A little known Japanese movie monster--and for good reason. Mo-Ron first appeared in the 1960 film "Annoy All Monsters!", which was released by Bakayarou Studios. A blatant rip-off of the more successful monster movies being made by Toho Studios, "Annoy All Monsters!" featured seven badly-costumed actors (including one dressed as a masked Mexican wrestler) running around and smashing up a model of Tokyo. Mo-Ron looked like a cross between a gorilla and a whale--specifically, he wore a scuba suit with flippers and hid his face behind a gorilla mask. Mo-Ron's main contribution to the battle was tripping over things and falling on top of cardboard buildings.

For some reason (possibly related to bad sushi), Mo-Ron was considered popular enough to star in a movie of his own. "Destroyer of Earth Mo-Ron" was released in 1962. In it, Mo-Ron steadfastly refused to destroy Earth, though he fumbled his way through another model of Tokyo and was actually caught on camera scratching himself in one scene.

Bakayarou released a third Mo-Ron feature, "Friend of Children Mo-Ron", in 1963. This film tried to recast Mo-Ron as a good monster. He was followed throughout the movie by a small boy wearing a top hat who insisted that Mo-Ron was a Friend of Children--this may be so, for throughout Mo-Ron's rampage through Tokyo (he did destroy a giant squid monster, so hey), he does not stomp on more than two schools. The scratching theme continued in this movie: Mo-Ron scratches himself twice, and the little boy scratches himself once.

In the final Mo-Ron film, "Honorable Mo-Ron", the monster is finally given a breath weapon--the ever-popular nuclear fire breath. Unfortunately, the producers decided to use real fire, resulting in the destruction by fire of four gorilla masks and the untimely death (offscreen, thank god) of one Mo-Ron actor. The film featured more scratching: four times by Mo-Ron, once by a soldier waiting for a cue, and once by the female lead. When it was released, the film was considered so bad that a riot broke out at the premiere in Kyoto. The studio head at Bakayarou committed seppuku two weeks later, and the studio was closed for good by the end of 1966.