fbpx
Wikipedia

Kaiju

January 20, 2023

Kaiju (Japanese: 怪獣, Hepburn: Kaijū, lit. 'Strange Beast') is a Japanese media genre involving giant monsters. The word kaiju can also refer to the giant monsters themselves, which are usually depicted attacking major cities and battling either the military or other monsters. The kaiju genre is a subgenre of tokusatsu entertainment.

The kaiju Godzilla from the 1954 film Godzilla, one of the first Japanese films to feature a giant monster

The 1954 film Godzilla is commonly regarded as the first kaiju film. Kaiju characters are often somewhat metaphorical in nature; Godzilla, for example, serves as a metaphor for nuclear weapons, reflecting the fears of post-war Japan following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident. Other notable examples of kaiju characters include Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah and Gamera.

Etymology

The Japanese word kaijū originally referred to monsters and creatures from ancient Japanese legends;[1] it earlier appeared in the Chinese Classic of Mountains and Seas.[2][3] After sakoku had ended and Japan was opened to foreign relations in the mid-19th century, the term kaijū came to be used to express concepts from paleontology and legendary creatures from around the world. For example, in 1908 it was suggested that the extinct Ceratosaurus-like cryptid was alive in Yukon Territory,[4] and this was referred to as kaijū.[5] However, there are no traditional depictions of kaiju or kaiju-like creatures in Japanese folklore; but rather the origins of kaiju are found in film.[6]

Genre elements were present at the end of Winsor McCay's 1921 animated short Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Pet,[7] in which a mysterious giant animal starts destroying the city, until it is countered by a massive airstrike. It was based on a 1905 episode of McCay's comic strip series.[8]

The 1925 movie The Lost World featured many dinosaurs, including a brontosaurus that breaks loose in London and destroys Tower Bridge. The dinosaurs were animated by pioneering stop motion techniques by Willis H. O'Brien, who would some years later animate the giant gorilla-like creature breaking loose in New York City, for the 1933 movie King Kong (1933). The enormous success of King Kong can be seen as the definitive breakthrough of monster movies. RKO Pictures later licensed the King Kong character to Japanese studio Toho, resulting in the co-productions King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) and King Kong Escapes (1967), both directed by Ishirō Honda.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953) featured a fictional dinosaur (animated by Ray Harryhausen), which is released from its frozen, hibernating state by an atomic bomb test within the Arctic Circle. The American movie was released in Japan in 1954 under the title The Atomic Kaiju Appears, marking the first use of the genre's name in a film title.[9] However, Gojira (transliterated as Godzilla) is commonly regarded as the first kaiju film in the west and was released in 1954. Tomoyuki Tanaka, a producer for Toho Studios in Tokyo, needed a film to release after his previous project was halted. Seeing how well the Hollywood giant monster movie genre films King Kong and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms had done in Japanese box offices, and himself a fan of these films, he set out to make a new movie based on them and created Godzilla.[10] Tanaka aimed to combine Hollywood giant monster movies with the re-emerged Japanese fears of atomic weapons that arose from the Daigo Fukuryū Maru fishing boat incident; and so he put a team together and created the concept of a giant radioactive creature emerging from the depths of the ocean, a creature that would become the monster Godzilla.[11] Godzilla initially had commercial success in Japan, inspiring other kaiju movies.[12]

Terminology

 
Mothra attacking a city in the 1961 film Mothra

The term kaijū translates literally as "strange beast".[13] Kaiju can be antagonistic, protagonistic, or a neutral force of nature, but more specifically as preternatural creatures of divine power. Succinctly, they are not merely, "big animals." Godzilla, for example, from its first appearance in the initial 1954 entry in the Godzilla franchise, has manifest all of these aspects. Other examples of kaiju include Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah, Anguirus, King Kong, Gamera, Daimajin, Gappa, Guilala and Yonggary. There are also subcategories including Mecha Kaiju (Meka-Kaijū), featuring mechanical or cybernetic characters, including Mogera, Mechani-Kong, Mechagodzilla, Gigan, which are an off-shoot of kaiju. Likewise, the collective sub-category Ultra-Kaiju (Urutora-Kaijū) is a separate strata of kaijū, which specifically originate in the long-running Ultra Series franchise, but can also be referred to simply by kaijū. As a noun, kaijū is an invariant, as both the singular and the plural expressions are identical.[citation needed]

Kaijū eiga

Kaijū eiga (怪獣映画, "kaiju film") is a film featuring one or more kaiju.

Kaijin

"Kaijin" redirects here. For the sea monster, see Kaijin (folklore).

Kaijin (怪人 lit. "strange person") refers to distorted human beings or humanoid-like creatures. The origin of kaijin goes back to the early 20th Century Japanese literature, starting with Edogawa Rampo's 1936 novel, The Fiend with Twenty Faces. The story introduced Edogawa's master detective, Kogoro Akechi's arch-nemesis, the eponymous "Fiend," a mysterious master of disguise, whose real face was unknown; the Moriarty to Akechi's Sherlock. Catching the public's imagination, many such literary and movie (and later television) villains took on the mantle of kaijin. To be clear, kaijin is not an offshoot of kaiju. The first-ever kaijin that appeared on film was The Great Buddha Arrival a lost film, made in 1934.

