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After I saw Pacific Rim, someone suggested I read Hiroshi Yamamoto's kaiju novel MM9. I did, and let me tell you, in some ways it is better than Pacific Rim.
The story takes place in the present. Ryo, Sakura, Yuri, Chief Kurihama and the others at Japan's Monsterological Measures Departmanet work night and day to protect the country from kaiju attacks. Unlike Pacific Rim, kaiju are fairly commonplace in this world; the MMD records an average of 200 new ones a year, and they've been showing up for decades if not centuries. In fact, they're actually somewhat benign; they usually don't mean any harm, but they're so big they can't help but cause trouble. Their size ties into each kaiju's Monster Magnitude rating, which is pretty much a measure of their destructive potential. The bigger they are, the higher the rating. An MM9 could potentially wield almost godlike power. No MM9 has ever been reported, but as you can probably tell by the title, that's about the change.
Now, you may be wondering: How do they deal with the kaiju that threaten everyone's livelihood? Do they use giant robots like in Pacific Rim and anime? Nope, they're stuck with conventional weaponry. It sounds weird, but MM9 is a more believable kaiju story. The Japanese SDF must consistently find a way to defeat the monsters using present technology. I like this, because it means the beasties aren't dispatched by simple brute force. Yamamoto really used his head, and so each kaiju threat plays out quite differently than the previous one.
I also like the characters. They're not battle-hardened warriors; they're just regular people trying to protect Japan from otherworldly dangers. From serious-but-likable Ryo, to wreckless youth Sakura, to motherly Yuri, to cranky Kurihama, the characters are adequately fleshed out.
However, the real stars of the novel are the multitude of supernatural creatures that Yamamoto thought up. You've got your garden-variety animals that grew large through unknown means, plant-based kaiju, radioactive flying kaiju, sentient yokai, and...well, I won't spoil the best ones. Suffice to say, this book is brimming with imagination.
Oh, and I can't forget the serious research that went into writing this novel. Yamamoto references a lot of scientific theories in the story. Are you familiar with the parallel anthropic principal? What about the law of causality? Do you know what a paradigm shift really is? You will, thanks to MM9. It's educational as well as entertaining.
So, in conclusion: This is a more realistic kaiju story, grounded in real science, and that's why I like it. If you're a kaiju fan, you absolutely must give this a read.
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