Gatanothor [1], called "the great darkness" by Yuzare, is a powerful Kaiju and the final antagonist of Ultraman Tiga.
Subtitles:
- Gatanothor: Evil God
- Magatanothor: Darkness Lord Monster
History
Anicent Times
The Ruler of Shadows, Gatanothor is responsible for the annihilation of the ancient humans that roamed the planet millions of years ago, having surfaced from the mythical city of R'lyeh. After covering the world with perpetual darkness, Gatanothor's reign of terror affected all life on the planet. But when the age of darkness neared its end, Gatanothor, along with its followers (called Zoigers) went into the ancient city of R'lyeh island and hibernated.
Ultraman Tiga
During modern times Gatanothor and its brood awoke once more. The Ruler of Shadows sought to have Earth revisit its dark past. But unlike the last time, a titan stood in Gatanothor's way: Ultraman Tiga. The Warrior of Light defied Gatanothor's rule and pledged to fight for humanity. After dismembering one of the Zoiger, Daigo summoned his courage, and the love he had for the entire human race. Ultraman Tiga arrived to face Gatanothor, but the Warrior of Light only had Daigo's light to power him, and he was easily defeated, despite the usage of the Deracium Beam Torrent and a modified Zeperion Beam in his Power Type form. Gatanothor then used a beam which turned Tiga back into a stone statue. Bellowing in triumph, Gatanothor struck the statue with one of his tendrils, knocking it down and leaving it to sink deep into the ocean. Master of Darkness
Gatanothor now stood unopposed and allowed its darkness to sweep across the globe. There was nothing that could stop it or the Zoiger from ruling supreme. But the Ruler of Shadows didn't expect GUTS to band together to help stop the horrific beast. GUTS had enlisted Keigo Masaki, ex-host of Evil Tiga to help with Tiga's revival. His plan failed, but caused the people to unite. With humanity taking up arms and uniting, their hopes manifested into the forms of pure light, and poured into Ultraman Tiga's Color Timer. Ultraman Tiga was revived and later confronted Gatanothor in the ancient city. With great power never before seen, Tiga succeeded in easily sending the Ruler of Shadows to oblivion with a combination of Tiga's Glitter Bomber, two Glitter Banishes, Glitter Zeperion Beam, and finally the Timer Flash Special. The Earth and humanity was saved and the Sparklence disintegrated into dust soon after. To the Shining Ones
Trivia
- Suit actors: Ryuki Kitaoka (ep. 51), Toru Kadowaki (ep. 52)
- Gatanothor is based on the Cthulhu Mythos deity, Ghatanothoa, the Lord of the Volcano, whose name is spelled (in Japanese) the same way as Gatanothor, and whose main ability is to petrify those that view him in a manner akin to the gorgons of Greek mythology. Its role, however, as well as fact that Gatanothor's resting place is the submarine ancient city R'lyeh, is derived from Ghatanothoa's father, Cthulhu.
- Outside of its episodes' title cards, Gatanothor's name is never mentioned in the narration of the episodes. It is instead referred to as the "Ruler of Darkness" to play on his omnipotent nature and sinister powers.
- The porous texture that covers Gatanothor's shell are shared features with Golza, Melba, Galra, and the Zoiger, as all of them are related as Ultra-Ancient Kaiju by nature. Unlike Gatanothor, their main reason is to act as a disguise for peepholes for the suit actors to use.
- Gatanothor's main design is a nautilus and ammonite. Its head in an upside down position is a reference to Gatanothor's habit of looking down towards humanity.
- Gatanothor's roar is a reused and slightly modified Desghidorah roar, which in turn was made of modified elephant trumpets.
- Gatanothor is one of the monsters that makes up Belyudra's body in Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends The Movie.
- In this appearance, Gatanothor is shrunk down from 150m to match most of the other monsters.
- Gatanothor shares some similarities with Mururoa from Ultraman Taro.
- In Ultraman Fighting Evolution 3, Gatanothor is able to shroud the entire screen with its mist. Players need to use the Cheat Machine to change the value to 37 in Custom Mode and will see that there are two selections, Black Gas and Power Up in the R1/L1 section.
Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey
Although Gatanothor did not physically appear in the movie, its hatred and anger toward Ultraman Tiga were transferred to Camearra. After knowing Tiga/Daigo had fallen in love with another woman, the unification of the dark energy from R'lyeh allowed her to transform into her monstrous form, Demonthor. Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey
Ultraman Ginga
Gatanothor's Spark Doll was seen in Dark Lugiel's collection room inside Furuhoshi Elementary School, meaning a version of him fought in the Dark Spark War. It is assumed that he returned to space in his original form after Ultraman Ginga defeated Dark Lugiel.
Trivia
- An actual Spark Doll of Gatanothor was sold as part of Premium Bandai in 2016, packaged alongside Spark Dolls of petrified Tiga Power Type and Glitter Tiga.[2]
Ultraman X
Gatanothor appeared as a Cyber Card in the final episode of Ultraman X. After Ultraman X spoke out to Gomora and striked Greeza right in the center of his chest, Gatanothor, along with all of the other Cyber Cards, traveled to X and united with him. Cyber Gatanothor's power was used to help form the Hybrid Armor and power up the Ultimate Xanadium to defeat Greeza once and for all. Gatanothor, along with the numerous other Cyber Cards and Spark Dolls, then appeared and thanked Daichi as he thanked them. The Rainbow Land
Ultraman Orb Chronicle
Chapter 4: 'Fierce Battle! Ishtal Civilization' Arc
Magatanothor Maga-Orochi, representing the element of Darkness. It was sealed away by Ultraman Tiga in the ancient past near the Ishtal Civilization.
was one of the Lord Monsters created byGai arrived on Earth in 1800 BC after receiving his mission from the Voice of Light to stop the revival of the Lord Monsters, and the first was Magatanothor. Jugglus Juggler, who dressed up as a mummy under the alias Nuru Ra Hotep, acted as the leader of the religion Magacism , a cult that praises Magatanothor. He spread his teachings of the end days to come to the people of Ishtal, saying Magatanothor will arise and bring destruction. Magatanothor was freed through Dodongo's Kaiju Card which Juggler obtained after Ultraman Orb had defeated it earlier, wreaking havoc and destruction to the buildings of Ishtal. Gai transformed into Orb and fought it in an intense battle that released so much heat the nearby sand turned to glass. Orb defeated it after a tough fight but the battle caused Ishtal to turn into a place known as Kemati Buki (Hill of Death) , as well as spawning the theory of an ancient superscience war that scientists thought of 4,000 years later. Juggler took off his disguise and collected Magatanothor's Kaiju Card while Gai receives Ultraman Tiga's Ultra Fusion Card from the defeated Lord Monster.
Chapter 6: The Wandering Sun
Ultraman Orb
Magatanothor's card is shown to be in possession by Jugglus Juggler, which he obtained 4,000 years prior to the series. The card of Magatanothor was used alongside other Lord Monsters to unveil Maga-Orochi's egg. In the finale, Magatanothor's power is used alongside other Lord Monsters by Magatano-Orochi in its rampaging spree.
Trivia
- Magatano-Orochi's tentacles (which was from its blood vein-like features) is confirmed to be from Magatanothor by Kiyotaka Taguchi in his Twitter account.[3]
- Many believe that Magatanothor's name is a spelling error, thus preferring to call it as Maga-Gatanothor . The change of original name is due to the repetition of the Katakana letter "Ga" (ガ), thus making the Gatanothor part being redundant.
- In the original toy catalog release, Magatano-Orochi was mistaken by many fans to be a combination of Maga-Orochi and Magatanothor, due to their names.
- Alongside Maga-Pandon, Magatanothor is largely identical to its original variant, with the Maga-Crystal being the only differences as well as the addition of purple colorings on its shell.
- In the commercial for Juggler's Dark Ring, Magatanothor's Kaiju Card bears Tiga's crest, however the official website for Ultraman Fusion Fight depicted the card with Orb Origin's crest.[4] This error was fixed later on.
- Despite appearing as a card in the original series, an early depiction of Magatanothor was made by digitally altering an existing photograph of the original breed.
- Alongside Maga-Zetton, Magatanothor was never mentioned in the Pacific Records. This may be due to the fact that they never set foot in Japan.
- In a similar fashion to its predecessor, Magatanothor had also destroyed a civilization, Ishtal.
