Mechagodzilla

Mechagodzilla Mechagodzilla is a fictional character from various films in the Godzilla series, introduced in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974). It is Godzilla's mechanical doppelganger and one of the most popular Toho kaiju.

Shōwa series Second Shōwa Mechagodzilla in Terror of Mechagodzilla.The first Mechagodzilla was created as a weapon of destruction by a race of ape-like aliens, sometimes known as Simeons or the Black Hole aliens(See: Alien races from the Godzilla films).

It first appeared in a pseudo-flesh outer covering, masquerading as the real Godzilla during attacks against Japan in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Curiously, while the Simeons gave Mechagodzilla a flamethrower in his mouth to mimic Godzilla's atomic beam, they didn't bother replicating Godzilla's unique roar. Godzilla's dinosaur friend Anguirus wasn't fooled by the impostor. Their battle went badly for Anguirus, but tipped humanity off to the charade.

Soon the true Godzilla appeared and exposed his rival's metallic form completely. Interestingly, after losing its disguise, Mechagodzilla's fingers lost all mobility. (No explanation for this was ever given.) The battle resulted in a tie, however, and in the end it took the combined might of Godzilla and King Caesar to remove Mechagodzilla's head from its shoulders, ending the threat.

The Simeons rebuilt their dreadnought for another try in Terror of Mechagodzilla one year later. Having learned the value of teamwork firsthand, the Simeons called in an old debt to pair Mechagodzilla with the aquatic dinosaur Titanosaurus. (Any reasoning as to why they did not bother to recruit Titanosaurus in the first film is never mentioned, though they may have simply thought that Mechagodzilla was more than a match for Godzilla in the first place, making the extra help unnecessary.)

This time, there were some modifications to it, including moving Mechagodzilla's brain down into its neck so it could function unimpaired with its head completely removed. Godzilla's perseverance combined with the timely self-sacrifice of Mechagodzilla's operator brought the machine down for good. The King of the Monsters buried Mechagodzilla's shattered form deep underground to prevent another repair job, and since this was the final film of the original Godzilla series, he was successful.

The original Mechagodzilla is the only one to be referred to by numerics within the movies themselves. When it is rebuilt in its second appearance, the "MG" emblazoned on its arm has a "2" added to it. It is still always referred to as simply "Mechagodzilla"; none of the versions are actually given numbers by the characters in the movie, since none of them share the same continuity.

Arsenal Showa Mechagodzilla has armour constructed out of a mysterious alloy known as "Space Titanium." It is also equipped with a staggering amount of firepower.

Mechagodzilla is capable of firing a rainbow coloured optical laser that seems to be equal in power to Godzilla's atomic breath- its head can rotate 360 degrees, allowing the robotic reptile to shoot down an opponent that might attempt to approach from behind. Spinning its head at high speed allows Mechagodzilla to raise a forcefield. When disguised as Godzilla, MG could fire a heat ray from his mouth. Curiously, after the disguise was destroyed, MG never used the heat ray again.

Showa MG is also equipped with powerful missiles in its fingers, knees, mouth, and even its toes. These missiles can explode on contact with a target, or they may lodge in the flesh of an enemy like darts. Located under a hatch in MG's chest is a weapon that fires a jagged orange energy beam with enough slicing power to cut a mountain in half. Showa Mechagodzilla is no slouch in close combat either, as evidenced in its combat against King Caesar, and finally, Mechagodzilla can fly via rockets in its feet a back.

[edit] Video game appearances The Shōwa Mechagodzilla appears in the video games Godzilla: Monster of Monsters for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Godzilla for the Game Boy, Super Godzilla for the Super Nintendo, Godzilla for TTI Duo, Godzilla Generations for the Sega Dreamcast and Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact for the Sega Dreamcast.

Since the VS MechaGodzilla's film had not appeared in America yet, the localization team of game designers for Super Godzilla changed the character to the more-familiar Shōwa MechaGodzilla for the American version. Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters for the Super Nintendo was a cancelled game that would have featured the Shōwa Mechagodzilla.

Mechagodzilla and Mechagodzilla II appear in Godzilla: Save the Earth for Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 but Pipeworks got them mixed up so the first one is labelled as Mechagodzilla II and Mechagodzilla II is labelled as Mechagodzilla III.

[edit] VS series VS Mechagodzilla in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. Super Mechagodzilla .The VS Mechagodzilla was created by the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center using Futurian technology scavenged from the remains of Mecha-King Ghidorah in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II.

