Ebirah (in Japanese: エビラ, Ebira) is one of the six main antagonists (alongside Hedorah, Mechagodzilla, Megalon, Gigan, and King Ghidorah) of the Godzilla franchise. He's a giant crustacean kaiju and one of Godzilla's enemies.
In the Showa films, he was portrayed by Hiroshi Sekita (who would later portray Gorosaurus and Godzilla in Son of Godzilla), while in Godzilla: Final Wars, he was portrayed by Toshihiro Ogura.
History[]
Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)[]
An island and its inhabitants were controlled by a terrorist organization known as the Red Bamboo. Ebirah was one of the monsters mutated by the radioactive wastes. The Red Bamboo used Ebirah to guard the island, he would destroy any ship that got too close to the island or attempted to escape. Ebirah would not attack the Red Bamboo ships due to a special extract fruit. When a small group of people found Godzilla resting on the island, healing from wounds inflicted on him by King Ghidorah, they woke him up in hopes he would defeat Ebirah so they could escape the island. This succeeded and Ebirah was injured by Godzilla's atomic breath, but the group is caught by the Red Bamboo anyway.
The next day, Ebirah destroyed a Red Bamboo ship that unintentionally had placebo on board instead of the fruit extract. Ebirah attempts to fight Godzilla again as he destroys the Red Bamboo base, but has his claws torn off in the process. The defenseless lobster retreats back into the water.
All Monsters Attack (1969)[]
During Ichiro Miki's dream on Monster Island, he and Godzilla's son Minilla watch Godzilla fight against Ebirah in the ocean water. The entire fight is stock footage from Ebirah, Horror of the Deep.
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)[]
Ebirah had been controlled by the alien race known as the Xiliens, and attacked a factory near Tokyo. Mutant soldiers were sent to stop him, and nearly killed Ebirah with a maser gun, making him the only monster whose life was actually threatened by humans without using super weapons. However, the Xiliens transported Ebirah away and told the humans they destroyed the monsters to save Earth. When it was revealed that the Xiliens were behind the attack, they released the monsters again.
However, Godzilla was released from Antarctica and battled and defeated the other monsters controlled by the Xilliens. Ebirah was sent to fight Godzilla in Tokyo Bay, where he met up with Hedorah, who was either controlled by the Xiliens or simply happened to be there. The two were blasted out of Tokyo Bay by Godzilla, with Ebirah piercing one of Hedorah's eyes when they crash into a building, and they were both incinerated by one more atomic blast from Godzilla.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Despite being labeled as a lobster, Ebirah resembles more of a shrimp or crawfish. Also, the Japanese word ebi in Ebirah's name means shrimp.
- Ebirah is one of the least popular Godzilla monsters.
- Ebirah appears in several Godzilla games as a boss or an extra, but not as a playable character.
- Ebirah looks familiar to Ganimes, a stone crab mutated by the alien amoeba Yog in the 1970 film Space Amoeba.
- Ebirah was supposed to appear in Destroy all Monsters as a guard for a Kilaaks base, alongside Maguma. The reason they were removed from the film was because of water damage to the suits.
