Ebirah

**Ebirah** (エビラ *Ebira*) is a giant lobster kaiju created by Toho that first appeared in the 1966 *Godzilla* series film, *Ebirah, Horror of the Deep*.

## Name

Ebirah's name is derived from the Japanese word *ebi* (海老), meaning *shrimp*, even though he's actually a lobster. The "ra" (ラ)part of Ebirah's name is a common suffix for kaiju names.

## Appearance

Ebirah generally resembles a giant red lobster. His body is red all throughout, and he has one pincer that is larger than the other one. He also has two antennae and a giant nose-like shell piece. Ebirah additionally has multiple legs and multiple segments in his body, leading up to a normal lobster tail.

## Roar

Ebirah's roar is a high, shrill pitched screech, being almost bird-like in nature.

## History

### Showa Series

#### *Ebirah, Horror of the Deep*

A terrorist organization known as the Red Bamboo secretly operated on the remote Letchi Island in the South Pacific, where they enslaved natives of Infant Island while producing nuclear weapons. Guarding the waters of the island was Ebirah, who destroyed 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 accidentally 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. Ebirah escaped and was not seen again.

#### *All Monsters Attack*

Ebirah reappears on the sea near Monster Island alongside the Giant Condor in Ichiro's dream. He fights Godzilla briefly, and retreats back into the water after Godzilla defeats him.

### Millennium Series

#### *Godzilla: Final Wars*

Ebirah returned in *Godzilla: Final Wars* as one of the many controlled monsters of the Xiliens. It destroys a factory near Tokyo. The military forces try to destroy Ebirah, but the immense crustacean is too powerful, knocking over buildings in order to destroy tanks and resisting weaponry with its durable exoskeleton. But the mutant soldiers are called to stop the monster.

The mutants successfully defeat Ebirah with specialized hand-held maser cannons and were about to kill it, when it disappeared. The Xiliens arrive and say that they destroyed the monsters to save Earth. However, it is soon found out that the monsters were controlled by the Xiliens. The Gotengo then frees Godzilla from Antarctica so he could fight the controlled kaiju. The plan is a success and Godzilla successfully defeats most of the kaiju. Then Ebirah and Hedorah are sent to destroy Godzilla in Tokyo bay.

However, Godzilla blasts them out of the water with the atomic ray and the duo crash into a building, with Ebirah accidentally piercing Hedorah's large eye with his pincer. Godzilla then emerges from the waves and fires another atomic ray and defeats both Ebirah and Hedorah.

## Abilities

### Crisis Scissors

In *Godzilla: Final Wars*, Ebirah can attack with both of its claws in a signature attack called "Crisis Scissors."

### Natural abilities

Ebirah has no special powers, but he has strong claws and is an adept swimmer.

### Regenerative properties

Since Ebirah is a lobster, he could have the ability to regenerate his claws as well, but it's not seen.

## Weaknesses

### Saffron

In *Ebirah, Horror of the Deep*, Ebirah showed a dislike of the spice Saffron. Red Bamboo used this weakness to prevent Ebirah from attacking their boats, which shot out jets of gas containing the Saffron to ward him off.

## In other languages

* Russian: Эбира
* Chinese: 伊比拉 (Yībǐ lā)

## Trivia

* Toho had first wanted Ebirah to be King Kong's enemy instead of Godzilla's but a rights problem caused Kong to be dropped and Toho replaced him with Godzilla without enhancing Ebirah.
* In the English version of the 1966 tokusatsu film, *The Magic Serpent*, Tsunade's giant spider used edited Ebirah roars.
* According to the German release of *Ebirah, Horror of the Deep*, Ebirah was possibly created by Dr. Frankenstein.
* In the original concept for *Destroy All Monsters*, Ebirah was originally supposed to appear and was to guard the Kilaak base with Maguma. However Ebirah, along with Maguma, was left out due to the water damage of the suit and not being able to really fight on land and was eventually replaced with Anguirus, Gorosaurus, and Minilla for the final draft.
	+ Baragon and Varan were supposed to take Ebirah's and Maguma's roles as Guards of the Kilaak base but even that couldn't happen because their suits were also in overused condition.
* The version of Ebirah as seen in *Godzilla: Final Wars* is nearly killed by Ozaki and the other mutants' maser cannons, making Ebirah one of the few monsters to be defeated by humanity without the use of vehicles, super-weapons like the Oxygen Destroyer, or other monsters.
* Despite being labeled a lobster, there are a few species of crustacean that resemble Ebirah more than lobsters as the crayfish and ironically the shrimp such as the Snapping Shrimps and distinctively the Heterocarpus shrimps.
* Ebirah inspired two monsters who appeared in the Nintendo anime *Kirby: Right Back at Ya!*, Ebifryer and Ebizou. Both are giant shrimp monsters who have abilities far stronger than the rest of the cast.

## List of appearances

### Films

* *Ebirah, Horror of the Deep* (First appearance)
* *All Monsters Attack* (Stock Footage)
* *Godzilla: Final Wars*

### Video games

* *Godzilla, King of the Monsters (Gameboy)*
* *Godzilla: Heart-Pounding Monster Island!!*
* *Godzilla Movie Studio Tour*
* *Godzilla: Trading Battle*
* *Godzilla Generations*
* *Godzilla: Save the Earth*
* *Godzilla: Kaiju Collection*
* *Godzilla*(2014 video game) (Kaiju Guide)

### Comics

* *Godzilla, King of the Monsters*
* *Godzilla: The Half-Century War*
* *Godzilla: Rulers of Earth*
* *Godzilla: Cataclysm*