Godzilla, the beast that even a big-budget Hollywood stinkeroo couldn't kill, has been many things in his (her?) illustrious career: nuclear allegory, loving parent, neighborhood pest, property insurance exemption clause. But has-been? That's what many cynics were calling the Big Lizard by the late '70s. Resurrecting their cash, er, cow after a nine-year hiatus in the mid-'80s, Japan's Toho Studios wisely moved away from the tired stock footage, cheap effects, and kiddie-corn plot lines that had come to characterize the series, moving the final seven sagas back to the deadly-serious aesthetic of the original. Ironically, as Gojira's handlers got back to their cinematic roots, the films' music initially moved closer to the Hollywood mainstream, including healthy doses of heroic Korngold-esque romanticism and even screaming, diddly-squeak-school metal guitar. But after the more modern, if questionably effective efforts of Reijiroh Koroku and Kohichi Sugiyama (for Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Biollante, respectively), Gojira music godfather Akira Ifukube returned to score four of the series' last five installments, truly bringing the saga full circle; the man who had musically brought the monster to life 41 years earlier was gratifyingly now allowed to write its moving Requiem. The annotation and illustration (which equals the high standards of its companion volume 1954-1975) are even more crucial here, as most of these "second cycle" films have seen but spotty distribution outside their native Japan. --Jerry McCulley