A forklift truck in Japan drives film reels past a stockade full of vats of toxic goo. Some of the film reels fall into the goo, which then converges with some ectoplasm, and then it seeps into the sewers. Nearby, a boy named Kenji is bullied at school. The bullies toss Kenji's hat into the river, where the ectoplasm and poison shows up and ends up in a fishing net at Tokyo Bay. A giant seaweed monster emerges from it, which attacks the fishermen, and Kenji identifies it as "Nori-ra".
The Ghostbusters and Slimer then arrive at Tokyo, where an inspector shows them around and tells them about the monster. Meanwhile, Kenji tries to get their attention but is held back by the police. Ray thinks the monster's photograph looks familiar, but can't remember how. The inspector, Ogata, gives them a suped-up car called Ecto-Ichi, then they drive off, with Kenji following on a bike.
The guys get stuck in traffic and have trouble finding which button to press, eventually making the car fly, then they have trouble fighting Nori-ra. It seems to be immune to the proton streams, but when they increase the power, it works and Nori-ra disappears. Kenji catches up and reveals the monster's name to the guys, who Ray recognises as a character from a movie called Lizardo Meets Nori-Ra.
Then, a giant crab monster comes out of the ectoplasm and poison, and it takes a bit of effort, but the Ghostbusters vaporise it too, with Ray recognising it from another movie, Lizardo and the Crab Monster from Space. Winston is a bit nervous since Kenji revealed that there were twelve Lizardo movies and the proton packs have run out of charge. He then shows them the studio where the chemical reaction happened, and the Ghostbusters send Slimer out to the end of the slime trail. When he reaches it, he finds the next manifestation, Lizardo (a Godzilla-like beast) and warns the others. Lizardo appears near the studio, so they all run away and determine that they'll need a gigawatt of power to defeat him. Kenji suggests using the Tokyo Tower.
They modify the proton packs near the tower and attract Lizardo by blowing an air raid siren (because air raid sirens sound like the mating call of the females of his species). He gets bored, but Kenji keeps him around by teasing him through the loudspeaker, and eventually, he gets vaporised. As the Ghostbusters and Slimer go to leave, they, and Kenji, are hailed as heroes.
This episode provides examples of
- Animal Sweet on Object: Invoked — the Ghostbusters, Slimer, and Kenji trick Lizardo into thinking an air raid siren is a female monster doing a mating cry.
- Applied Phlebotinum: The stuff that mixed with the ectoplasm and film reels isn't defined beyond "poisonous".
- The Bully: Three rude schoolboys insult Kenji and steal his hat.
- Bullying a Dragon: Exploited when Kenji mocks Lizardo just to keep him in place.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: Conversed — one movie is Lizardo and the Crab Monster from Space.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: The guys smack-talk the crab monster while fighting it.
- Disco Sucks: When Lizardo dances to the air raid siren, Peter says, "And I thought disco was dead!".
- Edible Theme Naming: The "Nori" in Nori-ra's name comes from a type of edible seaweed.
- Flying Car: The Ecto-Ichi can fly.
- Green and Mean: Nori-ra is an aggressive, green monster.
- Harmless Electrocution: The electricity from the tower doesn't kill the Ghostbusters; it just messes up their hair.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: After killing Nori-ra, Peter says the danger is over, right before the crab beast emerges.
- Kid Hero: Kenji, a boy of about ten, helps fight Lizardo.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": The lizard monster is named Lizardo.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Nori-ra has lots of teeth.
- No-Sell: Subverted — the proton packs initially don't work on the monsters, but it turns out that more power is all that's needed.
- Notzilla: Lizardo is based off Godzilla, being a T-rex-like, Japanese monster.
- Planimal: Nori-ra is a seaweed monster.
- Red Is Violent: The crab monster is red and aggressive.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Lizardo has red eyes.
- Refugee from TV Land: As the title suggests, the villains of this episode are from B-movies.
- Saw "Star Wars" Twenty-Seven Times: Kenji mentions seeing the Lizardo movies ten times, and while this isn't portrayed as unhealthy or obsessive (in fact, it comes in useful), it is meant to portray him as nerdy.
- Serial Escalation: Every monster is more powerful than the previous one.
- Sickly Green Glow: The ectoplasm/poison mixture is a yellowish-green colour.
- Taught by Television: Because Lizardo is a movie character, Kenji and, to a lesser extent, Ray use knowledge of movies to help defeat him.
- Tentacled Terror: The first antagonist, Nori-ra, has tentacles.
- Terms of Endangerment: Ray calls Nori-ra "pal" during the fight.
- Theme Music Power-Up: The theme tune plays during the final battle.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Peter says, "There goes my night out" when the crab monster comes.
- Tongue-Out Insult: As part of his mocking, Keni sticks his tongue out at lizardo.
