Ebirah (エビラ Ebira?) is a giant lobster kaiju 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 kaiju names.
Design
Appearance
Ebirah generally resembles a giant red lobster. His body is red all throughout, and he has one pincer that is larger 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. It also has spikes on its back, as well as fairly long scythe-like pointy crest, and seems to have a mouth like Mothra's, one that is flipped on its side. Ebirah's Showa design is known as ShodaiEbirah.
Roar
Ebirah's roar is a high, shrill pitched screech, being almost bird-like in nature.
History
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep
Ebirah in Ebirah, Horror of the Deep
A terrorist organization known as the Red Bamboo secretly operated on the remote Letchi Island in the South Pacific, where they enslaved natives of Infant Island while producing nuclear weapons. Guarding the waters of the island was Ebirah, who destroyed 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.
Abilities
Natural abilities
Ebirah has no special powers, but he has strong claws and is an adept swimmer.
Regenerative properties
Since Ebirah is a lobster, he could have the ability to regenerate his claws as well, but it's not seen.
Durability
Ebirah's carapace is shown to be capable of withstanding even machine gun fire.
Weaknesses
Saffron
In Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, Ebirah showed a dislike of the spice Saffron. Red Bamboo used this weakness to prevent Ebirah from attacking their boats, which shot out jets of gas containing the Saffron to ward him off.
Video games
Godzilla: Trading Battle
Ebirah appeared within the game Godzilla: Trading Battle.
Godzilla: Save the Earth
Ebirah makes its only appearance in the Atari-Pipeworks games in Godzilla: Save the Earth in the final on-rail shooter-style level when playing as Godzilla 2000. Ebirah appears before facing the Vortaaks' underwater ship and must be defeated to continue.
Godzilla (2014 video game)
Ebirah allegedly turned into a monster due to the waste flowing from the arms factory of a secret society called the "Red Bamboo". It used its giant, scissor-like right arm and spear-like left arm to attack ships approaching the island, preventing them from approaching the outer reaches of the coast. Its weakness was identified when people discovered that the monster could be thwarted by a bitter yellow juice made from the seeds of plants growing on the island.
In "Godzilla: Final Wars" (2004), Ebirah was controlled by the Xilien invaders and attacked the East Sea Industrial Complex Zone, eventually resulting in a battle with the Earth Defense Force (EDF) Mutant Unit and M Organization. It was also able to come ashore and operate on land, where it unleashes its dual-claw attack, "Crisis Scissors". When it eventually attacked Godzilla with Hedorah in Tokyo Bay, it was thrown onto land and given the coup de grace with a heat ray.
Godzilla: Kaiju Collection
Comics
Godzilla, King of the Monsters
- Main article: Flying Ebirah.
Flying Ebirah in Kodansya's Godzilla, King of the Monsters manga
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, but is defeated.
Godzilla: The Half-Century War
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.
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.
- In the English version of the 1966 tokusatsu film, The Magic Serpent, Tsunade's giant spider used edited Ebirah roars.
- 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 Angruirus, Gorosaurus, and Minilla for the final draft.
- Despite being labeled a lobster, there are a few species of crustacean that resemble Ebirah more than lobsters as the crayfish and ironically the shrimp such as the Snapping Shrimps and distinctively the Heterocarpus shrimps.
- 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.
List of appearances
Films
- Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (First appearance)
- All Monsters Attack (Stock Footage)
Video games
- Godzilla, King of the Monsters (Gameboy)
- Godzilla: Heart-Pounding Monster Island!!
- Godzilla Movie Studio Tour
- Godzilla: Trading Battle
- Godzilla Generations
- Godzilla: Save the Earth
- Godzilla: Kaiju Collection
- Godzilla (2014 video game) (Kaiju Guide)
Comics
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Official Godzilla Compendium. Profiles of the Monsters; Page 123.
