Mothra (Get Going! Godzilland)
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Mothra (モスラ Mosura) is a monster who appears in Gakken's 1994-1996 educational Get Going! Godzilland original video animations (OVAs). Mothra was one of the inhabitants of Godzilland alongside various juvenile monsters, including her own larvae, and served as something of a mother figure and teacher for the others.
Name
- Main article: Mothra#Name.
The name "Mothra" is the suffixation of "-ra" (a common last syllable in kaiju names) to "moth." Since the Japanese language does not have dental fricatives, it is approximated Mosura in Japanese.
Design
The imago Mothra generally resembles past incarnations of the character, though in a super-deformed or "chibi" art style and with a few unique traits, including pupils in her eyes, an entirely white furry head that omits the additional colors seen on previous incarnations' heads, and a somewhat simpler wing pattern than seen on other designs. Her vibrant yellow and orange color scheme is reminiscent of the incarnation of Mothra who appeared in the 1992 film Godzilla vs. Mothra. Her legs and feet are far more pronounced than previous incarnations and are fully yellow in color, again possibly taking inspiration from the Heisei film design, though her feet are flatter and less claw-like.
The Mothra larvae resemble their previous film counterparts as segmented caterpillars, albeit with a lighter brown skin coloration and completely different eyes similar to those of the Get Going! Godzilland designs used for the other monsters.
Personality
As the only adult on the island, Mothra often acts as the voice of reason during the various disagreements between the younger monsters. She goes to great lengths to keep the peace and make sure everybody gets along, perhaps best exemplified when she encouraged Mechagodzilla to apologize for his past transgressions so the others would accept him. Mothra also serves as a teacher for the other monsters, educating them on various subjects.
The Mothra larvae do not demonstrate much personality as they have little screen time in the show, though they appear to be on good terms with the others.
Origins
Mothra is one of the several residents of Godzilland and the imago Mothra is the only adult out of all the monsters on the island, with her larvae appearing to be younger than Godzilla and the other juvenile kaiju as they do not join in the lessons and have very little dialogue.
History
- Get Going! Godzilland (OVA 1994-1996)
Heisei era
Get Going! Godzilland
"You Can Read! You Can Write! Hiragana"
After watering strawberries in her garden, Mothra arranged a picnic and flew over Godzilland to give out invitations to King Ghidorah, Anguirus, Godzilla, Rodan and presumably Baragon. Upon arriving at the picnic, she found only King Ghidorah, Rodan, and Baragon in attendance and questioned the wherabouts of Godzilla and Anguirus. Mothra asked King Ghidorah if he'd seen either of them, though none of his heads had. While Mothra wondered why Godzilla or Anguirus hadn't arrived yet, the young monsters present continued to tuck into the strawberries. Godzilla and Anguirus then accidently stumbled onto the picnic during a fight, which was promptly broken up by Mothra. However, they then complained when they learnt the others had already eaten every strawberry there was. Upon confessing that they couldn't read Mothra's invitation, Mothra offered to help them to learn the Hiragana alphabet with help from the monsters who could read.
Mothra helped them learn Hiragana by teaching them the most basic letters (a), (i), (u), (e) and (o), with the lessons showing her opening a picture book while her child was confused by a fox disguised as a caterpillar. Mothra then introduced (ta), (chi), (tsu), (te) and (tu), with the lessons showing her flying past Earth and flying off a high bar. She later introduced (ha), (hi), (fu), (he) and (ho), with the lessons showing the juvenile monsters laughing at animals with amusing qualities such as a swan with a tan or an owl that was afraid of the dark. A lesson taught by King Ghidorah showed Mothra emerging from a lake dressed up a goddess, where she asked King Ghidorah if he'd lost anything before awarding him a golden "ma-mi-mu-me-mo" for his honesty. Mothra then introduced (ya), (yu) and (yo), showing her encountering a kettle, a ghost, and a yokai. She later danced in a circle with all the other monsters, taught Godzilla and Anguirus (o), and briefly took part in the dots song.
Mothra then encouraged the monsters to take part in a game of shiritori with the other monsters and laughed at Godzilla when he lost.
"You Can Count! Counting 1-2-3!"
Mothra flew over Godzilla and Baragon as they prepared to go to Anguirus' place for Godzilla's birthday party. While she was excited for the party, she was also worried about the preparations for the party. Mothra arrived at the birthday party and sat in between Baragon and King Ghidorah. After Godzilla cried when Anguirus miscounted the number of cakes needed to feed everyone at the party and King Ghidorah's heads fought over who deserved the cake, Mothra provided extra cakes, explaining that brought extra cakes just in case. After everyone had eaten their cakes, Godzilla asked Mothra to teach them count properly and she agreed to do so.
