Hello kaiju fans, Titano here, and this time we're taking an updated look
at the Emperor of the Cosmos— the Showa King Ghidorah!
Kikikiin!
King Ghidorah is an extraterrestrial three-headed dragon who first appeared as the villain
in 1964's aptly-named "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster."
Having already exterminated life on Venus, he attempted to do the same to Earth,
only to be driven off by the combined might of the Earth monsters Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra.
After this defeat, King Ghidorah would return to invade Earth several times,
always under the command of a different alien race and always unsuccessful.
As J.D. Lees and Marc Cerasini put it in "The Official Godzilla Compendium,"
The King of Terror proved to be one of Godzilla's most popular and recurring adversaries,
even guest-starring in two episodes of Toho's TV series "Zone Fighter."
The character is now widely considered Godzilla's arch-enemy
and one of Toho's "Big Five" most popular monsters.
Ghidorah's name comes from the Japanese word for "hydra" (hidora),
which is only one character off from Gidora.
The addition of "King" may have been influenced by King Dragon,
the name given to one of the monster's design inspirations, Zmey Gorynych,
in the Japanese version of the 1956 Soviet film "Ilya Muromets."
While referred to as Ghidrah in the American English-dubbed version of his debut movie,
his name was standardized as Ghidorah thereafter, which has been pronounced several different ways
in the dubs recorded since...
In the script for "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster," Shinichi Sekizawa simply described
the new monster as having "three heads, two tails, and a voice like a bell."
Akira Watanabe designed King Ghidorah from there, inspired by traditional Chinese dragons
and the multi-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi from Japanese folklore,
which he had already interpreted for Toho's "The Three Treasures" (1959).
His other influences included Zmey Gorynych and mythological creatures from around the world
including the Hydra, unicorn, pegasus, and qilin.
There are conflicting accounts of King Ghidorah's coloration during the pre-production of "GTTHM."
Eiji Tsuburaya originally favored a crimson design for the creature,
but the effects team ultimately decided that gold would look most impressive on-screen.
The SFX script for the film reflected this, describing King Ghidorah as gold.
Keizo Murase, who was in charge of painting the suit, reportedly always planned on making it gold.
However, SFX scriptwriter Keiko Suzuki claimed to have seen a blue King Ghidorah suit during production.
Murase believed this may have been the result of baby powder applied to the suit prior to painting,
which might have appeared blue when reflecting light.
Nonetheless, various photos and promotional materials for the film (including its main theatrical poster)
depict King Ghidorah with blue necks & wings that shift from dark blue to yellow to red.
The suit for King Ghidorah was a joint collaboration between modelers Teizo Toshimitsu,
responsible for the monster's heads; the Yagi brothers Kanju and Yasuei, who were in charge of its body
and created the inner model for the suit's necks;
and Keizo Murase, who created its necks and painted the suit.
A 3-shaku (approximately 1 meter) prop was additionally created for the monster's flying scenes,
scenes, manipulated by piano wires.
Another larger and more intricately built flying model appeared in scenes
such as the aerial battle between King Ghidorah and Rodan.
Shoichi Hirose and Haruya Sakamoto are both credited for playing Ghidorah in his debut,
though Koichi Kawakita and Teruyoshi Nakano, both members of the special effects team,
remembered Koji Uruki (who also portrayed Rodan in the movie) as being in the role.
Whoever the actor inside, they would have found countless takes ruined through no fault of their own:
King Ghidorah required a whopping ten people to help animate him with piano wires,
and those wires were constantly tangling up his necks or getting snared in his scales.
Nakajima described his battles with King Ghidorah as "solo performances," since the suit was
too unwieldy for the various actors inside to follow any kind of choreography.
They even needed to grip a crossbar to keep their balance inside the armless costume.
For "Invasion of Astro-Monster," Ghidorah's necks were repaired and lengthened,
and the wings were reinforced at their bases as well as slightly altered in shape.
The gold paint used for King Ghidorah's suit also began to corrode it,
resulting in the shape of its heads beginning to wear.
Ghidorah's flying props would continue to be reused,
though an additional mechanical puppet of the monster was built for long shots.
This time, he was definitely played by Shoichi Hirose.
Changes for "Destroy All Monsters" three years later included new wings, die-cut scales for the upper body,
lower body scales from cut-up rubber bicycle tires, and a new paint job.
