Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)

 Director: Jun Fukuda

Written by: Shin’ichi Sekizawa

A trio of stowaways in search of a missing sailor find their stolen yacht destroyed by the aquatic terror Ebirah. Washed ashore on a remote island they find themselves hunted by the sinister Red Bamboo organization.

The Red Bamboo can avoid Ebirah’s wrath using a special yellow liquid, brewed by slaves kidnapped from nearby Infant Island. When the stowaways discover a slumbering Godzilla deep within a secluded cave, they hatch a plan to awaken him and destroy the Red Bamboo, once and for all.

Meanwhile, on Infant Island, the inhabitants must petition a sleeping Mothra to awaken in time to save their people from the pending destruction that awaits them at the hands of Godzilla and the Red Bamboo.

I’m always a fan of a Kaiju which breaks the ‘man in a suit’ stigma and Ebirah, a giant lobster, certainly gives us something we haven’t seen before. In fact, the nighttime scenes of Ebirah’s massive claws, crushing any seaworthy vessel are still impressive, even if the groovy surf music fails to sell the danger somewhat.

When Godzilla does awaken, his island rampage makes for an interesting change of scenery from Japan's clustered buildings, and his brutal battle with Ebirah (including a humorous game of penalty shoot-out with a boulder) ends in him literally disarming the cruel crustacean in a snappy fashion.

Godzilla himself continues to exhibit more human characteristics and for the first time actually acknowledges the humans in his presence. He is now firmly on the side of good, although still hugely destructive in nature, his fury will be directed toward humanity’s enemies from here on.

During the production of "Ebirah, Horror of the Deep," the second appearance of this suit, Tsuburaya Productions sought to borrow the suit's head for use in the Ultraman television series. The previous SanDaikaijuGoji suit's head couldn't be utilized, having been altered to depict the monster Gomess in Ultra Q. Toho granted the request, leading to the removal of the head from the DaisensoGoji suit and its attachment to the SanDaikaijuGoji body. The resulting combination underwent a green repaint with yellow stripes, along with the addition of a frill to form the monster Jirahs. Toho then fashioned an imperfect replica of the DaisensoGoji's head for the remainder of "Ebirah, Horror of the Deep," featuring calmer, less fierce-looking eyes.

Post-"Ebirah, Horror of the Deep," the NankaiGoji suit became Toho's designated 'stunt suit,' primarily for underwater Godzilla scenes. It was utilized in aquatic sequences in "Son of Godzilla" (1967) and "Destroy All Monsters" (1968), as well as for swimming and sludge-covered scenes in "Godzilla vs. Hedorah" (1971). Despite post-use cleaning, visible tears under its arms marked the suit's retirement, with the MusukoGoji suit taking its place as the new stunt suit in "Godzilla vs. Gigan."

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