JET JAGUAR

Dans Godzilla vs Megalon, Jet Jaguar est un robot créé par Goro Ibuki. Il sera contrôlé par les Seatopians, puis aidera Godzilla à combattre Gigan et Megalon. On voit également les versions Pompier et Médecin de la télésérie Godzilla Island. Godzilla's robot buddy Jet Jaguar, from Godzilla vs Megalon, along with Fire Fighter Jet Jaguar and Medical Jet Jaguar from the obscure television series Godzilla Island.

One of several attempts by Toho Studios to capitalized on the Japanese 'Henshin Boom' of 1970's, which was full of colorful super heroes battling monstrous opponents, in both live action and animated television and movie form.

 The robotic superhero Jet Jaguar was the result of a nationwide contest, in which fans could design a new hero for the Toho Company to use. The winning entry dubbed Red Arone, which was submitted by a now unknown elementary school student, was later renamed Jet Jaguar. And was added to the 'monster-roster' 1973 film "Godzilla vs. Megalon", although some unconfirmed reports state that Jet Jaguar was originally planned for a solo outing, before this decision was made.

 In the story context of "Godzilla vs. Megalon", Jet Jaguar is the fantastical, home-made invention of independent scientist Goro Ibuki, which comes under the attention of the underwater civilization of Seatopia.

 Seatopia was recently and heavily affected by nuclear testing, conducted by the surface nations of the world. Upset by this, Seatopia plan to unleash their giant beetle-like god named Megalon, to the surface world to destroy it out of vengeance. And use the flying Jet Jaguar as an aerial guide for Megalon, as they didn't have any time to construct a robot entity of their own, wanting their violent retribution as soon as possible.

Although two Seatopian agents managed to get their hands on Jet Jaguar, and briefly controlled the robot for this exact purpose, Goro Ibuki, along with help from his kid nephew Rokuro and their young adult friend Hiroshi Jinkawa, were able to take their robotic creation back. And then have Jet Jaguar fly off to Monster Island (originally introduced in 1968's "Destroy All Monsters"), to communicate with Godzilla, and have him to come across the ocean to help battle Megalon. Godzilla fully agrees to Jet Jaguar's request (a conversation done in intelligible monster talk of course), and follows the automaton by sea.

 Now here's where things get crazy, when it's revealed that Jet Jaguar can become fully sentient, and equally independent, in times of great crisis - a sort of extreme safeguard mode, if you will. And as such, Jet Jaguar ignores Goro's further commands, so that 'he' can go forth and hold off Megalon by himself, until Godzilla can arrive. And things become even crazier, when Jet Jaguar somehow 'programs himself' to grow to giant proportions, to fight off Megalon at equal footing.

Jet Jaguar does pretty well against the attacking god beetle at first, until a second enemy monster, the alien cyborg known as Gigan (from the previous year's entry "Godzilla vs Gigan"), shows up to aid Megalon. The two villain monsters brutally gang up on poor Jet Jaguar, who barely manages to hold his own, until Godzilla finally appears on the scene.

Now together, Jet Jaguar and Godzilla battle and ultimately defeat Megalon and Gigan, who both escape back to their respective places of origins right after. And Godzilla and Jet Jaguar exchange handshakes in newfound friendship, before parting ways. Jet Jaguar returns to human size, and back to the lifeless control of his human inventor. Although Goro himself admits that if such an extreme situation comes about again, Jet Jaguar will go independent to save the day once more.

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 Despite being considered one of the most memorably insane additions to Godzilla lore, and gaining a small but sturdy cult following of fans, Jet Jaguar never returned in the main film series. However, Jet Jaguar has made several appearances in video games spin-offs, as well as toys and similar merchandising.

 Two new, yet totally separate Jet Jaguar robots made appearances in the 1997-1998 television series "Godzilla Island".

 The first of which was a white Medical Type Jet Jaguar, who helped Godzilla and his friends with medical aid, after fierce fighting with various villains. And the second was a red Firefighter Type Jet Jaguar, who not only put out fires on the title island, and also assisted Godzilla in battle against the shape-shifting mud creature named Dororin.

 Despite how awesome this live action spin-off may sound, the Medical and Firefighter Types, along with almost all the other monsters on this series of three-minute long shorts, were brought to life through stiff puppets created from Bandai produced toy molds. But even with that said, it's good to know there's three of these colorful robotic super heroes on patrol!

 Information and pictures submitted by Raf aka Enshohma: www.enshohmacorner.blogspot.com. Additional images from the sites TarsTarkas.Net tarstarkas.net, Sci-Fi Japan www.scifijapan.com/articles, with further donations from Xenorama and his blog-site: xenorama.blogspot.com, thanks!