Characters / Godzilla: Mechagodzilla

Film Appearances: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla | Terror of Mechagodzilla | Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II | Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla | Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. | Godzilla: Final Wars^note stock footage | Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters | Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle | Godzilla: The Planet Eater^note stock footage | Godzilla vs. Kong

Mechagodzilla is the name given to various different robots throughout the Godzilla continuities whose primary similarities are being robotic doppelgängers of Godzilla who have enormous arsenals of weapons. Besides that, the depictions of the character have varied widely.

To return to the main character index, go here. For the Legendary Mechagodzilla from the MonsterVerse, go here.

Due to Wiki Policy, this page contains numerous unmarked spoilers for each Mechagodzilla involved. You Have Been Warned.

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General Tropes

From left to right: Showa, Heisei, and Millenium/"Kiryu"

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• Adaptational Badass: In their respective movies, the Showa and Heisei Mechagodzillas were designed with ranged combat in mind, with little-to-no way of fighting hand-to-hand. This was because the hands of the suits were independent of the hands of the actor inside. In the video games, this isn't an issue, where they are often shown fighting other monsters hand-to-hand quite well.
• Adaptational Heroism:
  • As opposed to the alien weapon built to conquer Earth in the Showa era, Mechagodzilla in the Heisei and Millennium eras was a man-made weapon designed to defend humanity from Godzilla. The latter was built on the bones of and has DNA from the original Godzilla from 1954.
  • Subverted with the anime Mechagodzilla, who is once again an alien machine being intended to be used against humanity once Godzilla's dead.
• Arch-Enemy: Has faced Godzilla in every continuity and is second only to King Ghidorah in number of appearances. Has also come consistently closest to killing Godzilla at least once per movie, especially in the Heisei era.
• Armour Is Useless: Averted. Mechagodzilla's armour is one of the few things that consistently stands up to blows from Godzilla's radioactive breath, not to mention kaiju sized fists, claws, teeth, and tails.
• Breakout Villain: The original proved to be such a popular villain he's likely Godzilla's most well-known enemy beside King Ghidorah, and since then every film series has a had a version of him. He's also appeared in the video games, and the IDW comics.
• Chest Blaster: Showa's Wave Motion Cannon, Heisei's Plasma Grenade and Kiryu's Absolute Zero Cannon/Triple Maser.
• Crippling Overspecialization: The Showa and Heisei Mechagodzillas suffered this, as elaborated in their respective folders. Subverted with Kiryu, with a bit of invoked Fridge Brilliance when you realize Kiryu wasn't designed purely to fight Godzilla, as every other version of the monster has been. The fourth Mechagodzilla attempted to subvert this, but it was simply too small to face Godzilla Earth.
• Eye Beam: The Showa and Heisei era versions both possess these. It was probably Showa Mechagodzilla's most powerful weapon.
• Eye Scream: Heisei Mechagodzilla lost an eye to Rodan. Kiryu also lost the lens on his eye.
• Hero Antagonist: The Heisei and Millenium Mechagodzillas, both of which are owned and operated by the Japanese Self-Defense Force.
• Hero Killer: Mechagodzilla always comes very close to killing Godzilla, while the Heisei Mechagodzilla actually killed Rodan.
• Humongous Mecha: They're giant robotic replicas of Godzilla.
• Iconic Sequel Character: While many of Godzilla's monsters rivals fall under this, Mechagodzilla is notable for appearing 20 years after the first movie but it's still one of his most iconic adversaries.
• Inconsistent Spelling: Mechagodzilla, MechaGodzilla, Mecha Godzilla, and Mecha-Godzilla have all been used frequently in official media.
• Killer Robot: The original Mechagodzilla was designed to murder anything it came across. Later versions were piloted by humans, although Kiryu still went berserk once.
• Long-Range Fighter: Outside of Kiryu, the Mechagodzilla incarnations mostly fought Godzilla by staying back and pummeling him with their weapons.
• Macross Missile Massacre: All of them to some extent, but it's Showa Mechagodzilla's specialty in particular.
• Mechanical Monster:
  • The original Mechagodzilla may look like a clunky seventies robot, but is incredibly powerful nonetheless, and every bit as vicious/dangerous as this trope requires.
  • The manga version of Heisei Mechagodzilla becomes this after King Ghidorah's soul decides to take over.
  • Kiryu becomes this in Godzilla X Mechagodzilla when he goes berserk.
• More Dakka: Every Mechagodzilla unloads every single weapon at Godzilla at least once in every movie. Showa Mechagodzilla is especially notable for this, the attack appropriately being called an "All-Out Attack/Assault" in some media.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: All the Mechagodzillas are ridiculously hard to damage, standing up to repeated blows from Godzilla's radioactive breath (and in Showa Mechagodzilla's case, flat out No Selling it). This is in addition to whatever Deflector Shields and other forms of armor they might be equipped with.
• Robeast: All of them, but particularly the original Mechagodzilla.
• Robot Me: They're all robotic doppelgangers of Godzilla.
• Shadow Archetype: In general all incarnations of Mechagodzilla are a reflection of Godzilla's unnatural side and his mindless destructive nature, showing what Godzilla would be if he were nothing but an unthinking weapon. Alternately, he's what Godzilla could be if he was permanently under the control of the various human or alien villains in the franchise.
• Walking Armoury: All of them in their own ways, explained in their respective folders.

Live Action Incarnations

Showa Mechagodzilla

First appearance: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, 1974

Played by: Kazunari Mori

The first Mechagodzilla (Showa) was created by the Simians in their bid to conquer the Earth. It was initially disguised as Godzilla to discredit the monster, but it was exposed by Anguirus, who saw through the disguise. It badly damaged Anguirus before confronting the real thing. It was eventually taken down by the combined efforts of Godzilla and King Caesar. The Simians rebuilt Mechagodzilla and tried again, this time also enlisting the help of (a mind-controlled) Titanosaurus.

