The Twenty-fifth Bout-- It's Gojira!!!!

So, if you have been keeping up with this blof, you know that I'm a sucker for monster flicks... So, why not honor the campy Japaneseyness of the king of monsters?
That's right boys and girls, it's Godzilla!

Now, Godzilla and the monsters he fights are all owned by the Toho company in Japan so I'll start by giving you a run down of the beast and his opponents/allies...

First of (of course) is Godzilla, or Gojira in Japan.  The first movie to include the monster was the 1954 Japanese film Godzilla.  He has been in 28 films and numerous video games and comic books and has become a world wide pop culture icon.  Godzilla began as a horrible destructive monster that was the outcome of huge amounts of radiation and began as a metaphor for nuclear weapons and radiation.  However, later on he became a hero, fighting other radiated and space creatures.  In the later incarnations he went back into being the destructive monster he began as.  When he went to become a hero, his face structure changed away from the feral structure it began as.  He also went from being the grey he began as to green, however, his most recent style made him grey again.  He's a prehistoric creature that gained his size and powers due to atomic weapons.  His primary power is atomic breath, which is a super powerful heat ray, he also is resistant to pain and has advanced healing along with super strength and the ability to use martial arts.  He can also stay underwater for indefinite periods of time and can also fight underwater.  There were three eras of the Godzilla films, the Showa, Heisei and Millennium eras, this photo shows all three...
 
In 1998, an American film version of the movie was made that followed nearly none of the trends of looks of the Japanese versions... the creature was taken and put into one of the Toho films, however, he was named simply Zilla and was a completely separate character.  The American Zilla doesn't have atomic breath, but instead "power breath" which consists of strong bursts of wind when he roars.  Zilla also isn't as strong as Godzilla but is much faster, he is also much more animal like and will not intentionally attack or damage anything unless provoked.  It also can reproduce asexually.


My next creature in the long long list of Godzilla kaiju is Anguirus.  He first appeared in 1955 in the film Godzilla Raids Again.  Anguirus is four-legged and resembles an Ankylosaurus and has five brains, one in his head and one above each limb.  Anguirus doesn't have many powers but does have claws and teeth and spikes all used as weapons.  Later in the series he can roll himself into a ball and attack opponents like that, he is also incredibly fast and can jump tremendous distances.  Even though he started as an opponent to Godzilla, he later became one of his allies.  He has appeared in many of the films, they include Godzilla Raids Again, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla's Revenge, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, and Godzilla Final Wars.  He is one of Godzilla fan's favorite monsters.

Next up is King Kong, ironically.  Now we know King Kong is an American movie monster but he DID go up against Godzilla in a few films.  Unlike the American King Kong, kaiju King Kong was taller, incredibly strong and intelligent and grew stronger when injected with electricity, he could then release the electricity in a shock attack.


Mothra is the next kaiju in line.  Mothra is generally always a hero, she's a protector of the Earth and generally also an enemy of Godzilla (due to his hatred of people), but is sometimes an ally.  Mothra's first film was the 1961 film Mothra and has since appeared in many Godzilla films.  Mothra generally dies when her larvae hatch from their egg state and she can fertilize her own eggs.  Mothra is generally kind and hardly causes destruction unless it's on accident or necessary.  Monthra has a silk spray in some of her forms, otherwise her fighting style involves bitting and scratching, beam weapons and poison gas, he is also psychic and can communicate with humans or attack enemies psychically.  Mothra is also generally always accompanied by fairies that many times talk for her.  Mothra has appeared in many many Godzilla and non-Godzilla films including Mothra, Godzilla vs. Mothra, Ghidorah, the Three-headed Monster, Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth, Monster Planet of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Rebirth of Mothra, Godzilla Island, Rebirth of Mothra II, Rebirth of Mothra III, Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., and Godzilla: Final Wars.


Next up is King Ghidorah, Godzilla's arch-nemesis and the most powerful kaiju in the series.  He has been in the most films and Godzilla usually requires an ally before facing Ghidorah.  He first appeared in Ghidorah, the Three-headed Monster in 1964 and required two allies for Godzilla to finally defeat him.  Ghidorah has three heads, two tails, giant bat wings and is golden.  Ghidorah can shoot gravity beams from his mouth that resemble lightning and he can shoot lightning from his wings.  He's able to use his gravity beams to draw and repel opponents, and can also shoot fire blasts, he also has golden armor.  He can create hurricane winds with his wings and absorb life forces from enemies and can at times create magnetic fields.


One of the two allies Godzilla needed in order to defeat the monstrous Ghidorah was Rodan.  Rodan started out as Godzilla's enemy, however, is mostly one of his best allies, along with Anguirus.  Rodan has chest spikes that he can use as weapons, he started as one of the fastest kaiju but is now one of the slowest, he can, however, emit sonic blasts from his body.  Rodan can also put his life force into others by dying.  Rodan's first appearance was in the 1956 film Rodan, however, he went onto appear in many other Godzilla films such as, Ghidorah, the Three-headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-monster, Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Terror of Mechagodzilla, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, and Godzilla Final Wars.

The next kaiju to be included in a Godzilla feature was Ebirah.  Ebirah is a sea monster used by the terrorist group Red Bamboo to protect their island.


Here is where I take a break and really examine how much of a nerd I am... I'm actually doing an entire post on Godzilla and will probably just go through and list all of the kaiju.  I'm okay with this, one of the main reasons I wanted to do this is so I could get a good definitive list of the kaiju with decent photos.  I hope you actually appreciate it and comment on the blog, I wanna hear some Godzilla fans. ANYWAY...

Back to business... another kaiju is the Giant Condor, however, I'm going to skip him and go onto Kamacuras, who is a giant mantis.  Kamacuras attempted to eat a baby Godzilla before Godzilla stopped them.  They only appear in Son of Godzilla, Godzilla's Revenge, Godzilla vs. Gigan, and Godzilla: Final Wars.




Another kaiju introduced in Son of Godzilla was Kumonga.  Kumonga is a giant spider who can shoot webbing from his mouth.  The webbing can expand into a net also.  He is very resilient, being able to withstand multiple atomic blasts from Godzilla.  He is a wonderful jumper and has sharp, sword-like legs that can slash up enemies.   He has appeared in every Godzilla film that Kamacuras has.

Minilla is commonly known as the son of Godzilla, and was born when Kamacuras cracked open his egg prematurely.  It's not known whether or not Minilla is Godzilla's actual, biological son, however, Godzilla generally trains and takes care of him like his own son.  Minilla is very friendly with humans and is small, pudgy and human-like himself.  Minilla is generally afraid of other monsters, however, is courageous when protecting someone.  He can breath atomic smoke rings, and eventually learns an actual atomic ray from Godzilla, he can communicate with Godzilla over long distances using brainwaves over radio signals  and can shrink down to human size.  He appears in the films Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, All Monsters Attack, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla: Final Wars.

Baragon is the next monster to appear in the Godzilla series.  He first appeared in the film Frankenstein Conquers the World (1964).  He is a giant dinosaur monster that burrows underground and can shoot a flame blast from his mouth.  He has a horn in the center of his head and giant ears.  The suit used for Baragon was eventually used to create many other monsters in other Japanese TV shows, so a lot of the time, other monsters replaced Baragon but kept his traits and confused viewers.



One of the monsters used in replacement of Baragon was Gorosaurus.  He doesn't have any specially abilities or powers and is just a generic dinosaur.  In one film he was given Baragon's burrowing ability, however he generally just kicks and bites.  He appeared in King Kong Escapes, Destroy All Monsters, All Monsters Attack, Godzilla vs. Gigan, and Ike! Godman.

Next is Varan, he has skin flaps between his arms and legs that allow him to fly much like a flying squirrel, he doesn't really have any special abilities other than flying at Mach 1.5 and his protective spikes.   


Hedorah is another opponent of Godzilla and is generally known as the smog monster.  Hedorah is an alien smog cloud that fell to Earth as spores and started to feed on Earth's pollution, and eventually took to form of Hedorah.  Hedorah was capable of reducing the Earth to a wasteland, when fighting Godzilla, Godzilla was frequently injured.  Hedorah is considered one of Godzilla's most challenging opponents.  He can change his shape and form to fit a situation, with this he can move from water to land and even fly.  Attacks can pass right through Hedorah, an atomic blast did very little to him and if any bit of him was still intact he could repair himself by consuming pollution.  He can shoot lazer beams from his eyes and lob acidic bits of himself at his enemies to eat away at them, in his flying form he can release a sulphuric gas that can dissolve organisms.  Hedorah was also used on the Frank Zappa album cover for the album Sleep Dirt.