When Godzilla attacked the city of Kyoto, Mechagodzilla was deployed against him. The mechanical kaiju acquitted itself well, but was eventually defeated due to a voltage backsurge during their electrocution of Godzilla. One of Mechagodzilla's back-up pilots, Kazuma Aoki, suggested merging Mechagodzilla to a previous anti-Godzilla weapon. Namely, the airship Garuda, originally deemed a design failure and shelved in preference to Mechagodzilla.

Kazuma, in fact the chief designer and main pilot of Garuda to start with, found some personal redemption as his idea is approved. The combined form of the two mechs, dubbed Super Mechagodzilla, is unleashed against the King of the Monsters and Fire Rodan. In the heat of battle, Kazuma personally detaches Garuda and flies against Fire Rodan while the other Mechagodzilla crew continue against Godzilla. Kazuma is defeated, but manages to reattach the Garuda to Mechagodzilla to form Super Mechagodzilla. Super Mechagodzilla proceeds to destroy Godzilla's own reptilian secondary brain and moves in for the kill. Fire Rodan reappears, but is killed by a blast from Super Mechagodzilla. Upon dying, Fire Rodan's body dissolves, releasing the radioactive energy within its body and healing Godzilla's injuries. When Godzilla rises, its level of radioactivity is so high that Super Mechagodzilla's artificial diamond coating, which allowed it to return Godzilla's atomic breath, begins to melt. As a result, Super Mechagodzilla is rendered defenseless against the revived monster. Godzilla, temporarily supercharged with radiation, destroys the mech with a blood-red version of his atomic beam. Super Mechagodzilla's crew escape uninjured.

[edit] Arsenal Heisei Mechagodzilla is protected by an armor plating made from an alloy called NT-1, which is coated in a layer of artificial diamond. The coating allows it to absorb energy from Godzilla's atomic breath, which is then transferred to its ultimate weapon, the Plasma Grenade, which is located on its waist. Mechagodzilla was also able to absorb energy from Rodan's heat beam. Heisei Mechagodzilla also possesses laser cannons in its eyes and mouth. It can fire tranquilizer missiles from its hips, paralysis missiles from the shoulders, and shock anchor cables from its wrists, enabling the robot to deliver powerful electrical charges in a struck opponent - this was later modified into a weapon called the "G-Crusher".

Finally, Mechagodzilla can attach to the warship Garuda. Upon doing so it gains Garuda's powerful maser cannons as well as the ability to hover above the ground by using Garuda's massive engines to achieve lift. This version is known as "Super Mechagodzilla".

[edit] Video Game Appearances The VS Mechagodzilla appeared in the video games Super Godzilla for the Super Nintendo, Godzilla: Domination! for Game Boy Advance, Godzilla: Save the Earth for Microsoft Xbox and Sony PlayStation 2 and Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee for Xbox, Nintendo GameCube.

VS Mechagodzilla was removed from the English version of Super Godzilla in favor for the more-known Shōwa Mechagodzilla. This was due to the fact that at the time of the game's release, the new Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla film had not been released on American shores.

[edit] Millennium series Millennium Mechagodzilla in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S..The Millennium Mechagodzilla first featured in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (Godzilla X MechaGodzilla in Japan), nicknamed Kiryu, was also a purely terrestrial creature.

Although the original Godzilla had been killed in 1954 by the Oxygen Destroyer, Japan still found itself under attack from other monsters such as Mothra over the decades. When a second Godzilla appeared in 1999, this was the last straw. The Anti-Megalosaurus Force (AMF) division of the Japan Xenomorph Self Defense Force (JXSDF) proposed a shocking plan. What better way to defeat Godzilla than this: dredge up the skeleton of the first Godzilla from Tokyo Bay and use it as a skeleton/framework for constructing a Mechagodzilla?

Cloned DNA from the bones was also inserted into the quasi-organic control computers, intended to take over subconscious motor control functions for the crew. By 2003, the metal monster was ready. Mechagodzilla was unleashed, but the cyborg's latent memories were reawakened by Godzilla's own roars. Mechagodzilla broke free of its pilot, Akane Yashiro, and proceeded to trash the city (manual overrides being ignored) without Godzilla's help for a couple of hours until its fuel ran out.

The Japanese public was not amused. Hastily recalled, Mechagodzilla received quite a few weapon upgrades in addition to new computer control software routines. When Godzilla attacked again a few days later, both branches of the JSDF tried stopping him without the steel dragon's help, but it was useless. With Akane at the ROV controls again, Mechagodzilla was sent out.

