Character Analysis: 8

Date: 11/29/09

A genetic mixture of rose and Godzilla cells infused with the spirit of a young girl named Erika, Biollante is by all accounts one of the more formidable creatures Toho has yet created. The beast does have its drawbacks, as its offense and mobility are a touch lower than what one would expect from the most powerful monsters from the company, but excels in its defensive might which enables it to wait out its opponents.

Rose Form:

The meat of this article will focus on the creature's final form, but it still pays to take a quick glance at the creature's rose, or flower, form before continuing. In this early stage, Biollante was immobile and relied primarily on its vines to attack or defend. Constricting opponents was a key strategy along with using the teethed vines to bite and shoot acidic sap at enemies.

The biggest short coming of this stage is simply that Biollante could not move, but it was still surprisingly effective at keeping Godzilla at bay. An impressive feat considering that the flower's weakness at this point in time was actually against Godzilla's atomic ray, which eventually spelled its downfall despite trying to use its vines as a shield to block the beam.

A look below the skin does not reveal too much new for this stage, sadly. It's worth noting that this form is largely plant, a difference with the second form, although still has characteristics like muscles located within. The nucleus of this form is actually located just below the flower itself too. If this is a weak point or not is hard to say, although its location here would seem to indicate that the large sacs at the base were possibly just a storage place for the acidic sap and not a vital component of the plant. Regardless, although not combatively impressive, the creature in this form could probably still take on a number of the more traditional tooth and claw characters created by the company.

Final Form:

Biollante's final, or plant, form is one of the more powerful Toho characters to date. Furthermore, the rest of the article will henceforth refer to this form of the creature.

Before looking too much at the powers of the monster, however, it seems appropriate to look below the skin of the monster to see what new information might be revealed. At this stage too it is interesting to note that the animal characteristics have evolved to take dominance. No longer is the creature immobile, now equipped with vine-like legs each equipped with bone and muscle in order to allow the monster to stamped toward a target.

Despite more mammalian qualities taking over, though, the monster still lacks much of the organs one would associate with an animal, including a brain for example. Instead, it relies on a central nucleus similar to its rose form. The nucleus is located in the center of the gigantic orange orb found in her chest. If this is a weak point or not is unknown, although Godzilla struck the outside of the orb with his ray without any adverse effect to Biollante. Furthermore, its lack of organs probably reduces the overall vital areas that could be targeted by foes at the same time.

Vines:

As seen in the above cutaway, the vines of the creature are actually reinforced by bone. This is not too surprising given the fangs on the vines, which are in fact sharp teeth rather than the leaf blades one associates with the venus flytrap which likely inspired their design. The significance of this, though, comes from their potential use as weapons. In fact, because of their bone structure, Biollante was able to use the pointed vines as almost daggers, effectively ramming one through Godzilla's hand and breaking through her opponent's own bone located there. Surprisingly, this attack was probably the most deadly in its arsenal, as it could prove quite fatal to enemies without regeneration powers or if Biollante was lucky enough to pierce a vital location with this attack.

Spores:

Easy to overlook, although extremely effective against certain targets, while descending to the Earth as numerous spores Biollante had the interesting quality of interfering with electronic transmissions. This allowed the monster, within moments, to disable the entire Self Defense Force at the Wakasa plains. Masers, tanks, the T.C. system, communication, everything was compromised as the creature then used its vines to destroy the forces before arising to attack Godzilla. The importance of this falls in its use against certain opponents, in particular mechs like Mechagodzilla or Moguera who would be knocked out from a confrontation with Biollante almost instantly. It should be noted, though, that the effects of the spores were temporary, as the T.C. system was used effectively to finish off the Saradian agent after Biollante had left the area .

Regeneration:

One of Biollante's more talked about abilities is her regeneration. This power not only allowed the creature to produce vines almost as quickly as Godzilla was able to destroy them, but also staved off much of the nuclear leviathan's attacks. The most famous example of this, as is documented quite frequently, was Godzilla's attack on Biollante's head. Using his atomic ray, Godzilla blasted through the monster's mouth, blowing out the other side of her back. Yet moments later the creature is shown without any damage at all. Is this a special effects slipup? Possibly, although it's certainly not out of the question to be part of her powers given Godzilla's own regenerative feats from which her cells are derived from. Furthermore, her ability to quickly reproduce vines, bone and all, speak for her regeneration on their own. The lack of any true vital organs in the head area likely helped with this process as well, as certainly had Godzilla suffered a similar blow he would have been taken down considering how quickly the King of the Monsters fell when its spinal brain was targeted.

Radioactive Sap Spray:

As mentioned in the cutaway, Biollante's sap spray is strong enough to eat through diamond, a feat that would make quick work of the Heisei series Mechagodzilla. In practice, the spray did not appear all that effective, mostly just slowing Godzilla down or temporarily blinding him during their battle. This is probably because Godzilla's own regeneration was able to counteract the effect, reducing its overall offensive properties. It's a point that shows favorably to Godzilla's own strong regenerative powers, and also points to the spray being relatively mild against such opponents except for being able to hinder their eyesight. How lethal the spray would be to a target without feats related to regeneration is something that would be more interesting to discover, although nothing much can be said beyond its ability to dissolve diamond and its shown effect on Godzilla himself.

Final Thoughts:

Biollante is tough, especially to modern machine based opponents. She has the defense to hang in for long battles, quickly regenerating damage which she sustains. Her offense leaves something to be desired compared to other characters who could be considered Toho's most powerful, but has an effective weapon in the vines to eventually get lucky with a vital organ and the spray for foes without regenerative powers. Her weakness is against foes which can fly far above and attack effectively, since all of her attacks have a limit to their range and she is not mobile enough to offer any other resistance. Still, there are many Toho characters who would fall when facing up against this behemoth.