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• Adaptational Wimp: In 2 of his film appearances he possesses built-in jet propulsion systems beneath his feet, which enables the mecha to fly into the air with an approximate flight speed of Mach 5. His flight maneuverability is simply non-existent in Godzilla: Unleashed, which can be viewed as strikingly jarring since his Heisei counterpart (that was modeled after him by the Global Defense Force in the game's manual) is actually capable of flying.
• Achilles' Heel: The Showa-era Mechagodzilla is at least partially reliant on external hardware for it to function properly. This vulnerability is only exploited after the battle is already won in its original appearance, but was a critical factor in Terror of Mechagodzilla. In its original battle against Godzilla and King Caesar, Godzilla also exploited Mechagodzilla's complete absence of rear-facing weapon placements while flying to pull it in and successfully restrain it.
• Alien Invasion: Showa Mechagodzilla, who serves as The Dragon to the Simians in the films. Godzilla: Unleashed has Showa Mechagodzilla back in this role alongside several other space monsters and Megalon.
• Aliens Are Bastards: The Showa Mechagodzilla is easily the evilest of the characters to carry the name, and alongside fellow aliens Ghidorah and Gigan is one of Godzilla's most brutal opponents in any incarnation.
• Attack Reflector: In Godzilla: Unleashed, Showa Mechagodzilla's shield bounces ALL forms of projectiles right back at the user, be they another monster's breath/energy weapon or solid projectiles, missiles and lasers fired by Masers/Fighters/UFOs and Walkers, the stun bombs dropped by helicopters, even the energy beams and missiles fired by the Atragon.
• Breath Weapon: He launches a yellow-orange colored beam attack from his mouth within his Fake Godzilla disguise, intentionally mimicking Godzilla's Atomic Breath to throw people off.
• Bottomless Magazines: The first Mechagodzilla never ran of out missiles.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Mechagodzilla 1975 comes with greater firepower than the 1974 version but at the expense of close combat skills or decent aim.
• Crippling Overspecialization: The second Mechagodzilla is almost entirely geared for ranged combat and doesn't fare nearly as well as the previous one when fighting gets physical. To offset this, the Simians use a mind-controlled Titanosaurus to back him up and keep Godzilla at bay, so Mechagodzilla can blast him without reprisal. Once Titanosaurus is neutralized, however, Mechagodzilla II is trashed in short order. At the very least, it was ready for the head removal.
• Cyborg: In the dub of the 1974 film, Mechagodzilla is referred to as a cyborg, but no reason for it is given. The sequel, Terror of Mechagodzilla, made the Showa incarnation cyborg-esque, in that it had a human control system, but lacked any organic parts in its own body.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Essentially blows up minutes after Godzilla decapitates him. Not only did the machine explode but the Black Hole Simians' base of operations also erupt in flames. Goes through this imminent experience again in Terror Of Mechagodzilla where after Katsura shoots the device housed inside of her that causes him to malfunction, Godzilla shoulder-tosses his body into the same ditch he was buried in, fires his Atomic Ray at full blast which outright destroys the robot in an enormous and glorious explosion.
• Deflector Shields: The original Mechagodzilla could deploy a force field by rotating its head rapidly. This made hurting him very, very difficult.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Showa Mechagodzilla is this to the Simians in the films and the Vortaak in the video games. Mechagodzilla is the Simians' greatest creation, but they rely on the mech to actually succeed in their invasion by defeating Godzilla. Once Mechagodzilla is destroyed, they're pretty much up a creek without a paddle.
• Evil Knockoff: Controlled by planet conquering aliens, it had no qualms about killing pretty much anything that got in its way.
• Exorcist Head: It is able to move and rotate its entire head to see and attack any monster that could possibly try and sneak up on it, as what King Caesar attempted to do when he sees that Godzilla is in trouble and is struggling to fight Mechagodzilla. It also rotates its head a second time, but moves it around at insanely high speeds to create and form its Defense Neo Barrier.
• Eye Beams: His Space Beams are probably the most deadliest weapon that he has in his arsenal bar none and they are equally as powerful as Godzilla's Atomic Breath. He used them in a Beam-O-War against Godzilla's Breath Weapon that ends with an explosion so fatal that it mortally damaged both of them. The beams were also more than powerful enough to injure and scorch through Godzilla's toughened scales so severely that it caused him to bleed at ridiculous degrees as blood is seen spraying right out of his agonizing neck wound. In Terror of Mechagodzilla, they're basically just as powerful as they were before where Mechagodzilla was ordered to destroy Tokyo, he starts the destructive commence by firing his Space Beams, causing widespread explosions that can total various city blocks in the vicinity and they can easily take Godzilla down by using only one blast. Twice.
• Eye Lights Out: His Glowing Eyes begin to quickly flash "on and off" for a split second after Godzilla twists his head around and tears it clean off.
• Finger Firearms: This is undoubtedly Mecha G's go-to attack aside from his other destructive weapons where its likely his favorable weapon. In Terror of Mechagodzilla, this weapon was heavily upgraded even further as he rotates his hand before firing the missiles that are 5 times more powerful than they were in 1974 which was shown in the city destruction scene when he launched his claw missiles that burrowed into the ground which caused an eruption of debris. The attack was so powerful it even one-shotted Godzilla, although that was likely because Titanosaurus already softened him up for the robot.
