Anguirus v.1

ANGUIRUS
<sub>Height: 58 ft (18m)
Length: 270 ft (82m)
Weight: 655 tons (594t)

Abilities and Characteristics
Anguirus, as an ankylosaur descendant, is covered in ossified plates that act as a sort of organic armor. Because of this, he can endure attacks most other monsters his size cannot. His spiked carapace also makes him a dangerous opponent in close combat. He can even somersault into a hedgehog-like ball in desperation, protecting him from most attacks but precluding the monster from engaging in battle himself.

The drawback to Anguirus's stout defense is his absence of long-range attacks. He lacks the beam weapons and projectile attacks many other kaiju possess. Anguirus's most powerful and longest-reaching weapon is his flail-like tail. While it can easily crush opponents' bones, using it requires Anguirus to assume a fairly prone position, facing away from the enemy.

Anguirus's Story: AGE OF TITANS
Anguirus - like Godzilla and many other monsters - is a descendant of mutated Monster Island inhabitants. While he does not possess Godzilla's voracious appetite for nuclear radiation, he is nevertheless able to sense it and its presence in other monsters. This ability links Godzilla and Anguirus in a strange sort of bond, with Anguirus acting as the King of the Monsters' "big brother." Anguirus seems to find a sense of duty in keeping Godzilla in check, engaging in battle with the monster to keep him in control when necessary. This is how it had been on Monster Island, and so too would it be when the monsters eventually did battle in Japan.

When Godzilla hastily left Monster Island in 2054, Anguirus sensed something was wrong with the monster. When Godzilla returned some days later battered, irradiated and more furious than ever, he knew something was wrong. Godzilla was acting like a monster possessed, preferring to remain solitary and acting more aggressive than ever towards his fellow kaiju. When Godzilla left the island again after healing from his wounds several months later, more hungry for revenge than for radiation, Anguirus knew he had to intervene.

Anguirus tracked Godzilla across the sea the same way Godzilla had tracked the nuclear sub the year before, although Anguirus's bulky body didn't hold up to swimming quite as well.

Needless to say, the denizens of still-recovering Tokyo were surprised to see Godzilla rise up from the bay after his apparent demise at the hand of the Oxygen Destroyer months earlier. This time, Godzilla wasn't after gamma radiation specifically - he sought to cause as much wanton destruction as possible in an act of perceived revenge. And so began a repeat of Godzilla's first attack, but with an even more bleak outlook - this monster was nigh invincible. When Anguirus emerged from Tokyo Bay a few hours later, Tokyo's attitude turned from oppression to utter defeat. It was surely the end of times.

Anguirus, while unfamiliar with the human race and its cities, recognized the damage Godzilla was causing and sought to put an end to it. The Japanese military had no idea to react to this turn of events, and continued attacking both monsters. Anguirus ignored the weapons fire and concentrated on bringing Godzilla down. The King of Monsters, blinded with rage and by now running out of nuclear power, was unable to parry Anguirus's blows and was quickly overwhelmed by the monster's attacks. Godzilla was in physical and psychological ruin, left bleeding and broken by Anguirus's assault and the humans' vastly improved weaponry. He had no choice but to retreat - for the first and last time. Anguirus followed after the seemingly dethroned King of the Monsters, making sure he returned to Monster Island safely.

The Japanese military, now aware of the severity of their monster problem, decided to do something to prevent it from happening again - they were fairly lucky this time, but could not take chances for the future. A reconnaissance aircraft, locked onto the monster's radiation signatures, successfully followed them to Monster Island. So began the Japanese effort to secure Monster Island - for the safety and knowledge of the entire planet.</sub>

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Yep, so here's number two, finally. I've kind of lost interest in this project already (due more to my ADD regarding interests than anything else), but I've already drawn two other monsters that you can look forward to if nothing else. I was really pleased with the response Godzilla got, but as it stands it's probably not enough to kick my ass into gear. Writing a story for each monster is especially draining, so I might discontinue that in order to focus on updating more frequently. But enough naysaying!

Some aspect of Anguirus has always appealed to me - I guess because he and Godzilla are best buds - but he kind of got the short end of the stick when it came to design. His Showa design, like so many, looked like a muppet, and his Final Wars design was generally better but still had a goofy face. The flail-tail was an aspect that originated in the scrapped version of Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (although the tail was way too short in that design for it to be a useful weapon) and was also incorporated to his Final Wars design.

I've said it before, but one of the biggest problems with most kaiju is that you've got to account for the fact that a human is going to have to fit in the suit. This doesn't translate too well to four-legged characters especially. Anguirus looked like a guy crawling around on his hands and knees, because that's exactly what he was. Therefore, the first thing I needed to do was shorten his legs to make him believably quadrupedal. This also required shifting the proportions and center of mass of his body - he doesn't look like he can rear up on two legs anymore, which I don't think he should.

The face is probably the biggest change to Anguirus' official designs, though. I wanted him to still be recognizable as Anguirus but I thought the crocodile-snout wasn't very indicative of an ankylosaur. He still has a much longer snout than any true ankylosaur, but the beak helps a lot, I think. The result ends up being more ceratopsian than ankylosaurian, but nevertheless is more appropriate for what Anguirus is supposed to be. I also like the idea of having the beaky tusks instead of typical fangs, since there's really no point in a herbivorous animal having them (lol Heterodontosaurus). I guess the tusks would have been used for rooting around in the soil in Anguirus's ancestors? I don't know.

I really wanted to make him a pale olive green instead of this bluish-gray, but it just wasn't working out. Oh well.

Up next: Rodan