Ebirah: Lobster or Shrimp?

[Terrier]

Ebirah usually is looked down by people for being ""just a lobster"". While monsters like Godzilla, Anguirus, Rodan, Varan and Baragon can be said to be dinosaurs, their designs are not that of particular species, they are original and recognisable. Even Kamacuras and Kumonga may be told apart from typical mantises and spiders because of their cholor scheme (Unless you know enough spcies of mantises and spiders, I suppose).

But Ebirah? He's "just" a giant lobster. At least that's the idea people inmediatly get. But "Ebi" in japanese actually means "shrimp"...

I've been looking at pictures and I don't see many differences between lobsters and shrimps that can apply to Ebirah as a shrimp. Lobsters are usually biger in size and have two bigger frontal claws... You get the idea...

So... I guess Ebirah has a distinctive design as a shrimp, in that he looks like a lobster?

[Tohosaurus]

Well I'm not expert on either, but I don't think shrimp have the large claws that Ebirah had in both the Showa and Millennium movies. To me that's the most significant factor, but that's just me.

I vote lobster.

[Mecha-SpaceGhidorah]

Lobster for the same reasons as Tohosaurus. He's just got a shrimp name for some reason.

[junkerde]

ciant.....crayfish?

[20th Century Boy]

Maybe he's a cross between both? Some sort of mutation, perhaps.

[Gamera vs Rodan]

Why isn't crab an option? lol

[Terrier]

Whoops! I didn't know the votes were undone when adding more options to the poll. Sorry.


I wish Ebirah would get a re-design that would make him more recognisable, like other Toho monsters. I imagine a shrimp with dozens and dozens of thin arms wich he uses to capture its preys and move very fast.

[Gamera vs Rodan]

Why isn't crab an option? lol

Because it clearly looks nothing like a crab.

It's got the small eyes and the claws. It certainly doesn't look like a shrimp!

[Tohosaurus]

Why isn't crab an option? lol

In the Showa series I suppose it would be Gamines from Space Amoeba that is the crab.

[Spuro]

Why isn't crab an option? lol

I actually thought he was a crab back when I was little (The Sea Monster being my first G-Flick). Thank god for that, because I ended up trying crab at a Red Lobster restaurant a few days later, because "that's what Godzilla eats!" Ebirah had officially introduced me to my favourite food.

[Gamera vs Rodan]

I'm just saying when I saw the giant claws I thought crab and he doesn't seem shaped like a lobster, I don't remember a lobster tail.

[Breakdown]

God this thread is making me hungry for shrimp


Anyway though his name is Shrimp, Ebirah actually has characteristics of both a Lobster and a Shrimp. He has the overall body of a shrimp but with the claws of a Lobster.

[Godzillian]

I always thought of him as a lobster they even call him a "mammoth lobster" but that was in the dub so not sure if it counts for anything.



Here is a basic shrimp. It really doesn't look like Ebirah at all imo

[20th Century Boy]

To be fair, I can't remember a full-body shot of Ebirah in the movie..

[Tohosaurus]

Whoops! I didn't know the votes were undone when adding more options to the poll. Sorry.


I wish Ebirah would get a re-design that would make him more recognisable, like other Toho monsters. I imagine a shrimp with dozens and dozens of thin arms wich he uses to capture its preys and move very fast.

Onibaba in Pacific Rim?

[edgaguirus]

Ebirah's looks more like a shrimp than a lobster, especially in the face. As for his big claw, that is more like a lobster, but Ebirah is a mutant. One or two abberant features are explainable by that argument. You could also argue that Toho inflated the size of one claw to give Ebirah a better weapon.

[Godzillian]

Maybe when toho designed him they incorporated both shrimp and lobster characteristics into his look

[S9y]

Wonder what he tastes like.

[edgaguirus]

Hungering for sea food or a monster meal? Maybe both?

Well come to Red Bamboo Seafood Buffet! We offer the freshest fish and mutated sea life you'll find anywhere. Try our Ebirah cakes or steamed Ebirah tail.
Order either with a fried Oodako appetizer and get 10% off. And don't forget our Thursday specials.

[KaijuAlertSystem]

This just reminds me that we will probably never get a Kaiju based off the Peacock Mantis Shrimp. Now I'm sad.