• Hero Killer: Plays this the straightest of the incarnations, as Godzilla was at his most heroic when the two of them clashed, and the big lizard had to ally with King Caesar to have even a hope of defeating him.
• Informed Ability: The sharpened blade that's seen on Mechagodzilla's tail can be actually used as a weapon by having it detached from it to attack unsuspecting kaiju from behind but it was never used onscreen mostly because it's used as a flight stabilizer.
• Informed Attribute: Some sources describe the Showa Mechagodzilla as having the personality of a nihilistic assassin. However both its films only really show it off as a mindless weapon.
• It Only Works Once: In Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla Mechagodzilla was beaten when his head was torn off. In the next film Godzilla tried this again, only the aliens were ready for it. They made its head easier to snap off, freeing him, and gave him a secondary, smaller head in the neck. This head even had a beam weapon of its own.
• Kick the Dog: The original Mechagodzilla's beatdown of Anguirus was the tip-off that we shouldn't be cheering for this guy.
• Knight of Cerebus: Following four of the goofiest, campiest movies in the series, the two Showa Mechagodzilla movies returned to the series' earlier Darker and Edgier tone.
• Lightning Bruiser: In addition to his firepower and his Space Titanium body, it could also fly so fast Godzilla struggled to even hit him.
• Logical Weakness: The moment when Godzilla started to utilize his magnetic abilities, Mechagodzilla could only fly around so much until the robot was (literally) dragged down to ground level, right into Godzilla's grasp where he was unable to make a retreat.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: As he's downed Anguirus by overpowering him in combat, he seemingly mimics one of Godzilla's fighting techniques by grabbing his spiked tail and repeatedly bashing him into the terrain until he stopped doing it.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
  • Does this to Anguirus. It's not pretty or pleasant to watch, and mechanical or not, the bastard seems to enjoy doing it.
  • Once the tables were turned on King Caesar, and adapted to using missiles against him, he bludgeons him with metallic strikes without mercy almost to the point where he had his claw missiles inside of Caesar's jaws.
  • Even after Godzilla arrived for a rematch, and was double-teamed, the mech still manages to curb stomp both kaiju as if he's in no danger at all, especially when Mechagodzilla decided to use ALL of his weapons. Godzilla suffered this outcome the the worst, by getting blasted in the jugular several times causing blood to spray out of his neck like a blood sprinkler, and having missiles latched onto his bloody body.
• Off with His Head!: Showa Mechagodzilla was decapitated twice by Godzilla, but only the first one stuck.
• Psycho Electro: The original could deploy a powerful electric current from his chest, called the Cross Attack Beam.
• Robotic Psychopath: The original Mechagodzilla is doing exactly what it was built to do.
• Robotic Reveal: Showa Mechagodzilla starts off in a Godzilla costume, but as he and Godzilla battle in a refinery, Mechagodzilla's "skin" keeps falling off; eventually it reveals its true identity. Anguirus also scrapes off one of the disguise's scales earlier in the movie.
• So Last Season: Mechagodzilla 1975 could lose his head and keep fighting. Much to Godzilla's chagrin.
• Soviet Superscience: The Showa Mechagodzilla is made by Russia in Rulers of Earth.
• Tin-Can Robot: Proving that even the clunkiest, most barrel-bodied old-school robots can still be bloody horrifying.
• The Spock: The 1992 art book Special Graphix Godzilla vs. Mothra compares and contrasts him with Ghidorah and Gigan, claiming Mechagodzilla is a "consistently cold-hearted and composed professional" because as a mecha his true feelings can't be seen.
• Super-Strength: His Fake Godzilla form is formidably powerful as Godzilla himself, which was shown when he effortlessly pummels Anguirus to a pulp by sending him flying across a large distance as he falls onto a bridge upon impact with one kick, bashing him in the skull with punches, lifting him into the air by his tail as well as his entire 30,000 ton mass to body-slam him multiple times, and cruelly finishes him off by forcefully prying his jaws open so hard, he ends up breaking them where blood is seen spilling out of his mouth.
  • Despite being designed to be an all weapon-based war machine, he also exhibits melee strength at his disposal for engaging in close-range combat. Just like what he's done to the aforementioned Anguirus earlier, he's ran and kicked King Caesar's body so hard the blow managed to send him flying many yards away as if he was playing kickball, bashed him away with a backhand, and has ruthlessly clobbered the Okinawa guardian with various open-palmed karate chops.
• Villain Team-Up: Showa Mechagodzilla allied with a mind-controlled Titanosaurus during its second appearance.
• Vocal Dissonance: An extremely odd margin for a non-organic kaiju. He's constructed to be an intimidating Killer Robot (albeit a little clunky looking) that's basically modeled after Godzilla's likeness, although his roar is mainly an altered variation of Godzilla's, it sounds like he's downright "hissing", as if he's a snake rather than letting out a terrifying roar. His mechanical screeching coming out of his Fake Godzilla disguise could also count to a degree, since it's completely off to actually hear that sound from the MekaGoji suit.
• Walking Armoury: A Tin-Can Robot if ever there was one, it packed Eye Beams, a force field, a powerful electric current, a Wave-Motion Gun, forcefields, jets, and enough missiles to equip the Red Army.
• Zerg Rush: The mass-produced Showa Mechagodzillas do this to Godzilla in Rulers of Earth.