After the Pacific War, the term was modernized when it was adopted to describe the bizarre, genetically engineered and cybernetically enhanced evil humanoid spawn conceived for the Kamen Rider Series in 1971. This created a new splinter of the term, which quickly propagated through the popularity of superhero programs produced from the 1970s, forward. These kaijin possess rational thought and the power of speech, as do human beings. A successive kaijin menagerie, in diverse iterations, appeared over numerous series, most notably the Super Sentai programs premiering in 1975 (later carried over into Super Sentai's English iteration as Power Rangers in the 1990s).

This created yet another splinter, as the kaijin of Super Sentai have since evolved to feature unique forms and attributes (i.e. gigantism), existing somewhere between kaijin and kaiju.[citation needed]

Daikaiju

"Daikaiju" redirects here. For other uses, see Daikaiju (disambiguation).

Daikaijū (大怪獣) literally translates as "giant kaiju" or "great kaiju". This hyperbolic term was used to denote greatness of the subject kaiju; the prefix dai- emphasizing great size, power, and/or status. The first known appearance of the term daikaiju in the 20th Century was in the publicity materials for the original 1954 release of Godzilla. Specifically, in the subtitle on the original movie poster, Suibaku Daikaiju Eiga (水爆大怪獣映画), lit. "H-Bomb Giant Monster Movie" (in proper English, "The Giant H-Bomb Monster Movie").[citation needed]

Seijin

Seijin (星人 lit. "star people"), appears within Japanese words for extraterrestrial aliens, such as Kaseijin (火星人), which means "Martian". Aliens can also be called uchūjin (宇宙人) which means "spacemen". Among the best known Seijin in the genre can be found in the Ultra Series, such as Alien Baltan from Ultraman, a race of crustacean-like aliens who have gone on to become one of the franchise's most enduring and recurring characters other than the Ultras themselves.[citation needed]

Toho has produced a variety of kaiju films over the years (many of which feature Godzilla, Rodan and Mothra); but other Japanese studios contributed to the genre by producing films and shows of their own: Daiei Film (Kadokawa Pictures), Tsuburaya Productions, and Shochiku and Nikkatsu Studios.[citation needed]

Monster techniques

 
An Anguirus suit used for the 1955 film Godzilla Raids Again

Eiji Tsuburaya, who was in charge of the special effects for Godzilla, developed a technique to animate the kaiju that became known colloquially as "suitmation".[14] Where Western monster movies often used stop motion to animate the monsters, Tsubaraya decided to attempt to create suits, called "creature suits", for a human (suit actor) to wear and act in.[15] This was combined with the use of miniature models and scaled-down city sets to create the illusion of a giant creature in a city.[16] Due to the extreme stiffness of the latex or rubber suits, filming would often be done at double speed, so that when the film was shown, the monster was smoother and slower than in the original shot.[10] Kaiju films also used a form of puppetry interwoven between suitmation scenes which served for shots that were physically impossible for the suit actor to perform. From the 1998 release of Godzilla, American-produced kaiju films strayed from suitmation to computer-generated imagery (CGI). In Japan, CGI and stop-motion have been increasingly used for certain special sequences and monsters, but suitmation has been used for an overwhelming majority of kaiju films produced in Japan of all eras.[16][17]

