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Mothra

is a Kaijū monster that first appeared in Toho's 1961 film Mothra. Mothra has appeared in several Toho tokusatsu films, most often as a recurring character in the Godzilla franchise. She is typically portrayed as a colossal sentient caterpillar or moth, accompanied by two miniature humanoids speaking on her behalf. Unlike other Toho monsters, Mothra is a largely heroic character, having been variously portrayed as a protector of her own island culture, the earth, and Japan.

Mothra is one of Toho’s most popular monsters, and second only to Godzilla in its total number of film appearances. Polls taken during the early 1990s indicated that Mothra was particularly popular among women, who were at the time the largest demographic among Japan's movie-going audience, a fact that prompted the filming of 1992's Godzilla vs. Mothra, which was the best-attended Toho film since King Kong vs. Godzilla. IGN listed Mothra as #3 on their "Top 10 Japanese Movie Monsters" list, while Complex listed the character as #7 on its "The 15 Most Badass Kaiju Monsters of All Time" list.

Mothra (film)

is a 1961 kaiju/ tokusatsu film from Toho Studios, directed by genre regular Ishirō Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the genre film debut of screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa, whose approach to Toho's monster and fantasy films grew to prominence during the 1960s. The film stars Frankie Sakai, a popular comedian in Japan at the time, and Hiroshi Koizumi, in the first of many academic roles he would adopt in tokusatsu. Jerry Ito (transliterated as "Jelly Ito" in the credits of the U.S. release) stars in the film, his only appearance in a Toho monster film. Ito did however appear in 1958's Japanese/US co-production The Manster, and in Toho's 1961 end-of-the-world feature The Last War.

Its basic plot was recycled in King Kong vs. Godzilla and Mothra vs. Godzilla (1962 and 1964, both also written by Sekizawa), and Mothra would become Toho's second most popular kaiju character after Godzilla, appearing in seven Godzilla sequels and her own trilogy in the 1990s.