Mechagodzilla 2

**Mechagodzilla 2** (メカゴジラ２ *Mekagojira tsū*), also known as **Super Mechagodzilla** (スーパーメカゴジラ *Sūpā Mekagojira*), is a mecha created by Toho that first appeared in the 1993 *Godzilla*film, *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II*.

## Development

The Heisei Mechagodzilla was originally conceptualized as an out-of-control mechanical monstrosity called "Berserk," which was built by the J.S.D.F. and later infected by a computer virus that made it become self-aware. When this idea was discarded, Mechagodzilla was envisioned as being able to split apart into multiple vehicles. Through rewrites to the script of *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II*, this ability was toned down into Mechagodzilla combining with Garuda to form Super Mechagodzilla.

## Name

Mechagodzilla's name comes from the word "mecha," meaning a robot that can be controlled from the inside, and from another monster, Godzilla (ゴジラ *Gojira*). The "Super" in its "Super Mechagodzilla" name comes from the aforementioned "mecha" and "Godzilla" as well as the word "super," enforcing Super Mechagodzilla's powerful nature. Mechagodzilla's official designation by G-Force is UX-02-93.

## Roar

Mechagodzilla's sound is basically a higher-pitched Godzilla roar. Mechagodzilla's audio is made from the roars of the original Godzilla, which were also multi-toned and distorted in order to sound more metallic.

Past its shrill cry, its roar can also sound deep, and rumbling, much akin to a jet engine.

## Origins

Mechagodzilla was created by the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center and controlled by its military branch G-Force, using Futurian technology scavenged from the remains of Mecha-King Ghidorah. In *Godzilla Island*, this Mechagodzilla was created by G-Guard. In the comic series *Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters*, it was constructed as part of a joint operation between the American and Japanese governments to defend humanity from the kaiju appearing around the globe.

## History

### *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II*

In 1992, the United Nations formed the United Nations Godzilla Countermeasures Center, a special branch dedicated to combating the threat posed by Godzilla. The U.N.G.C.C.'s military branch, G-Force, began construction on an anti-Godzilla machine known as Garuda. However, G-Force concluded that the Garuda's combat capabilities were too limited to be effective against Godzilla. Using Futurian technology salvaged from Mecha-King Ghidorah's central head, G-Force began construction of a much more advanced machine built in Godzilla's own image.

The machine, Mechagodzilla, was finally completed in 1994. The mech would first see action when Godzilla appeared in Japan and began heading to the city of Kyoto. Mechagodzilla was launched and engaged Godzilla in the countryside. Mechagodzilla held the upper hand against its organic counterpart, knocking Godzilla to the ground with its impressive array of lasers and missiles. Mechagodzilla fired its shock anchors into Godzilla, electrocuting him and causing him to foam at the mouth. Suddenly, Godzilla emitted a shockwave of energy that caused the electrical current to be reversed and travel back up Mechagodzilla's shock anchor cables. Mechagodzilla began to short-circuit and was rendered immobile as Godzilla rose back to his feet. Godzilla charged at Mechagodzilla, knocking the machine onto its back, before continuing on to Kyoto.

Mechagodzilla was brought back to G-Force headquarters for repairs, which were expected to take several weeks. After being transferred to parking duty after failing to appear to pilot Mechagodzilla, Kazuma Aoki pulled aside Mechagodzilla's lead engineer, Leo Asimov. Kazuma proposed a plan to modify the Garuda and allow it to be more useful against Godzilla in combat. When Asimov asked what they would do with Mechagodzilla, Kazuma revealed a proposal to combine the Garuda and Mechagodzilla into a single, more powerful machine. Asimov agreed, and both mechs were modified. Meanwhile, G-Force was formulating a new plan to kill Godzilla. They had learned that Godzilla possessed a secondary brain in his hip that controlled lower body function due to Baby Godzilla, an infant Godzillasaurus in G-Force's custody, possessing the same structure.

G-Force planned to use Baby Godzilla as bait to lure Godzilla to the Ogasawara Islands, then have Mechagodzilla use its shock anchor cables to destroy Godzilla's second brain and paralyze him, then finally kill him with its arsenal of weapons. Preparations were made, and Baby Godzilla was airlifted to the Ogasawara Islands along with his human surrogate mother, Azusa Gojo. En route, the canister holding them was captured by Fire Rodan, who touched down and tried to break the canister open.

Mechagodzilla was quickly deployed to attack Rodan and save Baby and Azusa. Mechagodzilla arrived and confronted Rodan, who fought back with his newly-acquired uranium heat beam. Aoki arrived in the Garuda shortly after to back up Mechagodzilla, distracting Rodan with its maser beams while Mechagodzilla charged its plasma grenade. Rodan took to the sky and rammed the Garuda, causing it to crash into a building. Mechagodzilla used its plasma grenade to blast Rodan into a skyscraper, then approached him. Rodan sprang back up and used his beak to knock out Mechagodzilla's right eye. Mechagodzilla fired the plasma grenade again, shredding Rodan's chest and sending him flying into a nearby building.

