Gatanozoa

Pincers

Shadow mist

Shell

Length increase

### Goals

Cover the world in perpetual darkness.Defeat Ultraman Tiga to get him out of his way.

### Crimes

CataclysmTerrorism

Petrification

Mass murder

Attempted genocide

**Gatanozoa** is an ancient monster and the final antagonist in *Ultraman Tiga*. He is a powerful and ancient dark god that seeks to encapsulate the Earth in eternal darkness.

He is based on the Cthulhu Mythos villain Ghatanothoa.

## History

### *Ultraman Tiga*

Millions of years ago, Gatanozoa exterminated the ancient humans and spread darkness. Eventually, Gatanozoa and his followers, the Zoiger, retreated into the ancient city of R'lyeh to hibernate, marking the end of the age of darkness.

In modern times, Gatanozoa awoke, seeking to plunge the world into darkness once more. Standing in his way was Ultraman Tiga, occupying the human Daigo.

Summoning his courage for the entire human race, Daigo/Tiga went to fight the dark god. However, as he only had Daigo's light to power him, Tiga was unable to defeat Gatanozoa, who turned him into a stone statue that plummeted to the depths of the Pacific Ocean.

However, Tiga was revived thanks to humanity's hope pouring into his color timer. The Ultra then went to battle Gatanozoa, managing to defeat the dark god with a combination of his Glitter Bomber, the Glitter Zeppelion Ray and Color Timer Flash.

### *Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey*

When Kamila discovered that Tiga had fallen in love with another woman, Gatanozoa's hatred and anger towards Tiga transferred to her and the other two Dark Giants. Kamila later used the dark energy of Gatanozoa to transform into her final form, Demonozour.

### *Ultraman Orb Chronicle*

Although Gatanozoa has long dead, Maga-Orochi managed to create a King Demon Beast replica of the kaiju while siphoning with Earth's elements called **Maga-Tanothor**. Its kaiju card was featured in "Beware of Fire in the Midsummer Sky".

As revealed in Chapter 4 of Ultraman Orb Chronicle, mirroring the original's fate, Maga-Gatanothor was defeated by Ultraman Tiga after a difficult fight near Ishtal Civlization. Rather than destroying it, Tiga resorted to seal it due to its presence, alongside the rest of King Demon Beasts at that time, cannot kill it without further ravaging the planet. Its presence inspired the foundation of the cult Magacism dedicated to worship the King Demon Beast. Under the guise of Nuru Ra Hotep, Juggler seized control over the cult and preached inhabitants of Ishtal about their impending doom before releasing Maga-Gatanothor with use of Dodongo's Kaiju Card fashioned from the monster of the same name Orb defeated earlier in conjunction of Dark Ring. Maga-Tanothor soon fight Ultraman Orb as soon as it started to wreak havoc upon buildings of Ishtal. Their fight was so intense that the heat they released during the fight turned nearby sand to glass. Although Ultraman Orb emerged victorious with Gai harvested the lingering light of Ultraman Tiga on Maga-Tanothor's remains, their battle has reduced Isthal into a place known as Kemati Buki (Hill of Death), leading to the theory of an ancient superscience war scientists thought of 4,000 years later. Shedding away his disguise, Juggler collected Maga-Tanothor's Kaiju Card where he would use it alongside the rest of King Demon Beasts' cards to unleash the Great King Demon Beast: Maga-Orochi.

## Trivia

* Gatanothor is based on the Cthulhu Mythos deity, Ghatanothoa, whose name is spelled (in Japanese) the same way as Gatanothor. Like Ghatanothoa, Gatanothor has a petrification ability. Its role, however, as well as fact that Gatanothor's resting place is the submarine ancient city R'lyeh, is derived from Ghatanothoa's father, Cthulhu.
* Gatanothor's name is never mentioned in the narration of the episode. It is instead referred to as the "Master of Darkness" to play on his omnipotent nature and sinister powers.
* The porous texture that covers Gatanothor's shell are shared features with Golza, Melba, Galra, and the Zoiger, as all of them are related as Ultra-Ancient Kaiju by nature. Unlike Gatanothor, their main reason is to act as a disguise for peepholes for the suit actors to use.
	+ Gatanothor's main design is a nautilus and ammonite. Its head in an upside down position is a reference to Gatanothor's habit of looking down towards humanity.
* Gatanothor's roar is a reused and slightly modified Desghidorah roar, which in turn was made of modified elephant trumpets.
* Gatanothor is one of the monsters that makes up Belyudra's body in *Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends The Movie*.
* Gatanothor shares some similarities with Mururoa from *Ultraman Taro*.
	+ Both of them defeated an Ultra on their first try. However, while Gatanothor managed to end an Ultra's life, Mururoa didn't.
	+ Both hate light.
	+ Both are accompanied by their servants to aid them in attacks.
	+ Both of them are able to cover the Earth's sky with their darkness/black smoke.
* In *Ultraman Fighting Evolution 3*, Gatanothor is able to shroud the entire screen with its mist. Players need to use Cheat Machine to change the value to 37 in Custom Mode and will see that there are two selections, Black Gas and Power Up in the R1/L1 section.