as a result of Mr. Grant’s humor. Those already fans of the genre may be offended, annoyed, or put off by his humor.

Another unfortunate aspect of Mr. Grant’s book is the format. Outside of telling, mild, hilarious synopses and giving some alternate movie titles, much of Mr. Grant’s book provides nothing of educational value to the genre. It’s a book about one fan’s attempt at bringing in some hilarity to the Showa era while inserting a brief review a the end of each film he gives a synopsis to.

Such a format is more suitable to a blog/website devote to the material. The fact, too, that I had to pay $3 to simply get this type of format, along with the many errors contained in the final product, left me very irritated. I know it’s only $3, but the final product isn’t even amateurish. It’s a novice attempt–a very, very rough draft that needed more time going through the editing process.

I would recommend that Mr. Grant, if he hadn’t done so, re-read the work himself several times and then have a number of other people who will read it and give great constructive criticism. He badly needs another couple fans of the genre just to check over his facts. He needs others to also help him look over the many other errors.

I hate writing very negative reviews, but this ebook, sadly, isn’t worth your $3 or your time. Mr. Grant is a huge fan, no doubt, but his work needs some very serious fine-tuning. Mr. Grant needs to take a different approach to his humor. He needs to have his work go through a very rigorous editing process. He also needs to bring something informative to his work, too, as this is nothing more than a blog/website in ebook form that I had to pay $3 for to get a very uninteresting, un-refined, unfinished product.

Mr. Grant, should he continue with the Heisei era, as he’s claimed he will, needs to take all of this into account. Otherwise, I must advise him to simply create a website and do his writing there, because this work, in the format it’s currently in, is more suitable for a website than a book.

Not recommended.