The second battle went well until Mechagodzilla's receiver was damaged. Akane wanted to enter Mechagodzilla and affect repairs personally, despite being orderted not to. She then piloted the cyborg directly from its skull, carrying Godzilla out into the bay once more. Akane tried to destroy Godzilla with Mechagodzilla's ultimate weapon, the "Absolute Zero Cannon", but the fight ended in a draw. Godzilla went back to the sea (though not before suffering a horribly shredded chest) and Mechagodzilla went back to the body shop after suffering a destroyed right arm, damaged Absolute Zero system, and empty powercells.

Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., taking place one year later, saw Akane sent to America for further flight training. Taking her place in case Godzilla appeared was Akiba, but Mechagodzilla engineer Yoshito Chujo is the human focus of the film.

Mothra's twin fairies, the shobijin, appear to warn Japan. They claim that building Mechagodzilla using the real bones was a violation of the natural order of things, sure to keep attracting the current Godzilla. The twins also claimed that Mothra would gladly take Mechagodzilla's place in protecting Japan if they agreed to dismantle the mechanical beast. Since Mechagodzilla had been built partially to defend against a second attack from Mothra herself, the Japanese declined at first.

But when Godzilla did appear and Mothra voluntarily engaged him, Prime Minister Hayato Igarishi was shamed into aiding her. Mechagodzilla flew into battle again. Despite this, the current adult Mothra was killed and Mechagodzilla's transmitter damaged once again. Just like Akane before him, Yoshito entered Mechagodzilla for repairs, but remained inside the mech during the battle after Godzilla's beam had accidentally struck one of the hatch doors jamming it.

Teaming up with the newly-hatched twin Mothra larvae, Mechagodzilla was able to use his drill (right arm) and injured Godzilla's chest even more. While Godzilla screamed in pain, Mechagodzilla fired his Three Hyper laser at Godzilla, making Godzilla roar to show Mechagodzilla his flash back to Yoshito. Godzilla was then wrapped up by the twin Mothra larvae web. Unable to fight, Godzilla dropped to the ground, making Mechagodzilla win the battle. Mechagodzilla broke free of Akiba control. Instead of killing Godzilla, it merely subdued him, carrying Godzilla out to sea. After releasing Yoshito to safety, Mechagodzilla plunged into the depths with its captive and was never seen again. This marked the first time that Mechagodzilla was able to defeat Godzilla decisively by the end of a Godzilla film without Godzilla coming back to destroy him.

Mechagodzilla was intended to return in the next film, Godzilla: Final Wars. But with so many monsters being revived for the film, each with new looks, the budget costs were enormous. So too was time needed to squeeze all these kaiju into one film. Toho Studios finally nixed Mechagodzilla completely from the movie.

Arsenal This version of Mechagodzilla is sleeker then previous versions. While Showa and Heisei Mechagodzilla are constructed of fictional alloys, it is never specified what Kiryu's armor is made out of. It is the first MechaGodzilla to include organic parts, built from the skeleton of the original Godzilla and using Godzilla DNA in its computer system.

Kiryu is a well balanced machine, and the most agile Mechagodzilla to date, moving with a fluid, almost organic grace. Kiryu is equipped with an Oral Maser Cannon, and when sent into battle, is equipped with a flight back, a pair of shoulder mounted missile pods and two arm mounted laser cannons. This extra equipment can be jettisoned, or even launched at an opponent, in the case of the flight pack and missile pods. It's hand can also turn into a drill, which almost killed godzilla.

Kiryu's most devastating weapon is the Absolute Zero Cannon, (a weapon also utilised by the Gotengo.) It fires a beam at a temperature of absolute zero (or the temperature at which the particles of a substance stop moving completely, 0 Kelvins), which freezes the target on impact, allowing it to be easily shattered. This weapon was replaced by a Triple Hyper Maser Cannon in Tokyo SOS when it proved to be too expensive to repair.

Notes When Kiryu is evil godzilla, Kiryu's eyes are red, yet when it becomes good, it develops a scar without the red eyes.

Video Game Appearances The Millennium Mechagodzilla appeared in the video game Godzilla: Save the Earth for Xbox and PlayStation 2. This would be Kiryu's first and to date only appearance on Playstation 2 so far in the United States.

Kiryu was available in Japan's version of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee on the Nintendo GameCube. Since that film would take a few years to reach U.S. shores, Kiryu was dropped from the American version of the game. He did appear in the American Xbox version of the game as alongside VS Mechagodzilla.