Gyotengo
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The Gyotengo (仰天号 Gyōtengō, lit. "Amazement") is an ancient, Xilien-built flying battleship which is central to The Secret of G Island and Conclusion, the final two story arcs of the 1997 television series Godzilla Island. It is first indirectly alluded to in episode 213, part of the previous arc, before eventually making its onscreen debut in episode 230. A superweapon hidden on Godzilla Island by the extinct civilization of Mu, it was reclaimed by G-Guard Dr. Misato Jinguji and eventually stolen by the Xilien Randeth. It was lost when it was sent through a warp gate to Planet X.
Name
The Gyotengo's name is derived from that of the Gotengo, with the first kanji 轟 (gō) swapped for 仰 (gyō). Together, 仰天 (gyōten) is a Japanese word which means "being amazed; being horrified; being taken aback".[1] The Gyotengo's name could therefore be translated as "Amazement," "Astonishment," or similar. The ship is also referred to as the All-Purpose Battleship (万能戦艦 Bannō Senkan) in episode 232, an epithet previously applied to the Gotengo in the video game Godzilla: Great Monster Battle.
Prior to its name being spoken, the Gyotengo is initially alluded to as ゴジラアイランドの秘密 (Gojira Airando no himitsu), which GODZILLA OFFICIAL by TOHO's English subtitles translate as either "Godzilla Island's secret" or "the secret of Godzilla Island." Muan hieroglyphs instead call it "forbidden superweaponry" (禁断の超兵器 kindan no chōheiki). After this is introduced, the characters take to calling it "the superweapon from Mu" (ムウの超兵器 Mū no chōheiki), "the superweapon from ancient Mu" (古代ムウの超兵器 kodai Mū no chōheiki), or simply "the superweapon" (超兵器 chōheiki), sometimes even after its true name is revealed.
GODZILLA OFFICIAL by TOHO's upload of episode 232 erroneously writes Gyotengo as "Gyotendo" in the title, though it is correct in the subtitles.
Design
The Gyotengo is nearly identical to the Gotengo from Atragon, but with a shorter superstructure and three protruding thrusters on the back instead of four that are recessed.
Development
The book 365 Days of Godzilla speculates that the Gyotengo was portrayed by a modified soft vinyl figure or garage kit of the Gotengo produced by M1go.[2]
Origins
The Gyotengo was created in at least 10,000 BC(E) by Xiliens who inhabited Mu. The ship was hidden in a ruin within a mountain on Godzilla Island, and its location recorded in a scripture which was excerpted in a buried time capsule.
History
- Godzilla Island (TV 1997–1998) [episodes 230–236, 240–243, 246–247, 253–255; alluded to in episodes 213, 215–217, 219–222, 227–229]
Godzilla Island
Lucas
Randeth and Cameron infiltrated the G-Guard base on Godzilla Island in search of information on the island's "secret," but were repelled before they discovered anything.
The Secret of G Island
Misato Jinguji pressed her father, G-Guard Commander Beisuke Jinguji, about the secret Randeth was looking for, but he insisted that it didn't exist. Misato resolved to search for the secret herself and blasted off in the Tart Coupe. As Cameron spied on her, they witnessed Baragon emerge from the ground with a spherical device in his mouth, which began projecting hieroglyphs onto the sky. Beisuke, aware of the projector's ties to the island's secret, ordered Misato to bring it back to base before it fell into the wrong hands. Before she got the chance, however, Randeth captured the device in the Vabaruda's tractor beam. After the Xiliens completed analysis on the device, they determined it to be an ancient time capsule, and the text it displayed an excerpt from Xilien scripture, but were unable to retrieve data on the secret's location. In response, Randeth deployed Destoroyah and Megalon as a distraction while she prepared her next scheme.
Randeth ultimately initiated the Godzilla Island Vacuum-Pack Plan, trapping the island in an airtight energy barrier and sucking out the oxygen with a giant vacuum cleaner. With G-Guard helpless to stop her, Misato regained her determination to find Godzilla Island's secret, believing it to be their only hope. Running her own analysis on a photo of the hieroglyphs, she managed to crack their message, which spoke of "forbidden superweaponry" hidden on the island. What's more, she discovered through data delivered to her by Nao Koda that Godzilla Island was a fractured piece of Mu, a continent which sank into the ocean 12,000 years ago, and from which the time capsule originated. Using this knowledge, she pinpointed the superweapon's location at the center of a mountain, and flew there in the Tart Coupe. Unbeknownst to her, however, she had played directly into Randeth's hand; Destoroyah and Megalon, who'd feigned death, reawakened and surrounded the opening that Misato had blasted into the mountain.