Heisei Mechagodzilla

First appearance: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, 1993

Played by: Wataru Fukuda

The Heisei Mechagodzilla was built by humans as a defense against Godzilla and other Kaiju, via reverse engineering the tech that created Mecha-King Ghidorah. It was given an artificial diamond coating that allowed it to absorb the energy of Godzilla's atomic breath and store it to its main weapon: the Plasma Grenade. Mechagodzilla battled Godzilla in Kyoto when he came to rescue Godzilla Jr. and ended up fighting Rodan as well. It was destroyed when Rodan died (who upon dying bequeathed its radioactive energy to Godzilla, granting Godzilla his red spiral breath), and Mechagodzilla's parts were used to construct MOGUERA in the sequel.

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• Achilles' Heel: Tremendous heat. Two of Mechagodzilla's strongest weapons, the Mega Buster and the Plasma Grenade, generate incredible heat and can only be used sparingly, lest the mech shuts down, allowing Godzilla to rush in and attack up close, as he does during their final fight. In addition, after being powered up by Rodan, Godzilla emits so much heat that Mechagodzilla's diamond coating melts, leaving it unable to absorb beams and vulnerable, not to mention rendering the Plasma Grenade useless.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Two of its long-ranged weapons from its movie appearance had altered colorations for the Pipeworks fighting games. Its yellow Laser Cannons in GVMGII were changed to a light blue color in Destroy All Monsters Melee and Save the Earth while its powerful Chest Blaster, the Plasma Grenade, which was colored gold/orange in the movie became purple.
• Adaptational Villainy: Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee has him spearheading the Vortaak's invasion of Earth, which is in stark contrast to the movie where he was made by the humans to protect themselves from Godzilla. This was corrected in Godzilla Unleashed where he fights for the Global Defense Force on behalf of humanity, with the manual also retconning the former game by stating that the Vortaak used the Showa Mechagodzilla in their first invasion.
• Attack Reflector: The Plasma Grenade is basically this. Mechagodzilla's armor absorbs Breath Weapons, then converts it into plasma energy and launches it right back.
• Beam-O-War: Engages in one against Godzilla, but fails because it can't fire its Mega Buster long enough.
• Breath Weapon: The Mega Buster. Said to be as strong as Godzilla's atomic breath, but it can only be fired for about ten seconds before the mech overheats.
• The Cameo: Briefly makes an appearance in the ending of the 1993 Godzilla arcade game, created before the movie itself. While only a little bit of him is visible in the story mode ending, in the arcade mode ending he appears in full.
• Combining Mecha: After some modifications, Heisei Mechagodzilla becomes able to connect with the fighter craft Garuda to gain a pair of Shoulder Cannons.
• Composite Character: Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee has this Mechagodzilla take some traits from its Showa counterpart, being a robot built by aliens, having missiles fired from its fingers and its Eye Beams being its strongest ranged attack, with its Breath Weapon being Adapted Out.
• Crippling Overspecialization: This Mechagodzilla suffers from this even worse than its Showa counterpart, who is every bit as reliant on its weapons, but can at least hang for a bit in melee combat. This version is almost entirely designed for ranged combat, preferring to take advantage of its Atomic Breath-resistant armor to keep Godzilla at bay while unloading into him from a distance. The instant Godzilla gets up close, however, the mech is soundly trounced.
• Eagleland: In the Marc Cersani books, Heisei Mechagodzilla was built by America and Japan, but more or less owned by the US. This is justified in the Cerasini books because not only have Godzilla and his fellow Kaiju become worldwide threats, a great chunk of the Kaiju are currently in or near the United States and there is a great deal of paranoia that Godzilla might decide to come back to the US and they barely survived their first go-round with him.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Becomes scorched by Godzilla's juiced up Hyper Uranium Heat Ray so much that it begins to violently ignite from the destructive blasts. Somehow the giant explosion doesn't even kill or let alone burn any of the G-Force pilots within Mechagodzilla.
• Energy Absorption: Mechagodzilla could absorb energy from Godzilla and Rodan's Breath Weapons and fire it back at them through its Plasma Grenade.
• Enemy Mine: In Godzilla Legends it fought Hedorah alongside Godzilla. In the Marc Cerasini books with Godzilla and MOGUERA, all three of them joined forces against Mecha-King Ghidorah.
• Eye Beams: Just like the Showa version, it has its own beam weapons fired from its mechanical optics, although these lasers don't seem to be as harmful to Godzilla unlike its other weapons.
• Final Boss: Heisei Mechagodzilla is the final boss of Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee no matter who you play as (unless you use Mechagodzilla; then Mecha-King Ghidorah takes over that role). Mechagodzilla 2 is also the final boss of Godzilla Battle Legends and Godzilla: Monster War.
• Good Counterpart: The manual for Unleashed has stated that the Global Defense Force intentionally modeled their own Heisei Mechagodzilla after examining the Vortaak's very own Showa version, built to protect mankind from any monster attack. However, they were unable to emulate the same type of Space Titanium alloy the Vortaak used but managed to outfit theirs with an artificial metal.
• Haunted Technology: Heisei Mechagodzilla gets possessed by the soul of King Ghidorah in the manga.
• Hero Antagonist: In its film debut, Mechagodzilla serves as humanity's weapon against Godzilla, who is pretty much the villain of the Hensei series up to this point. But the film is also a turning point for Godzilla to go from villain to antihero with the presence of Baby Godzilla, which is why Godzilla destroying Mechagodzilla at the climax is treated as a heroic triumph rather than a Downer Ending for humanity.
• Hero Killer: Cripples the second brain in Godzilla's waist (even during their first encounter Mechagodzilla had Godzilla backed into a corner until he reversed the electric current of its Shock Anchors), and mortally wounds Rodan, making him fit the "Killer" part to a tee; the "Hero" part depends on which side of the conflict you stand for.
• Long-Range Fighter: At a distance, Mechagodzilla's array of weaponry, combined with its beam-absorbing armor nearly overwhelms and kills Godzilla. However, once that distance is closed, it has next to no means of effectively fighting back.
• Macross Missile Massacre: Two varieties of missiles: Paralyzers and Tranquilizers, one aimed high and the other aimed low. Both are used to subdue and weaken Godzilla so that Mechagodzilla can fire its Shock Anchors.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: The Heisei Mecha is defeated in its first fight with Godzilla. By combining with Garuda it forms Super Mechagodzilla, who puts up a better fight and would likely have killed Godzilla for good were it not for Rodan's intervention.
• Mighty Glacier: Even slower than Godzilla, but it doesn't need a whole lot of speedy movement to be effectively devastating.
• Moveset Clone: Slightly downplayed. A lot of its physical attacks, such as its punches and kicks are mostly derived from the Showa Mechagodzilla in Godzilla: Unleashed, with the only exception is that its fierce moves are its own unique attacks such as using the Plasma Grenade and pushing monsters away with its activated jet thrusters. It also has the ability to fly, something that the Showa version strangely lacks in the game despite the fact that it can remotely fly in the films.
• Off with His Head!: While the occurrence doesn't exactly happen in the movie itself, the suit's head did come off accidentally during a behind-the-scenes segment when Godzilla's suit actor, Kenpachiro Satsuma, grabbed the head of the Mechagodzilla suit a little too hard, which can also be humorously seen as an accidental Mythology Gag on how the original Showa Mechagodzilla was destroyed.
• Shock and Awe: With two Shock Anchors (basically harpoons on cables), it can pump cripplingly strong electricity into whatever they hit.
• SNK Boss: In Godzilla Battle Legends and Godzilla: Monster War:
  • In the former, it is the boss the player needs the highest score to face. So as expected, it is the strongest character in the game. The robot is powerful at long and close ranges, can absorb the damage from projectiles and fire the damage back at the enemy, and has a grab that takes off half a life bar.
  • In the latter game, two versions of this Mechagodzilla appear as bosses. Mechagodzilla, without combining with Garuda (referred to as Mechagozilla II), is the boss of the easy mode, and Super Mechagodzilla appears on higher settings. Mechagodzilla II has the projectile attacks and close-range attacks from the boss in the previous game, along with the ability to absorb and fire back damage from projectiles. It gains an omnidirectional dash to compensate for its slow speed. However, the grab move has been nerfed for both characters. Super Mechagodzilla is mostly the same character as Mechagodzilla II. In addition, it has some additional attacks from Garuda being attached, such as firing its guns, and using Garuda's jets for a double jump that allows it to to cross the entire screen or dodge attacks. It also has a super move that, on top of taking off over half a life bar, has good range and can't be blocked.
• Superior Successor: To Mecha-King Ghidorah. While Mecha-King Ghidorah proved to be a match for Godzilla, he was also a Glass Cannon who can only manage up a Mutual Kill that was non-lethal on Godzilla's end. Mechagodzilla on the other hand is able to mortally wound Rodan and nearly kills Godzilla, only failing because Rodan brought Godzilla back from near-death and granted him the Red Spiral Ray.
• Taking You with Me: In the manga, it attempts to self-destruct after latching himself onto Godzilla to destroy him as a last-ditch resort.
• Walking Armoury: Sports a Breath Weapon, Eye Beams, ShoulderCannons (when combined with Garuda), Energy Absorbing armor, a Chest Blaster, paralyzing and tranquilizing missiles, jets, and shock cables.

