Synopsis
Reports flood in from Nagano Prefecture: a mountain has begun to move. Underneath it, a 400-meter centipede kaiju — later dubbed Mountain Centipede — is tunneling through bedrock, causing catastrophic landslides and swallowing entire towns into sinkholes.
The JSDF deploys tunnel-boring artillery units. They are promptly eaten.
Cut to Rooster, walking along a mountain road eating a worm. He looks at the collapsed horizon. He sighs. He walks toward it.
Key Moments
The Tunnel Chase
Rooster pursues the kaiju underground, a pitch-black sequence animated almost entirely in silhouette. The sound design — crunching rock, a distant crow, then silence — earned immediate praise online.
One Hundred Legs, One Problem
The Mountain Centipede's combat strategy is to simply have too many legs to fight. Rooster's solution: start at leg one and work his way down. A three-minute montage set to traditional Japanese flute music.
The Finishing Move
Rooster burrows to the surface through the kaiju's skull, emerging from the top of the mountain in a shower of debris. He shakes the dust off. He walks away.
Episode Notes
- Runtime: ~23 minutes
- This episode establishes Rooster's ability to fight in total darkness using hearing alone
- The "100 legs" montage became one of the most memed sequences of the season
- Mountain Centipede is referred to as Kaiju #3 in official materials, implying off-screen battles between episodes 1 and 2
Reception
Widely regarded as the episode that converted skeptics. The underground tunnel sequence demonstrated the anime could do more than replicate the manga's visual gags — it could build genuine tension.