Toho had no idea what they had when they released Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973) fifty years ago. They were trying to rescue a waning Godzilla franchise with fresh faces and designed a new character to compete with the growing popularity of Ultraman. The Shōwa era came to a close with Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975), but if they’d hung on or doubled down, they could have realized the same kind of success as Micronauts in the mid to late ’70s.
Mechagodzilla, Mechani-Kong, Mecha this, Mechani that. The robot revolution was almost here as kaiju kids were looking for something new. Jet Jaguar was actually a brilliant move and a fantastic design. This robot character who could change size to fight Megalon alongside Godzilla was thrilling to see when those late first-era Godzilla movies made their way to American television.
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Since then, Jet Jaguar has become a cult favorite to fans of the giant monster scene. His colorful costume made him friendly. His aerodynamic head and his loose martial arts fighting style made him fierce. His unsung performance and friendship with the boy, Rokuro Ibuki, made Jet Jaguar a favorite amongst kids, much like Gigantor.
It’s Megalon’s birthday, too, but that giant dung beetle is a bad guy. Jet Jaguar is now 50 years old, and his fifteen minutes exist only in one film. It would likely be a mistake to modernize the character (as we’ve seen, his animated version is just weird). He’d be a CGI Meka in an ocean of Gundham. But we can celebrate half a century with Jet Jaguar wherever he is.
Happy birthday, Jetto Jagā!
Jet Jaguar was a cool dude, speak Japanese, communicate. But then spontaneously completely ignore
Everyone. Couldn’t do a whole lot. Only appeared once. Too bad.