Millennium Mechagodzilla/Kiryu

First appearance: Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, 2002

Played by: Hirofumi Ishigaki (Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla), Motokuni Nakagawa (Godzilla Tokyo SOS)

The Millennium Mechagodzilla, also known as Kiryu, was also constructed by Man, this time using the bones of the first Godzilla that attacked Tokyo in 1954 as a base. It was armed with an Absolute Zero cannon, which could freeze targets solid. Unfortunately, its OS was also tied to Godzilla's DNA, and it tended to suffer from the Call of the Wild a little too often...

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• Adaptational Heroism: Unlike the Showa incarnation that was crafted to be an all-out destructive weapon by the Black Hole Simians to destroy human civilizations as well as being intentionally made to kill Godzilla, who was the Earth's defender, Kiryu is the original Gojira with a cybernetic coated body made to stop Godzilla from destroying all of Japan. Before having an indirect rematch with Godzilla, he rescues a soldier, child, and a nurse from being reduced to nothing from Godzilla's Atomic Ray by charging into him with his shoulder, which sent him flying out of the area, therefore, letting the three humans escape with their lives. Even his own Leitmotif itself sounds less like a powerful mechanical beast and more of a superhero taking action to rescue a bystander.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: The Type-99 Double Maser Cannon, which is Kiryu's Breath Weapon equivalent to Godzilla's in his film appearances, shows him blasting the beams from of his eyes rather than his mouth in the introduction cutscene of Godzilla: Save the Earth, although this gets subverted in gameplay where his Maser Beam attack is still fired out of his mouth. He's also capable of firing missiles out of his back, despite not having the back unit which was required to fire the missiles out of. His Maser Blade, which is a bladed weapon concealed in one of his Type-0 railgun gauntlet that emits electrical discharges after stabbing Godzilla, was also changed to something more of a Laser Blade as it can be spawned from his hand that's used as his own unique grab to seize kaiju opponents in place.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Kiryu went rogue upon its memories of being the original Godzilla being activated.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Absolute Zero Cannon. It freezes and crushes whatever it hits, but it requires Kiryu to stand still and charge it for several seconds, meaning Godzilla can either dodge or counter before it fires. In fact, the only time Kiryu successfully fires it and hits Godzilla is at the very end of the movie when he charged it while carrying Godzilla out to sea. The most it did was punch through the skin on Godzilla's chest, which did give Godzilla a scar in the next film, but doesn't seem to have done anything beyond that. Additionally, using it takes up a big chunk of Kiryu's already limited battery supply. All of this resulted in the Absolute Zero Cannon being replaced with the weaker but more practical Triple Hyper Maser Cannon.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: His Maser Blade is able to be fully extended from the railgun attached to his wrist, which came into fruition when Kiryu was in a brief Brawler Lock with Godzilla as the sword became engraved right into Godzilla's arm that not only caused him to bleed, but was able to electrify and zap the life out of him as he's shrieking in pain. Godzilla dispatches the weapon with a quick blast of his Atomic Breath.
• Breath Weapon: Kiryu possesses a maser cannon inside his mouth that functions as his own atomic breath. Oddly, the intro to Godzilla Save The Earth shows him firing the cannon from his eyes, but it's the standard breath weapon in the game proper.
• Composite Character: In Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee, he has several traits from the Mechagodzillas before him such as launching missiles right out of his claws, which is not so dissimilar to the Showa incarnation whereas the sound effect for his footsteps in the game is heavily ripped from the Heisei version. In Save the Earth, whenever his Flying Kick input is used, he lets out a roar from the 1974 Mechagodzilla. The roar can even be heard in his victory animation in Godzilla: Unleashed which is oddly jarring since the Showa iteration of Mechagodzilla is an exclusive playable monster featured in the Wii version of the game.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: For the opening cinematic for Godzilla: Save the Earth, he challenges Godzilla by shooting him in the back with a barrage of missiles. The Big G responds in kind by firing his Atomic Breath while Kiryu fires his Eye Beams as both of them engage in a brief Beam-O-War. Godzilla annihilates his cybernetic counterpart with no effort.
• Cyborg: Kiryu was made using the original Godzilla's skeleton and DNA.
• Expy:
  • Kiryu is a cyborg created from the corpse of a giant monster to fight other giant monsters, has a limit to how long it can remain active, and is prone to going berserk when its soul takes control from its pilot.
  • Design-wise, Kiryu also seems to experience invoked Recursive Adaptation from something the original Godzilla influenced: the Super Sentai mecha Dragon Caesar / Dragonzord.
  • The fact that Kiryu is a cyborg created from the corpse of the first Godzilla makes him very similar to Cyber-Godzilla from Godzilla: The Series.
• Freeze Ray: Kiryu's Absolute Zero Gun which, as its name implies, freezes anything that it hits to absolute zero, which causes its atoms to smash, resulting in the target's complete collapse.
