Real Name:
Hedorah
Hedorah
Real Name:
Hedorah
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial pollutant
Occupation: Destroyer, mass murderer
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Gojira, the Japanese Self Defense Forces (JSDF)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: The Smog Monster
Base of Operations: Centered around Japan; formerly the Dark Gas Nebula in the Orion Constellation
First Appearance: “Gojira Tai Hedorah” (first aired July 24, 1971 in Japan); “Godzilla Vs. Hedorah (English translation)
Powers/Abilities: Arguably one of the most powerful entities ever confronted by Gojira; Hedorah is a mutated extraterrestrial organism that originally began life as a microscopic life form. Hedorah is unlike any ordinary terrestrial organism. Despite the fact that it may appear to be numerous entities, each separate piece of Hedorah is in fact part of the same life form which can work and exist not only separated from one another, but by combining themselves can greatly increase itself in size and power.
Hedorah varies greatly in size and stature, originally beginning life at approximately .01 millimeter tadpoles which could grow to various sizes, even spawning ones that measured over 20 feet in length. Hedorah had multiple evolutions, its first form or stage was a water based life form that was approximately 65 feet in length. An excellent swimmer, it was extremely fast and did not require oxygen in order to survive; thus it could submerge itself without resurfacing for extended periods. Its body was incredibly corrosive and it could combine itself with its smaller components to increase itself in size and stature and transform its shape. Very little is known about this form’s capabilities.
Its second stage form was a land based quadruped that was nearly 100 feet in height; Hedorah possessed excellent jumping capabilities and generated an acidic mud from its body that it launched as flying projectiles. These sticky blobs would burn through concrete and steel, not to mention even Gojira’s flesh. This form proved nearly invulnerable to conventional armaments and Gojira’s physical attacks from his blows; his claws literally passed through its disgusting mass with little effect. Gojira’s atomic ray also proved to be extremely ineffective as Hedorah’s sludge body proved immune.
Hedorah’s third form was his flying form. Transforming itself into a flying saucer or a frisbee shape, Hedorah could through some unknown means, generating sufficient propulsive force to enable it to defy gravity and hover or fly at startling and surprising speeds. Its top speed was unknown but it was believed that the Smog Monster could achieve supersonic speeds in flight, almost 760 miles per hour. Although it still possessed the ability to expel portions of itself as projectiles of acidic mud, Hedorah had also evolved the ability to discharge a powerful crimson beam from its eyes as well as acidic vapors. The vapors were perhaps the most destructive and deadly of Hedorah’s weapons; invisible, silent, and deadly, this mist of death was carried and spread by the air currents, leaving behind a swath of death in its wake. The noxious fumes were enough to choke and incapacitate even a kaiju of Gojira’s tremendous size and stature at close range, an unprotected human would be overcome within a matter of seconds. Again, this form proved to be nearly invulnerable, capable of absorbing nearly any force or attack without harm or effect.
Hedorah’s final form or final stage was perhaps its most powerful. Transforming its body into a shambling bipedal configuration, Hedorah stood a towering 200 feet in height and was physically at its most powerful as well as possessing all of its other form’s capabilities and powers; it could even assume its former form, the flying mode, at will. Assuming this form to physically engage Gojira in hand to hand combat, Hedorah proved to be a slippery foe to combat. Physical attacks were still next to useless while its corrosive body and acidic mud burned Gojira’s body despite his attempts to physically grapple his opponent.
It is unknown how physically strong Hedorah was, although it did prove capable of lifting Gojira (who weighed approximately 22,000 tons) in its third form, the flying one; Hedorah appeared to use its bulk and mass as a bludgeoning weapon rather than using its physical strength through any attacking limbs as physical blows. Hedorah’s one known weakness was dehydration. Its body required moisture in order for it to function. Deprived of moisture proved fatal as its body was literally unable to maintain cohesion.
History: While passing through the Dark Gas Nebula in the Orion Constellation in deep space, several alien microscopic spores attached themselves to the Ikeya Comet. As the Ikeya Comet brushed by the Earth, the spores apparently were dislodged and entered the atmosphere, eventually landing in the waters off Japan and beginning to multiply. Soon creatures like small tadpoles formed, thriving in Japan’s polluted waters; but the tadpoles were actually components of the same singular entity. They began to slowly combine, one by one the tadpoles uniting, growing ever larger and larger until they evolved into a gigantic walking pile of sludge that was dubbed Hedorah, moving from the oceans onto dry land in search for more concentrated forms of pollution to feed off from.