With Hirose no longer in the monster business, Susumu Utsumi played Ghidorah.
By "Godzilla vs. Gigan" in 1972, the suit sported new heads, sculpted by Nobuyuki Yasumaru.
Yet another suit actor, Kanta Ina, stepped inside this time.
The next year, the costume made its final appearances on episodes 5 and 6 of the TV series "Zone Fighter."
Isao Zushi, who played many of the show's other Terror-Beasts as well as Godzilla in certain episodes,
was the final actor to wear the original King Ghidorah suit.
Since at least 1992, Japanese books have offered conflicting information about the number of Ghidorahs in the Showa Godzilla universe.
While some state that only one Ghidorah appeared throughout the series, others treat the Ghidorah
from "Godzilla vs. Gigan" and "Zone Fighter" as a separate monster.
The latter are seemingly trying to explain Ghidorah's appearance in media following his death in "DAM,"
erroneously assuming that film takes place before "vs. Gigan" and "Zone Fighter."
We know this is not the case because "vs. Megalon" is set in the 70's,
and its human characters already know who Gigan is, so "vs. Gigan" definitely precedes it.
"DAM" takes place in the futuristic 'end of the 20th century,'
specifically 1999 in the film's English dubs.
No dialogue in any of the films suggests the existence of a second Ghidorah.
"Right! We're safe enough. No human being could understand that."
Thousands of years ago, King Ghidorah attacked the planet Venus,
eradicating the planet's advanced civilization in just 3 days and rendering it an uninhabitable wasteland.
The few Venusians that survived the monster's attacks fled to Earth,
where they interbred with the native humans.
In the present day, UFO enthusiasts witnessed a meteor shower in the skies above Japan,
with one crashing down in the Kurobe Valley.
A scientific team led by Professor Murai traveled to the valley to examine the meteor,
which exuded a strange glow and even produced its own magnetic field that fluctuated in strength.
After several days, Murai and his colleagues observed that the meteor was growing in size.
It began producing an extremely powerful magnetic field before splitting open and launching
a ball of fire into the sky above, which took the form of King Ghidorah.
The cosmic terror flew over Japan, laying waste to Tokyo with his gravity beams.
As he approached the Mount Fuji area, Mothra tried to convince her fellow Earth monsters
Godzilla and Rodan to cease their fighting and join forces against him.
The monsters initially refused, forcing Mothra to take on the space dragon by herself,
but they entered the battle soon after.
While King Ghidorah was more powerful than the three monsters individually,
he was no match for their combined might, and they beat him into submission
and covered him in a silken cocoon.
As Godzilla pelted King Ghidorah with boulders and threw him off a cliff, the three-headed monster
finally retreated back into outer space.
When astronauts Fuji and Glenn arrived on the newly-discovered Planet X, they encountered
an intelligent and technologically advanced alien race called the Xiliens.
The Controller of Planet X explained that his people lived in constant terror due to
the attacks of a horrific space monster known as Monster Zero - their name for King Ghidorah.
The Controller revealed that he knew Godzilla and Rodan drove off King Ghidorah when the
monster attacked Earth, and asked that his people be allowed to "borrow" the two monsters
to fight off King Ghidorah on Planet X.
When the two astronauts returned to Earth and received the support of the world's leaders,
the Xiliens transported Godzilla and Rodan to Planet X,
with Glenn, Fuji and their superior, Dr. Sakurai, accompanying them to oversee the mission.
As hoped, Godzilla and Rodan again joined forces and forced the space monster to retreat.
The Controller then provided Glenn and Fuji with a tape he claimed contained the cure for cancer,
and sent the astronauts on their way, keeping Godzilla and Rodan on Planet X.
When they returned to Earth, they found out that the tape was actually an ultimatum
demanding that Earth surrender to Planet X and become its colony.
King Ghidorah had actually been under the Xiliens' control the entire time,
and now both Godzilla and Rodan had become their pawns as well.
When humanity refused to surrender, the Xiliens released the three mind-controlled kaiju on Earth
to destroy its major cities, with King Ghidorah attacking the United States
before joining Godzilla and Rodan in Japan.
Thankfully, Fuji and several other Earth scientists converted a noisemaker by the inventor Tetsuo Torii
into a weapon capable of breaking the aliens' control over the monsters.