• Glass Cannon: He's pretty quick and deals out plenty of damage, but can't take many hits compared to the first two incarnations of Mechagodzilla. Additionally, he has a very short timeframe to be active, around two hours at most.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Just like the original Mecha G, Kiryu is shown to be a rather decent hand-to-hand combatant. At one point of the second fight of the movie, the cyborg raised his left fist and staggers Godzilla back and at another moment, he lands another strike with his right fist. After having all of his weapons destroyed, he faces off against Godzilla as he utterly beats him senseless with nothing but dozens of punches to his face, jaw, and at his chest without even letting the atomic monster to fully fight back.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Kiryu always has a red "scar" underneath his eye despite being (partially) mechanical.
• Haunted Technology: Kiryu is possessed by the ghost of the original Godzilla.
• Human Hammer-Throw: He defeats Godzilla in the second round by grabbing the end of Godzilla's tail, activates the rocket thrusters, and spins him around several times in the vein of Super Mario 64 before letting go and launching him face-first into the pavement. Godzilla gets right back up for a few seconds, but he quickly falls unconscious and falls to the ground.
• An Ice Person: The Absolute Zero Cannon. It fails to do much of anything to Godzilla, though. Well, other than punching a massive hole in his chest.
• Impossibly Graceful Giant: On top of jumping over Godzilla's tail swipe with room to spare, he was also able to duck under a point-blank Atomic Breath attack.
• In a Single Bound: He's shown to be remarkably athletic and spry for a 60 meter dinosaurian cyborg. In one scene during the second fight, he avoids Godzilla's Tail Slap by dodging it, as in "dodging", he just outright leaps over him completely, and lands on the ground, who's miles away from him.
• It Has Been an Honor: Kiryu for the first time reveals his true self-awareness, and personally wishes his engineer Yoshito one final goodbye, before plunging into the ocean's depths with his counterpart Godzilla, never to be seen again.
• Jack of All Stats: The most well-rounded Mechagodzilla, by a landslide. It doesn't boast the sheer firepower of the Showa Mechagodzilla and lacks the Atomic Breath-resistant armor of the Heisei Mechagodzilla, but Kiryu is actually capable of fighting Godzilla up close and has a variety of utilities that give him more options beyond spamming missiles and beams. More, he's built over the skeleton of the original Godzilla, giving him a degree of sentience that the previous ones lacked, and is capable of acting without the input of a pilot.
• Meaningful Name: The name "Kiryū" can be translated as "Mechanical Dragon".
• Mighty Roar: The Showa MechaGodzilla's roar kind of sounded like a screeching mechanical snake while the Heisei version's roar was slightly squeal-y and high-pitched. Kiryu's roar itself arguably sounds the closest to sounding more or less identical to Godzilla's own recognizable roar, albeit with a metallic filter. When he starts going berserk after the original Gojira takes control of the cyborg, he vengefully roars into the sky while sounding like the Millennium Godzilla.
• Mythology Gag: The first version of Kiryu had a blue weapon-backpack (later silver) that looks awful similar to the Mechagodzilla-Garuda combo.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Kiryu's berserk mode sports red eyes upon regaining his memories.
• Redemption Equals Death: Though he didn't die per se; he just put himself at the bottom of the ocean.
• Shed Armor, Gain Speed: The last weapon Kiryu had was his back unit that fired missiles. After launching it Kiryu becomes much faster being able to dodge Godzilla's Atomic Breath, leap over his tail attack, and proceeded to do a good old fashioned beatdown with everything he's got.
• Shout-Out: Kiryu is a cyborg mech made from the corpse of a monster to fight other monsters, is possessed, and prone to going berserk. The Neon Genesis Evangelion parallel is made even more explicit with promotional merchandise for Shin Godzilla, including a model of Kiryu decked out in Unit-01's colors.
• Super-Strength: Fully capable of dealing with Godzilla with hand-to-hand combat maneuvers, and starts resorting to overpowering his organic counterpart by beating the living tar out of him with punches and open-palm strikes. He wins the battle by swinging Godzilla's 25,000 ton body and hurls him with enough force to send him crashing into the pavement on impact. Earlier before the rematch, his activated jet boosters (that were being used on the ground) along with the built-up momentum, he fully rams straight into Godzilla's body with an incoming shoulder-bash, knocking the atomic monster out of view, which resulted in sending him sailing miles away from the blow.
  • While he hardly uses any physical attacks in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S., he effortlessly topples Godzilla into a skyscraper with a single Tail Slap, ducks underneath Godzilla's attack by flipping him over, and overturns Godzilla's body by tackling him so hard, he shoves him into the National Diet Building.
• Tail Slap: Kiryu is the only Mechagodzilla to pull off the attack due to actually having a long, fully functional tail. In Tokyo SOS he flung his metallic tail at Godzilla that sent him crashing into a building.
• Tears of Blood: The Special Effects director specified that the red glowing streaks underneath Kiryu's eyes whenever the machine is possessed by the original Gojira are meant to resemble blood-colored tears.
• This Is a Drill: After losing an arm in the final battle of Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, Kiryu was given a new arm with the ability to morph its hand into a drill. It only used it once though, during their final battle.
• Walking Armoury: Kiryu had all of the usual (missiles, lasers), as well as a Cool Sword, and most notably the Absolute Zero Cannon (replaced with the far less powerful tri-maser in Tokyo S.O.S.). Kiryu also had two separate Shoulder Cannon add-ons.

