| Toho character | |
|---|---|
| Jet Jaguar | |
| Species | Robot Humanoid |
| Form(s) | Humanoid Form Giant Form |
| Height | Humanoid form 1.8 meters Giant form 50 meters[1] |
| Weight | Humanoid form 150 kilograms Giant form 25,000 tons[1] |
| Major enemies | Megalon Gigan |
| Allies | Godzilla |
| First appearance | Godzilla vs. Megalon |
| Created by | Jun Fukuda |
| Portrayed by | Tsugutoshi Komada |
Jet Jaguar (ジェットジャガー Jetto Jagā) is a fictional character who appears in the Godzilla film Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973).[1]
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In Godzilla vs. Megalon, Jet Jaguar is a robot created by the protagonist, Goro Ibuki. He is initially depicted as a mindless automaton, and is controlled by the evil Seatopians for most of the film. He later gains sentience and helps Godzilla fight both the evil Gigan and Megalon, although for a short moment. He is depicted as a heroic character with the abilities to communicate with kaiju (Japanese word for "strange beast"), fly, alter his own size, and use floodlights in his eyes.
He was even given a brief theme song at the end of the film, performed by Masato Shimon. A longer version of the song was featured on a record released in conjunction with the film's original release.
Jet Jaguar was the result of a contest Toho had in mid-to-late 1972 for fans to come up with a new hero for them to use (to capitalize on the many tokusatsu and anime superhero and super robot shows that were all the rage at the time). The winner of the contest submitted the drawing of a robot called Red Arone. The robot resembled Ultraman, Spectreman, and Mazinger Z (all of which were very popular at the time). The robot was renamed Jet Jaguar and was set to star in a film vehicle for him, titled Jet Jaguar vs. Megalon, which pitted him against Megalon (a previously unused Godzilla villain). However, Toho figured Jet Jaguar would not be able to carry the film on his own, in screen appearance or marketing value, so during pre-production, even after doing some tests and storyboards, the project was shut down for several weeks, until screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa was called in to rewrite the script to add Godzilla and Gigan to have more marquee value. The resulting film, Godzilla vs. Megalon, paired Godzilla with Jet Jaguar against both Megalon and Gigan.[2]
Jet Jaguar appears in the video games Godzilla Trading Battle (1998), Godzilla: Save the Earth (2004), Godzilla: Unleashed (2007), and Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash (2007).