Jiger

Jiger
Subtitle	Giant Demon Beast (大魔獣,   Dai Majū?) Giant Space Monster
Nicknames	Monster X, Giant Demon Beast X
Species	Ancient Reptile
Place(s) of emergence	Mu Continent → Wester Island
Height	40 meters
Length	80 meters
Weight	200 metric tons
Running speed	300 kilometers per hour
Forms	N/A
First appearance	Gamera vs. Jiger
Latest appearance	Gamera: Rebirth
Relationships	Baby Jiger (Offspring)
Enemies	Gamera
Portrayed by	Tomohisa Yano, Eizo Kaimai
Roars	More Roars

Jiger (ジャイガー,   Jaigā^?) is a monster from the 1970 Daiei film Gamera vs. Jiger or, as it is also called in America, Gamera vs. Monster X. (Jiger should not be confused with Monster X from the Godzilla series.) Jiger is a horned quadrupedal reptile somewhat remiscent of the extinct Triceratops.

Development

Jiger was designed by special effects artist Tomohisa Yano. Several pieces of concept art for Jiger show her having designs more closer to a 4-legged fish or shark, rather than the final ceratopsian-like design.

Powers

• Jiger can shoot deadly impaling quills from her snout.
• Jiger can fly by means of an organic form of jet propulsion via funnels located on the back of her head.
• Jiger can fire a heat ray from amplified sound particles that is capable of dissolving buildings, ships and even humans.
• Jiger has a suction ability that allows Jiger to pull things towards her.
• Jiger's tail ends with a stinger that it can be used to implant an egg from which a larvae hatches into a victim that feeds off the victim's blood.

Weakness

Jiger cannot stand the Devil's Whistle, as it causes her great pain. The statue was specifically built to keep Jiger at bay.

History

Gamera vs. Jiger

After the statue is removed, Jiger makes her first appearance and gets Gamera's immediate attention. The first of several fights ensues, and Jiger wins by shooting projectile quills from her face. The quills impale Gamera's arms and legs, piercing all the way through and preventing Gamera from withdrawing his limbs into his shell and taking flight. To make matters worse, Gamera is on his back and cannot move. He pulls himself up with his tail using a large rock and then removes the offending quills from his limbs and is finally able to fly after Jiger.

Meanwhile, Jiger is actively seeking the statue, because it is making a horrible ringing sound that is causing her tremendous pain. Jiger lets nothing impede that hunt as she splits two ships in half and starts tearing through Osaka. Scientists are beside themselves as Jiger displays another weapon: a heat ray that vaporizes not only flesh but entire city blocks. The JSDF does make a token effort to kill the monster, but her quills knock down the F-104 fighters, ending that involvement.

Gamera returns for round two as the fight is witnessed by several children. Gamera knocks Jiger around and appears to have the upper hand until Jiger pulls Gamera to her. Jiger extends a stinger from her tail and inserts the barb into Gamera's chest, laying an egg inside his lung. Gamera staggers away, roaring in agony. Finally, he barely makes it to the bay and his body turns a chalky white color, almost like ice. Gamera is presumed to have been killed at this point as Jiger heads straight to the World's Fair. Jiger finally obtains her goal of the statue, and throws it into the ocean, ending the painful noise.

The scientists were checking out possible causes of the noise, as it affected humans, causing temporary insanity. The children convinced them to do a medical exam on the comatose Gamera, where it's discovered that there's a dark spot on one of his lungs. One of the scientists served as a zoo director and realized that the spot might not be a fast spreading cancer, but actually a Baby Jiger growing in Gamera's lung. An operation was needed to remove the threat, so the children took the initiative by taking a walkie talkie and a mini-sub. Communication is established with the kids and they enter Gamera through his open mouth, and after almost going into his stomach, they arrive at the problem lung. The children are able to exit the sub and walk around in the lung. There, they discover the baby.

The baby looks like its mother, except that instead of shooting quills, the baby squirts sticky goo. But, the baby has a weakness just like its mother: white noise. The kids discover this is actually a fatal weakness and manage to kill the baby using static from their radio. They leave Gamera's body and report their findings to the scientists. They rig up large speakers to keep Jiger at bay, as well as figuring out that power would have to also be run into Gamera, who cannot recover on his own. The children make a final trip inside Gamera to hook up a set of power lines directly to his heart.

Jiger is kept still by the speakers playing the white noise. It's not enough to kill Jiger, but buys enough time for the other plan to start. Gamera is subjected to high voltage shock before the electrical grid overloads. It's enough that Gamera revives on his own.

Gamera flies over to the World's Fair for the final battle. Jiger tries every weapon she's got, but Gamera merely retracts into his shell when the quills start flying. Jiger then uses her heat ray. It doesn't affect Gamera's shell or even skin. Gamera body-slams Jiger several times from great heights, but Jiger isn't really affected. However, it buys Gamera the time needed to go into the ocean to retrieve the statue from the sea floor. Jiger, enraged by the statue's return attempts to impregnate Gamera again. Gamera uses the statue to crush Jiger's tail, destroying the stinger. Gamera taunts Jiger with the statue, who tries in vain to catch Gamera and retrieve the statue. Gamera finally ends the fight by throwing the statue at Jiger, which embeds itself in Jiger's skull, killing her.

Jiger

Jiger is the titular Kaiju featured in the sixth Gamera film "Gamera vs. Jiger", known as "Gamera vs Monster X" stateside, Not to be confused with Toho's Monster X.

Jiger is a large, quadrupedal reptile-like creature with a head adorned with quills protruding from her face. Along her back is a long dorsal fin, and on sides of her body, behind the head, are a pair of organic thrusters that enhance her jumping ability.

Jiger is a bizarre creature with equally bizarre powers. She can fire projectile quills from her nose that have deadly penetrating power. In addition, she can fire an energy beam from her head that can vaporize a whole city block and all the people in it. Finally, nestled within her tail is a secret weapon- a stinger-like ovipositor that can inject an egg that hatches into a baby Jiger into her opponent. She can use a form of suction to hold an opponent in place to inject the said egg.

Jiger's weakness lay in an ancient statue which emanated a wavelength to which Jiger was susceptible. When this statue was dug up for the 1970 World's fair, she was released, but in the end, Gamera recovered the statue and killed her with it, by using it to stab her in the head.

Gallery

Arrow Video's Jiger anatomy by Jolyon Yates.

Trivia

• Jiger is the first female monster in the Gamera series.
• Similar to the Xenomorphs from the Aliens series, she implants a parasitic offspring inside living hosts that then consumes them from within.
• The idea of a team entering a fallen kaiju's body and encountering a baby monster inside is reused in the movie Pacific Rim.
• While she resembles a Triceratops, Jiger's horns are inverted, with one forehead horn and two nose horns.
• Given that Jiger was killed at the end of the movie, there really was no need to return the Devil's whistle, as it was specifically a weapon against her, and now served no purpose after her death.
• Jiger is notable for being a quadruped monster that didn't walk on its knees (a common problem among quadrupeds as they were portrayed by human actors in a suit).
• Jiger along with Gyoas are both monsters from the showa era who are originated from earth instead of Barugon, Virus ,Guiron and Zigra who those originated from space while those two weren’t sent by aliens owners.

References