Jet Jaguar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Toho character | |
|---|---|
| Jet Jaguar | |
| Species | Robot Humanoid |
| Form(s) | Humanoid Form Giant Form |
| Height | Humanoid form 1.8 meters Giant form 50 meters[1] |
| Weight | Humanoid form 150 kilograms Giant form 25,000 tons[2] |
| Major enemies | Megalon Gigan |
| Allies | Godzilla |
| First appearance | Godzilla vs. Megalon |
| Created by | Jun Fukuda |
| Portrayed by | Tsugutoshi Komada |
Jet Jaguar (ジェットジャガー Jetto Jagā?) is a fictional robot that appears in the Godzilla film Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973).[3]
Contents |
[edit] History
In the film, Jet Jaguar is a robot created by the protagonist, Goro Ibuki. He is initially depicted as a mindless robot, and is controlled by the evil "Seatopians" for part of the film. He later gains sentience and functions as a partner to Godzilla in their battle against the two kaiju Megalon and Gigan. He is depicted as a heroic character with the abilities to communicate with monsters, fly, and alter his own size. He is also shown to have floodlights in his eyes. Jet Jaguar is also notable for being the focus of the film's closing theme song.
[edit] Origins
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 and anime superhero and super robot shows that were all the rage at the time). The winner of the contest submitted the drawing of a robot called Red Arone. The robot resembled both Ultraman and Mazinger Z (both of which were very popular at the time). The robot was renamed "Jet Jaguar" and was set to star in a film vehicle for him, titled Jet Jaguar Vs. Megalon, which pitted him against Megalon (a previously unused Godzilla monster design). However, Toho figured Jet Jaguar would not be able to carry the film on his own, in screen appearance or marketing value (which was a big thing with Toho), so during pre-production, even after doing some tests and storyboards, the project was shut down for several weeks, until screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa was called in to rewrite the script to add Godzilla and Gigan to have more marquee value. The resulting film, Godzilla vs. Megalon, paired Godzilla with Jet Jaguar against both Megalon and Gigan.[4]
[edit] Other Appearances
Jet Jaguar was considered for Godzilla: Final Wars, but was cut for unknown reasons.
The 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.[5]
Episode 212 of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 displays Jet Jaguar as the show riffs the entire movie, 'Godzilla vs. Megalon'. The end of the show highlights the Jet Jaguar fight song with comidically wrong English subtitles.
He is also known for the theme song "Godzilla and Jet Jaguar: Punch Punch Punch!" ("Gojira Jetto Jaga: de Panchi Panchi Panchi!"), sung by veteran pop singer Masato Shimon.
Jet Jaguar is also the name of an American "space rock" band from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who have released several albums on the Italian music label called Black Widow Records. They have even covered Blue Oyster Cult's song "Godzilla" live.[6]
Jet Jaguar is also the alias of rapper MF Grimm, who along with a host of other MCs named after Godzilla characters, is a member of the Monsta Island Czars.
Jet Jaguar has also appeared in the video game Godzilla: Save the Earth (where he can increase his size further to 1.5 times normal kaiju size and clap his hands to fire an energy blast) and in the mini-series Godzilla Island, which used stop motion animation with Bandai action figures.
Jet Jaguar is in the game Godzilla: Unleashed. He can be bought for 25,000 store points. In this game he can fire a magenta beam from his left wrist.
