Editing Hedorah (section)

=== Role in ''Godzilla vs. Hedorah'' (1971) ===
Hedorah first appears as a small creature in the polluted waters off the Japanese coast, where marine biologist Dr. Yano studies it. His young son Ken becomes fascinated with and emotionally attached to the kaiju. As Japan's industrial pollution continues unabated, Hedorah feeds and grows through its successive forms, each more destructive than the last. Godzilla engages Hedorah in a series of increasingly desperate battles, suffering severe injuries including the loss of an eye and a chemical burn down to the bone of his hand.

The military constructs a pair of giant electrodes at the base of Mount Fuji to dehydrate Hedorah. When the electrodes fail during the climactic battle, Godzilla famously uses his atomic breath as jet propulsion to fly through the air in pursuit of the escaping Hedorah — one of the most iconic and controversial moments in the Shōwa series. Godzilla drags Hedorah back to the electrodes and activates them himself, finally killing the Smog Monster by reducing it to dust.

The film is regarded as one of the most politically charged entries in the Godzilla franchise, serving as a pointed environmental allegory about Japan's severe industrial pollution crisis of the late 1960s and early 1970s.