Minilla (Showa)

Minilla; Minira; Minya; Milla; Godzilla Junior

13 meters (42 feet; at birth); 18 meters (60 feet; juvenile); 1.8 meters (6 feet; All Monsters Attack continuity only)

18 meters (60 feet; at birth); 23 meters (75 feet; juvenile)

1,800 metric tons (1,984 short tons; at birth); 3,000 metric tons (3,307 short tons; juvenile)

• Atomic smoke rings/atomic breath
• Physical strength and durability (juvenile only)
• Mild healing factor typical of most members of Godzilla's species
• Telepathic communication which can interfere with radar/microwave frequency equipment
• Amphibiousness
• Can speak human languages (All Monsters Attack continuity only)
• Size changing (All Monsters Attack continuity only)

• Not as strong as Godzilla or other monsters
• Easily intimidated and somewhat cowardly in the face of a stronger opponent

Minilla is notably much more friendly with humans than any of the other monsters featured in the Showa Godzilla universe, and demonstrates human-like behaviors and emotions. He is very playful, enjoying games like kicking large boulders and jumping over or riding on his father's tail. He also shook ecstatically after firing an atomic heat ray on his own while his father slept, and he showed childlike disobedience by falling on the ground and refusing to cooperate. While he is usually fearful of other monsters, he occasionally shows courage, although he is often outmatched by other monsters.

Minilla was a juvenile member of Godzilla's species inside an egg buried on Sollgel Island. He began emitting a brain wave to call out for Godzilla, which interfered with the scientific equipment of a team of United Nations scientists on the island and caused their weather-controlling experiment to malfunction and trigger a radiation storm. The storm mutated three of the island's native giant praying mantises into huge kaiju dubbed Kamacuras, which dug up Minilla's egg and broke it open, intending to eat the hatchling. Fortunately, Godzilla arrived on the island and confronted the Kamacuras, killing two of them and forcing the third one to retreat. The recently-hatched Minilla came to befriend a human woman living on the island, Saeko Matsumiya, who fed him fruit and gained the ability to summon him with her call. Godzilla decided to raise Minilla as his son and train him to take up his mantle. Godzilla and Minilla took up residence next to a boiling red lake on the island, where Godzilla attempted to teach Minilla how to use his atomic breath. Minilla could only breathe pitiful smoke rings, but Godzilla found that when he stepped on his tail, Minilla fired a full atomic heat beam. When Saeko was threatened by the surviving Kamacuras, Minilla rushed to her rescue, but could not fight off the Kamacuras. Godzilla soon arrived, and Kamacuras promptly retreated. However, during the struggle Minilla accidentally knocked a boulder into the valley of Kumonga, a giant spider, awakening it.

While his father was asleep, Minilla began to wander the island, only to be ensnared in Kumonga's webbing, along with the Kamacuras. Kumonga instantly killed the Kamacuras by injecting it with venom, then prepared to do the same to Minilla. Minilla cried out for help, rousing Godzilla from his sleep. Godzilla arrived and attacked Kumonga, but found himself fighting a losing battle against the huge arachnid.

Just as Kumonga prepared to move in for the kill, Minilla unleashed his atomic breath at the beast. Godzilla and Minilla then combined their atomic breath and set Kumonga ablaze, seemingly killing it. In the meantime, the U.N. scientists successfully executed their weather experiment, causing a snowstorm to form over the island. Godzilla and Minilla attempted to reach the ocean before Sollgel Island froze over, but Minilla fell in the snow and began to fall asleep. Rather than abandon his son, Godzilla went back and embraced Minilla, falling into hibernation with him.

Decades later, at the end of the 20th century, Minilla was living with his father and several other kaiju on the human-monitored Monsterland in the Ogasawara Islands. When the Kilaaks assaulted the island and took control of its monster inhabitants, Minilla vanished and was not seen attacking any of Earth's cities. After the crew of the Moonlight SY-3 destroyed the Kilaaks' mind control device on the Moon, Minilla was the first monster to arrive at Mount Fuji to assault the invaders' Earth base. Minilla was joined by his father and the rest of the Earth monsters as they closed in on the aliens' base. However, the Kilaaks unleashed King Ghidorah as their final defensive measure to attack the monsters. Minilla took part in the battle against King Ghidorah alongside Godzilla, Anguirus and Gorosaurus, and managed to deliver the killing blow to the space monster by strangling his last living neck with a smoke ring. With King Ghidorah dead, Minilla stood triumphantly on the fallen kaiju's body and joined in celebrating the victory of Earth's monsters. After Godzilla obliterated the Kilaaks' base, Minilla was returned to Monsterland with the rest of the monsters to live out his days in peace. Minilla was seen standing next to his father as a group of humans observed the island from a helicopter.

When Ichiro Miki dreamed of visiting Monster Island, he found himself chased by a Kamacuras, eventually tripping and falling into a pit. Minilla, having shrunk to human size, lowered a vine into the pit and rescued Ichiro. Minilla told Ichiro how he was often lonely living on the island, with his father spending most of his time fending off the other kaiju. Minilla was also constantly harassed by a monster called Gabara, who liked to bully him. Godzilla would not fight Gabara for Minilla, as he believed Minilla should learn to defend himself. Ichiro helped build Minilla's confidence and the two worked together to spring a trap for Gabara. The trap worked and Minilla successfully beat Gabara. Godzilla arrived to congratulate his son, but the enraged Gabara bit Godzilla, sending him into a furious rage. Godzilla held Minilla back and personally beat Gabara into submission, sending him fleeing into the jungle. Ichiro then awoke from his dream, and using the lessons he had learned from Minilla, was able to escape from two bank robbers who had kidnapped him.

Minilla resembles a smaller, pudgy version of his father. His snout is slightly upturned and his eyes are larger and placed further forward on his head, giving him a more human-like appearance. He also possesses pronounced brow ridges above his eyes, and a small crest along the top of his head. In the Showa series, his head is slightly elongated, the dorsal fins on his back are small and undeveloped, and he only has three toes, like his father did from 1962 through 1975. Additionally, he lacks the charcoal gray coloration and rugged skin of his father, with his smooth skin instead being a uniform desaturated greenish-gray. As a newborn, he was more of a tan color.