Bagan バガン [Godziban]

Following the containment of Desghidorah and the death of mother Mothra, her twin larva Moshu-Moshu and Moshuu-Moshuu were born into the world and cared for by the Shobijin Lune and Luna. As the twin larva grew, they would often meet and play with the larval Battra nicknamed Bashu Bashu and his trainer, the sorceress Luluvera.

During one such occasion, the three larvae and their respective caretakers were enjoying some leisure time together in a dense forest. Suddenly, a space-time portal opened in the sky, and a monster never seen before was dispatched. Covered in bone-like armor with sharp teeth and claws, two strange protrusions sprouting from its back with glowing yellow orbs, a long spiked tail, and adorned with three large horns on its head, the gigantic monster roared and immediately began destroying the lush forest with the Light Ray from its nasal horn and the Destruction Rays from its side head horns. The inside of a rocky valley was obliterated in an instant, and a raging inferno instantly rose into the sky, signaling the arrival of this unearthly visitor.

While Lune and Luna could only watch on in shock, Luluvera realized that this "Demon Beast" named Bagan was a monster from the future, brought to the present by the Futurians to wreak havoc. She also despaired the unfortunate timing of mother Mothra's death, who would have been the best answer to the raging beast. Despite the unstoppable obstacle before them, the larva twins and Battra chirped their battle cries, eager to save the world. Realizing that the unwavering tenacity of the young monsters was not going to be extinguished no matter what, the Shobijin and Luluvera fused with their larvae, granting them more power and increasing their sizes several fold. However, as Bagan was comprised of the cells of the Godzilla Clan and King Ghidorah obtained by the time-traveling Dorats, the Demon Beast eclipsed the larvae in both size and power. Bagan was completely unfazed by the twin Mothras' webbing, as well as an all-out energy beam assault by Battra. Creating an electrical vortex in the sky, Bagan rained devastation upon the surrounding environment and the young guardians. The bodies of the insect monsters flailed about on the ground and were blasted into the air by Bagan's Light Ray and Destruction Rays, and an all-consuming fire surrounded the battlefield. Striking the larvae with his rays, Bagan even managed to forcefully break the fusion between the monsters and their Shobijin. Lune and Luna weakly struggled on the ground beneath clouds of dust and smoke, while Luluvera was barely able to stand on her own two feet.

Just as all hope seemed lost, Luluvera heard the loud cry of something familiar, and a golden powder began to drift down onto the forest. As if on queue, mother Mothra appeared from the space-time portal - a version of Mothra before she died was able to use the portal to travel through space-time to rescue the larvae from Bagan's wrath. Bagan gazed up at the flying monster, as if in awe. In that moment, Mothra used her seal on Bagan, which completely encased the three-horned beast and electrified him. However, while the seal was able to contain Desghidorah, it was not able to do the same to Bagan, who roared in defiance. The seal instead appeared to have an adverse effect: being fused with Godzilla's and King Ghidorah's powerful cells, the combative spirits of the two monsters began to go to war within Bagan, making him go haywire and abruptly ending his destructive spree. As a result, Bagan was recalled into the space-time portal by the Futurians and disappeared back into the future...