Mothra brought a number of red boxes to Godzilla and he progressively jumped on the them to form a tower of ten boxes, reassuring him at points when he became tired. Mothra then watched as he counted down from ten by knocking each block down, making the other monsters run away to safety in the process. Later, Mothra was one of the monsters ordered into a line by King Ghidorah, who then asked a series of questions about the positioning of the monsters. Mothra then asked a series of questions about the numbers of each carriage of a train all the monsters were in, with one of her children being in one.
Once the lessons had concluded, Mothra was able to relax and received a message from Godzilla in the form of a paper airplane which hit her in the face. In it, Godzilla explained that he had managed to resolve an argument between Anguirus and Baragon about who could go on the swing by playing ladder lottery. The letter also asked her to bring 100 cakes to the next event as he could now count that high.
"Let's Play with Godzilla! Addition"
After Mechagodzilla kidnapped Anguirus and flew away with him, Mothra appeared alongside Baragon and Gojirin to talk to Godzilla following his unsuccessful attempt to save Anguirus. Mothra suggested they gather some food after learning that Godzilla's rescue efforts were unsuccessful due to being unable to fire his atomic breath on an empty stomach. Mothra watched the three of them gather fruit and fish so that they could eat, though she did worry that they might forget about helping Anguirus along the way. She helped teach the young monsters addition and both the plus and equals symbols in the process as well as joining in an addition-themed musical number. After they ate, Mothra journeyed with the others to the mountain where Mechagodzilla lived to rescue Anguirus from him. However, on their journey, they ran into a group of ants who did not want them walking through their flower garden and attacked Godzilla. Fortunately, Mothra was able to convince them to let them through. They eventually arrived at Mechagodzilla's cave, where Mothra observed as Mechagodzilla challenged the three juvenile monsters to a quiz about addition in order to save Anguirus. Once the monsters answered the questions correctly, Anguirus was released, leaving Mechagodzilla to cry. While Anguirus reunited with his friends, Mothra comforted Mechagodzilla and told him to apologize to the others, which he did, allowing the others to accept him and inviting him to join in on their addition song.
One of Mothra's larvae briefly appeared in the final song, simply crawling along the ground.
"Let's Play with Godzilla! Subtraction"
As Godzilla was trying to figure how many oranges he would have left if he gave four of his five to Gojirin, Mothra approached him and helped teach him how to subtract. She then watched when Gojirin came over and they were able to share the oranges after Gojirin further explained subtraction to Godzilla, with one of the Mothra larvae assisting the lessons by turning into a minus symbol. Mothra later appeared at Gojirin's birthday party and applauded her when she blew out the candles on her cake. When Anguirus showed up late and gave Gojirin a basket of five apples, Godzilla and Baragon each tried to outcompete him with seven and nine apples respectively, and Mothra helped them compare the sizes of their hauls through subtraction, though they ended up collecting so many that Gojirin couldn't eat them all. After Godzilla and Anguirus were able to save Gojirin from Mechagodzilla after answering his subtraction questions, both Mothra and one of her larva took part in a song about subtraction. Mothra then came across Mechagodzilla as he was flying through the air and asked him what was wrong. Mechagodzilla responded that he was unkind to Gojirin, prompting Mothra to take him to the other monsters as they were playing jump-rope. She encouraged him to apologize, and after doing so, the other monsters forgave him and allowed him to join in on their fun.
Abilities
Flight
The imago Mothra is naturally capable of flight and is usually seen flying, being capable of flying between various areas of the island easily.
Intelligence
As the only adult on the island, the imago Mothra is naturally more knowledgeable than the juvenile monsters and acts as a teacher to them.
Shapeshifting
One of Mothra's larvae shows the unusual ability to shapeshift into a minus symbol when she needs to help the other monsters learn subtraction, similar to Rodan's ability to turn into a plus sign. While one larvae was shown doing this, it is unknown if it is an ability both possess.
Gallery
Mothra in the opening of the OVAs
The kaiju dancing together
Mothra with other residents of Godzilland
Mothra with Anguirus and Godzilla
Mothra and Mechagodzilla flying with Rodan, who is carrying Godzilla
Moguera and Baragon digging a tunnel under Mothra Larva
Mothra and the other monsters with Rodan
Mothra tending to her garden
Trivia
- Mothra is the only kaiju featured in Get Going! Godzilland who sports a design that appears to have been at least somewhat influenced by the Heisei era incarnation of the character in question; all other designs featured in the series either bear little resemblance to any previous incarnation or were based on a design from their Showa era incarnations.
- The long legs of this Mothra's design are similar to her GMK counterpart, which was also notable for featuring longer, unfolded legs.
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