Know Your Monster: 19
MEGALON
Megalon has stirred more controversy than other Godzilla foes. On the one hand, he has an ardent following — his popularity leading to his appearance in a long string of Godzilla video games. But Megalon made only one screen appearance, in 1973’s Godzilla Vs. Megalon, and many Godzillaphiles sneer at that picture for good cause.
It wasn’t originally meant to be a Godzilla movie at all, but instead a sci-fi thriller pitting Megalon against an Ultraman wannabe, Jet Jaguar. After the first screen tests turned out poorly, the production was shut down and nearly scrapped, until the producers hit upon a scheme to salvage their work by adding Godzilla as a tag-team partner to Jet Jaguar, and also giving Megalon an accomplice — Gigan. A few new Godzilla scenes were quickly cranked out, and also lots of footage inserted from older movies. The end results are mixed and uneven, some decent battles, but a somewhat convoluted plotline.
Megalon himself is a high point — a shiny, iridescent, mutant creature who most closely resembles a cockroach, but also exhibits attributes lifted from beetles and even owls. One standout trait: In place of arms, Megalon has drills allowing him to burrow rapidly into the Earth. This isn’t surprising because he’s the guardian monster for the Seatopians, an undersea city whose residents have grown angry with the human race over nuclear weapons testing. They dispatch Megalon to attack Tokyo. He has a deep arsenal, being able to fire lightning bolts and to drop napalm bombs stored in his mouth. He can swim as well as fly, and jump high to escape whenever he’s in danger.
Watch the original Japanese trailer for the 1973 film.
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Tomorrow’s featured monster: Minilla
Just when the Godzilla franchise was running out of steam, Toho Studios devised an ingenious ruse to pump some fresh blood into the series. In 1974’s Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla, the Big G battles himself. Actually, this clone is a mechanical robot made up to masquerade as Godzilla by an alien race of apes (the Simians) intent upon conquering the world.
The atomic mutant spider Kumonga appears to have been inspired by the giant arachnid that ravaged the Arizona desert in the 1955 sci-fi thriller Tarantula (our March 8 Trillion Dollar Movie, see 
This is one of the few female movie monsters from Japan. She’s a prehistoric throwback, quarantined on Wester Island until a team of archaeologists removes a statue that’s kept her safely entombed for centuries. Released from captivity, Jiger wastes no time in attacking Japan, leveling Osaka and easily defeating the Japanese army. Nothing stands in her way except one determined, giant terrapin — Gamera.
Hedorah is the Japanese word for sludge or slime. Thus, it’s easy to understand why this kaiju is also known as “the Smog Monster.” An alien from Outer Space, the Hedorah feeds on pollution, the nastier the better. It whiffs the fumes straight off smokestacks and can swallow sulfuric acid without a chaser, spraying out a lethal mist that instantly destroys whole towns, factories, anything within its reach.
This monster is a ferocious flying fortress — part-bat and part-Pterodactyl. Much like the bat, the Gyaos (pronounced Gao-ess) is nocturnal and usually avoids daylight. But when forced to duel before dark, it can emit a fog-like gas to block out the sun. The Gyaos is a ghastly red hue, differing from most other Japanese movie monsters that are green, gray or brown. He’s also quite a screecher, capable of delivering a supersonic scream at three million hertz. Now, that hurts thinking about it!
Guiron is named after the Japanese word for “guillotine.” It’s a reference to his most lethal weapon — a giant blade attached to his forehead that’s nearly as long as his body. The blade is razor-sharp. In the 1969 movie Gamera Vs. Guiron, also known as Attack of the Monsters, he cuts right through the big turtle’s shell. He can also use the blade as a shield.
This monster from Outer Space is an energy hog. It will ingest any form of energy around — oil, coal and especially nuclear power. The more energy it ingests, the stronger it becomes. So do not attack it with atomic weapons or else you’ll only be increasing its ferocity. In fact, it’s hinted that if it soaks up enough energy, the Guilala might spin off hundreds, if not thousands of clone Guilala. We never see this happening in any of the Guilala movies, no doubt owing to the prohibitive costs associated with suiting up multiple Guilala.
Gorosaurus is probably the most straightforward of the Japanese movie monsters. He doesn’t shoot out atomic spitballs or fly using jet propulsion. He doesn’t have any fallback gimmicks. He’s just a big, lumbering dinosaur, but one with a vicious bite and a nasty leg kick, belonging to the same ferocious theropod group that includes Tyrannosaurus rex.