Selected media

Films

Main article: List of films featuring giant monsters

Manga

Novels

Comics

Video games

Board games

Television

Other appearances

  • Steven Spielberg cited Godzilla as an inspiration for Jurassic Park (1993), specifically Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), which he saw in his youth.[18] During its production, Spielberg described Godzilla as "the most masterful of all the dinosaur movies because it made you believe it was really happening."[19] One scene in the second movie (The Lost World: Jurassic Park), the T-Rex is rampaging through San Diego. One scene shows Japanese businessmen fleeing. One of them states that they left Japan to get away from this, hinting that Godzilla shares the same universe as the Jurassic Park movies. Godzilla also influenced the Spielberg film Jaws (1975).[20][21]
  • In the Japanese language original of Cardcaptor Sakura anime series, Sakura's brother Toya likes to tease her by regularly calling her "kaiju", relating to her noisily coming down from her room for breakfast every morning.[22]
  • The Polish cartoon TV series Bolek and Lolek makes a reference to the kaiju film industry in the mini-series "Bolek and Lolek's Great Journey" by featuring a robot bird (similar to Rodan) and a saurian monster (in reference to Godzilla) as part of a Japanese director's monster star repertoire.[citation needed]
  • The Inspector Gadget film had Robo-Gadget attacking San Francisco a'la Kaiju monsters. In addition, similar to The Lost World, it shows a Japanese man while fleeing from Robo-Gadget declaring in his native tongue that he left Tokyo specifically to get away from this.
  • Alternate versions of several kaiju – Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera, King Ghidorah and Daimajin – appear in the Usagi Yojimbo "Sumi-e" story arc.[23]
  • In the second season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, there is a story arc composed of two episodes entitled "The Zillo Beast" and "The Zillo Beast Strikes Back", mostly influenced by Godzilla films, in which a huge reptilian beast is transported from its homeworld Malastare to the city-covered planet Coruscant, where it breaks loose and goes on a rampage.[24][25]
  • In Return of the Jedi, the rancor was originally to be played by an actor in a suit similar to the way how kaiju films like Godzilla were made. However, the rancor was eventually portrayed by a puppet filmed in high speed.[26]
  • In The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror VI" segment "Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores", Homer goes to Lard Lad Donuts; unable to get a "Colossal Doughnut" as advertised, he steals Lard Lad's donut, awakening other giant advertising statues that come to life to terrorize Springfield. When Lard Lad awakes, he makes a Godzilla roar. Guillermo del Toro directed the Treehouse of Horror XXIV couch gag which made multiple references to Godzilla and other kaiju-based characters, including his own Pacific Rim characters.[citation needed]
  • The South Park episode "Mecha-Streisand" features parodies of Mechagodzilla, Gamera, Ultraman, and Mothra.[27]
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters features the "Insanoflex", a giant robot exercise machine rampaging downtown.[28]
  • In the 2009 film Crank: High Voltage, there is a sequence parodying kaiju films using the same practical effects techniques used for tokusatsu films such as miniatures and suitmation.[citation needed]
  • The Japanese light novel series Gate makes use of the term kaiju as a term for giant monsters – specifically an ancient Fire Dragon – in the Special Region. Also, one of the Japanese protagonists refers to the JSDF's tradition to fight such monsters in the films, as well as comparing said dragon with King Ghidorah at one point.[29][30]
  • Godzilla and Gamera had been referenced and appear many times throughout the Dr. Slump series.[citation needed]
  • In Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero, there is a dimension that is filled with giant monsters that live on one island where they co-exist with humans that live on a city island.[citation needed]
  • In "Sorcerous Stabber Orphen" series kaiju are sent as a form of punishment for the breakage of everlasting laws of the world by the Goddesses of Fate.[31]
  • Batholith The Summit Kaiju (Japanese: バソリス) is a mountain (kaiju) originating from "Summit Kaiju International" an American media company based in Denver, Colorado. Batholith was first introduced to Godzilla fan during G-Fest 2017, which is an annual convention devoted to the Godzilla film franchise. Batholith The Summit Kaiju has appearing in various print media, including Famous Monsters of Filmland "Ack-Ives: Godzilla Magazine, MyKaiju Godzilla Magazine MyKaiju Godzilla Magazine, Summit Kaiju online video series and other online media related to the Godzilla and Kaiju genre.
  • In the "Nemesis Saga" series of novels, Kaiju, also known as Gestorumque, are genetic weapons sent by an alien race.
  • Naoki Urasawa's 2013 one-shot manga "Kaiju Kingdom" follows a "kaiju otaku" in a world where kaiju actually exist.[32]
  • In the 2019 Vanillaware video game 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, protagonists battle large mechanized aliens called Kaiju.[33]
  • In John Scalzi's 2022 book The Kaiju Preservation Society, Kaiju are a species of gigantic monsters that exist in a parallel earth accessible through radiation sources.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Les monstres japonais du 10 mai 2014 - France Inter". May 10, 2014.
  2. ^ "Introduction to Kaiju [in Japanese]". dic-pixiv. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  3. ^ 中根, 研一 (September 2009). "A Study of Chinese monster culture – Mysterious animals that proliferates in present age media [in Japanese]". The Journal of Hokkai Gakuen University. Hokkai-Gakuen University. 141 (141): 91–121. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  4. ^ Glanzman, Sam (July 19, 2017). Red Range: A Wild Western Adventure. Joe R. Lansdale. IDW Publishing. ISBN 978-1684062904. Retrieved May 26, 2018.
  5. ^ "怪世界 : 珍談奇話". NDL Digital Collections.
  6. ^ Foster, Michael (1998). The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore. Oakland: University of California Press.
  7. ^ Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend: The Pet (1921) – IMDb, retrieved January 10, 2021
  8. ^ . May 30, 2013. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
  9. ^ Mustachio, Camille (September 29, 2017). Giant Creatures in Our World: Essays on Kaiju and American Popular Culture. Jason Barr. McFarland. ISBN 978-1476668369. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
  10. ^ a b Martin, Tim (May 15, 2014). "Godzilla: Why the Japanese original is no joke". Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  11. ^ Harvey, Ryan (December 16, 2013). "A History of Godzilla on Film, Part 1: Origins (1954–1962)". Black Gate. Retrieved December 16, 2013.
  12. ^ Ryfle, Steve (1998). Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of the Big G. ECW Press.
  13. ^ Yoda, Tomiko; Harootunian, Harry (2006). Japan After Japan: Social and Cultural Life from the Recessionary 1990s to the Present. Duke University Press Books. p. 344. ISBN 9780822388609.
  14. ^ Weinstock, Jeffery (2014) The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.
  15. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the : Godziszewski, Ed (September 5, 2006). "Making of the Godzilla Suit". Classic Media 2006 DVD Special Features. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  16. ^ a b Allison, Anne (2006) Snake Person Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. Oakland: University of California Press
  17. ^ Failes, Ian (October 14, 2016). "The History of Godzilla Is the History of Special Effects". Inverse. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
  18. ^ Ryfle, Steve (1998). Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of the Big G. ECW Press. p. 15. ISBN 9781550223484.
  19. ^ Ryfle, Steve (1998). Japan's Favorite Mon-star: The Unauthorized Biography of "The Big G". ECW Press. p. 17. ISBN 9781550223484.
  20. ^ Freer, Ian (2001). The Complete Spielberg. Virgin Books. p. 48. ISBN 9780753505564.
  21. ^ Derry, Charles (1977). Dark Dreams: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film. A. S. Barnes. p. 82. ISBN 9780498019159.
  22. ^ Cardcaptor Sakura, season 1 episode 1: "Sakura and the Mysterious Magic Book"; season 1 episode 15: "Sakura and Kero's Big Fight"
  23. ^ Usagi Yojimbo Vol.3 #66–68: "Sumi-e, Parts 1–3"
  24. ^ . Archived from the original on July 4, 2015. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  25. ^ . Archived from the original on June 28, 2015. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  26. ^ "The Cinema Behind Star Wars: Godzilla". September 29, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  27. ^ Stone, Matt (2003). South Park: The Complete First Season: "Mecha-Streisand" (Audio commentary) (CD). Comedy Central.
  28. ^ "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved February 21, 2021.
  29. ^ Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri, book I: "Contact", chapters II and V
  30. ^ Gate: Jieitai Kano Chi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri (anime series) episode 2: "Two Military Forces", episode 3: "Fire Dragon", and episode 4: "To Unknown Lands"
  31. ^ Mizuno, Ryou (2019). Sorcerous Stabber Orphen Anthology. Commentary (in Japanese). TO Books. p. 236. ISBN 9784864728799.
  32. ^ Silverman, Rebecca (October 20, 2020). "Sneeze: Naoki Urasawa Story Collection – Review". Anime News Network. Retrieved November 29, 2020.
  33. ^ 十三機兵防衛圏 – System. Atlus (in Japanese). from the original on November 19, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2019.

