Mutant Starfish
The Mutant Starfish is an unused kaiju from an unmade concept conceived by director Yoshimitsu Banno, which is often referred only as Godzilla vs the Mutant Starfish due to the project lacking an official, finalized title.
Appearance
Nothing is known of its appearance, outside the fact that it would have been a mutated starfish.
History
The titular creature and related project would have been another Godzilla vs. Hedorah follow-up that Yoshimitsu Banno had in mind, in which Godzilla would have done battle with a starfish monster either born from the polluted oceans (similar to Hedorah), or by the unearthly radiation from a fallen meteorite. The story never got far from its initial creation however, as plans to continue off from the 1971 film (Second Heodrah, Mutant Starfish, or otherwise) were abandoned in favor of making 1972's Godzilla vs. Gigan instead.
The Mutant Starfish was later revealed to western readers through a published interview with Banno from the 2001 book TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion by Patrick Macias, and collaborators 'Happy' Ujihashi, Kinji Fukasaku and Takashi Miike.
Trivia
- Although the mutant starfish never received an official finalized name, various American fans and related web-sites have given the creature the otherwise inaccurate moniker of 'Hitodah', which is a play on the Japanese phrase for starfish, that being 'Hitode'. But again, it should be stressed that this is not The Mutant Starfish's actual name despite the fan-made one's heavy usage online.
- Although not gigantic monsters themselves, the Barem, toxic starfishes spawned from and in the service to the larger sea monster Dagahra, from the 1997 film Rebirth of Mothra II, share a lot of similarities with The Mutant Starfish.
- Although Godzilla has yet to battle such a echinoderm-based menace himself, a freakishly enlarged-yet-immobile starfish does make a brief appearance in episode 23 of the original animated Godzilla series, The Macro-Beasts.
