Anatomy - Abilities - Fighting Tactics - Power Ranking - Character Bio

Published: 10/29/04
Updated: 08/28/17

	Energy
	Durability
	Intelligence
	Strength
	Speed

In 1974, director Jun Fukuda rang in Godzilla's 20th anniversary with his fifth, and final, film in the kaiju genre: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. The movie pits Godzilla against his mechanical double, but also introduces a kaiju inspired by Okinawa legend: King Caesar.

Guardian of the royal Azumi family, King Caesar must be summoned out of his eternal slumber once a series of prophecies has been fulfilled. The prophecies start when clouds in the shape of a black mountain appear in the sky. The prophecy continues after a red moon sets, and a mirage of the sun must appear to rise from the west. Following this turn of events, King Caesar's statue must be placed atop the sacred shrine above the gate of the Azumi Castle where it can reveal the hiding place of the Okinawa deity. After the monster is revealed he can then only be awoken by the song of a direct descendent of the Azumi royal family.

Despite appearances, King Caesar is probably one of the more interesting kaiju to analyze. The reason being that not all is what is seems when one looks below the surface of the Okinawa beast...

 

Anatomy

Cutaway view of King Caesar (note: incorrectly shows four fingers)

Taken from Chinese culture, King Caesar is based on the Shisa statues that were placed near the entrances to castles, temples, and imperial mausoleums in Okinawa to ward off evil spirits. The Shisa statues are modeled after lions, with the original legend containing a small Shisa statue that cracks open to summon a giant Shisa who protects an Okinawa village from a dragon. Toho, likely still anxious to celebrate Okinawa's reunification with Japan on May 15th, 1972 (Toho and Tsuburaya Productions had previously planned a joint project called Godzilla vs. Redmoon to ring in this event, but the film fell through), incorporated this legend into their creation, with King Caesar being evoked by a Shisa-like statue and by featuring circular fur patterns which were common on the Shisa statues.

Although King Caesar looks like a flesh and blood monster, a cutaway view of the kaiju reveals something completely different. Rather than being organic, the Okinawa monster was instead constructed from a variety of materials. Using gold as frame work to build out a bone structure, the body was then reinforced with a concrete, brick-like body. In the head, a Prism Eye was installed, a gigantic U shaped crystal that could reflect energy back at its source. To power the ancient machine, energy crystals were installed in the belly of the monster.

This all raises a question, though: what is King Caesar's origin? We know that he was apparently built and acted as a guardian to the Azumi family. How was he built, though? Where did the special energy crystals come from, for example? How is the monster sentient, since it doesn't seem to be controlled? Although his origin does remain a mystery, the cutaway view of the gold frame work and brick-like surfaces does explain the unusually high mass of the kaiju. For his 50 meter size he weighs 30,000 tons, which is 10,000 tons more than Godzilla and 5,000 tons heavier than Gigan, who is also 15 meters taller.

Given that the monster was built, it's hard to imagine what threat the Prism Eye was originally envisioned to combat. Was there a fear of other monsters with rays that would have made this a practical addition? Regardless, the Prism Eye is one of several abilities that the Okinawa deity was outfitted with.

Abilities

Prism Eye

Cutaway view of the Prism Eye

The most memorable feature about King Caesar is his ability to deflect beams shot into his eyes. A cutaway view of the monster's head reveals exactly how this process works. As previously discussed, in spite of a organic appearance from the exterior, the Okinawa deity's interior is filled with inorganic materials where one would expect to find bones and organs. Furthermore, located directly behind his eyes, in place of any sort of brain for the creature, lies a giant U shaped gem called the Prism Eye.