Animated Incarnations

Anime Mechagodzilla/Mechagodzilla City

Mechagodzilla as it appears in Planet of the Monsters

Mechagodzilla City

Mechagodzilla's full body

First appearance: Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, 2017

Mechagodzilla is a giant robot that the Bilusaludo patterned after Godzilla — as the name suggests — and intended to use it to kill Godzilla and then turn it on humanity to conquer Earth for themselves. Unfortunately for them, Mechagodzilla refused to activate, and was left abandoned on Earth when Godzilla attacked the facility where it was being stored. City on the Edge of Battle reveals that Mechagodzilla's head has assimilated the surrounding area into the eponymous Mechagodzilla City, becoming a perfect weapon against Godzilla Earth.

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• Alien Invasion: The anime Mechagodzilla once again does this as part of the Bilusaludo's Grey Goo scheme.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Mechagodzilla refused to activate when Godzilla attacked the base it was being stored in, and as a result its body was destroyed and the algorithm restraining the nanometal was glitched. This enabled it to spread for 20,000 years by assimilating the bodies of the workers left behind, as well as Servum who flew too close to it.
• The Assimilator: Mechagodzilla's nanometal begins spreading over the course of 20,000 years by killing and assimilating any and all Servum that approach it, resulting in the formation of the titular Mobile City. Mulu-elu Galu-gu and Rilu-elu Belu-be willingly allow themselves to be assimilated by the nanometal, while Yuko Tani is partially assimilated and left in a coma when Mechagodzilla is destroyed by Godzilla.
• The Dreaded: While the Houtua use its nanometal to augment their weapons, they avoid the Mobile City it originated from — viewing it as being cursed.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of Mechagodzilla and the other giant robots in the franchise, showing how building something capable of killing Kaiju is not only impractical, but outright harmful - thus, making it more of a mirror to Godzilla than other machines designed to actually kill him. Humanity and the Bilusaludo wanted to build a giant robot in Godzilla's likeness to defeat him but instead they got a misshapen, toxic, hideous machine. It failed to activate when it was needed and that didn't even matter since Godzilla attacked its location seconds before it was ready, showing how a massive robot beast won't really have a chance to shine when there are already giant monsters destroying everything in their path. In the present time, the machine itself is useless, too small to injure the now gargantuan Godzilla Earth since it cannot technically evolve like a living creature, and its nanomachine nature, the means by which it can become mightier than Godzilla Earth, means it will do more damage to the planet than Godzilla will. And it wasn't made to mimic Godzilla mentally, especially since it lacks components from him in its makeup, but instead be mentally controlled by Galu-Gu and Belu-Be.
• Dragon-in-Chief: To Galu-gu, as his greatest creation and the true main antagonist of the second movie.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Small glimpses of it in are seen Planet of the Monsters; it is featured more extensively in City on the Edge of Battle. To an extent, due to having been destroyed, and Galu-Gu remarking that rebuilding it would be pointless.
• Evil Knockoff: To Godzilla, as per usual.
• Foil: To Godzilla Earth, but not in the traditional sense. Rather than being a machine made in Godzilla's image, Mechagodzilla more or less IS the entire City. The nanometal that comprised it is slowly terraforming the planet in the same way Godzilla did, but spreading pollution and killing the indigenous life in the process. In this form, Mechagodzilla is now equal to Godzilla Earth not as an imitation, but as an equal-and-opposite god. And unlike Godzilla's terraforming, Mechagodzilla's is shown to not just be limited to plant life. Just ask poor Yuko...
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Mechagodzilla isn't exactly sentient when its remains are abandoned on Earth. It simply follows its assimilation programming, absorbing creatures into its body and forming structures. The Houtua even treat it like a part of the planet's ecosystem steering clear of its danger but still able to use it to craft tools. In the end, it's more of a tool for Gelu-gu who integrates his mind with it and steers Mechagodzilla's actions.
• Genius Loci: Essentially becomes this once the Bilusaludo take control of the city, being guided by their minds.
• Grey Goo: Anime Mechagodzilla's true signature weapon. One of its finishing moves in the tie-in novels was impaling a kaiju with a blade on its tail and injecting them with a poisonous variant of its grey goo. The nanometal it is comprised of can assimilate organic matter, with Metphies expressing concern that it will never stop spreading until everything on Earth has been consumed.
• Humongous Mecha: Subverted. MechaGodzilla was once this, but has spread and grown into the giant City in the title.
• Mind Hive: Its AI contains the minds of those it assimilates, enabling Galu-Gu and Belu-Be to take control of the Mobile City.
• Mythology Gag: Mechagodzilla, while having a completely new redesign, is a cavalcade of these.
  • Just like the 1974 Mechagodzilla it was designed by ape-like aliens whose planet was devoured by a black-hole. And it is finally destroyed the same way — decapitated by Godzilla, and then later having its head and living controller destroyed to permanently kill it after its alien masters resurrect it.
  • Just like the 90s Mechagodzilla 2, it was designed with multiple weapons and defenses to counter all of Godzilla's known abilities, and these defenses are weakened by Godzilla exuding so much heat that its parts start to melt.
  • Lastly, much like Kiryu, Mecha-Godzilla more or less went berserk and was unable to be activated when needed, leading to its defeat in the backstory, and the initial fear is that it's somehow gone out of control and forcibly consuming people. This last part is not entirely true. While it does absorb people, this is all part of Galu-Gu's plan.
• Not Quite Dead: While its body was all-but destroyed by Godzilla's initial attack, enough of its head survived that it was able to be reactivated. Godzilla finishes the job at the end of City on the Edge of Battle with some help from Haruo.
• Ragnarök Proofing: Zig-zagged. While Mechagodzilla itself was destroyed during Godzilla's initial attack, as a result of its self-sustaining nanometal, it was able to infest the surrounding area over 20,000 years. And it wasn't entirely destroyed either.
• Robeast: Mechagodzilla is a Bilusaludo-constructed robotic replica of Godzilla, built out of hyper-advanced "nanometal" and possessing weapons designed to counter Godzilla's powers, but differs significantly in appearance from its organic counterpart.
• Transforming Mecha: Due to being comprised of nanometal, it was supposedly able to reconfigure its body as-needed — though this feature was never displayed due to it refusing to activate.
• Tron Lines: When Belu-be activates its corpse, cybernetic markings appear along its body and extend across the floor of its replicated facility — which is an extension of its body.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Of a benign sort, as despite being in operational condition, Mecha-Godzilla refused to activate when Godzilla attacked the facility where it was being housed. The Bilusaludo also intended to invoke this once Godzilla was destroyed in order to Take Over the World.
• The Unfought: Subverted. Its body was destroyed when Godzilla attacked its facility, leaving only part of its head intact. The head proceeded to use its nanometal to reconstruct the facility used to construct it 100 times larger, creating the "Mechagodzilla City". As it's too badly damaged and rebuilding its frame would be useless against a Godzilla six times larger and exponentially more powerful than the one it was built to fight (about Godzilla Filius's size), Mecha-Godzilla itself can't directly fight Godzilla. So it doesn't. Instead, it fights *as* the opposing City, matching Godzilla Earth not as a physical replication, but as an artificial god that can defeat it. Then Haruo decides that they can't risk Mechagodzilla winning if it means the Earth will become assimilated, turning the tables and allowing Godzilla to finish the City off.
• Walking Armory: Mechagodzilla's original body was armed with a plethora of anti-Godzilla weapons, including a homing Blade Launcher with a range of 3 kilometres; the Convergent Neutron Cannon, a particle beam with a range of 5 kilometres; a Hyper Lance that could inject opponents with nanometal, which would consume them from the inside-out; and a tail that could transform into a blade. Of course, the mech itself is not used to directly confront Godzilla Earth.

