Last time, we mentioned one of Godzilla’s strangest and most legendary foes ever. He is one that fans have a soft spot for and that his creator Yoshimitsu Banno tried to turn into an allegory for the generation coming of age in the same way Godzilla served as a warning against the Bomb.
You perceptive students of Kaiju History probably figured out already that we are referring to Hedorah, whose role as a dire warning of what can happen if pollution is left unchecked didn’t quite land the way Banno hoped.
Neither did his time making Godzilla movies, which we also addressed previously, but fortunes were almost different for him for a moment there in the mid-1970s.
Back then, Toho was racking their brains to figure out where to take Godzilla next. There were a lot of proposals. Some were ambitious; others were quite trippy and nonsensical, but close to all of them were tentative. In 1975, Banno had a concept in that pile that he was fleshing out.
Dubbed “Godzilla vs. Hedorah II” – and “Hedorah’s Counterattack,” at least by fans – the idea arose when producer Tomoyuki Tanaka allowed Banno to make the 15th film in the franchise coming out after Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla.
He had another idea initially but felt compelled to revisit his Smog Monster. Part 1, as it can be considered in this case, teed up a sequel, after all, when it ended on a freeze frame of a second Hedorah peeking up out of the muck.
This was accompanied by text that posed the question, “And yet another one?” Despite that, it’s still debated whether Banno or Toho intended to make a sequel by that point.
As far as the plot of Part 2, the only thing we know for sure is it was set in Africa. Banno wanted that to be the location after a trip to Mauritania and after viewing the Italian shockumentary Africa Addio (which was called Africa: Blood and Guts in the US).
“If those chaotic, dynamic countries developed a little further,” Banno thought according to John LeMay in The Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies: The Lost Films: Mutated Edition, “it wouldn’t be implausible for Hedorah to show up there.”
So why didn’t he? If everything was set and things were cool between Tanaka and Banno, what happened? The short answer as usual is money. Tanaka believed what Banno had in mind was shaping up to be too expensive, so it was canceled.
This explanation might astonish some readers, but you have to remember it was the 70s. Japan, like everywhere else, was feeling the effects of inflation and recession.
Moreover, Toho is notoriously conservative – bordering on stingy – when it comes to watching every penny. That remains true as the details behind the making of Godzilla Minus One prove.
Banno would never make another Godzilla movie (though he tried and we will get into that someday soon, guaranteed), and Hedorah was sidelined for four decades. It was not until 2004 that a variant of the sludgy creature would appear on screen again in Godzilla: Final Wars.
Another 20 years would pass before they marked his 50th anniversary with an appearance in an acclaimed short film harnessing the old ways of suit-mation for a rematch with Gojira.
I’m not bothered by the absence of Hedorah for so long when we got more Mechagodzilla and one last film from Ishiro Honda out of the deal. 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla is one of the best sequels of that era.
From there, Godzilla would sleep along with Hedorah although not as long. Efforts to reboot the franchise would be brainstormed before the King’s re-emergence in 1984; in tandem came strange and fancy new ideas for enemies.
They never left the storyboard yet somehow became popular. However, we are going to save that story for next time.
Before we conclude, I want to highlight the fact Hedorah was Kenpachiro Satsuma’s first gig in a monster suit. Since he is no longer with us, let’s reflect on the legacy of the man who brought life to Hedorah and later to Godzilla at pivotal points in his existence.
Satsuma-san, we salute you. Rest in peace.