So as a beam is fired into King Caesar's eye, it passes directly though it and into the gem. The beam then proceeds to ricochet off the mirror-like walls of the gem. During this process, the beam is spontaneously diffused and refocused until it reaches the other eye. At this point, it is then reflected back at its source at 10 times the original strength of the beam. Although sounding slightly complex, this process takes 0.5 seconds from when the beam enters one eye to be shot out the other. Furthermore, as a side process to this, the creature's large ears also aid in the dissipation of heat from these beam attacks. So if a particularly hot beam was reflected, the ears would help dissipate the heat that could be generated from inside the Prism Eye during the deflection process.

Because of the success of this power against Mechagodzilla, King Caesar was able to reflect three of Mechagodzilla's beams, there has been speculation surrounding if perhaps energy was drawn toward his eyes. As it turns out, the answer is yes. Located directly above his eyes inside what look like eyebrows, specialized half-mirrored retinas were located. These instantly sensed high-power light-beam attacks and then channeled that energy into his eyes to be reflected. The most impressive showing of this was when King Caesar was head down and attacked by Mechagodzilla's Space Beams. In this case, the beam was still drawn into the eye, and the Okinawa deity was able to raise his head to release the attack against Mechagodzilla.

Unfortunately, the half-mirrored retinas were still limited. They had an area of influence located around the eyes, so that attacks that were close could be drawn in. This area of influence does not cover the monster's entire head, not even just the front of the head. This is seen when Mechagodzilla is surrounded by both Godzilla and King Caesar and the mechanical kaiju scores a direct hit on King Caesar's forehead with his eye beams, which sends the Okinawa deity collapsing to the ground.

Sadly, this means King Caesar's opponent must consciously fire around the eyes in order for this power to be utilized.

 

Extraordinary Jumper

As seen in the cutaway, King Caesar has a spring-like support system located in his legs. This enabled the golem-like creature to leap huge distances. How huge? The Godzilla Movie Studio Tour mentions this as being 1,000 yards, or roughly 914 meters. To put this in perspective, that's more than 18 times his own height. It puts monsters like Baragon, who could leap 100 meters and 4 times his own height, to shame.

The advantage of this is being able to engage an unsuspecting target from the sky. So aerial opponents might still not be safe when attacking. However, this ability was never used by the monster during the film, although was seen in the trailer with a jump attack against Mechagodzilla.

 

Body Slam

Despite his huge weight, King Caesar is surprisingly agile. His added mass and agility compliment themselves well, as seen in the movie when King Caesar was able to charge and slam into Mechagodzilla with a devastating effect. In fact, while a juiced up, reflected Space Beam had no lasting damage against the robot, King Caesar's body slams did. These left dents in the monster's armor, causing it to start to cave in.

Fighting Tactics

Fresh from being awoken, King Caesar was an agile, hyper active fighter. He relentlessly ran into close quarter combat, ramming his foe to the ground or deflecting attacks sent back his way, either by countering a physical blow or reflecting with his Prism Eye. However, once Mechagodzilla started to prove his offensive prowess, the Okinawa deity changed his strategy, being more defensive. This ultimately worked against him, as it allowed Mechagodzilla to wage a long range war from which King Caesar was outclassed.

This does paint a picture of how the Okinawa creature battles, though. He is quick to engage a foe, and will try to press the advantage. If the opponent is weak, the golem-like monster will overcome them quickly. If they put up a strong resistance, though, than a more defensive strategy is employed. However, this doesn't always work to King Caesar's advantage, given his powerset favors close combat.

 

Power Ranking

Energy

King Caesar's energy powers are dependent on his foe. If they have a light based attack, such as a beam or ray, then there is a chance that the golem-like monster could deflect this attack back at the source. In doing so, he could hit his opponent with a ray that was 10 times as powerful. However, this also depends on his foe aiming toward the area around King Caesar's eye to take advantage of this.

The fact that the beam is enhanced 10 fold is pretty amazing, although given the rarity of being able to use this feat it would likely have to finish the battle to be effective. Most opponents should learn their lesson after one beam is deflected, after all. Looking at other Showa series monsters, though, none of them would likely be beaten simply by having a single amplified ray shot back at them. For this attack to truly shine, King Caesar would have to go up against a "glass cannon", a foe that could dish out a lot of damage from a ray attack but would be unable to withstand it. Looking outside of the Showa series, the Gyoas and Iris would be prime candidates to fit that criteria, although are in a totally different era and series.