January 20, 2023
kaiju, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, material, challenged, removed, find, sources, news, newspapers, books, scholar, jstor, july, 2021, learn, w. This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Kaiju news newspapers books scholar JSTOR July 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Kaiju Japanese 怪獣 Hepburn Kaiju lit Strange Beast is a Japanese media genre involving giant monsters The word kaiju can also refer to the giant monsters themselves which are usually depicted attacking major cities and battling either the military or other monsters The kaiju genre is a subgenre of tokusatsu entertainment The kaiju Godzilla from the 1954 film Godzilla one of the first Japanese films to feature a giant monster The 1954 film Godzilla is commonly regarded as the first kaiju film Kaiju characters are often somewhat metaphorical in nature Godzilla for example serves as a metaphor for nuclear weapons reflecting the fears of post war Japan following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident Other notable examples of kaiju characters include Rodan Mothra King Ghidorah and Gamera Contents 1 Etymology 2 Terminology 2 1 Kaiju eiga 2 2 Kaijin 2 3 Daikaiju 2 4 Seijin 3 Monster techniques 4 Selected media 4 1 Films 4 2 Manga 4 3 Novels 4 4 Comics 4 5 Video games 4 6 Board games 4 7 Television 5 Other appearances 6 See also 7 ReferencesEtymology EditThe Japanese word kaiju originally referred to monsters and creatures from ancient Japanese legends 1 it earlier appeared in the Chinese Classic of Mountains and Seas 2 3 After sakoku had ended and Japan was opened to foreign relations in the mid 19th century the term kaiju came to be used to express concepts from paleontology and legendary creatures from around the world For example in 1908 it was suggested that the extinct Ceratosaurus like cryptid was alive in Yukon Territory 4 and this was referred to as kaiju 5 However there are no traditional depictions of kaiju or kaiju like creatures in Japanese folklore but rather the origins of kaiju are found in film 6 Genre elements were present at the end of Winsor McCay s 1921 animated short Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend The Pet 7 in which a mysterious giant animal starts destroying the city until it is countered by a massive airstrike It was based on a 1905 episode of McCay s comic strip series 8 The 1925 movie The Lost World featured many dinosaurs including a brontosaurus that breaks loose in London and destroys Tower Bridge The dinosaurs were animated by pioneering stop motion techniques by Willis H O Brien who would some years later animate the giant gorilla like creature breaking loose in New York City for the 1933 movie King Kong 1933 The enormous success of King Kong can be seen as the definitive breakthrough of monster movies RKO Pictures later licensed the King Kong character to Japanese studio Toho resulting in the co productions King Kong vs Godzilla 1962 and King Kong Escapes 1967 both directed by Ishirō Honda The Beast from 20 000 Fathoms 1953 featured a fictional dinosaur animated by Ray Harryhausen which is released from its frozen hibernating state by an atomic bomb test within the Arctic Circle The American movie was released in Japan in 1954 under the title The Atomic Kaiju Appears marking the first use of the genre s name in a film title 9 However Gojira transliterated as Godzilla is commonly regarded as the first kaiju film in the west and was released in 1954 Tomoyuki Tanaka a producer for Toho Studios in Tokyo needed a film to release after his previous project was halted Seeing how well the Hollywood giant monster movie genre films King Kong and The Beast from 20 000 Fathoms had done in Japanese box offices and himself a fan of these films he set out to make a new movie based on them and created Godzilla 10 Tanaka aimed to combine Hollywood giant monster movies with the re emerged Japanese fears of atomic weapons that arose from the Daigo Fukuryu Maru fishing boat incident and so he put a team together and created the concept of a giant radioactive creature emerging from the depths of the ocean a creature that would become the monster Godzilla 11 Godzilla initially had commercial success in Japan inspiring other kaiju movies 12 Terminology EditThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed July 2019 Learn how and when to remove this template message Mothra attacking a city in the 1961 film Mothra The term kaiju translates literally as strange beast 13 Kaiju can be antagonistic protagonistic or a neutral force of nature but more specifically as preternatural creatures of divine power Succinctly they are not merely big animals Godzilla for example from its first appearance in the initial 1954 entry in the Godzilla franchise has manifest all of these aspects Other examples of kaiju include Rodan Mothra King Ghidorah Anguirus King Kong Gamera Daimajin Gappa Guilala and Yonggary There are also subcategories including Mecha Kaiju Meka Kaiju featuring mechanical or cybernetic characters including Mogera Mechani Kong Mechagodzilla Gigan which are an off shoot of kaiju Likewise the collective sub category Ultra Kaiju Urutora Kaiju is a separate strata of kaiju which specifically originate in the long running Ultra Series franchise but can also be referred to simply by kaiju As a noun kaiju is an invariant as both the singular and the plural expressions are identical citation needed Kaiju eiga Edit Kaiju eiga 怪獣映画 kaiju film is a film featuring one or more kaiju Kaijin Edit Kaijin redirects here For the sea monster see Kaijin folklore Kaijin 怪人 lit strange person refers to distorted human beings or humanoid like creatures The origin of kaijin goes back to the early 20th Century Japanese literature starting with Edogawa Rampo s 1936 novel The Fiend with Twenty Faces The story introduced Edogawa s master detective Kogoro Akechi s arch nemesis the eponymous Fiend a mysterious master of disguise whose real face was unknown the Moriarty to Akechi s Sherlock Catching the public s imagination many such literary and movie and later television villains took on the mantle of kaijin To be clear kaijin is not an offshoot of kaiju The first ever kaijin that appeared on film was The Great Buddha Arrival a lost film made in 1934 After the Pacific War the term was modernized when it was adopted to describe the bizarre genetically engineered and cybernetically enhanced evil humanoid spawn conceived for the Kamen Rider Series in 1971 This created a new splinter of the term which quickly propagated through the popularity of superhero programs produced from the 1970s forward These kaijin possess rational thought and the power of speech as do human beings A successive kaijin menagerie in diverse iterations appeared over numerous series most notably the Super Sentai programs premiering in 1975 later carried over into Super Sentai s English iteration as Power Rangers in the 1990s This created yet another splinter as the kaijin of Super Sentai have since evolved to feature unique forms and attributes i e gigantism existing somewhere between kaijin and kaiju citation needed Daikaiju Edit Daikaiju redirects here For other uses see Daikaiju disambiguation Daikaiju 大怪獣 literally translates as giant kaiju or great kaiju This hyperbolic term was used to denote greatness of the subject kaiju the prefix dai emphasizing great size power and or status The first known appearance of the term daikaiju in the 20th Century was in the publicity materials for the original 1954 release of Godzilla Specifically in the subtitle on the original movie poster Suibaku Daikaiju Eiga 水爆大怪獣映画 lit H Bomb Giant Monster Movie in proper English The Giant H Bomb Monster Movie citation needed Seijin Edit Seijin 星人 lit star people appears within Japanese words for extraterrestrial aliens such as Kaseijin 火星人 which means Martian Aliens can also be called uchujin 宇宙人 which means spacemen Among the best known Seijin in the genre can be found in the Ultra Series such as Alien Baltan from Ultraman a race of crustacean like aliens who have gone on to become one of the franchise s most enduring and recurring characters other than the Ultras themselves citation needed Toho has produced a variety of kaiju films over the years many of which feature Godzilla Rodan and Mothra but other Japanese studios contributed to the genre by producing films and shows of their own Daiei Film Kadokawa Pictures Tsuburaya Productions and Shochiku and Nikkatsu Studios citation needed Monster techniques Edit An Anguirus suit used for the 1955 film Godzilla Raids Again Eiji Tsuburaya who was in charge of the special effects for Godzilla developed a technique to animate the kaiju that became known colloquially as suitmation 14 Where Western monster movies often used stop motion to animate the monsters Tsubaraya decided to attempt to create suits called creature suits for a human suit actor to wear and act in 15 This was combined with the use of miniature models and scaled down city sets to create the illusion of a giant creature in a city 16 Due to the extreme stiffness of the latex or rubber suits filming would often be done at double speed so that when the film was shown the monster was smoother and slower than in the original shot 10 Kaiju films also used a form of puppetry interwoven between suitmation scenes which served for shots that were physically impossible for the suit actor to perform From the 1998 release of Godzilla American produced kaiju films strayed from suitmation to computer generated imagery CGI In Japan CGI and stop motion have been increasingly used for certain special sequences and monsters but suitmation has been used for an overwhelming majority of kaiju films produced in Japan of all eras 16 17 Selected media EditThis section relies largely or entirely upon a single source Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources November 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Films Edit Main article List of films featuring giant monsters Manga Edit Cloverfield Kishin Kadokawa Shoten 2008 Go Nagai Creator of Kaijus Garla ガルラ garura June 1976 March 1978 Published by Tomy Company Ltd MachineSaur マシンザウラー マシンサウル Machine Sauer Mashinzaura December 1979 March 1986 Published by Tomy Company Ltd Attack on Titan