- Unlike its predecessor, Magatanothor does not come from or fights an Ultra on the sea, instead it comes from and fights an Ultra at a desert as evidence from the melting of sand to glass.
- Although being the largest of Lord Monsters, Magatanothor is 20 meters shorter than its original incarnation.
Data
- Stats
- Height: 150 m[5]
- Length: 200 m[6]
- Weight: 200,000 t
- Origin: R'lyeh in the South Pacific → The Ultra-Ancient Civilization on R'lyeh (First sighted in modern times)
- Weakness: Gatanothor's weakness is light, being the main reason why he covered the Earth's sky with Zoigers and clouds of darkness.
- Powers and Weapons
- Petrification Ray : Gatanothor can fire a purple beam of energy from the portion of shell above its head. This beam is able to pierce through the opponent's body and turn them to stone in seconds. It is alternatively called the Penetration Laser in Ultraman Fighting Evolution 3.
- Tentacles: Gatanothor has many tentacles located around his head. It can stretch these tentacles out to great lengths to ensnare distant foes. It can also use these tentacles to lash out as weapons.
- Pincers: Gatanothor has giant pincers on the end of its four longest tentacles. These pincers can be used effectively in melee combat.
- Shadow Mist : Using its unnatural powers, Gatanothor can cause never-ending darkness to plague the Earth. When spreading, the darkness takes the form of black clouds that can kill beings like humans on contact. For beings like Ultras, it causes explosion when it comes into contact.
- Shell: Gatanothor is protected by a gigantic shell that can withstand all but the most powerful attacks. It proved effective against the Deracium Beam Torrent and Zeperion Beam, but was helpless against Glitter Tiga's attacks.
- ULTRA MONSTERS
- Giant Claw Knockout : An attack which involves hitting the opponent with its pincers.
- Evil Genocider Evil Tiga. Evil Tiga jumps onto Gatanothor's back while the monster exhales Shadow Mist to confuse the opponent. The former soon attacks the disoriented opponent until Gatanothor launches the Petrification Ray to freeze them. Evil Tiga absorb Gatanothor's Shadow Mist to empower his own Evil Shot towards the petrified opponent. : A tag-team attack with
Cyber Gatanothor
- Stats
- Height: 150 m
- Weight: 200,000 t
- Origin: Xio Headquarters
- Cyber Powers: Unknown
- Powers and Weapons
- Unknown
- Stats
- Height: 130 m
- Length: 200 m
- Weight: 200,000 t
- Origin: Ishtal Civilization
- Powers and Weapons
- Maga-Tentacles : Magatanothor has many tentacles located around its head. It can have these tentacles stretch out to great lengths to ensnare distant foes. It can also use these tentacles to lash out as weapons.
- Electrocution: After using its tentacles to pull its foes towards him, Magatanothor can channel electric voltage and electrocute its foes.
- Electric Shockwave: Magatanothor can charge himself with electricity and rush into foes, knocking them back.
- Pincers: Similar to the original Gatanothor, Magatanothor has pincers on the end of its four longest tentacles.
- Shell: Magatanothor is protected by a gigantic shell that can withstand any beam attacks.
- Maga-Darkness : A stronger variant of Gatanothor's Shadow Mist in which said attack is empowered with purple electricity. An uncharged version is featured as a side attack in Ultraman Fusion Fight! that is not empowered with purple electricity.
Other Media
Taiketsu! Ultra Hero
Gatanothor also appeared in the game, Taiketsu! Ultra Hero as a playable character.
Ultraman Fighting Evolution 3
Gatanothor appears as a boss character for both the Ultra Mode and Tag-Team Mode. However, he is not playable himself. Mainly, it is because he can't move on land and he has a special attack that can't be blocked. Gatanothor can be defeated by either normal or Glitter Tiga depending on the player's gameplay.
Merchandise
References
- ↑ Ultraman Pictorial Report 2003 pg 86-99
- ↑ http://p-bandai.jp/item/item-1000101405/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/TaguchiKiyotaka/status/813275192612954112
- ↑ https://twitter.com/fusionfighterT/status/834637796165898241
- ↑ Ultraman Dictionary 2001 pg 78-91
- ↑ Uchusen Year Book 1998 pg 15-18