---
title: "Godzilla vs. Megalon"
year: 1973
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/godzilla-vs-megalon"
fi1m_id: "godzilla-vs-megalon"
imdb_id: "tt0070122"
tmdb_id: 39264
wikidata_id: "Q1742061"
fi1m_score: 38
critics_reviews: 1
published: "2026-09-28T20:41:12.438028+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-28T20:41:33.956338+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

Directed by Jun Fukuda · 1h 18m · MPA G · Action, Adventure, Science Fiction

## Identity

Godzilla vs. Megalon

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/godzilla-vs-megalon
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** godzilla-vs-megalon
- **IMDb ID:** tt0070122
- **TMDB ID:** 39264
- **Wikidata ID:** Q1742061
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070122/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/39264, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1742061

**Fi1m score: 38** · Critics: 1 of 6 reviews so far

*In a sentence:* Godzilla arrives late and fights a beetle in a quarry with the air of a man doing a favour for a friend

> Jun Fukuda sends Godzilla against a drill-handed beetle from an undersea kingdom, with a grinning robot to fetch him. Cheaply made, padded with old footage and dull between the fights, it is a poor film with a good tune and one moment nobody forgets.

## Synopsis

Japan in the early 1970s. Nuclear tests have cracked the undersea kingdom of Seatopia, whose Emperor Antonio (Robert Dunham) orders its beetle god, Megalon, sent to the surface in revenge. Above ground, the inventor Goro Ibuki (Katsuhiko Sasaki) has just finished Jet Jaguar, a man-sized robot with a fixed grin, in the laboratory-home he shares with his small brother Rokuro (Hiroyuki Kawase). His friend Hiroshi Jinkawa (Yutaka Hayashi) is visiting when Seatopian agents (Kotaro Tomita, Ulf Otsuki) break in, gas the three of them and take control of the robot, which they mean to use as a guide for Megalon on his way to Tokyo. Goro wants his robot back and the monster stopped. The Japan Special Defense Forces Chief (Kanta Mori) has tanks, and tanks are no use against a beetle the height of a dam. Godzilla, for the moment, is elsewhere.

## Review

Jun Fukuda directs, from his own screenplay and a story by Shinichi Sekizawa, and what he has made is a Godzilla film for small children, in a hurry. It runs 78 minutes. The undersea kingdom of Seatopia, its cities cracked by nuclear tests on the surface, sends up its god, a giant beetle called Megalon, to knock down Tokyo. To steer it, Seatopian agents seize Jet Jaguar, a man-sized robot with a fixed grin built by the inventor Goro Ibuki (Katsuhiko Sasaki). Godzilla is in the title and on the poster and spends most of the film elsewhere. It is poor, and cheaply made, and we can see exactly who it was for.

The humans take up most of the running time, which is the first mistake. Goro, his friend Hiroshi Jinkawa (Yutaka Hayashi) and his small brother Rokuro (Hiroyuki Kawase) are gassed in Goro’s own laboratory by two Seatopian agents (Kotaro Tomita and Ulf Otsuki), and spend the rest of the picture being kidnapped, escaping, being kidnapped again and shouting the robot’s name at the sky. Kawase, in shorts and a cap, is asked to yell most of his lines and does. The one stretch with any pace is a truck chase along a mountain road with the three of them locked in a container in the back, because for once nobody is standing in a laboratory explaining what a robot is.

Yuzuru Aizawa shoots everything in flat, bright daylight, so the laboratory looks like a set and the mountain road looks like a mountain road on a Tuesday. Michiko Ikeda’s cut has to carry a good deal of footage lifted from earlier Godzilla films, and the joins show: the monster’s skin changes between shots, buildings fall in different weather from the weather they were standing in, and the tanks sent against Megalon are plainly tanks that were sent against somebody else. Yoshifumi Honda’s Seatopia is one room with a throne, some columns and a stone tablet, lit like a school play about the Romans. It is the whole of a civilisation, and the film asks us to feel for it.

Some of it works, and most of what works is Riichirō Manabe’s score. It is brass and drums and a marching tune for the robot that sounds like the theme to a children’s programme, which is what it is, and we were humming it in the kitchen the next morning. Robert Dunham plays Emperor Antonio of Seatopia in a toga and a beard and gives the order to destroy the surface world with the gravity of a man reading the shipping forecast. Megalon himself, a stag beetle stood upright with drills for hands and a horn that fires lightning, is a good idea for a monster, and the costume by Nobuyuki Yasumaru and Tomoki Kobayashi gives him a heavy, swaying walk that suits a creature who has never seen the sun.

The Godzilla suit, worn by Shinji Takagi, has a soft face and large forward eyes, so he looks less like a monster than like a big friendly dog, and the film treats him as one: he is fetched, he arrives, he sorts things out. The fight in the quarry, when it finally comes, is wrestling with rocks, staged as a tag match. Before it we had been bored for a good twenty minutes, by the shouting and the laboratory and a second kidnap much like the first. Then we laughed, once and very loudly, at something Godzilla does with his tail in the last reel, which we will not describe and which has kept this film in circulation for fifty years. The laugh was with the picture, because Fukuda knows the move is silly and shoots it with a straight face anyway.