Kodansha 2009 2021 Kaiju Girl Caramelise 2018 Neon Genesis Evangelion Kadokawa Shoten 1994 2013 ULTRAMAN Shogakukan 2011 present Kaiju No 8 Shonen Jump 2020 present Novels Edit Nemesis Saga by Jeremy Robinson St Martins Press Breakneck Media 2013 2016 A series of six novels featuring Nemesis Karkinos Typhon Scylla Drakon Scryon Giger Lovecraft Ashtaroth and Hyperion Mechakaiju The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi Tor 2022 Comics Edit Godzilla comics Toho and IDW 1976 present Tokyo Storm Warning Wildstorm 2003 Enormous Image Comics 2012 2014 2021 present as Future Released The Kaiju Score AfterShock 2020 present The Stone King ComiXology Original 2018 present Dinosaurs Attack Topps Comics IDW 1988 2013 The Nemesis Saga comics by Jeremy Robinson and Matt Frank American Gothic Press IDW Publishing 2015 2016 Video games Edit Godzilla video games Toho Pipeworks Bandai 1983 present Ultraman video games Tsuburaya 1984 present Gamera Video games Kadokawa of Games 1995 present as North American released Time Gal Taito 1985 Shadow of the Colossus developed by SCE Japan Studio and Team Ico and published by Sony Computer Entertainment 2005 Shadow of the Colossus remake developed by Bluepoint Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment 2018 King of the Monsters SNK 1991 Rampage 1986 formerly owned by Midway Games and now owned by its successor Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment 2021 Rampage Total Destruction Midway Games 2006 Dawn of the Monsters Developed by 13AM Games and published by WayForward 2022 as a spiritual successor to SNK s King of the Monsters Megaton Musashi Developed by Level 5 2021 2022 Roarr The Adventures of Rampage Rex Jurassic Edition Born Lucky Games 2018 Terror of Hemasaurus Developed by Loren Lemcke and published by Digerati Distribution 2022 2023 GigaBash Passion Republic 2022 Robot Alchemic Drive Sandlot 2002 DEMOLITION ROBOTS K K 2020 2021 Mechas A Former Dystopian Wars Robot Killer War of the Monsters Sony Incognito Entertainment 2003 Peter Jackson s King Kong 2005 Pacific Rim video game Yuke s Reliance 2013 City Shrouded in Shadow Bandai Namco Entertainment 2017 Colossal Kaiju Combat Sunstone Games Cancelled 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim Sega Atlus Vanillaware 2019 Fight Crab 2020 21 stage City rampage DAIKAIJU DAIKESSEN 2019 2021 2022 OneSecretPseudo Attack of the Giant Crab 2022 Board games Edit Godzilla Game Godzilla Tokyo Clash Smash Up Monsterpocalypse King of Tokyo King of New York Monsters Menace America Smash City The Creature That Ate Sheboygan Campy CreaturesTelevision Edit Marine Kong Nisan Productions April 3 September 25 1960 Ultra Series Tsuburaya Productions January 2 1966 present Ambassador Magma P Productions July 4 1966 September 25 1967 The King Kong Show Toei Animation September 10 1966 August 31 1969 Kaiju Booska Tsuburaya Productions November 9 1966 September 27 1967 Captain Ultra Toei Company April 16 September 24 1967 Kaiju ouji P Productions October 2 1967 March 25 1968 Giant Robo Toei Company October 11 1967 April 1 1968 Giant Phantom Monster Agon Nippon Television January 2 8 1968 Mighty Jack Tsuburaya Productions April 6 June 29 1968 Spectreman P Productions January 2 1971 March 25 1972 Kamen Rider Toei Company April 3 1971 present Silver Kamen Senkosha Productions November 28 1971 May 21 1972 Mirrorman Tsuburaya Productions December 5 1971 November 26 1972 Redman Tsuburaya Productions April 3 September 8 1972 Thunder Mask Nippon Television October 3 1972 March 27 1973 Ike Godman Toho Company October 5 1972 April 10 1973 Assault Human Toho Company October 7 December 30 1972 Iron King Senkosha Productions October 8 1972 April 8 1973 Jumborg Ace Tsuburaya Productions January 17 December 29 1973 Fireman Tsuburaya Productions January 17 July 31 1973 Demon Hunter Mitsurugi International Television Films and Fuji TV January 8 1973 March 26 1973 Zone Fighter Toho Company April 2 September 24 1973 Super Robot Red Baron Nippon Television July 4 1973 March 27 1974 Kure Kure Takora Toho Company October 1 1973 September 27 1974 Ike Greenman Toho Company November 12 1973 September 27 1974 Super Sentai Toei Company April 3 1975 present Super Robot Mach Baron Nippon Television October 7 1974 March 31 1975 Dinosaur War Izenborg Tsuburaya Productions October 17 1977 June 30 1978 Spider Man Toei Company May 17 1978 March 14 1979 Godzilla Hanna Barbera September 9 1978 December 8 1979 Megaloman Toho Company May 7 December 24 1979 Metal Hero Series Toei Company March 5 1982 January 24 1999 Godzilland Toho Company 1992 1996 Gridman the Hyper Agent Tsuburaya Productions April 3 1993 January 8 1994 Power Rangers Saban Entertainment and Toei Company August 28 1993 present Neon Genesis Evangelion Gainax October 4 1995 March 27 1996 Godzilla Kingdom Toho Company October 1 1996 August 15 1997 Godzilla Island Toho Company October 6 1997 September 30 1998 Godzilla The Series Sony Pictures Television September 12 1998 April 22 2000 Godzilla TV Toho Company October 1999 March 2000 Betterman Sunrise April 1 1999 September 30 1999 Dai Guard Xebec October 5 1998 March 28 2000 Kong The