Rather than surrender, the Xiliens self-destructed their saucers, with all three monsters collapsing
as they regained their senses.
When Godzilla revived, he woke up Rodan and the two attacked King Ghidorah once again.
During the battle, Rodan used Godzilla as a battering ram,
sending all three monsters plummeting into the sea below.
After a few moments, King Ghidorah flew out of the water and retreated back to outer space,
while Godzilla and Rodan disappeared beneath the waves.
As part of their plan to conquer the Earth, the M Space Hunter Nebula Aliens took control
of King Ghidorah and partnered him with their own cybernetic monster, Gigan.
From their base in the Godzilla Tower located in World Children's Land,
the Nebulans unleashed the duo on Tokyo.
The space monsters razed the city and withstood all of the JSDF's attempts to stop them.
Thankfully, Godzilla and Anguirus became aware of the invaders' scheme,
and arrived in Tokyo, ready to fight.
Godzilla was badly wounded by Gigan's hook-tipped appendages and the Godzilla Tower's laser beam,
leaving Anguirus at the mercy of both space monsters.
Fortunately, a group of humans managed to destroy the Godzilla Tower,
severing the Nebulans' control over Gigan and King Ghidorah.
While at first the two space monsters were able to maintain their onslaught,
they soon became disorganized in the absence of their masters' commands
and began to bicker amongst themselves.
Godzilla and Anguirus used this opportunity to regroup and quickly gained the upper hand.
After he shot Gigan out of the sky, Godzilla held King Ghidorah in place
as Anguirus rammed him with his spiky carapace.
Ghidorah and Gigan retreated soon after,
leaving Godzilla and Anguirus victorious and the Earth safe once again.
The evil Garogas sent King Ghidorah to Earth to destroy a new invention called the Blue-Green Device
meant to reduce carbon monoxide pollution.
After he tore through a squadron of fighter jets,
the Garogas armed him with a Dark Prism which blocked out the sun.
Zone Fighter rose up to stop him, alongside Zone Angel and Junior in Smokey,
but they were unable to replenish his energy as the battle raged on.
Zone Great was able to sever Ghidorah's control over the Dark Prism, allowing Zone Fighter
to turn the tide and goad the three-headed monster into following him to Venus.
Just before he arrived, however, he realized that King Ghidorah had broken off his pursuit.
He targeted the research institute where the Blue-Green Device was developed,
making several cars float in the air.
Zone Fighter set them down one by one before facing Ghidorah once more.
Though he bought enough time for his allies to whisk away the Blue-Green Device,
one of Ghidorah's gravity beams temporarily blinded him.
Now unopposed, Ghidorah obliterated the institute before returning to space.
This time, Zone Fighter successfully lured him to Venus.
After he battered Ghidorah with a relentless flurry of attacks,
the Garogas' leader implored the space monster to retreat.
Once the crew of the Moonlight SY-3 destroyed the device the Kilaaks were using
to control Earth's monsters, Godzilla and the other kaiju assembled near the Kilaaks' base at Mount Fuji,
forcing the aliens to unleash their trump card, King Ghidorah.
The space monster descended and engaged the Earth monsters in a decisive battle.
As Ghidorah fought Godzilla and his allies, Gorosaurus landed a devastating kangaroo-kick
to his back, knocking him to the ground.
Unable to get back up, he was left open to repeated stomps from Godzilla and bites from Anguirus.
Minilla fired a smoke ring that choked King Ghidorah's remaining head
and caused it to fall limp to the ground.
The kaiju roared and celebrated.
After Godzilla destroyed the Kilaak base, a huge fissure opened in the ground,
and Ghidorah's lifeless body fell into it.
King Ghidorah's signature weapons are the golden Gravity Beams he spits from his three mouths,
also called Lightning Beams or Zero Gravity Beams.
Though he sometimes fires them wildly, the beams allow him to rain down destruction upon a city
or target multiple monsters at once.
Single beams were strong enough to send the 8,000-ton Mothra larvae flying through the air.
King Ghidorah can fly at speeds of up to Mach 3 in the Earth's atmosphere,
which allows him to generate destructive shockwaves, and Mach 400 while traveling through space.
