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| Species: | Giant prehistoric reptile (Varanopode) |
| Height: | Showa: 10 Meters |
| Weight: | Showa: 60 Metric Tons |
| Appearances: | Destroy All Monsters (1968) |
Summary
Varan (Baran) is a tri-phibian kaiju that first appeared in the 1958 Toho film, Varan, and later debuted in the Godzilla series in the 1968 film Destroy All Monsters.
In his debut film, Varan was a huge prehistoric reptile that lived beneath a lake near a Japanese mountain village, whose inhabitants came to fear him as the "Baradagi" mountain god. Varan eventually emerged from the lake, destroying the village and making his way to Tokyo, where he was finally defeated by the JSDF at Haneda Airport. A second incarnation of Varan was introduced in Destroy All Monsters ten years later, in which the creature was now a small juvenile living in peace with the other monsters of Earth on Monsterland. Varan was present during the Earth monsters' battle against King Ghidorah, but did not take part and only observed. While relatively obscure compared to most of Toho's kaiju library due to only having a major role in a single film, Varan has nonetheless retained some degree of popularity over the years, being considered for many unrealized film projects and making appearances in non-film media such as comic books and video games.
Name
Varan's name is most likely derived from either the genus name for monitor lizards, Varanus, or from the name of an extinct family of synapsids, Varanopidae. In-universe, Varan's name is an abbreviation of his species name, Varanopode (Baranopōda), which was given to him by Professor Sugimoto. The villagers that worship Varan refer to him as Baradagi Mountain God (Baradagi Sanjin), or simply Baradagi-sama. In the American version of Varan's debut film, he is only called Obake onscreen.
Varan is often given the title Giant Flying Squirrel Monster (Musasabi Kaijū) in various publications due to the gliding membranes underneath his arms, despite not actually being a flying squirrel. In the Japanese title of his debut film, he is simply referred to as a Giant Monster (Daikaijū), while the film's original title addressed him as an Oriental Monster, or more literally Monster of the East, due to the project originating as an American co-production. This subtitle is notable in that it uses the word kaibutsu to mean "monster" rather than kaijū.
The Varan featured in Destroy All Monsters is sometimes denoted as Varan (Second Generation) Baran Nidaime).
According to a booklet included with Toho's 2002 three-disc DVD release of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Varan's name was originally Baradaki in the original unrealized version of the film, Godzilla X Varan, Baragon and Anguirus: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, with him being given the name "Varan" by the JSDF late in the story.
Design
Varan is a primarily quadrupedal reptilian creature with thin membranes between his arms and legs, which he uses for gliding in a manner akin to that of a flying squirrel or sugar glider. Varan's eyes are small with large pupils, his head is round, and he has a short-muzzled face with a lumpy nose and a prominent upper lip. His teeth vary in size, but all of them are more or less conical in shape. He has a barrel-shaped torso with a large sternum. His neck is fairly long and thick and his limbs are relatively long and thin. Varan also has a pair of spiky, fin-like structures on the sides of his face and a single row of large spines that run down from the top of his head to the end of his long, prehensile tail. His hands and feet have five digits each and they have a slender, bony look to them. His spines are clear and translucent, having little to no real color to them, and his hide can be divided into two notable sections: the lowermost sides of his skin are smooth with a slightly baggy or wrinkled feel to them and are a light cream or tan-like sandy brown while the uppermost parts of his skin are covered with a multitude of bumpy, wart-like structures and are a much darker shade of brown. These two sections are separated by a series of wavy membranes on the sides of his torso, limbs, and tail that straighten to form Varan's gliding membranes.
Origin
Varan is an ancient reptilian creature known as a Varanopode, which lived from the Triassic through Cretaceous Periods. Varan escaped extinction and lived for millions of years at the bottom of a lake in the Japanese countryside. Villagers living near the lake saw Varan as a god, giving him the title of the "Baradagi Mountain God." In Destroy All Monsters, Varan is one of the several kaiju living on Monsterland at the end of the 20th century. No details regarding him are ever discussed within the film, but external sources say that this Varan is a juvenile.
History
Showa Era
At the end of the 20th century, a juvenile Varan was living among Earth's other monsters on the human-monitored Monsterland. When the Kilaaks took control of the island and its inhabitants, Varan disappeared as the alien invaders' global assault was initiated. Whether Varan was ever used by the aliens to fight humanity is unclear, as he wasn't seen again until well after the humans used the Moonlight SY-3 to destroy the Kilaaks' Moon base. After the Kilaaks' control was broken, Varan spectated alongside Baragon and Manda during the Earth monsters' fight against King Ghidorah at Mount Fuji. Once King Ghidorah and the Kilaaks were defeated, Varan and all the others monsters returned to Monsterland in peace.
Trivia
- Varan is a "tri-phibian" creature in that he can swim, walk on land, and soar through the air. Numerous other kaiju have been described using this term, such as Gappa.
- Despite his small role in Destroy All Monsters, Varan's name is briefly mentioned in the Italian version of the film.
- Varan is the only non-humanoid Toho kaiju to possess five digits on his hands and feet.
- Varan's skull makes a brief appearance in Pacific Rim Uprising, during the scene where Hermann Gottlieb examines PPDC records in search of a match for the image Mako Mori transmitted.
- Sprite assets for Varan can be found in the game files for Godzilla Defense Force, although he cannot currently be encountered in the game itself.
- A "what-if" illustrated scenario in the 2004 book Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. Super Complete Works showed the JXSDF creating an army of mecha-kaiju with the help of DNA extracted from their organic counterparts, including Varan.
