Ebirah

Ebirah is an enormous fictional giant shrimp (Sometimes incorrectly referred to as a lobster or crawfish) that was first featured in the 1966 movie Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (Ebirah: Horror of the Deep), and subsequently stared in All Monsters Attack (via stock footage) and 2004's Godzilla: Final Wars.

Showa Series
In the Showa era, there was an island owned by a terrorist organization called Red Bamboo. The radioactive wastes on the island mutated some of the animals living on it. One of them was a Giant Condor that was used by the organization to guard the skies. Ebirah was used to destroy any ship that came too close to the island. Ebirah was successful at this and no ship could reach the island. The Red Bamboo ships used a special extract from the island's fruit to protect themselves from Ebirah. When a small group of people stranded on the island saw Godzilla sleeping in a cave, they woke him so he could fight Ebirah. Godzilla easily won and injured the crustacean with the atomic breath. The day after, a Red Bamboo ship appeared, but they accidentally used a placebo and not the fruit extract. Ebirah attacked and tore the ship apart. Godzilla reappeared, but this time, Godzilla pulled off Ebirah's claws. Ebirah escaped and was not seen again until he appeared in Monster Island in Ichiro's dream. It could be that Ebirah moved to the island and befriended godzilla, or whether it was just a dream.

Godzilla: Final Wars
In the Millennium era, the titanic crustacean Ebirah makes an appearance in Godzilla: Final Wars as one of the many controlled monsters of the Xilians, a race of extraterrestrial beings from Planet X. It destroys a factory near Tokyo. The military forces try to destroy Ebirah, but the immense crustacean is too powerful, knocking over buildings in order to destroy tanks and resisting weaponry with its durable exoskeleton. But the mutant soldiers are called to stop the kaiju. The mutants successfully defeat Ebirah with specialized handheld maser cannons and were about to kill it, when it disappeared. The Xilians arrive and say that they destroyed the monsters to save Earth. However, it is soon found out that the monsters were controlled by the Xilians. The Gotengo then frees Godzilla from the Antarctic so he could fight the controlled kaiju. The plan is a success and Godzilla successfully defeats most of the kaiju. Then Ebirah and Hedorah are sent to destroy Godzilla in Tokyo bay. However, Godzilla blasts them out of the water with the atomic ray and the duo crash into a building, with Ebirah accidentally piercing Hedorah's large eye with his pincer. Godzilla then emerges from the waves and fires another atomic ray and defeats both Ebirah and Hedorah.

Other Appearances
Ebirah has been featured in the video games, Godzilla, King of the Monsters and Godzilla: Save the Earth as an additional non-playable kaiju.

Since Battra's playable appearance in the PS2 version of Godzilla: Unleashed, Ebirah has become the second most wanted playable kaiju in a Pipeworks/Atari Godzilla game, just after Hedorah, who had a non-playable appearance in Godzilla:Destroy all Monsters Melee.

Ebirah is playable in Godzilla Trading Battles.

Ebirah is now playable in Godzilla: A New Dawn.

Unmade Projects

 * Toho had first wanted Ebirah to be King Kong's (without the electrical wire cables, or conduction threads) enemy instead of Godzilla's but a rights problem caused Kong to be dropped and Toho replaced him with Godzilla without enhancing Ebirah.
 * Ebirah was also considered for Destroy All Monsters, but was dropped along with Maguma the giant walrus and replaced with the monsters Anguirus, Minya, and Gorosaurus.

Trivia

 * The monster's name is derived from the word ebi, which means "shrimp".
 * The version of Ebirah as seen in Godzilla: Final Wars is nearly killed by Ozaki and the other mutants' maser cannons, making Ebirah one of the few monsters to be defeated by humanity without the use of vehicles, bombs or super-weapons like the Oxygen Destroyer, or other kaiju.
 * Ebirah appears to regain his claws in Godzilla: Final Wars after being abducted by the Xillians, though it is possible that he was either healed by the Xillians, had the ability to regenerate, or was replaced by an entirely different Ebirah..
 * Ebirah was supposed to be in the PS2 version of Godzilla: Unleashed, but was replaced with Battra, most likely due to Ebirah having no special attacks.
 * In the original Destroy All Monsters, Ebirah was one of Godzilla's friends. However he was replaced by Anguirus, a more popular monster.
 * Ebirah is likely to appear in the upcoming 2011 Godzilla comic.