He encased himself within a meteorite while traveling from planet to planet
in both his original appearance and in "vs. Gigan."
By simply flapping his wings, King Ghidorah can produce gale-force winds.
He used this ability to direct Godzilla towards the Godzilla Tower
and knock Zone Fighter off his feet.
While encased in the meteorite in his debut film, King Ghidorah generated magnetic fields
of variable strength.
In "Zone Fighter," he seemed to harness the same forces to suspend several cars in midair.
Though he lacks arms, King Ghidorah is still dangerous in close quarters.
His preferred melee attacks are stomping and bludgeoning opponents with his necks.
In "vs. Gigan," he even used his necks to launch Godzilla into the Godzilla Tower.
King Ghidorah is extremely resistant to damage.
Naturally, he's unfazed by the JSDF's weapons, including Maser Cannons,
and shrugged off repeated blasts of Godzilla's atomic breath in "Invasion of Astro-Monster."
He also holds the distinction of being the only one of the Garogas' Terror-Beasts
to live through his battles with Zone Fighter, something not even his former ally Gigan can claim.
Though his hardiness usually allowed him to survive combat with multiple monsters,
in "DAM" he was laid low by a series of severe blows.
Once released from his mind control in "IOAM" and "vs. Gigan,"
Ghidorah was left dazed and confused.
In the latter case, he could no longer work as a team with Gigan,
which Godzilla and Anguirus were eventually able to exploit.
Officially, King Ghidorah is the tallest monster in the Showa G-series,
twice Godzilla's height at a whopping 100 meters.
Though comparisons of the actual suits show this to be an exaggeration, his size is still formidable.
King Ghidorah's stock footage appearances include the Toho films "Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla,"
"Terror of Mechagodzilla," and "Bye-Bye Jupiter";
a Crest Sparkle Motion ad;
and two episodes of "Courage, the Cowardly Dog."
[Courage screams]
His iconic cackle also appears in the original "Ultraman" as the SSSP's Control Room alarm,
"Evangelion 2.0" as Misato Katsuragi's ringtone,
and most recently "GODZILLA: The Planet Eater."
As the only existing version of the character until 1991,
the classic Ghidorah appeared relatively often in early Godzilla video games.
He was one of the deadliest kaiju in "Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters,"
downright invincible in the puzzle games "Gojira-kun" (MSX) and "Godzilla" (Game Boy),
& served as the final boss of "Godzilla vs. 3 Giant Monsters" and "Godzilla: Monster of Monsters."
Since developers started using the Heisei Ghidorah in the early 90's,
his appearances have been limited to the rosters of
"Godzilla: Battle Legends," "Great Monster Battle,"
"Trading Battle" and "Kaiju Collection."
He also turns up in the first stage of "Godzilla: Giant Monster March," a 1995 turn-based strategy game
for the Game Gear which recently received an unofficial English translation.
In the main continuity of IDW's Godzilla comics, King Ghidorah initially resembles his "GMK" design
and acts mostly in line with that iteration of the character.
In "Godzilla: Rulers of Earth," his appearance is retconned into the Heisei Ghidorah,
setting up his conversion into Mecha-King Ghidorah by the Cryogs.
When he escapes the aliens' control and flees into space,
Rhizon reveals the existence of multiple Ghidorahs.
In issue #24, he recalls how another Ghidorah, possessing the design of the Showa incarnation,
laid waste to the Cryog homeworld.
While "Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah" jettisoned King Ghidorah's extraterrestrial origin,
an early idea for the film had the three Dorats which mutate into the golden dragon
engineered from DNA recovered from the carcass of a different, alien Ghidorah found on Venus.
Though this didn't make it into the film, Fumio Tanaka kept it in his novelization.
Toho was interested enough in this idea to consider a sequel titled "The Return of King Ghidorah"
in which the alien Ghidorah turned out to be quite alive and faced off against Godzilla.
Ultimately, the studio decided to bring back Mothra instead, who its polling showed
was the most popular monster among women.
An early concept for the sixth Heisei G-film also featured an alien named Emperor Ghidorah as the villain.
Since Orochi was already starring in "Yamato Takeru" the same year,
Emperor Ghidorah gave way to SpaceGodzilla, who retained his gravity-manipulating beams.
That's all we have for the Showa King Ghidorah.
Thanks for watching!