The silent muscle behind the Hell Commander's personal
guard, the Space Beastman proved itself to be
an incredibly dangerous adversary for Earth's
forces. The hairy giant obeyed every order from
its maniacal leader and assisted the Messiah 13 Aliens. After Jun Takigawa, daughter of the Goten's captain, was kidnapped by the extraterrestrial invaders, the Space Beastman escorted the girl around the Daimakan so that the alien leader could taunt his new trophy to his adversaries. Once Koji Miyoshi, as part of a failed rescue attempt, was captured, the pair were thrown into one of the Daimakan's
jail cells. Relieved of his immediate duty, the beast proceeded to continue
its sentry duty of the extraterrestrial vessel.
The shabby creature was not seen again until
the humans were attempting to make a quick escape
from the roman style airship. Pulling out his
gun, Koji unleashed a volley of energy blasts
at the creature's ax. The melee weapon, though,
was unaffected and actually absorbed the laser's
power. In complete desperation, the man threw
his gun, which the space beast quickly slashed in half with a burst of energy from his ax. Seeing an opening, Koji hurled his electromagnetic knife at
the horned fiend. Receiving a mortal wound to the heart from the blade, the
Space Beastman collapsed and expelled its final
breath.
Powers / Weapons
Energy Infused Axe
The Space Beastman demonstrated no personal feats, save for what was likely considerable strength as he effortlessly held Jun Takigawa captive with only one hand. This strength likely aided the beast in using his weapon of choice: a large axe infused with energy.
The long handled broad axe has the visage of a normal melee weapon. However, when swung at high velocity, the blade ignites with a blue and white energy. This added energy allows the weapon to easily slice clean through objects, chopping through a pillar and a gun.
Energy Absorbing Axe Blade
The Space Beastman's axe was not just an offensive weapon, but also had defensive qualities as well. When Koji Miyoshi attempted to fend off the creature with his rapid fire ray gun, the blade on the broad axe easily absorbed the incoming blasts.
Background and Trivia
The space monster was portrayed by suit actor Mammoth Suzuki, who was a professional wrestler before retiring.
The Space Beastman's axe was used to absorb every single ray gun shot that Koji fired at the beast. This is despite the fact that the beast didn't always use the blade to actively deflect the shots. For example, the beast swung the axe above his head and was still absorbing incoming fire. Consequently, the film gives the impression that the gun shots were attracted to the blade. However, there has been no validation of the melee weapon having these properties and it's likely that Koji was acting illogical and continued to aim for the blade. This would be similar to how, in an earlier Jun Fukuda and Teruyoshi Nakano film, Mechagodzilla continued to aim for King Caesar's reflective eyes in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974).
The creature rarely has its name listed in English. The 2005 publication Godzilla: Toho Giant Monster Picture Encyclopedia (ISBN: 4092800525) is an exception, though, and lists "Space Beast" as the name. However, Toho Kingdom was given the opportunity in 2005 to check on the preferred English names for several of Toho's properties. During these discussions, it was mentioned that the preferred name is "Space Beastman" for the creature. This can be seen as a near literal translation, as the Japanese name of 宇宙獣人 (Uchu Shishijin) could translate out to Space Beast Person or Space Beast Man.
