Editing Godzilla vs. Megalon (section)

==Production==
===Development===
The origins of Megalon can be traced back to 1969's ''[[All Monsters Attack]]'', as the original working idea for the film's antagonist Gabara was initially envisioned as a giant mole cricket called Gebara.<ref>{{cite book|title=Godzilla Chronicle|publisher= Sony Magazines|page= 285|date= July 1998| isbn= 978-4789712941}}</ref> The character was later reworked into [[Kaoru Mabuchi]]'s 1971 treatment for ''Godzilla vs. the Space Monsters: Earth Defense Directive'', a precursor to 1972's ''[[Godzilla vs. Gigan]]''. The proposal called for Megalon to be paired with Gigan and [[King Ghidorah]] under the command of the hostile alien invader Miko, only to be defeated and driven off by the combined might of Godzilla, [[Anguirus]], and a brand new monster called Majin Tuol. The next draft of the script, titled ''The Return of King Ghidorah!'', retained the core villain cast of Gigan, King Ghidorah, and Megalon, but replaced Anguirus and Majin Tuol with [[Varan]] and [[Rodan]]. However, most of the proposed monsters were cut, leading to the final version of ''Godzilla vs. Gigan''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Toho Special Effects Movie Complete Works|publisher= Village Books| pages= 135, 154, 159|date= September 28, 2012| isbn= 978-4864910132}}</ref>

Contrary to popular belief, there is no evidence ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'' was originally planned as a Jet Jaguar solo film, and no Japanese sources have surfaced which claim otherwise.{{sfn|LeMay|2019|p=121}} Rather, the creation of Jet Jaguar was the result of a contest Toho had for children in mid-to-late 1972. The winner of the contest was an elementary school student, who submitted the drawing of a robot called Red Arone. Red Arone was turned into a monster suit, but when the child was shown the suit, he became upset because the suit did not resemble his original design. The boy's original design was white but the costume was colored red, blue and yellow. Red Arone was used for publicity, but Toho had renamed the character Jet Jaguar and had special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano redesign the character, only keeping the colors from the Red Arone suit. The Red Arone suit had a different head and wings.<ref>{{cite web |title=Original image of 'Red Arone' |url=https://i.imgur.com/DPsbP4o.jpg}}</ref><ref name="commentary">[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv6nbZAoOQM Audio Commentary by Steve Ryfle & Stuart Galbraith IV - Media Blasters Recalled 2012 DVD Release]</ref>{{sfn|Ryfle|1998|p=182}}

According to Teruyoshi Nakano, ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'' was a replacement project for another film that was cancelled at the last minute,<ref name="commentary"/> and evidence suggests this cancelled film was ''Godzilla vs. Red Moon'', slated for 1973.{{sfn|LeMay|2019|p=121, cf. 117-21}}  As a result, the project was postponed during pre-production. Screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa had no time to write out a full script, and instead thought out a general story. Director Jun Fukuda ultimately ended up writing the screenplay.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Galbraith |first1=Stuart |title=Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! The Incredible World of Japanese Fantasy Films |date=1998 |publisher=Feral House |location=Venice, CA |isbn=0-922915-47-4 |page=115}}</ref>

The film had three early treatments, each written by [[Shinichi Sekizawa]], one was titled ''Godzilla vs. The Megalon Brothers: The Undersea Kingdom's Annihilation Strategy'' which was completed in September 1972. The second was titled ''Insect Monster Megalon vs. Godzilla: Undersea Kingdom's Annihilation Strategy'', which was turned in on September 5, 1972, and the third draft was submitted on September 7, 1972.<ref name="commentary"/> The production time totaled nearly six months from planning to finish.

===Creature design===
According to Teruyoshi Nakano, the Godzilla suit used in this film (nicknamed "MegaroGoji" メガロゴジ ) was made in a week, making it the fastest Godzilla suit ever made to date. They did not have time to make the eyes work correctly, something they had more time to fix for Godzilla's five appearances on Toho's superhero TV series ''[[Zone Fighter]]'' (1973), which was produced around the same time.

The [[Megalon]] suit was one of the heaviest suits produced since the 1954 ''Godzilla'' suit, which made it even more difficult to raise the Megalon suit via wires in certain scenes up to the point where Nakano almost decided to scrap those scenes altogether. Since the film was shot in the winter, [[Katsuhiko Sasaki]] stated that director [[Jun Fukuda]] gave him and Yutaka Hayashi a shot of whiskey to warm them up.<ref name="commentary"/>

The Gigan suit is similar to the previous design, but the suit was made thinner, less bulky, the horn on the head was less pointed, and the buzzsaw didn't move, since it was made of static pieces. This suit also has different-sized back fins, a more circular visor, scales running up the back/sides of the neck and longer legs compared to the original version.

===Filming===
Teruyoshi Nakano recalls how the film was rushed and that it took three weeks to shoot, stating, "It went into productions without enough preparation. There was no time to ask Mr. Sekizawa to write the script, so Mr. Sekizawa kind of thought up the general story and director Fukuda wrote the screenplay. The screenplay was completed right before crank-in".{{sfn|Ryfle|1998|p=183}} The film also heavily employs stock footage from previous films such as ''[[Mothra vs. Godzilla]]'', ''[[Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster]]'' (both from 1964), ''[[The War of the Gargantuas]]'' (1966), ''[[Ebirah, Horror of the Deep]]'' (1966), ''[[Destroy All Monsters]]'' (1968), ''[[Godzilla vs. Hedorah]]'' (1971), and ''[[Godzilla vs. Gigan]]'' (1972).{{sfn|Ryfle|1998|p=183}}