Obscure Kaiju: MechaMothra

Some sad news to share; special effects director for the Heisei Godzilla series, Koichi Kawakita, had passed away on December 5th, with his family only now releasing the news to the public.

Despite being 72 years old, Mister Kawakita was very active of late, helping out with Godzilla related merchandise, books and side projects through his company Dream Planet Japan.

To honor the man, let us take a look at a lesser known unmade monster, straight from his own imagination - MechaMothra



During the making of 1992’s ”Godzilla vs Mothra: Battle for the Earth”, Koichi Kawakita originally wanted Mothra to be killed at the end. And have her be turned into a cyborg for the sequel.

According to to Heisei-Godzilla suit actor Kenpachiro Satsuma, MechaMothra would have looked more like a dragonfly, than that of Mothra’s usual self.
Of course, MechaMothra was dropped in favor for the more recognizable Mechagodzilla, in the 1993 follow up ”Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II”.

 

Interestingly, giant alien dragonflies were originally planned for a far more ambitious version of ”Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla”, dubbed ”Godzilla vs AstroGodzilla”. The alien dragonflies (very different horrors from the Meganulon) would have acted as as Astrogodzilla’s minions, along with a mind-controlled Little Godzilla and Miki Segusa.

But the failure of the big budget 1994 fantasy ”Yamato Takeru”, gave Toho cold feet, who then greatly scaled back the planned production. Thus becoming ”Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla” in turn.