Manda マンダ [Showa]

A revered God of the undersea kingdom of Mu. Where as most civilizations often worshiped an unseen deity or spiritual higher power, the undersea people choose to follow a more tangible entity.

While the Mu people once lived above the surface, 12,000 years ago they struggled with the hardship of having their land sink into the Pacific Ocean. The dragon-like Manda, though, was perfectly adapted to the water. Face-to-face with the giant serpent, the Mu shaped their society around the beast. From ritualistic dances to rich art created in his honor, their world revolved around Manda. In return for their adoration, Manda seemed to harbor a symbiotic relationship with them. Living out of the water, deep inside their kingdom, the beast would act as a deterrent to invaders. To honor the beast, sacrifices would be made to appease the creature's hunger.

When the undersea people began to prepare for war, the dragon-like kaiju was used for inspiration. Outfitting their Mu Submarine, the race built a powerful ray gun, shaping the cannon after Manda. After the Mu had launched their war against humanity, their agents managed to kidnap photographer Susumu Hatanaka and Makoto Jinguji, the daughter of the Gotengo's captain. The Mu wisely deduced the Gotengo battleship as a threat to their invasion. Consequently, unless given control over the ship, the queen of the Mu threatened that the pair would be sacrificed to Manda.

Eventually the two managed to not only escape their jail cell, though, but also kidnap the queen in the process. Preparing to escape in the high pressure resistant suits of the Mu, the queen triggered a detonation. The blast led Manda to the ocean waters. The creature then created a natural blockade, threatening those who wanted to escape in the high pressure suits. The dragon-like monster wasn't the only thing in the waters, though...

A short distance away, the Gotengo, having followed a Mu Submarine earlier, watched the scene play out. Looking to distract Manda, the ship unleashed a series of torpedoes that detonated around the monster. Filling the waters with a thick, black substance, Manda was unable to see. Realizing their fortune, he humans swam toward the Gotengo in their suits. Once aboard, the drill ship surfaced, the Mu queen aboard against her will. However, it didn't take long for the ship's captain, Hachiro Jinguji, to have a talk with the queen and come to a realization: Mu had to be destroyed. If not, the species would strike again. Realizing what they had to do, the Gotengo plunged back into the water.

Once below the surface, the battleship quickly came into contact with Manda. Combined with the hate, cruelty, and malice of a warlord, the giant serpent attacked the giant submarine without hesitation. Relentless and filled with animal lust, he coiled his scaly mass around the reinforced hull. Constricting like some demonic python, he tried to seal the humans' fates. However, the Gotengo was not defenseless and released from the hull a high tension current. The god was struck with pain, and retreated to the depths, where it was followed and frozen by the Gotengo's Zero Cannon. The incident marked the end of the Mu's revered God, as the battleship drilled further into the kingdom.

• Manda was designed by art director Akira Watanabe. The head of the creature was modeled by Teizo Toshimitsu. As for the body, it was modeled by brothers Yasuei Yagi and Kanju Yagi.
• As he did on Gorath (1962), producer Tomoyuki Tanaka mandated a monster be in the film Atragon (1963). As a result, the creature Manda was incorporated into the production. This trivia was revealed in Age of the Gods (self-published).
• Manda's name comes from combining the Japanese word for 10,000 (万 - man) with the word da, the Chinese reading of the word hebi for snake.
• The roar for Manda, which was created from modifying a lion's roar, was later incorporated as a variant roar for Godzilla in the Showa series starting with Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964).
• Special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya personally supervised Manda's design and construction. In the end, ten models were created to realize the creature on film. The two meter model got the most screen time, used when the creature attacks the Gotengo. The largest model created measured five meters and had a radio controlled jaw. This information can be found in the 1997 book Age of the Gods (self-published).
• Manda was given a new roar on the 5.1 English track for the 2006 DVD release of Atragon by Tokyo Shock. This new roar is longer and makes use of the added surround sound presentation.
• The Manda prop was later reused in Tsuburaya Productions' Ultra Q show in 1966. Appearing in the episode Grow Up! Little Turtle, it was used to represent the fire breathing Kai Dragon.
  
  

In 1999, a snake-like Manda was raised by humanity on Monsterland on Ogasawara Island. Host to a variety of other kaiju, including Godzilla and Anguirus, the giant serpent lived in relative peace on the human controlled isle. Unfortunately, that peace was broken as the island was invaded and went under control of the Kilaakian.

The alien race was looking to rule the Earth, seeing the denizens of Monsterland as the perfect instrument to realize this goal. Consequently, the beings launched an ambitious, worldwide assault on the planet. As part of this strike, Manda was first sent to destroy London.

While humanity wondered why Japan was sparred from this global siege, especially given the proximity of Monsterland to the country, their question was answered in a violent confrontation. First, the flying monster Rodan appeared in the skies above Tokyo, decimating buildings in its supersonic wake. Next, Godzilla emerged from the waters, attacking the Japanese city directly. This was followed by the appearance of Manda, who joined the other two monsters in their siege on Tokyo. The snake-like creature went straight for the nearby monorail. Wrapping its massive body around the track, the serpent only had to briefly tense its muscles. This created enough pressure to crush the track, crippling the city's transportation. Japan was far from defenseless, though. The country launched rockets and missiles into Tokyo, creating even more chaos around the monsters and turning the whole city into an open battlefield. As Mothra joined the attack, the monsters went on to level the entire city.

Thankfully, it was not long before the human race was able to overthrow the Kilaak's power over the monsters. After a climactic battle with the space demon King Ghidorah, Manda was returned back to his Monsterland home where the creature lived out on his rocky cliff side home.

• Despite being the same length, the Manda from the Godzilla series is 50% heavier than the one from Atragon (1963). As is common with multi-generation kaiju, though, many publications list the same statistics for both, even when doing separate bios. A few do state the correct difference between them, though. One of the best for this is the 2016 book Definitive Edition: The Perfect Godzilla Giant Monster Super Encyclopedia (ISBN: 9784063048476). In this publication, the three Mandas are all displayed on the same page with different statistics for each, with the original weighing 20,000 tons, the Destroy All Monsters (1968) version weighing 30,000 tons and the Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) version weighing 60,000 tons.
• The Manda prop used for the Godzilla film features the same body as the one from Atragon (1963), although with the center "mane" removed that used to trail down the back. The head, however, is completely different. It opts for a new, more snake-like look to the character without the whiskers or horns of the original.
• The Godzilla Dictionary: New Edition (ISBN: 4773087250) references that the second generation Manda was "raised" by humanity, which could imply that like Baragon the creature was brought to Monsterland at a young age.
• In the 2000 publication The Giant Picture Encyclopedia of Godzilla: Toho Special Effects Movie World (ISBN: 4873765587), Manda's powers are listed as "Fangs and Claws" (キバとツメ - Kiba to Tsume) and "Super Strength from Constriction" (怪力による締め上げ - Kairiki Niyoru Shime Age).
• Manda could move on the ground at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. Noted in the Godzilla Dictionary: New Edition (ISBN: 4773087250).
• Katsura Mafune's vision of Manda from Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) could be seen as an anachronism. While hoping that Titanosaurus doesn't join the ranks of other kaiju who have attacked humanity, she mentions Rodan, King Ghidorah and Manda. When making this statement, footage from previous movies is shown of each monster laying siege to civilization. Manda's sequence, however, shows the creature's attack on Tokyo from Destroy All Monsters (1968). Set in the future of 1999, this incident did not occur until after the events of Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975).