Maguma

Maguma Alternate names Magma, Wally the Walrus Subtitle(s) Antarctic Monster (南極怪獣,   Nankyoku Kaijū) Species Giant Walrus Height 50 meters Weight 25,000 metric tons Enemies JSDF Created by Ishiro Honda, Takeshi Kimura, Tomoyuki Tanaka Played by Katsumi Tezuka First appearance Gorath Roar(s) More roars

Maguma (マグマ,   Maguma, lit. Magma) is a giant walrus kaiju created by Toho that first appeared in the 1962 Toho film, Gorath.

Name

Maguma's name is the Japanese approximation of the word "magma." This may be in reference to the dormant volcanism of the continent of Antarctica, where Maguma emerges in Gorath.

Design

Maguma resembles a giant brown walrus with elongated fore and hind limbs, green eyes, pale tusks, and smooth skin with no visible hair. Maguma additionally lacks a tail, which are also vestigial in real life walruses.

History

Showa Series

Gorath

Maguma was disturbed from its hibernation by changes in the Antarctic climate caused by the ignition of the hydrogen jet fields on the continent used to propel the Earth out of the path of the rogue star Gorath. Irritated by the increased temperatures, Maguma attacked the power station of a jet field before returning to its home in a neighboring canyon. As the dysfunction of the fields and continued attacks would spell doom for the Earth, a VTOL aircraft was sent to dispose of Maguma. Strafing the walls of the canyon with its laser, Maguma was buried in an avalanche, before shortly breaking free, upon which it was killed by direct hits from the aircraft's laser.

Filmography

• Gorath (1962)
• Adventure! Godzilland 2 (TV 1993) [drawing]

Video Games

• Godzilla: Trading Battle
• Godzilla Generations

• 

  Maguma's card in Godzilla: Trading Battle

Books

GODZILLA: Monster Apocalypse

Maguma attacked and destroyed North Korea in 2024, then began moving south and approaching Seoul, South Korea. The United States launched a tactical nuclear missile at Maguma and destroyed it, marking the first use of a nuclear weapon against a kaiju.

Gallery

Main article: Maguma/Gallery.

Roar

Maguma's roar was an elephant trumpeting sound, but was deepened and slowed down. Maguma's roar was later used for the Ultraman 80 kaiju, Salamandora.

Maguma Roars

Trivia

• According to an interview with Ishiro Honda, an early draft for the 1968 film Destroy All Monsters called for "all monsters" to appear. Early art for the film shows that Maguma was going to guard the Kilaaks' base along with Ebirah. However, they were replaced by Baragon and Varan, whose roles were reduced due to the poor conditions of their suits.
  • Maguma and Ebirah were also supposed to among Godzilla's main allies against King Ghidorah, but they were replaced by Anguirus, Gorosaurus and Minilla.^{[citation needed]}
• Maguma was removed from the Brenco Pictures' American version of Gorath. The producers of the U.S. version reportedly thought Maguma was too funny-looking, even mockingly calling him "Wally the Walrus," and believed he would ruin the serious tone of the film. Only a shot of Maguma's corpse buried in rubble remains in the American release.
• Tsuburaya Productions used the Maguma suit to depict the monster Todora in episode 27 of Ultra Q. The suit was to be re-purposed a third time for Todogon, a walrus monster planned for the ultimately unproduced Ultraman script Final Battle of Freezing Point 40 Degrees.

References

This is a list of references for Maguma. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]