Hedorah’s presence attracted Gojira's attention while the Smog Monster was literally sucking on a smokestack. Attacking, the King of the Monsters at first appeared to have the upper hand, forcing the living mass of sludge to flee back into the ocean. But this proved to only the beginning of their long, protracted battle as bits and pieces of Hedorah’s body that had been discarded during the fight gathered together overnight and merged, forming a new Hedorah; an offspring that would soon grow in size to rival its parent. Meanwhile Gojira was in hot pursuit of the original Hedorah creature, unaware of the presence of a second. Their next battle took place in an oil refinery where Hedorah was able to feed on the waste pollutants to enable itself to evolve into a new and more dangerous form. Transforming itself into a flying discus, Hedorah took the air and began spewing poisonous vapors that overcame the landbound King of the Monsters. Leaving a collapsed and helpless Gojira behind, Hedorah moved inland, creating a swath of death and destruction with it’s acidic vapors, resulting in the deaths of an estimated 1,600 people and leaving another 3,000,000 hospitalized.
Meanwhile, a marine biologist who had been studying the Hedorah life form was able to find a critical weakness in the creature. Originally beginning life in the ocean, Hedorah still required considerable levels of moisture to survive. Quickly, the Japanese Self Defense Forces seized upon this critical weakness and rapidly constructed a series of towering electrodes that they hoped would be able to dehydrate the Smog Monster and kill it. Recovering from the acidic vapors, Gojira pursued its enemy inland where the King of the Monsters renewed its assault and, it seemed, began to gain the advantage, until the arrival of the second Hedorah, and the two sludge creatures combined together. Evolving into a towering shambling creature of ooze even larger than Gojira himself, Hedorah was too powerful for the King of the Monsters and forced the powerful kaiju to the ground, unconscious and helpless. Then, almost contemptuously, Hedorah seized the limp body of Gojira and flew him to Mt. Fuji, where the Smog Monster dumped him into a huge pit and left Gojira for dead.
The JSDF had not been idle throughout the fierce battle. They had been setting up their electrode towers along the Smog Monster’s flight path. However as the Smog Monster was bearing down on them, the JSDF discovered that the last battle had cut a critical power line to the electrode towers, leaving them defenseless before the deadly mists of the Smog Monster. Luckily both Hedorah and the JSDF underestimated Gojira’s will to survive and both sides were startled by the sudden reappearance of the King of the Monsters, who unleashes his atomic ray, blasting Hedorah in the midst of the twin electrodes. The stray energy leaking from the blast was enough to supercharge the electrodes and capturing the Smog Monster in a vortex of heat and Gojira’s fury.
Dried out and dying, a much smaller version of Hedorah was able to break free of the heat of the electrodes and tried to flee through the air, but Gojira was able to use his atomic ray as a form of propulsion to fly after the fleeing Smog Monster. Seizing it, Gojira dragged the struggling mass of sludge back to the electrode towers and once more re-energized it with his radioactive breath, mercilessly vaporizing the last remnants of the vile extraterrestrial pollutant. Yet the reproductive powers of the Smog Monster left some to wonder, could there not exist more out there, feeding on humanity’s pollutants? Only time will tell.
Comments: Profile by Michael Higuchi.
Hedorah owes its name from the Japanese word for sludge, slime, or chemical ooze; hedoro. Filmed during a time when Japan was just beginning to experience serious problems with pollution, the producers and director decided to utilize the film as an important message regarding the dangers of pollution, symbolized as their monster, Hedorah. The movie “Gojira Tai Hedorah” however is best known among Gojira fans for the ridiculous and belief defying moment when Gojira utilizes his atomic breath as a form of propulsion by tucking his head between his legs and discharging his beam; the King of the Monsters proves he is capable of a crude form of flight. Thankfully, this ability is quickly and mercifully forgotten.
Hedorah is considered by many to the prototype for Gojira’s future opponents, the majority of whom possessed the ability to transform, usually evolving through several distinct stages before ultimately transforming into some ultimate, final form that Gojira would have to confront and defeat. Battra, Biollante, and Destroyah would all would fit into this model.
Hedorah would make a brief cameo in the 2004 film, “Gojira: Final Wars”. No mention is made of its origins or earlier existence. It is widely believed that it was under the control of the Xiliens, but no image of Hedorah was shown attacking any of humanity’s cities on their behalf so it might have simply been an innocent bystander that was incidentally eradicated during Gojira’s rampage. Like many of the other kaiju who appeared during the movie, Hedorah did receive an update of its appearance and did have an acid mist attack that it used in a brief combat scene with Gojira. However due to the film’s length, this scene was apparently cut during editing leaving Hedorah’s only screen time as less than a minute before he is swiftly dispatched by Gojira.
CLARIFICATIONS: None.
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