Kaiju

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Kaiju (怪獣, kaijū^?) is a Japanese word that means "strange beast," but often translated in English as "monster." Specifically, it is used to refer to a genre of tokusatsu entertainment.

Related terms include kaiju eiga (怪獣映画, kaijū eiga^?, monster movie), a film featuring kaiju, kaijin (referring to roughly humanoid monsters) and daikaiju (大怪獣, daikaijū^?, giant monster), specifically meaning the larger variety of monsters.

The most famous kaiju is Godzilla. Other well-known kaiju include Mothra, Anguirus, Rodan, King Kong, Cloverfield, Zilla, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Gamera, and King Ghidorah. The term ultra-kaiju is short-hand for monsters in the Ultra Series.

1 Concept
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Concept

Kaiju are typically modeled after conventional animals, insects or mythological creatures; however, there are more exotic examples. Choujin Sentai Jetman features monsters based on traffic lights, faucets and tomatoes;^[1] Kamen Rider Super-1 includes a whole army of monsters based on household objects such as umbrellas and utility ladders.^[2]

While the term kaiju is used in the West to describe monsters from tokusatsu and Japanese folklore, monsters like vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's Monster, mummies, zombies, and many other entities from Western mythology are in this category from the japanses perspective, as well; however, they are often credited to the contribution of kaiju designs.

Kaiju are typically depicted as cannon fodder serving a greater evil. Some kaiju are elite warriors which serve as the right-hand man to the greater villain and are ultimately destroyed by the heroic forces. That being said, during the early eras of tokusatsu, "heroic" monsters were seen in Daikaiju Eiga films, and it wasn't 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." However, mostly in Super Sentai, some kaiju hung out with the heroes and provided comedy relief, in contrast to the generally darker approach to these characters from more mature franchises, like Kamen Rider.