Terror of Mechagodzilla

Terror of Mechagodzilla, released in Japan as Mechagorija no Gyakushū (メカゴジラの逆襲, Mekagojira no Gyakushū?, lit. "Mechagodzilla's Counterattack") and also known as The Terror of Godzilla in the original American theatrical release, is a 1975 tokusatsu kaiju film. The 15th film in Toho's Godzilla series, it was directed by Ishiro Honda with special effects by Teruyoshi Nakano. Akira Ifukube provides the music score. The movie was written by Yukiko Takayama, who was the second female writer for a Godzilla film (the first was Kazue Shiba, who wrote for 1967's Son of Godzilla).

The monsters featured in this film are Godzilla, Mechagodzilla and a new monster, Titanosaurus.

This was the last movie in the Showa Godzilla movies before The Return of Godzilla began Heisei Movies of Godzilla films in 1984. It is also the last Godzilla movie to feature Godzilla as a hero for both Japan and the world until Godzilla: Final Wars. Because of the crash of Japanese cinema and the Energy crisis of the mid-to-late 1970s (which had also affected some television shows), the Godzilla film series was forced to go into hibernation. As a result, this film had the lowest attendance figures of all the movies in the series.

In Japan, the film sold 970,000 tickets. It remains the lowest grossing Godzilla film of all time in Japan, and is also one of only two Godzilla films to sell less than one million tickets. As a result, the series was put on hold until 1984.

This was Akihiko Hirata's final appearance in a Godzilla film. He was slated to play Professor Hayashida in The Return of Godzilla (1984) but died of lung cancer before production began (Hirata was replaced by Yosuke Natsuki). This was Tomoko Ai's film debut. She was previously a semi-regular in the TV series Ultraman Leo.
 * This was the last Godzilla film directed by Ishirō Honda. He was slated to direct Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II (1993) but died early that year.


 * In Takayama's original script, the monster Titanosaurus was the singular, combined form of twin "Titan" dinosaurs, which were to meet and unite at some point in the story. (Compare to Hedorah and Destoroyah.) Due to budgetary constraints, only the singular form was used.

One of the many never-made scripts for a sequel to this film involved Godzilla confronting Satan, yet again alluding to the darker tone the series was leaning towards.
 * This film, much unlike the films prior to it, had a much darker tone and returned to the original style of the series. It was much more serious and Titanosaurus was one of the more realistic beasts of the Showa series.

Current U.S. prints are severely edited for violent content (some important plot points removed in the process). This film also had the first shot of nudity in a Godzilla film (gone from all U.S. prints): Katsura's prosthetic breasts exposed while Planet 3 surgeons graphically operate on her lower heart area.
 * This is the first Godzilla film to feature an original score by Akira Ifukube since 1968's Destroy All Monsters; although Ifukube's music had previously been used in 1972's Godzilla vs. Gigan, it was all stock music from previous scores.


 * The monster situation in this film is the opposite of the previous, where it was Godzilla and King Seezar against Mechagodzilla. Also, Mechagodzilla 2 is not a melee-capable fighter like his first version. This is shown in how, when Godzilla does finally get in close to attack, Mechagodzilla is incapable of fighting him off. Perhaps since Titanosaurus was backing him up, the aliens designed Mechagodzailla as a long-ranged attacker to back up Titanosaurus' melee power.


 * Humorously, Mechagodzilla's "new weapons" are his finger-launched missiles as before, only the hand spins several times very fast before firing them. What effect this has on the missiles' destructive ability is unknown.