Godzilla Raids Again Original Japanese Version Picture Restoration

Godzilla Raids Again, the 2nd Godzilla film in the franchise, is a film that does not get a lot of love or attention compared to other entries in the series. This relative indifference can be seen in the lack of care given to its releases by Toho. The Blu-rays (judging by the Criterion release, which I believe comes from a Toho 2008 Hi-Vision transfer) are soft in detail, weak in contrast and barely even look HD. No significant restoration work appears to have been done. 

DVD releases of the film look the same as the Blu-rays, as they seem to use the same Toho-derived sources, with one exception. The German DVD release from Splendid Film transferred a German-language print with the localized title, "Godzilla Kehrt Zurück" (Godzilla Comes Back) The image looks better than anything derived from a Toho source, even on Blu-ray. Contrast is superior, visuals have better detail and more of the frame can be seen. Scratches and wear on this film print is more apparent. The source I used was already upscaled to 1080p, so grain may look a little larger than a true HD source would show. The Splendid Blu-ray uses a Toho transfer so it would not add anything helpful.

With only a few exceptions, only the title credits (2464 frames) and end credits (313 frames) differ between the Japanese and German versions in terms of visuals. The German version is a straight dub of the Japanese version, it does not add a portentous prologue, extra stock footage or a narrator who never shuts up as in the US version. So I removed the German book-ends and replaced them with the Japanese book-ends from the Criterion Blu-ray. I also removed the Criterion Collection and Janus Film logos (504 frames). There were some missing frames in the Splendid DVD, I am not sure whether these were cuts made by the original German producers back in the 1950s or frames missing from the print Splendid used. I added back in these shots from the Criterion Blu-ray and tweaked most of them for contrast and brightness so they would blend in a little better with the Splendid footage. Then I synced the Japanese audio from the Criterion to the video. Finally I synced up the Criterion subtitles. I made a few spelling fixes to the subtitles, so I have included the .srt file as well as muxing in the fixed subtitles.

Exceptions/Missing Footage:

1.  The close-up shot (253 frames) of the radio operator's hand pressing the telegraph key to transmit the message near the beginning of the film is not present on the Splended film DVD, maybe because it had Japanese subtitles on the print. The US version had a textless version of this shot. 

2.  There were 24 frames missing around the reel change marks from reels 5 to 6, which shows part of the car chase sequence between the convicts and the pilots and police.

3.  There were 33 frames of buildings on fire missing after the shot where Godzilla fires his atomic ray at Anguirus.

4.  The superimposed snow falling effect when Kobayashi leaves the Hokkaido fishing office is slightly different in the Japanese version compared to foreign releases. I restored the original Japanese effect, 272 frames.

5.  There were 142 frames showing the soldiers running back to their landing boat after Godzilla begins to get out of the ice after the first plane attack.

6.  There were 414 frames missing when the jets attack Godzilla and he causes one to crash by using his atomic breath.

With these frames added back in, the audio from the Criterion syncs properly to the visuals. Only about 3.3% of the frames in this video file come from the Criterion Blu-ray, the rest are from the Splendid DVD.

I wish I could get rid of the copyright text at the end, which would not have been seen in 1955, but such removal is far beyond my poor skill. There are also two frames in the final shot of the Splendid print that are just black but I did not replace them with the equivalent Criterion frames due to differences in the framing, contrast and quality.

Thanks to Kubota/SpaceHunterM for his YouTube videos about the German titles and the cue marks, which helped me track down some of the missing frames. Also thanks is required of the upscaler of the German version, which you can find here: https://archive.org/details/godzilla-raids-again-german-theatrical-version-1080-p

One eventually hopes that this small effort will be supplanted by a proper Toho restoration, but until then this may be the best looking Japanese version of Godzilla Raids Again around.

This effort was challenging enough, I do not think I could manage a Gigantis the Fire Monster restoration. That version is a significantly more complex edit.