Anguirus (FW)

The Millennium Anguirus アンギラス (Angirasu) is a mutated Ankylosaurus created by Toho that first appeared in the 2004 film Godzilla: Final Wars.

Name
The original English name given to Anguirus by Toho was "Angilas", given the pronunciation of the name in Japan, which was changed to Anguirus in the 1959 American release of Godzilla Raids Again, with the film's title being changed to Gigantis, the Fire Monster. In the mid-1990's, Toho copyrighted the revised name "Anguirus," making it official.

Appearance
Anguirus is a four-legged dinosaur-like creature that combines the features of an Ankylosaurus, a Styracosaurus, and a crocodile. He has several horns at the top of his head and a single rhino-like horn above his nose. His face is elongated with a long snout bearing rows of jagged, serrated teeth and his carapace is studded with long, sharp spikes.

Anguirus' tail makes up most of his body's length, and is also covered with spikes. His hind limbs are longer than his forelimbs, enabling him to stand up on them to his full height, but he generally walks upon all fours. In Godzilla: Final Wars, Anguirus is jokingly referred to as an "armadillo," due to his ability to curl himself into a ball.

Roar
Anguirus common roar starts off as a loud shriek. In 2004 tiger growls were added.

Personality
Anguirus within the Millennium continuity is depicted similarly to his Showa counterpart, being shown as a very tenacious and fierce fighter, even against Godzilla who is much larger, and much more powerful than he and his allies are.

Origins
In Godzilla Raids Again, it is suggested that Anguirus is a relative of the dinosaur Ankylosaurus that lived around the same time as Godzilla. Like Godzilla, Anguirus managed to survive into the modern day by lying dormant somewhere, presumably underwater, before being awakened and irradiated by nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s. This origin is never discussed further or contradicted in subsequent films, including Final Wars.

Godzilla: Final Wars
Anguirus was under the control of the Xiliens and was sent to China and attacked Shanghai. He was attacked by the Karyu, but he proved too fast for it. He continued to fight against the humans, but he was recalled by the Xiliens on their commander's orders.

Once X killed the Controller and led the Xiliens himself, Anguirus was brought back to Shanghai, and destroyed the Karyu after slamming into it after curling up. After Godzilla was freed by the Gotengo in Antarctica, Anguirus was deployed to the Japanese countryside with Rodan and King Caesar by the Xilien UFOs α, ß and γ, and waited to encounter Godzilla.

When Godzilla arrived, Anguirus almost immediately curled up into a ball and tried to ram Godzilla, but Godzilla used this to his advantage, kicking Anguirus into King Caesar and Rodan. After successfully knocking all three monsters unconscious, Godzilla stacked them into a pile and continued to follow the Gotengo to Tokyo.

Roll attack
These games also introduced his "rolling" attack, which was later incorporated in his appearance in Godzilla: Final Wars. In the former game, Anguirus' rage attack involves him charging his spikes with some undefined energy, then jumping far up into the air, shooting them off while performing multiple flips. In the latter, it is simply a more powerful variant of his rolling attack.

Sonic roar
In the video games Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, Godzilla: Save the Earth and Godzilla: Unleashed, Anguirus is finally given a "sonic roar", a roar which is loud enough to hurt monsters and destroy military weapons. It can also destroy, and even pass right through, buildings and rocks.

In Other Languages

 * Basque: Erraldoien
 * Serbian: Ангуирус
 * Yiddish: אַנגוירוס
 * Russian: Ангирус
 * Chinese: 安吉拉斯

Trivia

 * Before his appearance in Godzilla: Final Wars, Toho planned to use Anguirus twice in the Millennium series and once in the Heisei series. First, he was supposed to appear in Godzilla vs. Ghost Godzilla, which was supposed to be the last film in the Heisei series. In the Millennium series, he first was one of the Guardian Monsters, the God of the Sea, in Godzilla X Varan, Baragon and Anguirus: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, the original version of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. He was cut when Toho decided they could make a larger profit if they replaced him for a more popular : Mothra. Again, in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., he was originally the monster found washed up dead on the beach with a large neck wound received from Godzilla. However, Toho replaced him with Kamoebas out of concerns that fans would take offense to such an appearance.
 * A scene in Godzilla: Final Wars of Godzilla destroying Rodan, Anguirus, and King Caesar was not filmed, making Anguirus one of the only five surviving monsters at the end of Final Wars. The film originally had Godzilla destroy the three monsters. Interestingly enough, the three monsters who were spared were all allies with Godzilla in the past.
 * Due to limitations of the costume's design to accomodate a stuntman Angurius seems to walk on his knees at times (though this is not the case in his animated and video game depictions).
 * During early production of the Godzilla vs. Ghost Godzilla in 1995, Anguirus was originally planned to appear, but due to fact that Godzilla fought against creatures that simply resembled him, the project was dropped and Anguirus didn't appear in another Godzilla film until 2004. Even though Anguirus didn't appear in the Heisei era, there is concept art commissioning on how he would have looked like.

Poll
Do you like Anguirus? Yes! No. Kind of.