For the film, see Mothra (film).
Mothra's larval form (Mothra, 1961)Mothra (モスラ, Mosura?) is a kaiju (monster) that has appeared in several Toho tokusatsu films since her introduction in Mothra (1961). Generally regarded as female by English-speaking audiences, she is a giant lepidopteran with characteristics both of butterflies and of moths. The name "Mothra" is the suffixion of "-ra" (a common last syllable in kaiju names) to "moth"; since the Japanese language does not have dental fricatives, it is approximated "Mosura" in Japanese. In the American dubbing of Mothra vs. Godzilla, Mothra is also referred to as the Thing.
Contents [hide] 1 About Mothra 2 Popularity 3 Shobijin 4 Mothra in Other Media 5 Filmography 6 References 7 External links
About Mothra
Since her first film, Mothra has been depicted in various stages of the lepidopteran life cycle: Mothra's mammoth egg is decoratively colored in blue and yellow waves. The egg hatches into her larva, a massive brown, segmented caterpillar (resembling a silkworm) with glowing blue—sometimes red—eyes. In rare circumstances, twins may emerge from the egg. The caterpillar eventually spins a silken cocoon around itself (the pupa stage), and from this cocoon the imago (adult) Mothra emerges, a gigantic moth-like creature with brightly-colored wings. Mothra's life cycle—particularly the tendency of an imago's death to coincide with its larvae hatching—echoes that of the Phoenix, resembling resurrection and suggesting divinity. Despite having wrought destruction worthy of any Toho daikaiju, she is almost always portrayed as a kind and benevolent creature, causing destruction only when acting as protector to her worshippers on Infant Island or to her egg, or as collateral damage while protecting Earth from a greater threat.
Mothra has proven a formidable adversary in combat: in larval form she may use her silken spray to wrap and immobilize an opponent, and has a knack for biting and clinging to foes' tails. In imago form her powers vary widely from film to film, including very animalistic scratching and dragging, incorporating several bolt and beam weapons in the Heisei era, and often concluding with a poisonous yellow powder (or "scales")—her last defense.
Mothra is one of the most powerful psychics in the Toho universe. She has had the ability to use this power benevolently, to communicate with humans, or defensively, to destroy her enemies. As suggested earlier, Mothra is assumed to be divine and draws many parallels to the Phoenix, which makes her one of the more powerful kaiju of the Toho universe.
Mothra has become one of Godzilla's most challenging opponents, having achieved the greatest success rate in battle[1]: She has once overcome Godzilla in imago form, and twice Godzilla has fought her to her death only later to be bested by her newborn larvae. It should be mentioned that Mothra has never beaten Godzilla alone (in her Imago Form). The only victory by an insect(s) over Godzilla were the Mothra twin-larvae in Mothra vs Godzilla in the Showa Era, Imago Mothra and Imago Battra in [[Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth, in the Heisei series and the twin-larvae and Kiryu (MechaGodzilla) in the Shinseiga (aka Millennium) Series.
In the Heisei Era (1984-1995), Mothra gained her own series of films dubbed in America as the "Rebirth of Mothra" series. These movies were not called "Rebirth of" in Japan, but just simply "Mothra" 1, 2 or 3 with a byline title, such as Adventure Under the Sea or Advent of King Ghidorah. These series are not connected to the Showa, Heisei or Shinseiga Eras and are standalone films. The movies start off as the elder and last of her line puts the last of her energy into a new egg. From this egg hatches Mothra Leo.
Mothra Leo is supposedly male, as opposed to the pure female Mothras before (though the English dubbing is inconsistent, going back and forth between "she/her" to "he/him", even "it", and therefore its gender is left ambigious). It also has "ever-increasing energy" which allows it to absorb energy from other sources to become stronger. The 10,000 year-old tree in Rebirth of Mothra allowed Mothra Leo to change into its imago form as "Mothra Leo", thought to be the most powerful Mothra of all time. Mothra Leo gains several forms throughout the Rebirth trilogy, such as Rainbow Mothra, Aqua Mothra, Armor Mothra, and Eternal Mothra.
In this series Mothra battled three opponents: Death Ghidorah, a fauna-destroying horned beast with three heads; Dagahra, a toxic dragon-like sea creature; and finally the infamous King Ghidorah, in both Cretaceous and modern forms.
Popularity
Toho had intended to follow Godzilla vs. Biollante with a revival of Mothra in her own spinoff film, Mothra vs. Bagan, for 1990 release. However, following the unimpressive box office performance of Biollante, Toho discarded the project in favor of another Godzilla film, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991).[2] A 1992 survey revealed that Mothra was Toho's most popular daikaiju among women, an observation which inspired Toho to again revise its plans, abandoning a proposed sequel to King Ghidorah in favor of a Godzilla–Mothra feature.[3] Following the end of the Heisei Godzilla series, Toho produced a trilogy of Mothra films, known in the U.S. as Rebirth of Mothra (1996–1998). Mothra thus became the first Toho daikaiju to lead its own film(s) after its incorporation into the Godzilla franchise.
