Anguirus

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Anguirus (アンギラス - Angirasu), or Angilas, is a daikaiju first featured in the 1955 Toho film Godzilla Raids Again (also known as Gigantis the Fire Monster).

Anguirus is one of the few kaiju from the Godzilla movie series that is not bipedal and faintly humanoid. In the original Showa series, he stands sixty meters high and is one hundred meters long. Weighing in at thirty thousand tons, Anguirus has many rows of spikes along his back and large horns on his head. Anguirus was the first monster to face Godzilla in battle but was defeated and killed. Anguirus either revived, or another of his species appeared, and he later helped Godzilla take on King Ghidorah in the 1968 film Destroy All Monsters and again in 1972 against King Ghidorah and the cyborg Gigan. When Monster Island was wrecked by nuclear tests, he was swallowed up by the land, and was not seen again until he unsuccessfully took on Mechagodzilla, who was disguised as Godzilla. Anguirus was one of the many monsters enslaved by the Kilaaks in Destroy All Monsters and acted as a guard for the aliens’ forward command center. He took part in the battle against King Ghidorah atop Mt. Fuji, biting the creature with his gargantuan teeth.

In 2001, Anguirus was to be in the film "Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monster All-Out Attack". Due to concerns over the financial future of the Godzilla series, however, Toho insisted that Anguirus and Varan (another suggested monster) be replaced with the more popular Mothra and King Ghidorah.

In the movie "Godzilla x Mothra x MechaGodzilla: Tokyo SOS," a second Kameba is found dead, washed up on the beach with claw marks in its neck. Originally it was going to be Anguirus, but producer Shogo Tomiyama, barred the use of Anguirus in this way. Perhaps this was because the Kiryu saga didn't contain a film with Anguirus in it. Another speculation is that Tomiyama felt that featuring Anguirus in the film in such a state would anger the strong following of fans Anguirus possesses.

Anguirus returned to the screen in Godzilla: Final Wars as an enemy of Godzilla and was one of the only three monsters not to be killed by Godzilla (Though Kumonga, the giant desert tarantula, may be a fourth, as he is only swung into the horizon). In Godzilla: Final Wars, he stands at 40 meters tall on all four legs, while standing 90 meters tall on his hind legs. He also weighed in at 60,000 tons, twice the weight of the original. But this makes sense, since he is twice the size to begin with. He has been featured in the Atari video games Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee and Godzilla: Save the Earth. Anguirus has also been modeled in plastic action figures and plush toys.

Some identify Anguirus as physically similar to the prehistoric dinosaur, Ankylosaurus.

Anguirus is a fan favorite, most likely for his loyalty and bravery. He has been known to take on monsters twice his size or power. In the Showa series, Anguirus was one of Godzilla's closest allies (tying with Rodan for number of assists) and assisted in battle whenever he could.

As a footnote, when plans were reported for another Godzilla film for 2002, www.g-fiction2002.com's (Now deactivated.) webmaster AnguirusGuy founded The Anguirus Movement, a movement in which various Godzilla websites would post a supportive banner on their web pages in an effort to get Toho Co. Ltd. to see them. The idea was to encourage Toho to use Anguirus in another Godzilla film. The campaign ran for two years until 2004 when it was announced Anguirus would appear in the 50th anniversary film. Though it may never be known or likely if the series of banners were successful in motivating Toho to the decision to include Anguirus in Final Wars, the movement's members, from the large kaiju sites to the small ones, to this day consider it a successful endeavor and a cause worth fighting for.

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