Ebirah

Ebirah エビラ (Ebira) is a giant lobster created by Toho that first appeared in the 1966 Godzilla series film, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.

Name
Ebirah's name is derived from the Japanese word ebi 海老, meaning shrimp, even though he's actually a lobster. The "ra" ラ part of Ebirah's name is a common suffix for names.

Appearance
Ebirah generally looks like a giant lobster. His body is red all throughout, and he has one pincer that is bigger than the other one. He also has two antennae and a giant nose-like shell piece. Ebirah additionally has multiple legs and multiple segments in his body, leading up to a normal lobster tail.

Ebirah, Horror of the Deep
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.

All Monsters Attack
Ebirah reappears on the sea near Monster Island alongside the Giant Condor in Ichiro's dream. He fights Godzilla briefly, and retreats back into the water after Godzilla defeats him.

Godzilla: Final Wars
Ebirah returned in Godzilla: Final Wars as one of the many controlled monsters of the Xiliens. 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 hand-held maser cannons and were about to kill it, when it disappeared. The Xiliens arrive and say that they destroyed the monsters to save Earth. However, it is soon found out that the monsters were controlled by the Xiliens. The Gotengo then frees Godzilla from Antarctica so he could fight the controlled. The plan is a success and Godzilla successfully defeats most of the. 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.

Abilities
Ebirah has no special powers, but he has strong claws and is an adept swimmer. Since Ebirah is a lobster, he could have the ability to regenerate his claws as well, but it's not seen.

Filmography

 * Ebirah, Horror of the Deep
 * All Monsters Attack (Stock Footage)
 * Godzilla: Final Wars

Video Game Appearances
Ebirah has been featured in the video games, Kaiju-Oh Godzilla and Godzilla: Save the Earth as an additional non-playable.
 * Kaiju-Oh Godzilla
 * Godzilla Trading Battle
 * Godzilla: Save the Earth
 * Godzilla: Kaiju Collection

Since Battra's playable appearance in the PlayStation 2 version of Godzilla: Unleashed, Ebirah has become the second most wanted playable in a Pipeworks/Atari Godzilla game, just after Hedorah, who had a non-playable appearance in Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters
Ebirah appears in Kodansya's Godzilla, King of the Monsters manga series, where he is modified by the evil Dr. Oniyama into Flying Ebirah to battle Godzilla.

Godzilla: Rulers of Earth
During the battle between King Caesar and Megalon, the island's natives caught between the two 's battle ran for cover, some escaping to the ocean. However, Varan and Ebirah started to devour any stragglers. Ebirah, Varan, Megalon and King Caesar all vanished as an alien ship crash landed into the ocean near by. Ebirah was later seen on the water monsters section of the mural on Infant Island.

Ebirah makes a full appearance in issue #17, where he abruptly attacks Godzilla, who is swimming back after his battle with the MechaGodzillas and Mecha-King Ghidorah. Godzilla throws Ebirah to the surface, and the two monsters arrive in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While Godzilla and Ebirah battle, Ebirah is swarmed by Meganulons, who break through his shell and draw blood. Ebirah snaps his claw shut on some of the Meganulons, cutting them in half. Megaguirus soon arrives and stings Ebirah. After repeated attacks from all of the monsters, Ebirah retreats to the ocean. Ebirah was not seen afterwards, and none of the Trilopods possessed his characteristics.

Godzilla: Cataclysm
In Godzilla: Cataclysm Issue 2, Arata's grandfather states that members of his village pray to Ebirah to bring them plentiful fishing trips.

Sightings

 * Ebirah inspired two monsters who appeared in the Nintendo anime Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Ebifryer and Ebizou. Both are giant shrimp monsters who have abilities far stronger than the rest of the cast.

In Other Languages

 * Russian: Эбира
 * Chinese: 伊比拉 (Yībǐ lā)

Trivia

 * Toho had first wanted Ebirah to be King Kong's enemy instead of Godzilla's but a rights problem caused Kong to be dropped and Toho replaced him with Godzilla without enhancing Ebirah.
 * According to the German release of Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, Ebirah was possibly created by Dr. Frankenstein.
 * In the original concept for Destroy All Monsters, Ebirah was originally supposed to appear and was to guard the Kilaak base with Maguma. However Ebirah, along with Maguma, was left out due to the water damage of the suit and not being able to really fight on land and was eventually replaced with Anguirus, Gorosaurus, and Minilla for the final draft.
 * Baragon and Varan were supposed to take Ebirah's and Maguma's roles as Guards of the Kilaak base but even that couldn't happen because their suits were also in overused condition.
 * 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, super-weapons like the Oxygen Destroyer, or other monsters.

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

Ebirah Ebirah