DAY SIXTEEN:
EVIL GOD GATANOTHOR

Written by Jonathan Wojcik

The other day, we saw a shoggoth reference from Ultraman Tiga, and today, we have an even more explicit Mythos-critter from the very same series. Gatanothor is named after Gatanothoa, a dark god spawned by Cthulhu himself and supposedly so monstrously hideous to behold, it seems to "petrify" victims into stony statues, like the mythological gorgons.

In Ultraman Tiga, Gatanothor was formerly the ruler of the planet Earth and annihilated an earlier human civilization millions of years older than we ever thought our species to be. While "formless" in Lovecraft's writing, its design as a kaiju resembles a gigantic ammonite with crustacean pincers and a creepy, grimacing head inexplicably twisted upside-down. I particularly like the noodly tentacle clusters cascading from its shell like thick locks of hair!

What's also remarkable about this monster is that it's so powerful, it succesfully defeats an Ultra on its very first try. In fact, it completely kills Ultraman Tiga by turning him to stone, and though he is subsequently revived to defeat the cosmic horror, the device that allows him to become Ultraman is expended completely in the process.

Also worth noting? If Gatanothor's petrification rays work anything like Gatanothoa, it's actually only the outside of the victim that hardens like rock, and the inside, fully conscious, somehow doesn't age or die.

NAVIGATION: