lead=yes is a Japanese term that is commonly associated with media involving giant monsters. Its widespread contemporary use is credited to tokusatsu (special effects) director Eiji Tsuburaya and filmmaker Ishirō Honda, who popularized the kaiju film genre by creating the Godzilla franchise and its spin-offs.
The term can also refer to the monsters themselves, which are usually depicted attacking major cities and battling either the military or other creatures.
Godzilla (1954) is often regarded as the first kaiju movie. When developing it, Honda and Tsuburaya drew inspiration from the character of King Kong, both in its influential 1933 film and in the conception of a giant monster, establishing it as a pivotal precursor in the evolution of the genre.[King Kong’s influence on the giant monster genre:
]
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During their formative years, kaiju movies were generally neglected by Japanese critics, who regarded them as "juvenile gimmick", according to authors Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski.
Kaiju are often somewhat metaphorical in nature; Godzilla, for example, initially served as a metaphor for , 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 include Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Gamera.
Origins
Etymology
The Japanese word
kaijū originally referred to monsters and creatures from ancient Japanese legends;
it earlier appeared in the Chinese
Classic of Mountains and Seas.
There are no traditional depictions of
kaijū or
kaijū-like creatures among the
yōkai of Japanese folklore,
[Foster, Michael (1998). The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore. Oakland: University of California Press.] although it is possible to find megafauna in their mythology (e.g.,
). After
sakoku 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, the extinct
Ceratosaurus-like cryptid featured in
The Monster of "Partridge Creek" (1908) by French writer
Georges Dupuy was referred to as
kaijū.
It is worthy to note that in the
Meiji era,
Jules Verne’s works were introduced to the Japanese public, achieving great success around 1890.
Film genre
Genre elements were present at the end of
Winsor McCay's 1921 animated short
The Pet 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
Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend.
The 1925 film The Lost World (adapted from Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name), featured many dinosaurs, including a brontosaurus that breaks loose in London and destroys Tower Bridge. The dinosaurs of The Lost World 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 in the 1933 film King Kong. The enormous success of King Kong can be seen as the definitive breakthrough of . This influential achievement of King Kong paved the way for the emergence of the giant monster genre, serving as a blueprint for future kaiju productions. Its success reverberated in the film industry, leaving a lasting impact and solidifying the figure of the giant monster as an essential component in genre cinematography.[ RKO Pictures later licensed the King Kong character to the Japanese studio Toho, resulting in the co-productions King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) and King Kong Escapes (1967), both directed by Ishirō Honda.
]
Yoshirō Edamasa directed The Great Buddha Arrival in 1934. Although the original film is now lost, stills of the film have survived, and it is one of the earliest examples of a kaiju film in Japanese cinematic history.[Natalie, September 10, 2020, 「大仏廻国」はウルトラマンの原点と古谷敏が語る、マッハ文朱も来場して変身ポーズ]
Ray Bradbury's short story published in the Saturday Evening Post, June 23, 1951 "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" served as the basis for the film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), featuring a Rhedosaurus (animated by Ray Harryhausen), which is released from its frozen, hibernating state by an Nuclear weapon 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.
However,
Godzilla, released in 1954, is commonly regarded as the first Japanese
kaiju film.
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.
Tanaka aimed to combine Hollywood giant monster movies with the re-emerged Japanese fears of
Nuclear weapon 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.
initially had commercial success in Japan, inspiring other
kaiju movies.
[Ryfle, Steve (1998). Japan's Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of the Big G. ECW Press.]
Kingkongposter.jpg| King Kong (1933) was a major influence on the Japanese kaiju genre.
The giant escapes.jpg| The Arctic Giant (1942) is one of pioneering productions to depict Godzilla-esque characters to attack a modern civilization.[Spencer Bollettieri, July 25, 2023, Superman Predicted DC's Godzilla Crossover Over 80 Years Ago, CBR]
Гамера 1965.jpg|The Gamera franchise played a significant role in forming kaiju genre along with the Godzilla franchise.
Bouddha Edamasa 1934.jpg| The Great Buddha Arrival (1934), which potentially inspired Ultraman,[ was one of the earliest kaiju films in Japan along with Wasei Kingu Kongu (1933) and The King Kong That Appeared in Edo (1938).][
]
Terminology
The term
kaijū translates literally as "strange beast".
can be
,
, or a neutral force of nature, but are more specifically preternatural creatures of divine power. They are not merely "big animals".
Godzilla, for example, from its first appearance in the initial 1954 entry in the
Godzilla franchise, has manifested all of these aspects. Other examples of
kaiju include
Rodan,
Mothra,
King Ghidorah,
Anguirus,
King Kong,
Gamera,
Megalon,
Destoroyah,
Biollante,
SpaceGodzilla, Cloverfield, , Guilala, and Yonggary. There are also subcategories including
Mecha Kaiju (Meka-Kaijū), featuring mechanical or
cybernetic characters, including
Moguera,
Mechani-Kong,
Mechagodzilla, and
Gigan, which are an offshoot of
kaiju. Likewise, the collective subcategory
Ultra-Kaiju (Urutora-Kaijū) is a separate strata of
kaijū that specifically originates in the long-running
Ultraman 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.
Kaijin
( 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
Cybernetics 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 Sentais 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 (e.g., gigantism), existing somewhere between kaijin and kaiju.
Daikaiju
Daikaijū () 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 (), lit. "H-Bomb Giant Monster Movie".
Gamera, the Giant Monster, the first film of the
Gamera franchise in 1965, also utilized the term where the Japanese title of the film is
Daikaijū Gamera ().
Seijin
Seijin ( lit. "star people"), appears within Japanese words for extraterrestrial aliens, such as
Kaseijin (), which means "
Martian". Aliens can also be called
uchūjin () 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 cicada-like aliens who have gone on to become one of the franchise's most enduring and recurring characters other than the Ultras themselves.
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.
Monster techniques
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".
[Weinstock, Jeffery (2014) The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing.] Where Western monster movies often used
stop motion to animate the monsters, Tsubaraya decided to attempt to create suits, called "
", for a human (
suit actor) to wear and act in.
[Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: ] 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.
[Allison, Anne (2006) Snake Person Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination. Oakland: University of California Press] 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.
[ Kaiju films also used a form of puppetry interwoven between suitmation scenes 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.]
Selected media
Films
Manga
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Cloverfield/Kishin (Kadokawa Shoten; 2008)
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Godzilla manga (Toho, Shogakukan, Kodansha; 1954–present)
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Go Nagai Creator of Kaijus
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Garla (ガルラ, garura)(June 1976 – March 1978 Published by Tomy Company, Ltd.)
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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.)
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Attack on Titan (Kodansha; 2009–2021)
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Kaiju Girl Caramelise (2018)
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Neon Genesis Evangelion (Kadokawa Shoten; 1994 – 2013)
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ULTRAMAN (Shogakukan; 2011–present)
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Kaiju No. 8 (Shueisha; 2020–present)
Novels
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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)
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The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi (Tor; 2022).
Comics
Video games
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Godzilla video games (Toho, Pipeworks, Bandai; 1983–present)
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Ultraman video games (Tsuburaya; 1984–present)
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Gamera Video games (Kadokawa of Games; 1995–present as North American released)
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Time Gal (Taito; 1985)
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Shadow of the Colossus (developed by SCE Japan Studio and Team Ico, and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, 2005)
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Shadow of the Colossus remake (developed by Bluepoint Games, and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, 2018)
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King of the Monsters (SNK Playmore; 1991)
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Rampage (1986) (formerly owned by Midway Games and now owned by its successor Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment; 2021)
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Dawn of the Monsters (Developed by 13AM Games and published by WayForward, 2022) as a spiritual successor to SNK's King of the Monsters
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Megaton Musashi (Developed by Level-5, 2021, 2022)
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Roarr! The Adventures of Rampage Rex – Jurassic Edition (Born Lucky Games, 2018)
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Terror of Hemasaurus (Developed by Loren Lemcke and published by Digerati Distribution, 2022, 2023)
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GigaBash (Passion Republic, 2022)
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Robot Alchemic Drive (Sandlot; 2002)
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DEMOLITION ROBOTS K.K. (, 2020, 2021) – A Former Dystopian Wars/Robot Killer.
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War of the Monsters (Sony, Incognito Entertainment; 2003)
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Peter Jackson's King Kong (2005)
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Pacific Rim video game (Yuke's/Reliance; 2013)
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City Shrouded in Shadow (Bandai Namco Entertainment; 2017)
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Colossal Kaiju Combat (Sunstone Games; Cancelled)
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(Sega, Atlus, Vanillaware, 2019)
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Fight Crab (2020–21, – stage City rampage)
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DAIKAIJU DAIKESSEN (2019, 2021, 2024 OneSecretPseudo)
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Attack of the Giant Crab (2022)
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I am Titan (2024, Entity3)
Board games
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Godzilla Game
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Godzilla: Tokyo Clash
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Smash Up
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Monsterpocalypse
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King of Tokyo
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King of New York
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Monsters Menace America
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Smash City
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The Creature That Ate Sheboygan
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Campy Creatures
Television
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Marine Kong (Nisan Productions; April 3 – September 25, 1960)
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Ultra Series (Tsuburaya Productions; January 2, 1966–present)
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Ambassador Magma (P Productions; July 4, 1966 – September 25, 1967)
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The King Kong Show (Toei Animation; September 10, 1966 – August 31, 1969)
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Kaiju Booska (Tsuburaya Productions; November 9, 1966 – September 27, 1967)
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Captain Ultra (Toei Company; April 16 – September 24, 1967)
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Kaiju ouji (P Productions; October 2, 1967 – March 25, 1968)
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Giant Robo (Toei Company; October 11, 1967 – April 1, 1968)
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Giant Phantom Monster Agon (Nippon Television; January 2–8, 1968)
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Mighty Jack (Tsuburaya Productions; April 6 – June 29, 1968)
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Spectreman (P Productions; January 2, 1971 – March 25, 1972)
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Kamen Rider (Toei Company; April 3, 1971–present)
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Silver Kamen (Senkosha Productions; November 28, 1971 – May 21, 1972)
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Mirrorman (Tsuburaya Productions; December 5, 1971 – November 26, 1972)
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Redman (Tsuburaya Productions; April 3 – September 8, 1972)
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Thunder Mask (Nippon Television; October 3, 1972 – March 27, 1973)
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Ike! Godman (Toho Company; October 5, 1972 – April 10, 1973)
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Assault! Human!! (Toho Company; October 7 – December 30, 1972)
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Iron King (Senkosha Productions; October 8, 1972 – April 8, 1973)
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Jumborg Ace (Tsuburaya Productions; January 17 – December 29, 1973)
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Fireman (Tsuburaya Productions; January 17 – July 31, 1973)
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Demon Hunter Mitsurugi (International Television Films and Fuji TV; January 8, 1973 – March 26, 1973)
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Zone Fighter (Toho Company; April 2 – September 24, 1973)
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Super Robot Red Baron (Nippon Television; July 4, 1973 – March 27, 1974)
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Kure Kure Takora (Toho Company; October 1, 1973 – September 27, 1974)
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Ike! Greenman (Toho Company; November 12, 1973 – September 27, 1974)
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Super Sentai (Toei Company; April 3, 1975–present)
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Daitetsujin 17 (Toei Company; March 18, 1977 - November 11, 1977)
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Super Robot Mach Baron (Nippon Television; October 7, 1974 – March 31, 1975)
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Dinosaur War Izenborg (Tsuburaya Productions; October 17, 1977 – June 30, 1978)
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Spider-Man (Toei Company and Marvel Comics; May 17, 1978 – March 14, 1979)
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Godzilla (Hanna-Barbera; September 9, 1978 – December 8, 1979)
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Megaloman (Toho Company; May 7 – December 24, 1979)
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Metal Hero Series (Toei Company; March 5, 1982 - January 24, 1999)
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Godzilland (Toho Company; 1992 – 1996)
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Gridman the Hyper Agent (Tsuburaya Productions; April 3, 1993 – January 8, 1994)
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Power Rangers (Saban Entertainment and Toei Company; August 28, 1993–present)
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Neon Genesis Evangelion (Gainax; October 4, 1995 – March 27, 1996)
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Godzilla Kingdom (Toho Company; October 1, 1996 – August 15, 1997)
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Godzilla Island (Toho Company; October 6, 1997 – September 30, 1998)
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(Sony Pictures Television; September 12, 1998 – April 22, 2000)
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Godzilla TV (Toho Company; October 1999 – March 2000)
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Betterman (Sunrise; April 1, 1999 – September 30, 1999)
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Dai-Guard (Xebec; October 5, 1998 – March 28, 2000)
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(BKN; September 9, 2000 – March 26, 2001)
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Tekkōki Mikazuki (Media Factory; October 23, 2000 – March 24, 2001)
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(Independent film; April 25 – May 26, 2003)
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Chouseishin Series (Toho Company; October 4, 2003 – June 24, 2006)
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Bio Planet WoO (Tsuburaya Productions; April 9 – August 13, 2006)
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Daimajin Kanon (Kadokawa Pictures; April 2 – October 1, 2010)
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SciFi Japan TV (ACTV Japan; August 10, 2012–present)
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Attack on Titan (Wit Studio and MAPPA; April 7, 2013 – scheduled)
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(Netflix; April 15, 2016 – May 4, 2018)
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Mech-X4 (Disney XD; November 11, 2016 – August 20, 2018)
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Darling in the Franxx (Studio Trigger; January 13, 2018 – July 7, 2018)
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SSSS.Gridman (Tsuburaya Productions and Studio Trigger; October 7, 2018 – December 23, 2018)
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Godziban (Toho Company; August 9, 2019–present)
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I'm Home, Chibi Godzilla (Toho Company; July 15, 2020–present)
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(Polygon Pictures; March 4, 2021 – April 19, 2022)
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Godzilla Singular Point (Toho Company; April 1, 2021 – June 24, 2021)
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SSSS.Dynazenon (Tsuburaya Productions and Studio Trigger; April 2, 2021 – June 18, 2021)
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Super Giant Robot Brothers (Reel FX Creative Studios, Assemblage Entertainment; Netflix; August 4, 2022)
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(Legendary Television; Apple TV; 2023–present)
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Skull Island (Legendary Television; Netflix; 2023)
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Gamera Rebirth (Kadokawa Studio; Netflix; 2023–Present)
Other appearances
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Steven Spielberg cited Godzilla as an inspiration for Jurassic Park (1993), specifically Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956), which he saw in his youth.
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The popular Pokémon media franchise has been inspired by kaiju culture since its inception, and many of its monster designs are based on kaiju.
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In the Japanese-language original of the Cardcaptor Sakura anime series, Sakura Kinomoto brother Toya likes to tease her by regularly calling her " kaiju", relating to her noisily coming down from her room for breakfast every morning.
[ Cardcaptor Sakura, season 1 episode 1: "Sakura and the Mysterious Magic Book"; season 1 episode 15: "Sakura and Kero's Big Fight"]
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The Polish cartoon TV series Bolek and Lolek makes a reference to the kaiju film industry in the miniseries "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.
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The Inspector Gadget film had Robo-Gadget attacking San Francisco à 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.
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Alternate versions of several kaiju – Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera, King Ghidorah, and Daimajin – appear in the Usagi Yojimbo "Sumi-e" story arc.
[ Usagi Yojimbo Vol.3 #66–68: "Sumi-e, Parts 1–3"]
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In the second season of , 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.
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In Return of the Jedi, the rancor was originally to be played by an actor in a suit similar to how kaiju films like Godzilla were made. However, the rancor was eventually portrayed by a puppet filmed in high speed.
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The South Park episode "Mecha-Streisand" features parodies of Mechagodzilla, Gamera, Ultraman, and Mothra.
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Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters features the "Insanoflex", a giant robot exercise machine rampaging downtown.
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In the 2009 film , there is a sequence parodying kaiju films using the same practical effects techniques used for tokusatsu films such as miniatures and suitmation.
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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.
[ 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"]
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Godzilla and Gamera had been referenced and appear many times throughout the Dr. Slump series.
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In , 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.
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In the "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.
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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 appeared 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.
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In the Nemesis Saga series of novels, Kaiju, also known as "Gestorumque", are genetic weapons sent by an alien race.
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Naoki Urasawa's 2013 one-shot manga "Kaiju Kingdom" follows a "kaiju otaku" in a world where kaiju actually exist.
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In the 2019 Vanillaware video game , protagonists battle large mechanized aliens called Kaiju.
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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.
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In What If...? season 3 episode "What If... the Hulk Fought the Mech Avengers?", Bruce Banner attempts to cure himself from the Hulk by bombarding himself with Gamma radiation, only to a kaiju-like monster called the "Apex Hulk", which serves as the episode's antagonist.
External links
