Just the Ticket #219: Terror Of Mechagodzilla

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Ticketmaster.

This week in Goj-Year-ra, the Shōwa Era comes to an end with a few firsts. Terror Of Mechagodzilla is the first Godzilla film to both have "Godzilla" in the title and not have "Godzilla" in the title. It's the first in the franchise to have nudity, the first with an explicitly stated non-sexual romance, the first to have a human mad scientist villain, and the first to be written by a woman. Getting back to the title, it's also the first occurrence of a definitive sequel where both Godzilla films have the villain in the title. Yes, I know Godzilla was still kind of a villain in Raids Again, and that King Ghidorah was the Astro-Monster, but I'm not counting those instances for technicality reasons.

Released in 1975 based on a script by Yukiko Takayama, Terror Of Mechagodzilla (Mechagodzilla's Counterattack in Japanese, mirroring the Japanese title of Raids Again) was the final entry of the Shōwa Era and the final Godzilla film to be directed by Ishirō Honda. Special effects were directed by Teruyoshi Nakano, who had been an assistant since King Kong vs Godzilla and directing effects since Some Monsters Almost Attack.

And it's a boring, poorly edited, cheap-looking mess that does little of substance to make itself stand out besides feeling like the second worst Godzilla movie of its era.

After the opening credits do a sub-five-minute speedrun of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, we see that while searching for the remains of Mechagodzilla at the bottom of the ocean, an Interpol salvage sub is suddenly attacked by something that marine biologist Akira Ichinose (Katsuhiko Sasaki, Godzilla vs Megalon) identifies as Titanosaurus

This, not that.

(a derpy-looking seahorse kinda-saurus thing with an equally derpy roar whose two tricks are "jumps good" and "makes windstorm with tail," but it's built up like the Spinosaur in Jurassic Park III—Godzilla but bigger and stranger, and it even surfaces from glowing eruptions of water like Godzilla made—fails almost as hard, and is suit-acted by Ultraman Leo himself, Tatsumi Nikamoto).

This encounter leads Ichinose to seek out the reclusive Dr. Mafune (Akihiko Hirata in Colonel Sanders cosplay so he isn't confused with his Miyajima character from the previous film), who is secretly working with the Third Rock From the Event Horizon aliens (here trading their green ape masks for mylar jumpsuits and silly helmets because budget maybe) for the sake of his daughter (the beautiful Tomoko Ai, Kaiju: Island Of Fire) whom the Black Hole aliens turned into a cyborg to save her from death by accidental (or was it?) electrocution, and whom Ichinose crushes on at first sight.

To get nihilistic revenge on those who shunned his radical theories of controlling animals with thought (something the viewing audience has put together as being entirely plausible in the Godzilla franchise), Japanese Colonel Sanders and the Black Hole aliens unleash a rebuilt Mechagodzilla (now with Mafune's daughter wearing a sparkly catsuit and acting as its biomechanical brain, and suit-acted again by Kazunari Mori) and Titanosaurus upon the world, with Godzilla (Toru Kawai, who also suit-acted the big guy in his Zone Fighter appearances) as the only means of stopping them (and almost failing).

During Titanosaurus' first attack, the rear projection and compositing is terrible and the drama of Godzilla's heroic arrival is completely neutered by the editing. In the human/alien scenes, some of the characters seem to blink or teleport out of existence for no narrative reason. The beginning of the second kaiju fight is cut together more frantically than the giant condor scene from Ebirah, Horror Of the Deep. And then the movie suddenly ends with Mafune's daughter committing suicide and Titanosaurus doing an oversold wrestling bump over a mountain range into the ocean. Like, seriously, why is the editing this bad in what is essentially the Shōwa finale (because changing tastes of the time caused it to flop theatrically) and the sequel to Godzilla's anniversary film?

While time pressures (and Wednesday's lingering negativity from having to work with one of the dumbest humans I've ever attempted to tolerate) certainly skewed my impression of the movie's pacing—"just get to the monsters already! ...Oh, wait; this is boring and awful, too!"—there is plenty to appreciate about Terror Of Mechagodzilla. Katsura Mafune (the mad doctor's cyborg daughter) is a unique and compelling character with tons of thematic depth (men stripping a woman of her autonomy to use her for their own, soulless and selfish ends of petty aggression, with the exception of the one man who loves her for who she is despite everything, even in death, which is the only thing she ultimately has control over). Though Godzilla's entry into this film feels like it was edited out of order, the returning "Godzilla March" there still leaves some impact, and the ensuing circular pan into a face-off shot looks like something that would be accomplished with CGI or drones today (it's such a good shot that they do it again for the two-on-one fight, and it still works because of the added reveal of Mechagodzilla standing behind Titanosaurus). As I said in the intro, balancing out yet another alien mind control story with a human mad scientist villain (and with Hirata un-subverting the trope he subverted in the original, no less) was a welcome surprise as well. And though the rampant destruction scenes and the frantic editing of Godzilla's pugilism disconnected me from the kaiju action, Godzilla's burial (the third attempt at doing so in the franchise, I think) was a bit shocking, and the brutality with which Godzilla dispatched his mechanical doppelganger (followed by the electronic brain reveal) brought me back to the experience for a bit. I do wish that Titanosaurus had been allowed to escape unharmed once the villains were defeated, instead of being restrained by Godzilla, tortured by Interpol's sound gun, and forcibly blasted from the movie (it was said several times that Titanosaurus' aggressive behavior was caused by the brainwashing, so there was no need to finish it so aggressively aside from an excuse for another Godzilla/human cooperative victory like in Hedorah or just to have Godzilla look like a hero at its expense). Perhaps that was more gender autonomy commentary?

But, yeah; my initial feelings overall did lean toward the "second worst Godzilla movie of its era" school of thought, and after two weeks of big, dumb kaiju fun, something this slow and thought-provoking and important to the franchise's history does feel like that much of a letdown as a first impression. But it's also deliberate and thought-provoking and has some good moments despite its technical flaws. I still don't think the good about it is enough to balance things out, but it's close.

C-

Next week, I begin a new Era of Goj-Year-ra, and things get Red (and other colors, because I'm also finishing the month with a Sentai anime), so Stay Tuned for that. My new view goalpost for May is to keep having to move the goalpost (thank you for continuing to be awesome by the daily thousands!), so please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, leave a comment at the bottom of this post and any others you have opinions about, help out my ad revenue as you read because no paycheck is worth losing my professional and personal autonomy to someone mindless and robotic, and follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see, receive the latest news on my content, and get me closer to that new twenty-thousand goal and every goal beyond.

Ticketmaster,

Out.