• Has been considered for a number of Toho movies, both made and unmade, since as early as 1980. See the Cutting Room article for Bagan for more information.
• The names for the "Light Ray" (光線 - Kosen) and "Destruction Rays" (破壊光線 - Hakai Kosen) can be found in 2022's Godziban Book (published by Toho Visual Entertainment), to include other background and ability details.
• The Light Ray, both in name and in execution, is directly inspired by the same attack used by Bagan in the script for the 1990 unmade movie, Mothra vs. Bagan.
• Godziban director Hideyuki Kobayashi has openly shared numerous behind the scenes information regarding the making of Bagan on his Twitter account. A list of some of the more noteworthy posts can be found below:
  - Kobayashi worked with VS Series monster designer Minoru Yoshida to create the final definitive design of Bagan, which took heavy influence from the incarnations featured in 1993's Super Godzilla and 1996's Godzilla Movie Studio Tour.
  - After completely exhausting himself creating the massive puppet for Biollante a year before in 2021, Kobayashi swore off of making another giant-scale monster puppet ever again. However, Bagan ended up being similar in scale to Biollante anyway.
  - It took three and a half years of Kobayashi proposing the idea of reviving Bagan to Toho before being given permission to use the monster in the show.
  - The first footage of Bagan was uploaded 2 months prior to the teaser trailer officially revealing the monster. The 5 second video shows a then-unidentified work-in-progress hand reaching out to Kobayashi's pet cat, "Master" Nitco.
  - The original puppet used in the special stands 7.5 feet tall with a shoulder width of 6 feet, while a human foot can fit inside one of the toe claws.
  - The puppet was colored using black, bronze and gold Turner Iron Paint. Depending on how the puppet is illuminated, the body color can either appear whitish like the design from Godzilla Movie Studio Tour or brownish akin to the design from Super Godzilla.
  - The eyes were made using hard transparent resin, while the teeth were made of transclucent semi-hard resin.
  - The new "Theme Song of Bagan" was composed by Nana Moroboshi, who was inspired by "cool images of Bagan" on her display while composing the music.
  - As of 2023, Bagan has taken on a "powered-up" (パワーアップ - Pawaappu) form, which sports longer head horns, a thicker neck and legs, wider shoulder protrusions, more pronounced edged armor around the shoulders, and an assortment of larger and smaller spikes along the back plates down to the end of the tail. This mightier form is currently being displayed in the Godzilla Museum on Awaji Island. See above image preview for additional angles.
  - The powered-up puppet stands 2.4 meters tall with a length of 6 meters. It requires 1 person inside to move the legs and head, and an additional 3 to 4 people working in unison to operate the other body parts during performances.
  - Kobayashi had an extremely tight schedule due to Godzilla Fest 2022 and the release of Godziban on DVD and Blu-ray, so the back of Bagan was created in a rush. As a result, scenes featuring the monster in his debut episode only showed him from the front or, if viewed from the back, the waist up. Kobayashi was finally able to mold a much more cohesive design for the back and tail area when working on the powered-up form.
• In an interview with Minoru Yoshida found in Godziban Book (published by Toho Visual Entertainment), the key concept designer of Bagan shared his personal experiences related to the monster:
  - Yoshida saw potential for the likes of LittleGodzilla and the Dorats in a puppet show like Godziban, which was more centered on comedy and its stylized appearance, but thought monsters such as Desghidorah and Bagan would be difficult to convert to this style as they are more "realistically made." After being contacted by Godziban staff due to their interest in having Bagan appear in the show, Yoshida couldn't help but think "maybe it's possible," before being pleasantly surprised by the powerful presence of the puppet when viewing it in action for the first time.
  - While working with Koichi Kawakita, the special effects director would always say: "We need to increase the number of monster characters." Though Bagan was not able to appear in the VS Series, staff attempted to increase the monster's popularity little by little over the years by promoting him in various media such as games and Godzilla Movie Studio Tour.
  - As production on Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) was wrapping up, Kawakita had Yoshida meet with then-Chairman Tomoyuki Tanaka to look over Yoshida's various designs for Bagan. After reviewing 5 or 6 drawings, Tanaka commented: "Toho's villainous monsters should be simple, vicious, and carry a sense of weight. Please proceed in that direction." Yoshida would take this advice to heart.
  - One of the features Yoshida wants to see realized most is Bagan's ability to fly by sprouting "Wings of Light" from the orb-like organs located on Bagan's two back protrusions.
  - Yoshida hopes fans being newly-introduced to Bagan enjoy him, as introducing fresh faces into the franchise helps it grow: "If we don't increase the number of [monster] characters, we won't be able to continue. So if we don't do it now, we won't get another chance to do something like this in the future."
• In the "Blu-ray & DVD Notice" trailer that provided previews of the Godziban specials, there is a scene of a grounded mother Mothra being struck by Bagan's Destruction Rays. While this sequence is not present in the released episode, an image from this scene is still showcased in Bagan's bio from the Blu-ray special features as part of a monster bio picture book.
• Received its first piece of merchandise in the form of an acrylic key chain, which could only be obtained by pre-ordering either the DVD or Blu-ray release of Godziban on the official online Godzilla Store.
• During the opening cinematic and closing musical number of the Mothra vs. Bagan: Prologue special, illustrations by Shiu Yoshijima featuring Bagan have the monster in its red-and-black coloration, referencing its similarly-colored official concept art frequently used in other media such as books.