Katsura Mafune
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“
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I'm not alive. I may look like a girl, but I'm not. I'm a cyborg!
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„
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— Katsura Mafune (Terror of Mechagodzilla) |
Katsura Mafune (真船 桂 Mafune Katsura), also known as the Cyborg Girl (サイボーグ少女 Saibōgu Shōjo),[1] is a cybernetic human who appears in the 1975 Toho film Terror of Mechagodzilla.
History
Showa era
Terror of Mechagodzilla
The daughter of disgraced biologist Dr. Shinzo Mafune, Katsura aided her father in his efforts to control the peaceful dinosaur Titanosaurus. When they attempted to test the control device, however, she was fatally electrocuted. Mysterious men suddenly entered the laboratory and took her away, resurrecting her as a cyborg.
In the present day, Katsura watched the INTERPOL research submarine Akatsuki from shore. After it dove underwater to search for the first Mechagodzilla's remains, she appeared to remotely view it just before Titanosaurus destroyed it. The tape recording recovered from the submarine claimed a dinosaur was responsible, and an investigation by marine biologist Akira Ichinose and INTERPOL agent Jiro Murakoshi brought them to the Mafune residence in Manazuru. Katsura answered the door, but claimed she had burned her father's research notes after his death five years ago. Both men left suspicious. Katsura reported their visit to Shinzo, who was celebrating the completion of Titanosaurus's control device with Tsuda, one of his benefactors. Shinzo replied that they were much too late to receive his theories, as his vengeance for his exile was nearly at hand, upsetting her. Tsuda brought them to a hidden base in Mount Amagi, where a second Mechagodzilla stood in its hangar. Familiar with the machine, Shinzo realized his allies were the Black Hole Planet 3 Aliens, would-be conquerors of Earth. The aliens' commander, Mugal, asked for the use of Shinzo's control device.
Ichinose and assistant professor Yuri Yamamoto found another copy of Shinzo's notes in an archive, and Ichinose arranged a meeting with Katsura to show them to her. Thoroughly impressed with Shinzo's work, he asked to work with her to prove Titanosaurus's existence, but she begged him to forget about the dinosaur and call off the Akatsuki II that would soon set off to look for him. Shinzo's butler reported the meeting to him, and he admonished his daughter for speaking to an outsider. He reminded her that her mother never complained about the sacrifices that she made so he could complete his work.
Ichinose called Katsura on the day of the Akatsuki II's maiden voyage, and she again tried and failed to convince him to stop the mission, with Tsuda ending the call. Katsura tried to run out of the house, getting past the butler, but Tsuda knocked her out with a laser. When she revived, Tsuda reminded her that she owed her life to the aliens - and that as a cold-hearted cyborg, she could never be loved. Her voice emotionless, she affirmed that she, like her father, was driven by vengeance and hatred. She attempted to unleash Titanosaurus against the Akatsuki II, but the submarine's sonar disoriented him.
The aliens next attempted to use Katsura as bait to capture Ichinose, drawing him to Mount Amagi, but Murakoshi came to his rescue. Katsura told her father of Titanosaurus's sudden spasm of pain when pursuing the submarine. She then sought out Ichinose on her own, offering him the rest of Shinzo’s notes, which she claimed to have found in her grandparents’ home in Kanazawa. Ichinose was flattered that she traveled so far for him and took her out for tea. She appeared dismayed to learn he had verified Titanosaurus’s, saying she didn’t want to see anyone else hurt. He revealed to her that INTERPOL was preparing a supersonic transmitter to exploit the monster’s weakness. Yamamoto, hoping to surprise Ichinose, was dismayed to see him with Katsura.
After telling Shinzo of INTERPOL’s plans, Katsura asked him if he really planned to betray humanity and induct Titanosaurus into the ranks of destructive monsters like Rodan and King Ghidorah. Shinzo, determined to show his independence from the aliens and convinced that Titanosaurus is superior to Mechagodzilla, decided to unleash the monster on Tokyo immediately. Katsura and the butler sabotaged the supersonic transmitter, leaving the city defenseless, but Murakoshi spotted them before they teleported a short distance away.
Mugal, aware that Godzilla was fast approaching, decided to make the best of the situation and let Titanosaurus weaken Godzilla before they launched their own offensive. As the two monsters came to blows, JSDF soldiers caught up with Katsura, but she blinded two of them with a flash of light from her eyes. The third opened fire; hit, she fell into the sea, calling for her father. Horrified, Shinzo ordered Titanosaurus to retreat.
Murokoshi assumed Katsura to be dead, while Ichinose refused to believe she was responsible for the sabotage. The aliens recovered her body and operated on her again, while Shinzo, humbled and grateful, agreed to follow Mugal's directives. Mugal added that they had installed Mechagodzilla's controller inside Katsura to keep it secure, as INTERPOL would soon locate their base. Shinzo was troubled, but the alien reminded the doctor that he himself once said Mechagodzilla would be imperfect without the incorporation of living brain tissue.
Katsura awoke to find Shinzo at her side. He begged her forgiveness, but her expression remained blank, and he realized he could hear her new mechanisms whirring inside her. Ichinose, again visiting the Mafune residence, was captured by the aliens, tied up, and brought to Shinzo’s laboratory. He found himself face-to-face with the alien leaders, Shinzo, and Katsura herself. She remained silent as the aliens roughed him up and invited him to watch their conquest unfold. Ignoring his pleas, she launched Mechagodzilla, followed shortly after by Titanosaurus.
