Despite the film being made for young children as part of Toho's Champion Festival, it is the first in which Godzilla visibly bleeds. Prior to his passing, original special effect director Eiji Tsuburaya deliberately kept blood and gore to a minimum. However the 1970s saw an increase in violence depicted in children's media in Japan. Special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano and the rest of the effects crew were actually inspired to make the fights bloodier because they received fan requests from children who asked why didn't the monsters bleed, so the crew obliged to appease them.
The film was originally meant to be an elaborate production on par with the Godzilla films of the golden age of the 50s and 60s but Toho refused the budget. This was evident in the original script; entitled "King Ghidorah's Great Counterattack". It featured Godzilla, Rodan and Varan fighting Ghidorah, Gigan, and a new monster named Mogu. It was then reworked into the more appealing "Godzilla Vs. The Space Monsters: The Earth Defense Command". The script pitted Godzilla, Angilas, and Majin Tuol (a giant stone idol, similar to Daimajin) against King Ghidorah, Gigan, and Megalon, all three recruited by an evil alien brain called Miko. This second script was ultimately reworked into the film it is today. The Godzilla Tower, originally from the script, was part of a world fair amusement park, and was not made for an evil purpose like in the final film (in one scene, Gigan actually mistook it for the real Godzilla!). Megalon finally made his debut in Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973), and Majin Tuol was reworked into King Shisar in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974).
The reason for some of King Ghidorah's passive behavior in the film was that the fx crew had dwindled since Eiji Tsuburaya's day. It takes 22 wires to operate King Ghidorah (24 when in flight). Nakano's effects team didn't have the manpower to operate him properly. Most of his flying scenes were taken from earlier films. After his appearance in Zone Fighter (1973), King Ghidorah would be retired for 18 years, chiefly because of budgetary concerns. Tomoyuki Tanaka even announced publicly that Ghidorah would not be returning to the Godzilla series because it just cost too much money and manpower to properly operate him.
In an interview with Steve Ryfle, special effects director Teruyoshi Nakano mentioned how much he hated being forced by Toho to use stock footage in the film. "Of course it hurt me when I had to re-use those scenes," Nakano said, "but there was no other way - we did not have the time or the money to film new scenes." Looking back on his tenure as effects director, Nakano recalled, "If you look at the eras of Godzilla history, there is the period of Mr. Tsuburaya, the period of Mr. Arikawa, my era, and afterwards. I think mine was the toughest period of all time in Godzilla history." This sentiment was only exacerbated by the direction Toho forced the Godzilla series to take in 1970s, which dishearten Nakano and much of his staff.
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