Robogodzilla

Towards the beginning of Godzilla: Singular Point, a Godzilla skeleton was discovered in storage and subsequently stolen by the SHIVA consortium. In the last scene of the anime it was revealed that it was being used to construct a robot duplicate of Godzilla.

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• Adaptational Name Change: Its official name is "Robogodzilla" as opposed to the usual Mechagodzilla.
• Ambiguous Situation: Is it being created to defend humanity in case Godzilla returns, or does it have a more sinister purpose? The fact that SHIVA is a pretty sketchy organization muddies the waters more.
• Composite Character: Its design is heavily based on the Showa Era version but the use of a Godzilla skeleton in its construction comes from Kiryu.

Other versions

Chibi Mechagodzilla

First Appearance: Sticker Picture Book: Chibi Godzilla and Friends (2020)

Voiced by: Yoshitsugu Matsuoka (Chibi Godzilla Raids Again)

Chibi Mechagodzilla is a robot who resembles that of Chibi Godzilla.

In the third installment of the children's book series, there are the three Chibi Mechagodzilla, which differentiate by their colored trims. The yellow-trimed Chibi Mechagodzilla is the leader.

In Chibi Godzilla Raids Again, only one Chibi Mechagodzilla (the yellow-trimed one) appear. In the show, he is a human-made robot who somehow ended up washed up on the shore of Monster Island and was found by Chibi Godzilla. He is a Only Sane Man, and if anyone who want to call out the antics of Chibi Godzilla and his friends, it's usually him.

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Tropes that applies to Chibi Mechagodzilla in general

• Adaptational Nice Guy: Unlike the Mechagodzillas in the film continuities, the Chibi Mechagodzilla brothers are friends to Chibi Godzilla and friends.
• Always Identical Twins: There are three, nearly-identical Chibi Mechagodzillas. The only difference is the color of their trims.
• Breath Weapon: The three Chibi Mechagodzilla brothers are capable of firing the rainbow-colored beam from their mouths.

Tropes that applies to Chibi Mechagodzilla in Chibi Godzilla Raids Again

• Adapted Out: Only the yellow-trimed Chibi Mechagodzilla appears in this adaptation.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Being a closest to Chibi Godzilla who is a Cloud Cuckoolander, he plays this role to the former.
• Eye Beams: Chibi Mechagodzilla can shoot rainbow-colored eye beams in this adaptation.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: His eyes will glow red when either his anger reach the tipping point, or tried and failed to remember why he came the island in the first place.
• Only Sane Man: He is one of the few sensible characters in the show.
• Tranquil Fury: Chibi Godzilla and his friends find out the hard way to not destroy his miniature city.

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