Shobijin
Mothra is usually accompanied by two tiny priestesses or fairies (often called shobijin—Japanese for "small beauties") who also speak for her. For Mothra's first three film appearances these twin fairies were played by the Peanuts. In Mothra they demonstrate telepathic ability, within speaking range with people and over great distances with Mothra. As in all future appearances, they call to Mothra in prayer and song, but they and Mothra are also connected on some deeper level beyond their control. In Mothra vs. Godzilla they seem also to demonstrate short-range teleportation, and in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster they translate not only Mothra's chirps but an entire conversation among three daikaiju. Decades later, in Godzilla: Tokyo SOS, two other shobijin (portrayed by Masami Nagasawa and Chihiro Ôtsuka) demonstrate telekenesis as well.
In the Godzilla films of the 1990s Mothra's priestesses (played by Keiko Imamura and Sayaka Osawa) identify themselves as Cosmos, the last survivors of an ancient civilization which had threatened, and eventually been destroyed by, the very life force of Earth. They had constructed Mothra as their guardian deity, to which the Earth life force had responded with Battra—a "Black Mothra" (as described in Godzilla vs. Mothra) or "Battle Mothra" (as described in the Super Godzilla video game manual).
In the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy, made in the late 1990s, Mothra's priestesses were the Elias; the Elias differ from earlier incarnations in that they are not mindlinked twins but individual persons, Lora and Moll. Belvera, a dark Elias, seems to be an older sister. In addition to accompanying Mothra, the Elias would also send smaller offspring called Fairy Mothras. Mothra would reprise the role of ancient guardian, though with only a passing homage to the Cosmos, in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
Mothra in Other Media
Mothra appeared as a summonable monster in Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee. A Mothra-shaped icon, when picked up, calls in a "Mothra Air Strike", where she flies around the arena firing her antennae beams at all monsters besides the one who got the item. She does little damage with each attack, but it builds up. Mothra can be chased off if hit with a beam weapon, but this is difficult to do. Mothra became playable in the sequel, Godzilla: Save the Earth. Players start as Larval Mothra, who is slow and has high defense and moderate attack. Larval Mothra can use her Silk Shot to immobilize foes, and can spear with her tail and roll around the arena to attack. Pressing R2 and L2 at the same time causes her to metamorph into Adult Mothra. Trading speed for defense and attack for weapons, Mothra relies on long-range assaults and good strategy. She can reflect most beam weapons away from her, and stun opponents when getting up or with a greenish mist. Mothra is unique in that she does not enter Rage Mode, instead she treats the Rage power-up as a Health and Energy Recover. In episode 40 of the Kimagure Orange Road anime TV series, the cast are making an amateur movie referencing certain elements from Mothra. They use the Kasuga family cat to play the part of a giant monster heading towards Tokyo with a final confrontation at Tokyo Tower and the Kasuga Twins playing the part of lost princesses that the monster is seeking. The twins even sing to the monster in order to calm it down and they ride on the monster back to their island paradise. In the Love Hina anime, Motoko has a dream where Mutsumi Otohime appears as two tiny versions of herself who sing to summon a giant version of Tama-chan the sea turtle. In the South Park episode Mecha Streisand, a parody of Kaiju films, lead singer of the Cure, Robert Smith transforms in to a large Mothra like creature to fight Barbra Streisand, who has transformed into a Mecha Godzilla-type monster. Mothra is one of two playable characters in the 1988 Nintendo game Godzilla:King of the Monsters (the other playable character being Godzilla.) In this game Mothra fights by firing red fireballs/energy blasts from her head, and by flapping her wings and releasing her pollen/scales on enemies below. Mothra has a brief appearance in an episode of The Simpsons where Godzilla is attacking the plane the family is on along with Mothra, Gamera and Rodan. A song by We Are Scientists, released on their 2002 LP Safety, Fun, and Learning (in that Order) is titled "Mothra Versus We Are Scientists". Mothra has a brief appearance in Episode 48 of Sonic X. On a mysterious island that both Sonic and friends and Dr. Eggman have come to investigate, Decoe and Bocoe disturb a giant moth that strongly resembles Mothra, although this beast is a savage toothy version with large red spheres at the ends of its antennae and is much smaller than Mothra (but still giant compared to the characters). It chases the robots towards Sonic, Chris and the others, and when Chris throws a rock at it he also is chased until all three fall down a hole. The moth disappears after this. In a episode of Pokemon Advanced Battle, they encounter a giant caterpie that evolves into metapod and Butterfree, with tons of homages to Mothra. Mothra is the name of a track on the 'Nosferatu' album (1979) by The Stranglers' lead-singer and guitarist Hugh Cornwell and Captain Beefheart percussionist Robert Williams. The ToeJammers wrote a song about Mothra, in which Godzilla sings Mothra a letter he wrote that begs for her forgiveness. During the events entailed in Silent Hill 1, the lead protagonist, Harry Mason encounters a large larva that he must fight. Later on, it is shown to have evolved into a very Mothra-like giant moth, who seeks revenge. An enemy in the Legend of Zelda series is a giant poisonous moth known as Mothula. In some games, it is a boss, while in Wind Waker they appear as a cyclopean species of moth instead. Its name seems to indicate it as a reference to Mothra/Mosura.
Filmography
- Mothra (1961)
- Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
- Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
- Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966)
- Destroy All Monsters (1968)
- Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
- Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
- Rebirth of Mothra series
- Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
- Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003)
- Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)