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THE MANSTER isn't a Toho film; in fact, it was only produced *in* Japan, by George Breakston & Ray Stahl (or *was* Stahl involved in it?), who was an American, I think, or else British. The English is spoken, not dubbed, and as far as I know, there was no separate Japanese-spoken version of it filmed. The version most lately shown on TV (& probably on video) has some additional, steamier material in the bathhouse scene, and a longer, talkier ending from the US release.

BODY SNATCHER FROM HELL, I think is also from another studio, Toei possibly, or Daiei.

GOJIRA/GODZILLA. I actually prefer the Americanized version, tho that may be because it's the one I saw over & over as a kid, and I find the original Japanese version somewhat slower and diverted by the additional romantic-triangle material, which is the bulk of what got cut out. Also missing are some pointed jabs at American postwar policies towards Japan & atomic testing, which would've rendered the film unmarketable in the US had they been left in. IMO, the film wouldn't've had a chance over here uncut and subtitled (in fact, it apparently *was* shown in that format originally, but never got beyond the 'Chinatown' theatres of the west & east coasts) or dubbed, because a) SF wasn't considered an artfilm genre at the time; b) Burr's presence kept the otherwise (at that time) utterly alien-seeming culture of Japan from overwhelming the average viewer and c) Burr acted as a sort-of psychological buffer against anti-Japanese sentiments which simply the setting and other principal cast of the film might have aroused in many of our Veteran-fathers only 10 years after war's end (Jeez, just remember the 80s & early 90s, the anti-Japanese sentiment still being expressed then, in the face of their rise to economic superiority at the time). GODZILLA got our feet wet and our appetites whetted for more Japanese "monster spectacles", wholly dubbed & untampered with, and I'm not sure that would've happened otherwise.

HALF HUMAN probably contains 40% of the original Japanese footage. The original film remains unseen, because it's been banned by the Japanese government. Turns out the "Mountain Tribe" depicted (as a generally uncivilized and physically degenerate group), actually openly referred to a Japanese ethnic group and so the film has been shoved away as offensive and prejudiced. No evidence anyone's considering lifting the ban, even for export purposes.

THE MYSTERIANS has always seemed to me to have surely been inspired by the Republic Commando Cody/Larry Martin serials (1953-55), at least insofar as those great big horizontal, slow-moving rockets of the United Earth Forces. It's also got a helluva music score.

With the exception of MATANGO, I find that Japanese SF & horror - at least, that which got commercially shown in the US - deteriorated rapidly at Toho, helped along no small bit by the other studios which tried to get into the act. Mainly producing Godzilla sequels, Toho seemed determined to make the monster into a clown, and appear to have just reused the same rubber suit picture after picture, with the material getting flabbier and more desicated with each passing year. HUMAN VAPOR and SECRETS OF THE TELEGIAN are passibly enjoyable, but seem mostly remakes of H-MAN; while BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE shows signs of having been a sequel to THE MYSTERIANS that got waylayed and watered down and, together with GORATH, feature fairly uninspiring visual effects built largely around big, shiny plastic spaceship models.

To-ho, To-ho, it's off to bed I go...