Jirass



Jiras (ジラース - Jirāsu) is a monster that was created by a mad scientist inspired by the Loch Ness Monster and sea monsters. Jiras appeared in the original Ultraman series and in Redman. His U.S. name is Kira. He is one of the series's most popular monsters to fans because he looks like Godzilla.

Subtitle: Frilled Monster (えりまき怪獣 - Erimaki Kaijū)

Powers/Weapons

 * Adept Swimmer : Being based on the Loch Ness Monster, Jiras is a well-developed swimmer, living in a lake.
 * Electric Ray : Jiras can fire a light blue beam of energy from his mouth, capable of starting fires and shattering rock.

History
A monster created by a mad scientist, Jiras was being raised in lake Kitayama. It was inspired by the Loch Ness monster and sea monsters. When reports of an abundants of fish suddenly appearing in the lake came in, the Science Patrol was called in to investigate. When they didn't find any clues, the captain let them go on a vacation around there at a nice hotel until they were picked up. When Ide went fishing with a female reporter who had interveiwed the scientist, they saw the scientist out on the lake about to feed Jiras. They then went to his house but were beaten by the scientist himself. When he found them in there, he took them hostage since they saw him earlier.

When the rest of the Science Patrol went looking Ide and the reporter. Jiras was released by the scientist to attack them. With the Scientist holding off the Science Patrol and revealing that Jiras was his creation, the scientist pulled off his mask to reveal his true self as an acquaintence of Captain Mura During the Scuffle between Jirass and the Science Patrol, the Scientist got trampled by Jirass, leaving the monster out of control. Ide fixed his radio and told the rest of the Science Patrol that he was being held hostage in the scientist's house. Then right as the science patrol was about to get them out Jiras came and made an attempt to destroy the house with them inside it.

Hayata pulled out the Beta Capsule and transformed into Ultraman. The battle was slow paced with Ultraman in control of the match, shoving Jiras back testing his superior strength to the monster. Once the monster was provoked, Ultraman torn off Jiras' frill and taunted it even more by imitating a matador bullfight with it. After wrestling with the angry monster, Ultraman eventually won with an Ultra Chop to the stomach killing Jiras. Instead of destroying him with his Specium Ray, Ultraman put the frill he ripped off of Jiras' neck back on and gave him a moment of silence. With his Color Timer blinking, Ultraman flew back to the Land of Light.

Trivia

 * Although not physically seen, Jirass is one of the monsters that makes up Beryudora's Body in Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend The Movie.


 * Jirass's roar is a modifyed roar of the Toho monsters, Godzilla.

Redman
Jiras reappeared in episodes 13, 15, 16, 61, 70, 75, 100, 103, 106, and 110 of the series Redman. In this series, Jiras was one of the many monsters to battle with Redman.

Trivia

 * Unlike his more memorable appearance, Jiras in this series is given a more mundane appearance to coincide the show's low budget. The monster no longer resembles that of Godzilla (or at least not to the point where it is easily recognizable or obvious) and the frill that surrounds his neck is much smaller. Interestingly, the suit bears a slight resemblance to Godzilla's appearance in Son of Godzilla.

Relationship to Godzilla
Of all the Ultra Monsters in the Ultra series, Jirass is the most recognizable for his appearance.

Jiras is actually a very loosely disguised Godzilla suit. Unlike Gomess, Jirass was created simply by combining the head of the DaisensoGoji suit (from the movie Ebirah, Horror of the Deep,) with the body of the MosuGoji suit (from Mothra vs. Godzilla) with some yellow paint sprayed on parts of his body and a yellow frill around the neck. To further demonstrate the similarities between Jiras and Godzilla, Jiras possesses a modifyed by still slightly recognizable Godzilla roar, as well as his Electric Ray attack bearing a very close resemblence to Godzilla's own atomic ray. Also adding to Jirass's close relationship with Godzilla, the portrayal of Jirass was done by suit actor Haruo Nakajima, whom is famous for portraying Godzilla in the first twelve Godzilla films.

The reason behind Jiras' creation was because at the time of Ultraman's production, Tsuburaya actually intended for a differen design for the monster for Ultraman to fight, but due to the minimal budget at the time (which is seen between episodes 8 through 19) and a very short schedule, Eiji Tsuburaya had negotiated with Toho Co. LTD to have the Godzilla suit loaned to Tsuburaya productions, which had been left in Toho's warehouse now that Toho, at the time was moving on to use a new suit for Son of Godzilla. The conditions for using the suit however was that it'd be in good condition once filming was complete.

It can also be said that Jiras' creation and appearance is to pay homage to the creation of Godzilla himself as Eiji Tsuburaya made his career famous in handling the special effects for Toho Co. LTD