Ebirah

nihongo|Ebirah|エビラ|Ebira, is a fictional enormous lobster that was first featured in the 1966 movie, "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster".

Origin

howa series

In Godzilla vs The Sea Monster (Also titled "Ebirah: Horror Of The Deep") (which is part of the Showa series) a terrorist organization called the Red Bamboo had set up a base of operations on Letchi Island. 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 unknowingly 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. The wounded Ebirah then fled.

Ebirah was not seen again until he appeared on Monster Island in Ichiro’s dreams in the film All Monsters Attack. His appearance in this film is simply stock footage utilized from the film Godzilla vs The Sea Monster.

Millennium series

In the Millennium era, Ebirah makes an appearance in "" as one of the many controlled monsters of the , a race of extraterrestrial beings from Planet X. He destroys a factory near Tokyo, and the military forces are sent to destroy him, but are outmatched by the immense crustacean. Instead, the mutant soldiers are called to stop the kaiju. The mutants successfully defeat Ebirah and are about to kill him, when he disappears in a flash of light. The Xilians arrive and say that they destroyed the monsters to save Earth. However, it is soon found out that the monsters were in fact controlled by the Xilians all along.

The Gotengo then frees Godzilla from the Antarctic so he could fight the controlled kaiju. The plan is a success and Godzilla successfully defeats most of the kaiju. When he arrives in Tokyo Bay, he faces Ebirah and Hedorah. However, they are no match for Godzilla, who blasts them out of the water with his atomic breath and the duo crash into a building, where Godzilla stabs Hedorah's eye with Ebirah's right claw. Godzilla fires another atomic breath and defeats both Ebirah and Hedorah, though it is not seen if they are actually killed or not however because of the controllers reaction it can be speculated they were killed.

Video game appearances

Ebirah has been featured in as a non-playable kaiju in three video games:

*"Godzilla, King of the Monsters"
*""
*""

In all three he is an enemy.

Lost Project

Toho had first wanted Ebirah to be King Kong’s (without the electrical wire cables, or conduction threads) enemy instead of Godzilla’s but a rights problem caused Kong to be dropped and Toho replaced him with Godzilla without enhancing Ebirah.

Ebirah was also to appear in All Monsters Attack Directive, along with Maguma, but the film has never seen the light of day, as it has been turned into "Destroy All Monsters".

Movie Appearances

* "Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster" (1966)
* "All Monsters Attack" stock footage (1969)
* "" (2004)

Trivia

* The monster’s name is derived from the word “Ebi” which means “Shrimp.” However, when this word is used in an oceanic context it means "Lobster." Ebirah does not resemble a shrimp. It resembles a crayfish or lobster.

* Ebirah was intended to be a playable character in '. Apparently due to space and time constraints, Ebirah was left to making a cameo appearance in one of the many side games. He appears during an underwater sequence in which Godzilla must locate and destroy a Vortaak submersible. Ebirah is deployed by the Vortaak before Godzilla reaches the submersible. He is easily defeated. Early screenshots show a fully detailed character model for Ebirah, but sadly he was left on the cutting room floor. There was no further mention of bringing him into another game, as he wasn't even considered for '.

* An Ebirah-like monster named Ruby appears in ', "Rampage Through Time", and ', each a part of the "Rampage" series of video games in which players take control of giant monsters as they destroy all the buildings in a city and survive onslaughts of military forces.

*In The Godzila Series(1998) episode Cat and Mouse at the end the Girl says "Manila called something about giant lobsters" could be a reference to Ebirah.