 

Durability

Being reinforced by brick-like concrete is not all that impressive given the normal durability feats of kaiju. Unfortunately, King Caesar was a monster that wore itself down fairly quickly after receiving damage. Once Mechagodzilla got him on the ropes, he was slower to react, seeming to have been weakened by the assault. In fact, when Godzilla arrived, King Caesar did little to be able to muster enough energy to make a large difference for most of the remainder battle, outside of having an impressive showing when Godzilla held the robot for King Caesar to body slam.

That said, one question is what vital areas the Okinawa deity might have. Being inorganic, he lacks a brain and other organs. Does this mean that the creature's only vital area is his chest, where the energy crystals are stored? Hard to say, but stronger opponents could likely beat King Caesar into submission fast enough that a vital area, or lack there of, might not be all that important.

 

Intelligence

The creature's habit of rushing in might, on the surface, not bode well for it being intelligent. On the contrary, though, King Caesar was one to actually adapt his strategy based on his situation. He was also smart enough to predict and sense danger, such as when Mechagodzilla raised his arm. Unaware of what attack could be coming, he tried to shield his face with his hand, a wise strategy although one that didn't protect the monster from the incoming finger missiles. Once the threat was analyzed, the golem-like beast actually found a giant rock obstruction to hide behind, moving toward a more defensive strategy. Mechagodzilla's Cross Attack Beam, though, made quick work of the rock, slicing it away and revealing King Caesar behind. Still it shows the monster is smart enough to change tactics based on how the battle is going, even if that change in strategy might not be playing to King Caesar's advantages anymore.

 

Strength

King Caesar's strength is one of his defining characteristics. Packing 30,000 tons of mass and the ability to move quickly, the monster could unleash devastating attacks such as a body slam to cause major damage. As a result, the monster's very body is a weapon. Unrestrained, the Okinawa creature attacked Mechagodzilla twice in this manner. The first time, the 40,000 ton mech (33% heavier than King Caesar) actually pushed back against King Caesar. The second time, though, the ancient monster successfully rammed Mechagodzilla to the ground.

Unfortunately, King Caesar lacks a thumb, having three forward pointing claws. This prevents the monster from grasping things, which is where the creature would make great use of its strength by picking up objects or opponents. As a result, it has to make do in other ways, such as when he blocked Mechagodzilla's arm with his hand. After doing this, the Okinawa deity actually hugged the robot's arm and twisted his body to throw him.

 

Speed

The Okinawa deity was agile, both in his offensive abilities and in his response to being attacked, unless he was weakened. This speed enabled the monster to immediately blitz his opponent, taking advantage of the element of surprise when most other kaiju would try and gauge their foe before attacking. At his peak, King Caesar was fast enough to dodge attacks with ease and also counter foes, to use their momentum against them.

Sadly, the monster's speed starts to drop as he is weakened. After sustaining damage, his effectiveness starts to diminish. He is slower to respond and somewhat lethargic, as he rested for considerable time to regain strength while Godzilla engaged with the robot. As a result, at his peek, he would likely clock in at a 4/5 for his speed, but factoring in his reduced performance as the battle wears on docks him down a point.

 

Conclusion

In closing, King Caesar is often overlooked due to his being laid to waste by Mechagodzilla, a kaiju who could easily have defeated most of the Showa monsters, and the limited nature of his Prism Eye. However, in terms of "tooth and claw" monsters, King Caesar is one of the more powerful of the Showa era. He would likely quickly overpower monsters like Gabara or Gorosaurus, and relentlessly press the advantage until they were beaten. Against more durable opponents like King Ghidorah, though, the Okinawa deity is likely to get worn down and beaten over time.