Kaiju - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

as "monster

Monster

A monster is any fictional creature, usually found in legends or horror fiction, that is somewhat hideous and may produce physical harm or mental fear by either its appearance or its actions...

". Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu

Tokusatsu

is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....

entertainment.

Related terms include , a film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

featuring giant monsters or a single monster, and , specifically meaning the larger variety of monsters.

The most famous kaiju is Godzilla

Godzilla

is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...

. Other well-known kaiju include Mothra

Mothra

is a kaiju, a type of fictional monster who first appeared in the serialized novel The Luminous Fairies and Mothra by Takehiko Fukunaga, Shinichiro Nakamura, and Yoshie Hotta...

, Anguirus

Anguirus

is the second Kaiju to appear in the Toho franchise. Anguirus appeared only a year after Godzilla in the 1955 Toho film Godzilla Raids Again...

, Rodan

Rodan

is a fictional Japanese mutated pterosaur introduced in Rodan, a 1956 release from Toho Studios, the company responsible for the Godzilla series. Like Godzilla and Anguirus, he is designed after a type of prehistoric reptile...

, Gamera

Gamera

is a giant, flying turtle from a popular series of kaiju films produced by Daiei Motion Picture Company in Japan. Created in 1965 to rival the success of Toho Studios' Godzilla during the daikaiju boom of the mid-to-late 1960s, Gamera has gained fame and notoriety as a Japanese icon in his own...

and King Ghidorah

King Ghidorah

is a kaiju, a fictional Japanese monster featured in several of Toho Studios' Godzilla films...

. The term ultra-kaiju is short-hand for monsters in the Ultra Series

Ultra Series

The is the collective name for all the shows produced by Tsuburaya Productions featuring Ultraman, his many brethren, and the myriad Ultra Monsters. The Ultra Series is one of the prominent tokusatsu superhero genre productions from Japan, along with Toei produced series Kamen Rider, Super...

Concept

Kaiju are typically modeled after conventional animals, insects or mythological creatures; however, there are more exotic examples. Chōjin Sentai Jetman features monsters based on traffic light

Traffic light

Traffic lights, which may also be known as stoplights, traffic lamps, traffic signals, signal lights, robots or semaphore, are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings and other locations to control competing flows of traffic...

s, faucets

Tap (valve)

A tap is a valve controlling release of liquids or gas. In the British Isles and most of the Commonwealth, the word is used for any everyday type of valve, particularly the fittings that control water supply to bathtubs and sinks. In the U.S., the term "tap" is more often used for beer taps,...

and tomato

Tomato

The word "tomato" may refer to the plant or the edible, typically red, fruit which it bears. Originating in South America, the tomato was spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas, and its many varieties are now widely grown, often in greenhouses in cooler...

es; Kamen Rider Super-1
Kamen Rider Super-1
is a Japanese tokusatsu superhero television series. It is the seventh installment in the Kamen Rider Series. The series was broadcast on the Mainichi Broadcasting System from October 17, 1980 to October 3, 1981, lasting 48 episodes...

includes a whole army of monsters based on household objects such as umbrella

Umbrella

An umbrella or parasol is a canopy designed to protect against rain or sunlight. The term parasol usually refers to an item designed to protect from the sun; umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect from rain...

s and utility ladder

Ladder

A ladder is a vertical or inclined set of rungs or steps. There are two types: rigid ladders that can be leaned against a vertical surface such as a wall, and rope ladders that are hung from the top. The vertical members of a rigid ladder are called stringers or stiles . Rigid ladders are usually...

s.

While the term kaiju is used in the West to describe monsters from tokusatsu and Japanese folklore, monsters like vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's Monster

Frankenstein's monster

Frankenstein's monster is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's novel, Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. The creature is often erroneously referred to as "Frankenstein", but in the novel the creature has no name...

, mummies and zombies would fall into this category. In fact Frankenstein's Monster was once a daikaiju in the film Frankenstein vs. Baragon, which was created by Toho

Toho

is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...

.

Kaiju are sometimes depicted as cannon fodder

Cannon fodder

Cannon fodder is an informal, derogatory term for military personnel who are regarded or treated as expendable in the face of enemy fire. The term is generally used in situations where soldiers are forced to deliberately fight against hopeless odds in an effort to achieve a strategic goal...

serving a greater evil. Some kaiju are elite warriors which serve as the right-hand man to the greater villain and are destroyed by the heroic forces. Others have a neutral alignment, only seeking to destroy buildings and other structures. During the early eras of tokusatsu, "heroic" monsters were rarely seen in Daikaiju Eiga films, and it was not until later when television tokusatsu productions began using kaiju which aided the hero, saved civilians, or demonstrated some kind of complex personality. These kaiju adopted many classic monster traits, appearing as the "Misunderstood Creature". Some kaiju hung out with the heroes and provided comedy relief, in contrast to the darker approach to these characters from more mature franchises, like Kamen Rider

Kamen Rider (franchise)

The is a metaseries of manga and tokusatsu television programs and films created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. The various Kamen Rider media generally feature a motorcycle-riding superhero with an insect motif who fights supervillains often referred to as...

. Godzilla, arguably the most well known of the Daikaiju, has played the roles of hero, villain, and force of nature in the course of his existence, one of the few kaiju of any type to be depicted in multiple roles and having those around him react in different ways, depending on how the creature itself was being presented in the films.

Major kaiju films

Gamera (film)
Gamera (film)
is a 1965 daikaiju eiga about a giant turtle named Gamera. The film is similar in nature to the popular Godzilla films, and is also the first in a series of films about Gamera...
Godzilla (1954 film)
Godzilla (1954 film)
is a 1954 Japanese science fiction film directed by Ishirō Honda and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka. The film stars Akira Takarada, Momoko Kōchi, Akihiko Hirata and Takashi Shimura. The film tells the story of Godzilla, a giant monster mutated by nuclear radiation, who ravages Japan, bringing back the...
Mothra (film)
Mothra (film)
is a 1961 Kaiju film from Toho Studios, directed by genre regular Ishirō Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the kaiju eiga debut of screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa, whose approach to the genre grew to prominence during the 1960s...
Rodan (film)
Rodan (film)
Rodan, released in Japan as , is a 1956 Kaiju film produced by Toho Studios. It was the studio's first Kaiju movie filmed in color...

Concept

Major kaiju films

See also