With Rodan seemingly dead, Godzilla suddenly appeared from the ocean, roaring and challenging Mechagodzilla to battle once again. Mechagodzilla turned to face Godzilla and fired its mega buster beam at him. Godzilla countered with his atomic breath, causing the beams to lock and explode. Mechagodzilla was disabled by the explosion, allowing Godzilla to charge and attack it up close. Godzilla easily overpowered Mechagodzilla, slamming it onto the ground and stomping on its head. The Garuda regained flight and fired at Godzilla, allowing Mechagodzilla to get back up. The Garuda then flew onto Mechagodzilla's back and combined with it, forming **Super Mechagodzilla**(スーパーメカゴジラ *Sūpā Mekagojira*). More powerful than ever before, Super Mechagodzilla took flight and unleashed its payload of laser beams onto Godzilla, knocking him to the ground. As Godzilla staggered to his feet, Super Mechagodzilla fired paralyzer missiles at Godzilla then launched its shock anchor cables into his hip. Mechagodzilla then began to discharge electricity through the cables, shattering Godzilla's secondary brain and sending him falling headfirst to the ground.

With Godzilla paralyzed, it appeared Super Mechagodzilla would be victorious. As Super Mechagodzilla prepared to finish Godzilla, Baby Godzilla broke free of the canister holding him and roared out, getting the attention of the mortally-wounded Rodan. Rodan took flight and flew near Godzilla, prompting Super Mechagodzilla to shoot him down with its mega buster. Rodan fell onto Godzilla, and it appeared the two monsters would die together. However, Rodan began transferring his life force into Godzilla, regenerating his secondary brain and revitalizing him. As Rodan faded away into nothing, Godzilla rose to his feet and roared, giving off huge amounts of heat. The intensity of the heat caused Super Mechagodzilla's synthetic diamond armor plate to melt. Godzilla fired his new spiral red atomic breath at Super Mechagodzilla, staggering it back and causing severe damage. Super Mechagodzilla fired back with its mega buster, engaging in another beam lock.

This time, Godzilla's beam overpowered Mechagodzilla's, causing it to fall backward into a building. Godzilla proceeded to fire his spiral beam at Mechagodzilla until the mech's head was blasted off and its entire body erupted in flames. Godzilla roared victoriously and went to find Baby Godzilla. Despite Mechagodzilla's computer claiming that no crew survived its destruction, all of its pilots survived the explosion. Mechagodzilla's pilots looked on from afar as Godzilla and his newly-adopted son waded out to sea together, remarking that life always triumphs over artificial life.

### *Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla*

The materials salvaged from Mechagodzilla were later used by the U.N.G.C.C. to construct a new mecha, M.O.G.U.E.R.A., for the purpose of finally destroying Godzilla. When Godzilla destroyed SpaceGodzilla with his red spiral atomic breath, he also completely destroyed the wreckage of M.O.G.U.E.R.A., leaving its components unsalvageable.

## Abilities

### Arm launching

In the manga adaptation of the film *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II*, Mechagodzilla is capable of launching its arms and a device on its forehead. This ability was witnessed in action when Mechagodzilla attempted to attack Godzilla's secondary brain again after the atomic reptile was instilled with Rodan's energy.

### Cranial firepower

Mechagodzilla possesses laser cannons in its eyes and a mega-buster ray from its mouth. The mega-buster in particular appears to be as powerful as Godzilla's own atomic ray.

### NT-1 alloy

The Heisei Mechagodzilla is protected by an armor plating made from an alloy called NT-1, which is coated in a layer of artificial diamond. The coating allows it to absorb energy from energy weapons such as Godzilla's atomic breath, which is then transferred to its ultimate weapon, the devastating plasma grenade, which is located on its waist. Mechagodzilla was also able to absorb energy from Fire Rodan's uranium heat beam and use it to power the plasma grenade.

### Super Mechagodzilla upgrade

Finally, Mechagodzilla can attach to the warship Garuda to form Super Mechagodzilla. Upon doing so it gains Garuda's powerful Maser Cannons as well as the ability to continuously hover above the ground by using Garuda's massive engines to achieve lift. When the Garuda connects to Mechagodzilla, all damage that Mechagodzilla had sustained before connecting is repaired, as seen when its right eye that was destroyed by Rodan earlier in the final battle switched on and started functioning normally.

Super Mechagodzilla is one of Godzilla's most powerful adversaries, defeating both Godzilla and Rodan, and coming closer to killing Godzilla than any of Godzilla's other adversaries, aside from possibly Keizer Ghidorah.

