Gatanothor

Gatanothor (ガタノゾーア)  is a powerful kaiju, and the final antagonist who appeared in Ultraman Tiga. Its alternate names are Gatanothoa or Gatanozoa, with the latter being the most well-known and still in common use.


 * Subtitle: Evil God (邪神)
 * Maga Subtitle: King Demon Beast of Darkness (闇ノ魔王獣)

Ultraman Tiga
The Ruler of Darkness, Gatanothor is responsible for the annihilation of the ancient humans that roamed the planet millions of years ago, having surfaced from the mythical city of R'lyeh. After covering the world with perpetual darkness, Gatanothor's reign of terror affected all life on the planet. But when the age of darkness neared its end, Gatanothor, along with its followers (called Zoiger) went into the ancient city of R'lyeh island and hibernated. It wasn't until modern times that Gatanothor and its brood awoke once more. The Ruler of Darkness sought to have Earth revisit its dark past. But unlike the last time, a titan stood in Gatanothor's way: Ultraman Tiga. The Warrior of Light defied Gatanothor's rule and pledged to fight for humanity. After dismembering one of the Zoiger, Daigo summoned his courage, and the love he had for the entire human race. Ultraman Tiga arrived to face Gatanothor, but the Warrior of Light only had Daigo's light to power him, and he was easily defeated, despite the usage of the Delcalium Light Stream and a modified Zepellion Ray in his Power Type. Gatanothor turned him back into a stone statue and struck it with a tentacle, which caused it to plummet into the dark depths of the Pacific Ocean.

Gatanothor now stood unopposed and allowed its darkness to sweep across the globe. There was nothing that could stop it or the Zoigar from ruling supreme. But the Ruler of Darkness didn't expect GUTS to band together to help stop the horrific beast. GUTS had enlisted Keigo Masaki, ex-host of Evil Tiga to help with Tiga's revival. His plan failed, but caused the people to unite. With humanity taking up arms and uniting, their hopes manifested into the forms of pure light, and poured into Ultraman Tiga's Color Timer. Ultraman Tiga was revived & later confronted Gatanothor in the ancient city. With great power never before seen, Tiga succeeded in easily sending the Ruler of Darkness to oblivion with a combination of Tiga's Glitter Bomber, two Glitter Vanishers, Glitter Zeppelion Ray, and finally the Color Timer Flash. The Earth and humanity was saved and the Spark Lens disintegrated into dust soon after.

Trivia

 * Gatanothor is based on the Cthulhu Mythos deity, Ghatanothoa, whose name is spelled (in Japanese) the same way as Gatanothor. Like Ghatanothoa, Gatanothor has petrifaction ability. Its role, however, as well as fact that Gatanothor's resting place is the submarine ancient city R'lyeh, is derived from Ghatanothoa's father, Cthulhu.
 * Gatanothor is the first kaiju that managed to end Tiga's life, reverting the Ultra into a stone statue.
 * Gatanothor's name is never mentioned in the narration of the episode. It is referred to as the "Master of Darkness" to play on his omnipotent nature.
 * The porous texture that covers Gatanothor's shell are shared features with Golza, Melba, Galra and the Zoiger, as all of them are related as Super Ancient kaiju by nature. Unlike Gatanothor, their main reason is to act as a disguise for peepholes for the suit actors to use.
 * Gatanothor's curved shell also means that he resembles a combination of various Nautiloids and other sea creatures, including the extinct Ammonite.
 * Gatanothor's roar is a reused and slightly modified Desghidorah roar, which in turn was made of modified elephant trumpets.
 * Gatanothor is the first kaiju in the Ultra Series that has his head upside down.
 * Although not physically seen, Gatanothor is one of the monsters that makes up Beryudora's body in Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend The Movie.
 * Gatanothor has instant kill and unblock special attacks in Ultraman Fighting Evoultion 3, similar to Ultraman Legend.
 * Both episodes were later featured in episodes 16-17 of Ultraman Retsuden.
 * Gatanothor shares some similarities with Mururoa from Ultraman Taro.
 * Both of them defeated an Ultra on their first try. However, Gatanothor managed to end an Ultra's life, Mururoa didn't.
 * Both hate light.
 * Both are accompanied by their servants to aid them in attacks.
 * Both of them are able to cover the Earth's sky with their darkness/black smoke.

Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey
Despite not appearing in the movie, after Kamila knew that Tiga had fallen in love with another woman, Gatanothor's hatred and anger against Tiga was transferred to Kamila and her two other giants. With Gatanothor's anger and hatred, and the dark energy of R'lyeh Island, Kamila was able to transform into her final monstrous form, Demonozour.

