Anguirus (GRA)

Anguirus (アンギラス, Angirasu?) is the second daikaiju who appeared only a year after Godzilla in the 1955 Toho film Godzilla Raids Again. The original English name given to the monster by Toho was Angilas, which was changed to Angurus in Gigantis, the Fire Monster, the 1959 American version of the film. In the mid-1990s, Toho copyrighted the revised name Anguirus, thus making it official.

Appearance Appearance-wise, Anguirus is a four-legged dinosaur that looks similar to an ankylosaurus. He has several horns at the top of his head and a a single horn above his nose. His face is long and drawn out, like a crocodile, and has rows of jagged, serrated teeth. His carapace is studded with long, sharp spikes. Anguirus' tail is longer than his body and makes up most of his body length. His hind limbs are longer than his forelimbs and he can stand up on them to his full height, though he generally stands and walks upon all fours.

Special Abilities Anguirus does not have any "special" weapons in particular, so he uses his teeth, claws, horns, and spiked carapace as his weapons. This has contributed to his appeal among fans of "no-frills" Japanese monsters. He has been known to hurl himself backwards at a foe, ramming them with his spiny carapace (Godzilla vs. Gigan). He is also capable of burrowing substantial distances (Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla). Recently, the Anguirus that appeared in Godzilla Final Wars has shown the ability to curl himself into a ball and propel himself at tremendous speed, an ability most likely inspired by the video game Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (see below).

Anguirus also has remarkable stamina and determination, able to take a vicious beating before going down. Despite repeatedly facing more powerful opponents than himself, most notably Godzilla, King Ghidorah, and Mechagodzilla, he has never retreated from a fight without first taking substantial punishment. Perhaps the finest example of Anguirus' persistence was his performance against King Ghidorah in Destroy All Monsters, in which he attached himself to one of King Ghidorah's necks with his jaws, staying on as King Ghidorah was flying away, until King Ghidorah bit Anguirus' own neck, causing him to fall.

Despite his tenacity, Anguirus is traditionally on the low end of the totem pole as Japanese monsters are concerned. He has never won a fight without the assistance of Godzilla, and by the 1970s he essentially played the role of a punching bag for the latest Godzilla foe to beat up on, highlighting the threat. This tendency is especially pronounced in Godzilla vs. Gigan, in which Anguirus bravely but uselessly attacks both Gigan and King Ghidorah during the "tag-team" final battle, requiring that Godzilla finish off both foes with little help.

In the video games Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee and Godzilla: Save the Earth, Anguirus is finally given a ranged attack: a "sonic roar" loud enough to hurt monsters and destroy military weapons in a large cone. It can also destroy (and even pass right through) buildings and rocks. In the former game, Anguirus' "rage" attack involves him charging his spines with some undefined energy and then shooting them off. (In the latter, it is simply a variant of his "rolling" attack used in the first game as well as Godzilla Final Wars.)

Origin Anguirus was the first enemy that Godzilla ever faced, in 1955 (Godzilla Raids Again). Godzilla and Anguirus battled in Osaka, and Godzilla won with a bite to the neck. He then appeared to incinerate his opponent's body with his atomic blast (curious, since Anguirus had previously ignored that attack). Anguirus was re-introduced (in a brand-new costume) in the 1968 film Destroy All Monsters as an ally of Godzilla, living with him on Monster Island. Fans have alternately speculated that this was a new Anguirus, or that the first had somehow survived. This costume was re-used throughout the remainder of the Showa series, and Anguirus continued in his capacity as Godzilla's ally. He helped Godzilla repel the space monsters, Gigan and King Ghidorah, in 1972 (Godzilla vs. Gigan). He and Godzilla returned to Monster Island, but the island was disturbed by nuclear bomb tests (Godzilla vs. Megalon). The ground beneath Anguirus cracked and he fell into a pit. Anguirus next appeared at the beginning of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, in a snowy region (possibly Siberia), where he witnessed Mechagodzilla's first emergence. He followed Mechagodzilla underground to Japan and engaged him there. However, Mechagodzilla was too powerful for Anguirus, and severely injured him, breaking his jaw in a bloody display. Anguirus was forced to retreat, possibly to summon the real Godzilla. In 1999, (Destroy All Monsters takes place in this year, though it was made in 1968) Anguirus and the other inhabitants of Monster Island were captured and mind-controlled by an alien race known as Kilaaks who desired to dominate Earth. Anguirus guarded the Kilaak base until the humans severed the mind control. Anguirus was then sent to fight King Ghidorah at Fuji, where he and the other monsters successfully destroyed the space dragon once and for all. While fighting King Ghidorah, Anguirus fell and inadvertently revealed the Kilaaks' underground base, allowing Godzilla to destroy it. Anguirus and the other monsters returned to their home where they lived in peace to this day.

After a thirty-year absence from Toho productions, Anguirus was featured in the 2004 movie, Godzilla: Final Wars as a controlled monster of the Xilians. (This is a separate timeline from the Showa series.) He appears in Shanghai, and tramples everything in his path, then engaged the flying UN battleship, Karyu. Then the Xilians appeared and teleported Anguirus and the other monsters away. They told the humans that they eliminated the kaiju to save Earth, but this was soon discovered to be a ruse, and that the Xilians were controlling the kaiju. In Shanghai, the Xilians use their fighter ships to attack Karyu. While Karyu was distracted, Anguirus jumped and curled himself into a ball, crashing into the ship at its midpoint. Karyu went spinning in the air before colliding into a skyscraper.

Later, the Xilians used Angilas, Rodan, and King Caesar to engage Godzilla at Mt. Fuji, but they were easily defeated. Unlike the other kaiju, who were killed, Godzilla let them live. (This is because this scene was one of the first filmed. Originally, Godzilla was supposed to kill the three kaiju with his atomic breath, but this would have required actually destroying the suits and the budget did not exist at the time of filming to do this.) This is the last we see of Anguirus, but many fans appreciate that he was one of the few monsters in the film to be "spared."