Gigan is another kaiju first appearing in Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972).  Gigan is generally very violent, destructive and brutal.  He has two hooks for arms and a buzz-saw in his abdomen.  Gigan was sent to Earth many times by alien races, and generally abandons whatever ally he has.  Gigan can grab and stab enemies with his hook arms and they can sometimes release an explosion on impact.  Gigan has retractable wings that allow him to fly up to Mach 3, he can sometimes teleport, he can use his buzz-saw to attack and can shoot grappling hooks from under his arm hooks to pull enemies into his buzz-saw.  He also has a scatter eye beam.   


Jet Jaguar is a robot that appears in Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973), and was created destroy, however, eventually gains sentience and helps Godzilla face both Gigan and Megalon.

Now Megalon.  Megalon is the god of an undersea race.  He first appears in the 1973 film Godzilla vs. Megalon,  the film is generally seen as horrible and is considered one of the worse films in the kaiju genre. The film was used a lot on Mystery Science Theatre 3000.




King Caesar is another kaiju to appear in the Godzilla series.  He looks like a mixture of a lion, a dog and a reptile and has a row of gems on his head that are probably used to absorb sunlight.  The creature looks entirely organic, however, he's nearly all mechanical.  He has an organic brain, however, he's nearly all mechanical, in order to awaken King Caesar, a member of a royal family must sing an activation song.  He is incredibly fast and agile, and can redirect energy attacks that are shot at him.  King Caesar only appears in the films Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, Terror of Mechagodzilla and Godzilla Final Wars.

Mechagodzilla is the robotic version of Godzilla and is also one of his most challenging opponents.  Mechagodzilla is made of a nearly indestructible metal and is packed with huge amounts of firepower.  He has flame-throwers, beam attacks, and missiles.  He can absorb attacks and shoot in multiple directions at once.  Mechagodzilla's appearance and weaponry frequently change throughout the three eras of Godzilla films.  He also has sentience and is not controlled by anyone.  He is perhaps one of Godzilla's most popular opponents.

Titanosaurus is an ally of Mechagodzilla, even though he doesn't have more than biting and punching, he can cause massive wind attacks and whirlpools with his powerful fan tail.

Next up is Biollante.  Biollante is a mutated rose that was infused with Godzilla's DNA.  She can grapple with vines and inject a corrosive acid in her enemies.  She has thorn spears on the end of her vines and can spit massive amounts of acid from her mouth and can fly into space to regenerate.  She appeared in Godzilla vs Biollante in 1989 and never again in the Godzilla franchise.  

Battra is another kaiju that appeared in the 1992 film Godzilla vs Mothra.  Battra is basically an evil Mothra, he has the ability to fly in his adult form and the ability to swim and burrow in his larval form.  In larval form he could use his horn as a battering ram and shoot electricity from it.  In adult form his horn morphs into three smaller horns and he gains optic beams.

SpaceGodzilla was a modified clone of Godzilla.  He has only appeared in the film Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla from 1994.  SpaceGodzilla has more or less every ability that Godzilla has but he can control gravity, he can use gravity beams and gets his power from cosmic energy.  He can encase himself in crystals that give him flight, his tail is incredibly strong and he can track Godzilla.



Another kaiju that is seen as one of Godzilla's most powerful opponents is Destoroyah.  Destoroyah was able to withstand Godzilla's attacks and force the king of monsters to fight to his peak power, many times winning.  Destoroyah is made up of many microscopic organisms and can adapt and regenerate.  He can shoot a ray from his mouth that can vaporize anything in it's way, the horn on it's head can also shoot a beam blade that can cut through anything.

Then comes Orga, who is an imperfect clone of Godzilla, and Megaguirus who is the queen of a species of primordial giant insects, and Kamoebas, which is a giant turtle mutated by a space amoeba.
 

Well, there it is, there were some I forgot and feel free to call me out on them if you want to (I encourage you to), but I hope this post was fun and interesting (even if you don't like Godzilla).  Sorry if I didn't get in depth enough, but like I said, I wanted to make a good list of the Godzilla kaiju and I feel like this one is fairly solid.

Anyway, be good, have fun and I'll see you on the next one...

Hasta la vista!