Ultraman Ginga
Gatanothor's Spark Doll was seen in Dark Lugiel's collection room inside Furohoshi Elementary School, meaning a version of him fought in the Dark Spark War. It is assumed that he returned to space in his original form after Ultraman Ginga defeated Dark Lugiel.

Trivia

 * An actual Spark Doll of Gatanothor was sold as part of Premium Bandai in 2016, packaged alongside Spark Dolls of petrified Tiga Strong Type and Glitter Tiga.

Ultraman X
Gatanothor appeared as a Cyber Card In the final episode of Ultraman X. After Ultraman X spoke out to Gomora and striked Greeza right in the center of his chest, Gatanothor, along with all of the other Cyber Cards, traveled to X and united with him. Cyber Gatanothor's power was used to help form the Hybrid armor and power up the Ultimate Xanadium to defeat Greeza once and for all. Gatanothor, along with the numerous other Cyber Cards and Spark Dolls, then appeared and thanked Daichi as he thanked them.

Chapter 4 "Fight! Ishtal Civlisation!" arc
Maga-Tanothor was the King Demon Beast of Darkness, sealed by Ultraman Tiga sometime ago at Ishtal Civlisation. When Gai and Juggler arrived on Earth, Ishtal surface has been showing signs of collapsion mainly droughts, dried plantations as well as the mystery aurora present. Juggler, whom dressed up as the mummy under the alias Hortiop, as the leader of the religion Magashizm, cult that praises the demon beast told Ishtal psople about their destruction sooner. Maga-Tanothor was freed later through Dodongo's card which Orb had defeated earlier on. Maga-Tanothor causes havoc destruction to the buildings of Ishtal metropolis, Gai become Orb and fought it, creating an intense battle with high heat from melting of sand to glass. Orb defeated it after a tough fight but the battle causes Ishtal turning to Mohenjo-Daro as well as the theory of war by archaeologists 4000 years later. Juggler undressed himself and collected Maga-Tanothor's Kaiju card while Gai receives Ultraman Tiga's card.

Ultraman Orb
Although he's not physically seen in this series, Maga-Tanothor (マガタノゾーア)'s card is shown to be in possession by Jugglus Juggler, whom he obtained 4000 thousand years prior to the series. The card of Maga-Tanothor was used alongside other King Demon Beasts to unveil Maga-Orochi's egg. In the finale, Maga-Tanothor's power is used alongside other King Demon Beasts by Magata no Orochi in its rampaging spree.

Trivia

 * Magata no Orochi's tentacles (which was from its blood vein-like features) is confirmed to be from Maga-Tanothor by Kiyotaka Taguchi in his Twitter account.
 * Many believe that Maga-Tanothor's name is a spelling error, thus preferring to call it as Maga-Gatanothor (マガガタノゾーア). The change of original name is due to the repetition of the Katakana letter "Ga" (ガ), thus making the Gatanohor part being redundant.
 * In the original toy catalog release, Magata no Orochi was mistaken by many fans to be a combination of Maga-Orochi and Maga-Tanothor, due to their names.
 * Magata no Orochi's name was previously written as Maga Tano-Orochi by fans before the airing of episode 24.
 * Alongside Maga-Pandon, Maga-Tanothor is largely identical to its original variant, with the Maga Crystal being the only differences as well as the addition of purple colourings on its shell.
 * In the commercial for Juggler's Dark Ring, Maga-Tanothor's Kaiju Card bears Tiga's crest, however the official website for Ultraman Fusion Fight depicted the card with Orb Origin's crest.
 * Despite appearing as a card in the original series, an actual design of its suit does exist in addition to the study of Maga-Tanothor's coloration.
 * Maga-Tanothor actions, like Maga-Zetton, it is unknown whether their actions are recorded.
 * However, if Maga-Tanothor action is recorded, it will be the destruction of a particular place as well as the surface of a particular place on Earth to show signs of collapsion.
 * In a similar fashion to its predecessor, Maga-Tanothor had also destroyed a civilization, Ishtal.
 * Unlike predecessor, Maga-Tanothor does not come from or fights an Ultra on the sea, instead it comes from and fights an Ultra at a desert as evidence from the melting of sand to glass.

Taiketsu! Ultra Hero
Gatanothor also appeared in the game, Taiketsu! Ultra Hero as a playable character.

Ultraman Fighting Evolution 3
Gatanothor appears as a boss character for both the Ultra Mode and Tag-Team Mode. However, he is not playable himself. Mainly, it is because he can't move on land and he has an special attack that can't be blocked.