Thankfully, Misato found and boarded the Muan superweapon: the All-Purpose Battleship Gyotengo. Erupting from the cave, she punched a hole in Randeth's barrier with the Gyotengo's drill, then destroyed the vacuum device with a laser.
Conclusion
Victorious, Misato was ordered to return the Gyotengo to the mountain, but she intercepted a message from Torema warning that Zagreth was on her way to Earth. Just then, Randeth caught the Gyotengo and Misato in the Vabaruda's tractor beam and brought them out to space. To Randeth's shock, she was contacted by the Giant Dark Emperor, who terminated her from the invasion force and had her replaced by Zagreth. After Zagreth tried and failed to use Hyper Mecha-King Ghidorah to blackmail G-Guard into revealing the "true" secret of Godzilla Island, Randeth received word from Cameron that he'd made progress of his own, discovering ruins in the cave where the Gyotengo had been docked. In response, Randeth held Misato at gunpoint and had her bring her to the ruins using the Gyotengo. There they found a relief of Muans bowing to the Giant Dark Emperor, which they blasted through to find a deeper chamber containing a teleportation device called a warp gate.
Torema tracked down Misato and freed her from Randeth's custody, but not before the warp gate was reactivated and began rising to the surface. Randeth was crushed under falling debris as Torema and Misato escaped, leaving the Gyotengo behind. Later, after Zagreth stole the warp gate and Misato chased her into space in the Tart Coupe, the Gyotengo suddenly drilled out of the ground, commandeered by the still-living Randeth. Randeth arrived in space to find Misato and the Giant Dark Emperor vying for the warp gate, the latter having liberated it from a disobedient Zagreth. Randeth, too, chose to turn against the Emperor and blasted him with the Gyotengo's laser, revealing him to actually be a machine relaying the thoughts of the real Emperor, who was imprisoned on Planet X. Randeth proceeded to teleport out of the Gyotengo and in to the Vabaruda to fight Zagreth over the controls, but the two of them were caught in an accidental self-destruct sequence.
It was soon revealed that Randeth had again cheated death, arriving on Godzilla Island in the Gyotengo to claim the warp gate for herself while G-Guard was busy fighting Zagreth. All the while, the warp gate was activated by Cameron, and the Giant Dark Emperor began making his way to Earth. Though Randeth blasted the Emperor back with the Gyotengo's laser, he retaliated with lightning which penetrated the ship's hull and zapped her. Luckily, Misato was able to establish a connection to the warp gate and reversed its direction, sending the Emperor back to his prison and dragging Randeth, the Gyotengo, Zagreth, and Hyper Mecha-King Ghidorah with him.
Capabilities
Flight
The Gyotengo's only known means of transport is flight. Unlike the Gotengo, it is never seen traversing water. It can also fly through outer space.
Drill
The Gyotengo sports a drill nose which can tunnel through earth. It also pierced the barrier Randeth placed around Godzilla Island, which neither Mechagodzilla nor Moguera proved capable of doing.
Laser cannon
The Gyotengo's drill is tipped with a cannon which fires a white laser. It was employed to destroy Randeth's vacuum device and the fake Giant Dark Emperor's facade, and push back the real Emperor.
Durability
The fake Giant Dark Emperor's lightning did not reach Randeth inside the Gyotengo in episode 246, despite it zapping Zagreth through the Vabaruda in the episode prior. It did not protect her against the real Emperor's lightning in episode 255, however.
Gallery
Screenshots
Trivia
- The Gyotengo being piloted by Misato Jinguji is fitting, as she shares her surname with Hachiro Jinguji, the captain of the Gotengo in its debut film, Atragon.
- The Gyotengo's meeting of the Xiliens predated the Gotengo's meeting of the race, which would not occur until the 2004 film Godzilla Final Wars.
- A similarly-named ship, the Goten-class submarine Gyoten (spelled with a different first kanji, 驚), appears in the 2018 novel GODZILLA: Project Mechagodzilla.
See also
References
This is a list of references for Gyotengo. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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