Fukuda had made *Godzilla vs. Gigan* only the year before, and this is that film with less money and a robot. The series began in 1954 as a picture about a city burned by something men had made; by now the something lives on an island and comes when called. That is not a crime, and children do not want to be frightened by a friend. It does mean the monster no longer matters, and once the monster does not matter it is hard to say what the 78 minutes are for.

It is for children under ten, and for adults who were children under ten when they saw it and want to check what they were on about. Everyone else should keep the tune and skip the rest. If you watch it, watch it with people, and let the children do the shouting.

*Fi1m score 38, published 28 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is Godzilla vs. Megalon worth watching?**

*Godzilla vs. Megalon* is worth watching only for children under ten and for adults who saw it as children and want to check their memory; we scored it 38. It is cheaply made, padded with old footage and dull between the fights, though Riichirō Manabe's marching tune and one silly moment with Godzilla's tail in the last reel are worth the price of the rest.

**How long is Godzilla vs. Megalon, and what is it rated?**

*Godzilla vs. Megalon* runs 1h 18m and is rated G by the MPA in the US. It is an action and adventure film.

**Where can I watch Godzilla vs. Megalon in the US?**

*Godzilla vs. Megalon* is streaming on HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Hulu and The Roku Channel in the US, and it is also available to rent from Apple TV from $3.99. It leaves The Roku Channel on 30 September. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How does Godzilla vs. Megalon compare to Godzilla vs. Hedorah?**

*Godzilla vs. Megalon* is the weaker of the two, and [*Godzilla vs. Hedorah*](https://film.one/film/godzilla-vs-hedorah) is the one to choose if you have to pick. Megalon is a hurried children's film that spends most of its 78 minutes on kidnaps and shouting before a wrestling match in a quarry. Hedorah is grubbier, stranger and sometimes frightening, and much of it fails, but none of it is dull.

**What should I watch after Godzilla vs. Megalon?**

After *Godzilla vs. Megalon*, try [*Godzilla vs. Hedorah*](https://film.one/film/godzilla-vs-hedorah) (1971, Fi1m 64): The series’ previous swerve into strangeness, with a smog monster and a psychedelic nightclub. Then [*Pacific Rim*](https://film.one/film/pacific-rim) (2013, Fi1m 70): Guillermo del Toro’s robots against monsters, made by someone who loved films exactly like this; and [*Shin Godzilla*](https://film.one/film/shin-godzilla) (2016, Fi1m 74): The monster taken seriously again, as a bureaucratic emergency; a corrective to the toy years.

### Reviews we read (1)

- **Den of Geek**, Jim Knipfel (25/100, inferred): Knipfel judges the film a shoddy, poorly made low point in the Godzilla franchise, despite his affection for it. He singles out its catchy music as a rare redeeming quality. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/godzilla-hits-the-skids-godzilla-vs-megalon-1973/)

## Details

- **Director:** Jun Fukuda
- **Director:** Jun Fukuda
- **Screenplay:** Jun Fukuda
- **Story:** Shinichi Sekizawa
- **Cinematography:** Yuzuru Aizawa
- **Editor:** Michiko Ikeda
- **Music:** Riichirō Manabe
- **Production design:** Yoshifumi Honda
- **Costume design:** Nobuyuki Yasumaru, Tomoki Kobayashi
- **Producer:** Tomoyuki Tanaka
- **Cast:** Katsuhiko Sasaki as Inventor Goro Ibuki; Yutaka Hayashi as Hiroshi Jinkawa; Hiroyuki Kawase as Rokuro 'Roku-chan' Ibuki; Kanta Mori as Japan Special Defense Forces Chief; Kotaro Tomita as Lead Seatopian Agent; Ulf Otsuki as Seatopian Agent; Sakyo Mikami as Truck Driver's Assistant; Fumiyo Ikeda as Man from Unit 1
- **Runtime:** 1h 18m
- **Certificate (MPA):** G
- **Release (the US):** 24 April 1976
- **Genres:** Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
- **Budget:** $760,000
- **Box office:** $20 million

## Where to watch in the US

- HBO Max: streaming
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on
- Apple TV: add-on, hd
- Hulu: add-on, hd
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-09-30
- Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd
- Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd

*Checked 2026-09-28.*

Also available in: CA, JP, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Godzilla vs. Hedorah* (1971), Fi1m 64: The series’ previous swerve into strangeness, with a smog monster and a psychedelic nightclub. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/godzilla-vs-hedorah.md)
- *Gamera vs. Guiron* (1969): The rival turtle at his most childish: two boys, a knife-headed monster, no shame at all.
- *The War of the Gargantuas* (1966): Toho when it still spent money on the suits and cared who got trodden on.
- *Pacific Rim* (2013), Fi1m 70: Guillermo del Toro’s robots against monsters, made by someone who loved films exactly like this. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/pacific-rim.md)
- *Shin Godzilla* (2016), Fi1m 74: The monster taken seriously again, as a bureaucratic emergency; a corrective to the toy years. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/shin-godzilla.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/godzilla-vs-megalon