Yamata no Orochi

Yamata no Orochi (八岐大蛇ヤマタノオロチ Yamata no Orochi, lit. Giant Eight Branched Snake) is an eight-headed serpent from Japanese mythology. It made appearances in the Toho films The Three Treasures and Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon, and exists within the continuity of Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse. Name Yamata no Orochi's name literally translates from Japanese as "Giant Eight Branched Snake," though by convention the English translation is typically given as "Big Snake of Eight Branches." While the creature's name is typically spelled in kanji characters, in Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon it includes a furigana katakana spelling above the kanji, as is the case for most of the characters in the film. While the most common kanji spelling for the creature's name is 八岐大蛇, which is the spelling used in both The Three Treasures and Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon, it is also sometimes spelled as 八俣遠呂智 or 八俣遠呂知, both of which are also read Yamata no Orochi. The creature is often referred to as just Orochi (大蛇 Orochi) for short, an archaic reading of the two kanji which together mean "giant snake" and are typically otherwise read as daija.

In the English dub and subtitles for Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Yamata no Orochi's name is translated as the "Eight-Headed Dragon."

Design In The Three Treasures, Orochi looks like a giant snake with eight heads, with eight small tails extending from the main one. Its scales are gray in color. In Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon, Orochi is now red with horns on its heads, legs, and a single large tail, with small spikes sticking out from the sides.