### Tranquilizer missiles

Mechagodzilla can fire tranquilizer missiles from its hips, paralysis missiles from the shoulders, and shock anchor cables from its wrists, enabling the robot to deliver powerful electrical charges in a struck opponent - this was later modified into a weapon called the "G-Crusher." The G-Crusher, when precisely targeted at Godzilla's secondary brain, was able to completely destroy it with a single discharge, crippling Godzilla from the waist down. Mechagodzilla's armor is nearly invincible, able to take a super-powered Godzilla's spiral breath, which reached a temperature of 1.2 million degrees Celsius, repeatedly before finally going out of commission.

## Weaknesses

### External short circuiting

When Mechagodzilla first used its shock anchors against Godzilla, Godzilla was able to somehow reverse the flow of energy back to Mechagodzilla, causing the machine to short-circuit.

### Hand to hand combat

Mechagodzilla has one major weakness: hand to hand combat. For all its weapons, Mechagodzilla lacks any real ability to fight up close, losing an eye to Rodan when it managed to get in close and proving no match for Godzillawhen he got close enough.

### Intense heat

Mechagodzilla's armor, while capable of easily absorbing Godzilla's normal atomic breath and Fire Rodan's uranium heat beam, proved no match for the intense heat given off by Godzilla after he absorbed Rodan's energy. This heat caused Mechagodzilla's armor to melt, leaving it defenseless when it was repeatedly struck by Godzilla's uranium atomic heat ray, which reached 1.2 million degrees Celsius and obliterated Mechagodzilla in a few hits.

## Trivia

* The Heisei Mechagodzilla is often referred to as "Mechagodzilla 2" by fans and in some recent media where all three Mechagodzillas exist in the same continuity as different characters. This name comes from the international title of its debut film, *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II*, and the fact that it is the second distinct incarnation of the character, despite being the only Mechagodzilla in the Heisei continuity. The rebuilt Showa Mechagodzilla in *Terror of Mechagodzilla* is officially labeled "Mechagodzilla 2" by Toho.

* The Heisei Mechagodzilla is the tallest of all the Mechagodzillas, standing at 120 meters tall, while the Showa and Millennium Mechagodzilla are 50 and 60 meters tall, respectively.
* The Heisei Mechagodzilla is one of Godzilla's most powerful enemies, paralyzing Godzilla and almost destroying Rodan in *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II*.
* In both *Godzilla Island* and some of the IDW comics, this Mechagodzilla has been an ally of Godzilla, making him the first version of Mechagodzilla to ally with Godzilla in any medium.
* Mechagodzilla was originally intended to be in *Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla*, but was replaced by M.O.G.U.E.R.A. in order to balance the battle when it was realized that the combined might of Godzilla and the machine which nearly killed him the previous year against SpaceGodzilla would make the battle too one-sided. Because of this, it is the only Mechagodzilla to not appear in two films.

* This incarnation of Mechagodzilla is among the slowest of the flying kaiju if not the slowest from the Heisei series, flying at a speed of mach 1 and mach 2 (when combined with the Garuda to make Super Mechagodzilla) ranking only third place between its Showa and Millennium counterparts.

* A deleted scene from *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II* shows Mechagodzilla perform a taunt by smashing its fists together before taking off. This taunt was later adopted in the Atari/Pipeworks *Godzilla* games, as this Mechagodzilla utilizes it in both his battle intro and his in-battle taunt move.

* The Heisei Mechagodzilla is the only Mechagodzilla to be strictly manually piloted from inside and not autonomous to some degree in its film appearance. The Showa Mechagodzilla appeared to be mostly autonomous in *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla*, responding to orders relayed to it by Kuronuma, while the Millennium incarnation was controlled remotely from an AC-3 White Heron and was also capable of overriding its own programming and acting completely autonomously in *Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla* and *Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.*.

* The rocket launchers Kiryu wears on his back in *Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla* and *Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.*are a reference to Super Mechagodzilla's Garuda cannons.

## List of appearances

### Films

* *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II* (First appearance)
* *Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla* (Mentioned only)

### Video games

* *Godzilla*(Arcade) (Scrapped)
* *Godzilla, King of the Monsters*
* *Super Godzilla* (Japanese version only)
* *Godzilla: Battle Legends*
* *Godzilla: Great Monster Battle*
* *Godzilla: Archipelago Shock*
* *Godzilla: Giant Monster March*
* *Godzilla: Heart-Pounding Monster Island!!*
* *Godzilla Movie Studio Tour*
* *Godzilla: Trading Battle*
* *Godzilla: Domination!* (North American version only)
* *Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee*
* *Godzilla: Save the Earth*
* *Godzilla: Unleashed*
* *Godzilla*(2014 video game)
* *Godzilla: Kaiju Collection*

### Comics

* *Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II* (Kodansya manga)
* *Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla* (manga)
* *Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters*
* *Godzilla: Gangsters and Goliaths*
* *Godzilla: Legends*
* *Godzilla: Ongoing*
* *Godzilla: The Half-Century War*
* *Godzilla: Rulers of Earth*