Marukobukarappa

Marukobukarappa Alternate names Marukomukarappa Subtitle(s) Illusive Unused Monster (幻のNG怪獣,   Maboroshi no Enu Jī Kaijū) Species Giant Japanese shame-faced crab (Calappa japonica) Planned for Gamera vs. Viras → Gamera (2006) Concept history Marukobukarappa → Viras

Marukobukarappa (マルコブカラッパ) is a kaiju first conceived for the 1968 Gamera film Gamera vs. Viras and which ultimately became Viras. It appeared briefly at the end of the 1991 direct-to-video short film Gamera vs. Garasharp, but did not participate in its narrative. It was also planned to appear in a 2006 animated Gamera project by Yoshitomo Yonetani, though it was never made.

Name

Marukobukarappa's name is identical to the Japanese name given to at least two crab species of the genus Calappa (カラッパ属,   Karappa-zoku): Calappa gallus and Calappa capellonis. Maru (丸) is a Japanese word meaning "circle" or "round," while kobu (瘤) means "bump," thus making Marukobukarappa roughly translate to "round bumpy Calappa" or "round-bumped Calappa."

An article on Gamera vs. Garasharp published in a 1991 issue of Weekly Playboy magazine erroneously referred to Marukobukarappa as Marukomukarappa (マルコムカラッパ).

Design

Marukobukarappa is a very strange-looking kaiju, with its mushroom-shaped orange body with bumps on its head, its very long, thin arms, its bulky legs, its chicken-like beak, and its two popped-out eyeballs. Its bulbous, bumpy surface on its body makes it partly resemble the Matango.

Gallery

Concept art

Gamera vs. Viras

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  Concept art

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  Concept art

Screenshots

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  Marukobukarappa in Gamera vs. Garasharp

Merchandise

Toys

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  Marukobukarappa toy alongside Garasharp and Gamera toys

Trivia

• Although Marukobukarappa never officially appeared in a movie, merchandise does exist for him, notably in the form of multiple action figures and gashapon figurines. He is one of two scrapped monsters to receive merchandise in this fashion, the other being Nezura.
• Futakobukarappa and Marugarappa, two monsters who appear in the 1994 Tokuma Shoten manga Gamera the Giant Monster, are presumably based on Marukobukarappa.

References

This is a list of references for Marukobukarappa. 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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