Jet Jaguar

**Jet Jaguar** (ジェットジャガー *Jettojagā*) is a heroic mechacreated by Toho that first appeared in the 1973 *Godzilla* film, *Godzilla vs. Megalon*.

## Development

Jet Jaguar was the result of a contest Toho had in mid-to-late 1972 for fans to come up with a new hero for them to use, to capitalize on the many tokusatsu, anime superhero and super robot shows that were very popular at the time.

The winner of the contest submitted the drawing of a robot called *Red Alone* (レッド·アローン *Reddo Arōn*). The robot resembled both Ultraman and Mazinger Z (both of which were very popular). The robot's design was altered and it was renamed "Jet Jaguar" and was set to star in its own film, titled *Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon*, which pit him against Megalon.

However, Toho figured Jet Jaguar would not be able to carry the film on his own, in screen appearance or marketing value, so during pre-production, the project was shut down for several weeks, until screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa was called in to rewrite the script to add Godzilla and Gigan. The resulting film, *Godzilla vs. Megalon*, paired Godzilla with Jet Jaguar against bothMegalon and Gigan.

## Roar

Jet Jaguar doesn't possess a roar, but instead, unleashes a bunch of mechanical or electronic sounds during his screentime.

## Personality

It is revealed that Jet Jaguar gained sentience and is capable of altering his programming in *Godzilla: Unleashed*. Jet Jaguar fights to protect others, and acts very much like a superhero. When not fighting, he is shown to be very friendly towards others, offering handshakes, and even carrying a child on his shoulders.

## Origins

In *Godzilla vs. Megalon*, Jet Jaguar was created by scientist Goro Ibuki.

## History

### Showa Series

#### *Godzilla vs. Megalon*

Jet Jaguar was a human-sized robot created by inventor Goro Ibuki for unknown reasons. Having been stolen by the underground nation of Seatopia, Jet Jaguar's mission was to guide Megalon to Tokyo so the insect kaiju could destroy it. Eventually, however, Goro regained control of Jet Jaguar and sent him to fetch Godzilla from Monster Island. As Godzilla made his way to Japan, Jet Jaguar flew back to the mainland and faced Megalon.

Increasing his size to fifty meters, Jet Jaguar attacked Megalon and was winning the battle until the cyborg Gigan arrived to provide Megalon some back-up. The two evil beasts were too much for Jet Jaguar, who was beaten senseless until Godzilla arrived. After a long fight, Godzilla and Jet Jaguar were able to defeat their foes, sending Megalon back to Seatopia and Gigan back into outer space. After the fight, Jet Jaguar reverted to his normal size, and returned to his home with Goro.

### *Godzilla Island*

Jet Jaguar appeared extensively in the TV series *Godzilla Island*. In the show, Jet Jaguar appears in several different forms: a Silver Jet Jaguar, who was a fighting machine that battled alongside MechaGodzilla and Moguera,  a Medic Jet Jaguar, who tended to the injured monsters, and a Fire Fighter Jet Jaguar, who worked to put out the fires caused by the monsters' fights.

## Abilities

### Liquid Nitrogen

During developments, Jet Jaguar was planned to spray liquid nitrogen from mouth, but was not made into movie.

### Beam and sword and missile attacks

Outside of his film appearances he can fire beams from his arms along within missiles, similarly to Ultraman. In *Godzilla: Save the Earth*, the beam is rather sphere-shaped. In one of old stills, Jet Jaguar was seen using a sword of light.

### Flight speed

The 2014 *Godzilla* video game states that Jet Jaguar can fly at mach 3.5.

### Floodlights

Jet Jaguar's eyes also contain two spotlights, and he uses these to blind opponents or search for nearby humans or kaiju.

### Intelligence

In *Godzilla: Rulers of Earth*, Jet Jaguar's intelligence and resilience are emphasized greatly. He is able to control Kiryu like a human pilot, and is able to defend against attacks that would normally critically damage or destroy the other mechs.

### Physical prowess

He is also able to carry incredibly heavy objects and even fly whilst being weighed down by Godzilla riding on his back.

He is also shown to be able to knock Godzilla out with a single blow to the face, despite being struck at point blank range by Godzilla's atomic breath.

### Size changing

The mechanical hero has the ability to alter his size at will. He has also been shown growing larger than his film appearance in the Atari trilogy, rivaling Biollante's height, but being this size makes him very slow.

## Trivia

* For the German release of *Godzilla vs. Megalon*, Jet Jaguar was renamed to King Kong. However, there is no connection to the real King Kong beyond his name, and in contrary to a widespread misconception, he is not said to be a giant ape wearing a robot suit in the dub.
* The popular anime series *Neon Genesis Evangelion* paid homage to Jet Jaguar in the episode "A Human Work"; the episode featured a robot named "Jet Alone", a combination of his final and prototype names.  Jet Alone also shares a similar color scheme with Jet Jaguar.
* Jet Jaguar's *Unleashed* bio references his origins in *Godzilla vs. Megalon*, but doesn't state the reason why he was made from the film.
* Jet Jaguar has a song about him played during the conclusion of *Godzilla vs. Megalon*.
* His design was based on Ultraman from the 1966 television series, *Ultraman*.

## List of appearances

### Films

* *Godzilla vs. Megalon* (First appearance)

### Video games

* *Battle Soccer: Champion of the Field*
* *Godzilla, King of the Monsters*
* *Godzilla Movie Studio Tour*
* *Godzilla: Trading Battle*
* *Godzilla Generations*
* *Godzilla: Save the Earth*
* *Godzilla: Unleashed* (Wii and PS2)
* *Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash*
* *Godzilla*(2014 video game)
* *Godzilla: Kaiju Collection*

### Books

* *Godzilla 1954-1999 Super Complete Works* (As Red Alone)