Space Beastman
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The Space Beastman (宇宙獣人 Uchū Jūjin) is a kaijin who serves as a minor antagonist in the 1977 Toho film The War in Space.
Name
Toho Kingdom learned that "Space Beastman" is Toho's preferred English translation for the character in 2005,[5] though Godzilla Toho Giant Monster Pictorial Book calls him "Space Beast."[3]
Development
In Ryuzo Nakanishi's first draft of The War in Space, Commander Hell (here called Kira) was to have a right-hand man named Hell.[1] A second draft co-authored by Nakanishi and Hideichi Nagahara significantly rewrote the story, bringing it nearly in line with the final product. In that version, the character who would become the Space Beastman was described only as a "large man."[1]
The Beastman was played by Japanese professional wrestler Yukio "Mammoth" Suzuki, whose eyes were left exposed so that he could incorporate them into his performance.[4]
Design
Space Beastman is a humanoid covered from head to toe in dark brown fur. He has a pair of yellow horns sticking out of his head.
History
The War in Space
Seeking to flee their dying planet, the Messiah 13 Third Planet of Yomi Aliens set their sights on Earth. After humanity's greatest weapon, the Gohten, destroyed the Hell Fighters raining down destruction on the world's cities, it raced towards the aliens' mobile base of operations on Venus, the Daimakan. Before it could reach the planet, however, a Messiah 13 alien disguised as a dead astronaut abducted Jun Takigawa, the captain’s daughter. The aliens' leader, Commander Hell, then contacted them from the surface, showing Jun restrained by the hulking Space Beastman. Undeterred, the Gohten landed on Venus, and Jun’s old flame Koji Miyoshi led the Daimakan raiding party while Space Fighters tried to bring down its energy shield from the outside. Though tasked with destroying the ship's power source, he made rescuing her a priority as well.
The Messiah 13 aliens quickly detected the raiders and killed all but Koji, who they threw into the same cell as Jun. Having figured out the controls to the cell, however, Jun quickly broke them out. No sooner had Koji picked up an alien rifle and a fallen comrade's electromagnetic knife than the Space Beastman made his presence known. His axe absorbed every blast from the rifle and sliced it in half, but Koji felled him with a perfect throw of the knife.
Abilities
Strength
The Space Beastman was strong enough to restrain Jun Takigawa with one hand.
Axe
The Space Beastman's axe sliced through a pillar, some pipes, and a laser rifle with ease, glowing blue as it did so. The blade absorbed the many lasers Koji Miyoshi fired at it.
Weaknessess
The Space Beastman was killed instantly by Koji Miyoshi's electromagnetic knife.
Comics
- The Godzilla Comic (1990)
The Godzilla Comic
Space Beastman appears in the first panel of the Monster Warrior Godzilla story, as one of the monsters seeking out Godzilla's help after humans invaded their world and massacred a village.
Gallery
- Main article: Space Beastman/Gallery.
Videos
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Trivia
- Ironically, despite being clearly inspired by Chewbacca from Star Wars, the Space Beastman is a villainous monster.
- The Space Beastman's axe was almost certainly inspired by the lightsabers in Star Wars. Like Luke Skywalker's lightsaber in the original film, the axe absorbs lasers rather than deflecting them.
- Though Chewbacca's weapon of choice is a bowcaster, he would later dual-wield lightsabers in the 2015 comic Star Wars #12.
References
This is a list of references for Space Beastman. 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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Bibliography
- Motoyama, Sho; Matsunomoto, Kazuhiro; Asai, Kazuyasu; Suzuki, Yoshitaka; Kato, Masashi (28 September 2012). Toho Special Effects Movie Complete Works. villagebooks. ISBN 978-4-86491-013-2.
- Yae, Jinbo; Sasaki, Hiroyuki; Inoue, Yuji; Suzuki, Masumi; Fukasawa, Kotaro; Ishii, Takaaki (21 December 1994). Definitive Edition of Toho Monster Movies!! Godzilla Special Effects Complete Works. Natsumesha. ISBN 4-8163-1775-9.
- Nakamura, Satoshi; Shimazaki, Jun (1 April 2005). Godzilla Toho Giant Monster Pictorial Book. Shogakukan. ISBN 4-09-280052-5.
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