Animated Series BKN September 9 2000 March 26 2001 Tekkōki Mikazuki Media Factory October 23 2000 March 24 2001 SFX Giant Legend Line Independent April 25 May 26 2003 Chouseishin Series Toho Company October 4 2003 June 24 2006 Bio Planet WoO Tsuburaya Productions April 9 August 13 2006 Daimajin Kanon Kadokawa Pictures April 2 October 1 2010 SciFi Japan TV ACTV Japan August 10 2012 present Attack on Titan Wit Studio and MAPPA April 7 2013 scheduled Kong King of the Apes Netflix April 15 2016 May 4 2018 Mech X4 Disney XD November 11 2016 August 20 2018 Darling in the Franxx Studio Trigger January 13 2018 July 7 2018 SSSS Gridman Tsuburaya Productions and Studio Trigger October 7 2018 December 23 2018 Godziban Toho Company August 9 2019 present I m Home Chibi Godzilla Toho Company July 15 2020 present Pacific Rim The Black Polygon Pictures March 4 2021 present Godzilla Singular Point Toho Company April 1 2021 June 24 2021 SSSS Dynazenon Tsuburaya Productions and Studio Trigger April 2 2021 June 18 2021 Super Giant Robot Brothers Reel FX Creative Studios Assemblage Entertainment Netflix August 4 2022 present Hourglass Legendary Television to be released Skull Island Legendary Television Netflix to be released Other appearances EditSteven Spielberg cited Godzilla as an inspiration for Jurassic Park 1993 specifically Godzilla King of the Monsters 1956 which he saw in his youth 18 During its production Spielberg described Godzilla as the most masterful of all the dinosaur movies because it made you believe it was really happening 19 One scene in the second movie The Lost World Jurassic Park the T Rex is rampaging through San Diego One scene shows Japanese businessmen fleeing One of them states that they left Japan to get away from this hinting that Godzilla shares the same universe as the Jurassic Park movies Godzilla also influenced the Spielberg film Jaws 1975 20 21 In the Japanese language original of Cardcaptor Sakura anime series Sakura s brother Toya likes to tease her by regularly calling her kaiju relating to her noisily coming down from her room for breakfast every morning 22 The Polish cartoon TV series Bolek and Lolek makes a reference to the kaiju film industry in the mini series Bolek and Lolek s Great Journey by featuring a robot bird similar to Rodan and a saurian monster in reference to Godzilla as part of a Japanese director s monster star repertoire citation needed The Inspector Gadget film had Robo Gadget attacking San Francisco a la Kaiju monsters In addition similar to The Lost World it shows a Japanese man while fleeing from Robo Gadget declaring in his native tongue that he left Tokyo specifically to get away from this Alternate versions of several kaiju Godzilla Mothra Gamera King Ghidorah and Daimajin appear in the Usagi Yojimbo Sumi e story arc 23 In the second season of Star Wars The Clone Wars there is a story arc composed of two episodes entitled The Zillo Beast and The Zillo Beast Strikes Back mostly influenced by Godzilla films in which a huge reptilian beast is transported from its homeworld Malastare to the city covered planet Coruscant where it breaks loose and goes on a rampage 24 25 In Return of the Jedi the rancor was originally to be played by an actor in a suit similar to the way how kaiju films like Godzilla were made However the rancor was eventually portrayed by a puppet filmed in high speed 26 In The Simpsons episode Treehouse of Horror VI segment Attack of the 50 Foot Eyesores Homer goes to Lard Lad Donuts unable to get a Colossal Doughnut as advertised he steals Lard Lad s donut awakening other giant advertising statues that come to life to terrorize Springfield When Lard Lad awakes he makes a Godzilla roar Guillermo del Toro directed the Treehouse of Horror XXIV couch gag which made multiple references to Godzilla and other kaiju based characters including his own Pacific Rim characters citation needed The South Park episode Mecha Streisand features parodies of Mechagodzilla Gamera Ultraman and Mothra 27 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters features the Insanoflex a giant robot exercise machine rampaging downtown 28 In the 2009 film Crank High Voltage there is a sequence parodying kaiju films using the same practical effects techniques used for tokusatsu films such as miniatures and suitmation citation needed The Japanese light novel series Gate makes use of the term kaiju as a term for giant monsters specifically an ancient Fire Dragon in the Special Region Also one of the Japanese protagonists refers to the JSDF s tradition to fight such monsters in the films as well as comparing said dragon with King Ghidorah at one point 29 30 Godzilla and Gamera had been referenced and appear many times throughout the Dr Slump series citation needed In Penn Zero Part Time Hero there is a dimension that is filled with giant monsters that live on one island where they co exist with humans that live on a city island citation needed In Sorcerous Stabber Orphen series kaiju are sent as a form of punishment for the breakage of everlasting laws of the world by the Goddesses of Fate 31 Batholith The Summit Kaiju Japanese バソリス is a mountain