Monster and machine stormed Tokyo in tandem. Godzilla appeared to challenge them, but their tag-team tactics overwhelmed him. INTERPOL intervened with the repaired supersonic transmitter, taking Titanosaurus out of the fight. The distraction bought Godzilla time to recover, but Katsura ordered Mechagodzilla to unleash an all-out assault against him. Undeterred, Godzilla reached the machine and pummeled it. Ichinose freed himself and strangled Tsuda to death. He was stunned when Katsura then aimed a pistol at him, but believed she wouldn’t kill him. She declared that she wasn't who he thought she was, but Murakoshi interrupted, shooting her in the shoulder. Ichinose rushed to her as she fell.
Godzilla removed Mechagodzilla's head, but the machine turned out to have an even more powerful laser inside it. Mugal used Shinzo as a shield in a shootout with Murakoshi, and when the fatally wounded scientist called out to Katsura, she answered him, suddenly emotional. She moved to cover the circuitry Murakoshi's bullet had exposed, but Ichinose assured her that he loved her even if she was a cyborg, and that the war raging outside wasn't her fault. Seeing her cry, he declared that her heart was warmer than anyone's. She pleaded with him to destroy her, as doing so would shut down Mechagodzilla, but he refused. As he held her, she surreptitiously picked the pistol back up and shot herself in the chest. She died in his arms.
Godzilla annihilated the powerless Mechagodzilla and Black Hole Planet 3 Alien UFOs and sent Titanosaurus tumbling into the ocean. A grieving Ichinose carried Katsura outside, with Murakoshi covering her with his jacket, and they watched Godzilla depart.
Abilities
Flashing eyes
After her first surgery, Katsura gained the ability to emit blinding flashes of light from her eyes. She effectively used this technique against two JSDF soldiers who were pursuing her, although a third, who was out of range, immediately opened fire on her. Her eyes also flashed periodically when operating Mechagodzilla following her second surgery: when it first activates, when it first fires its Space Beams and Revolving Finger Missiles, and when it unleashes an all-out assault against Godzilla.
Mechagodzilla controller
The Black Hole Planet 3 Aliens installed a control device for Mechagodzilla inside Katsura as part of her second surgery, anticipating that INTERPOL would soon discover their secret base and compromise the original device. She commanded the machine during its Tokyo offensive and battle with Godzilla, also manually operating Titanosaurus with the help of Mugal and Tsuda. The controller proved fragile, as Katsura ultimately destroyed it by shooting herself in the stomach.
Other abilities
In Katsura's first scene, the Akatsuki is shown reflected in her eye moments before Titanosaurus attacks it; it is unclear whether this is a stylistic touch or reflective of an ability like remote viewing.
After sabotaging INTERPOL's supersonic transmitter during Titanosaurus's first raid on Tokyo, Katsura and her father's butler abruptly disappear while walking behind a raised shack, either teleporting or turning invisible, then are soon shown again a short distance away. Since both display this ability, it was likely facilitated by Black Hole Planet 3 Alien technology, rather than being an innate ability of Katsura's.
Weaknesses
Katsura is as vulnerable to firearms as a baseline human. She died after shooting herself in the chest with a Black Hole Planet 3 Alien pistol.
Comics
- Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) [Monthly Shonen Champion]
- Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) [Adventure King]
- Movie Comics: Terror of Mechagodzilla (1984)
Katsura Mafune in the Monthly Shoenen Champion adaptation of Terror of Mechagodzilla
Katsura Mafune in the Adventure King adaptation of Terror of Mechagodzilla
Gallery
Katsura with Akira Ichinose
Katsura shortly before the electric shock that kills her
Katsura's insides
Trivia
- In the edited version of Terror of Mechagodzilla theatrically released in the United States by Bob Conn Enterprises, as well as the UPA-distributed television edit based on this version, Katsura does not commit suicide; this scene instead ends with Akira Ichinose forgiving her, followed by Mechagodzilla malfunctioning. Later shots of Ichinose carrying her body are excised as well.
- Though Katsura is shown wielding a whip in numerous publicity photos for Terror of Mechagodzilla, it is Mugal who uses the weapon in the film itself.
- Katsura was the first of several women to control Mechagodzilla in the Godzilla films, followed by Second Lieutenant Catherine Berger and Miki Saegusa in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) and Second Lieutenant Akane Yashiro in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002).
- Sergeant Yuko Tani from the GODZILLA anime trilogy may represent a more overt reference to Katsura, as she wears a similar headband and is almost completely assimilated by Nanometal while fighting aside the Bilusaludo (themselves inspired by the Black Hole Planet 3 Aliens) and Mechagodzilla City in GODZILLA: City on the Edge of Battle (2018).
- In 2016, Terror of Mechagodzilla screenwriter Yukiko Takayama published "2075: Meister Titano's Counterattack", an unofficial sequel to the film. In this short story, Katsura, now called "Lady Kei" (or L.K.), is revived 100 years after her apparent death by a cobalt-mining company to aid in the defeat of a cyborg Titanosaurus as he leads a robot insurrection.
References
This is a list of references for Katsura Mafune. 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]
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