kaiju originating from Summit Kaiju International an American media company based in Denver Colorado Batholith was first introduced to Godzilla fan during G Fest 2017 which is an annual convention devoted to the Godzilla film franchise Batholith The Summit Kaiju has appearing in various print media including Famous Monsters of Filmland Ack Ives Godzilla Magazine MyKaiju Godzilla Magazine MyKaiju Godzilla Magazine Summit Kaiju online video series and other online media related to the Godzilla and Kaiju genre In the Nemesis Saga series of novels Kaiju also known as Gestorumque are genetic weapons sent by an alien race Naoki Urasawa s 2013 one shot manga Kaiju Kingdom follows a kaiju otaku in a world where kaiju actually exist 32 In the 2019 Vanillaware video game 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim protagonists battle large mechanized aliens called Kaiju 33 In John Scalzi s 2022 book The Kaiju Preservation Society Kaiju are a species of gigantic monsters that exist in a parallel earth accessible through radiation sources See also EditYokai Fearsome critters Media related to Kaiju at Wikimedia CommonsReferences Edit Les monstres japonais du 10 mai 2014 France Inter May 10 2014 Introduction to Kaiju in Japanese dic pixiv Retrieved March 9 2017 中根 研一 September 2009 A Study of Chinese monster culture Mysterious animals that proliferates in present age media in Japanese The Journal of Hokkai Gakuen University Hokkai Gakuen University 141 141 91 121 Retrieved March 9 2017 Glanzman Sam July 19 2017 Red Range A Wild Western Adventure Joe R Lansdale IDW Publishing ISBN 978 1684062904 Retrieved May 26 2018 怪世界 珍談奇話 NDL Digital Collections Foster Michael 1998 The Book of Yokai Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore Oakland University of California Press Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend The Pet 1921 IMDb retrieved January 10 2021 Survey 1 Comic Strip Essays Katie Moody on Winsor McCay s Dream of the Rarebit Fiend Schulz Library Blog May 30 2013 Archived from the original on May 30 2013 Retrieved January 10 2021 Mustachio Camille September 29 2017 Giant Creatures in Our World Essays on Kaiju and American Popular Culture Jason Barr McFarland ISBN 978 1476668369 Retrieved April 14 2018 a b Martin Tim May 15 2014 Godzilla Why the Japanese original is no joke Telegraph Archived from the original on January 11 2022 Retrieved July 30 2017 Harvey Ryan December 16 2013 A History of Godzilla on Film Part 1 Origins 1954 1962 Black Gate Retrieved December 16 2013 Ryfle Steve 1998 Japan s Favorite Mon Star The Unauthorized Biography of the Big G ECW Press Yoda Tomiko Harootunian Harry 2006 Japan After Japan Social and Cultural Life from the Recessionary 1990s to the Present Duke University Press Books p 344 ISBN 9780822388609 Weinstock Jeffery 2014 The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters Farnham Ashgate Publishing Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine Godziszewski Ed September 5 2006 Making of the Godzilla Suit Classic Media 2006 DVD Special Features Retrieved July 30 2017 a b Allison Anne 2006 Snake Person Monsters Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination Oakland University of California Press Failes Ian October 14 2016 The History of Godzilla Is the History of Special Effects Inverse Retrieved July 30 2017 Ryfle Steve 1998 Japan s Favorite Mon Star The Unauthorized Biography of the Big G ECW Press p 15 ISBN 9781550223484 Ryfle Steve 1998 Japan s Favorite Mon star The Unauthorized Biography of The Big G ECW Press p 17 ISBN 9781550223484 Freer Ian 2001 The Complete Spielberg Virgin Books p 48 ISBN 9780753505564 Derry Charles 1977 Dark Dreams A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film A S Barnes p 82 ISBN 9780498019159 Cardcaptor Sakura season 1 episode 1 Sakura and the Mysterious Magic Book season 1 episode 15 Sakura and Kero s Big Fight Usagi Yojimbo Vol 3 66 68 Sumi e Parts 1 3 The Zillo Beast Episode Guide Archived from the original on July 4 2015 Retrieved October 5 2014 The Zillo Beast Strikes Back Episode Guide Archived from the original on June 28 2015 Retrieved October 5 2014 The Cinema Behind Star Wars Godzilla September 29 2014 Retrieved October 5 2014 Stone Matt 2003 South Park The Complete First Season Mecha Streisand Audio commentary CD Comedy Central Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters AFI Catalog of Feature Films American Film Institute Retrieved February 21 2021 Gate Jieitai Kano Chi nite Kaku Tatakaeri book I Contact chapters II and V Gate Jieitai Kano Chi nite Kaku Tatakaeri anime series episode 2 Two Military Forces episode 3 Fire Dragon and episode 4 To Unknown Lands Mizuno Ryou 2019 Sorcerous Stabber Orphen Anthology Commentary in Japanese TO Books p 236 ISBN 9784864728799 Silverman Rebecca October 20 2020 Sneeze Naoki Urasawa Story Collection Review Anime News Network Retrieved November 29 2020 十三機兵防衛圏 System Atlus in Japanese Archived from the original on November 19 2019 Retrieved November 19 2019 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Kaiju amp oldid 1134569249, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.