Gigan

Gigan
Godzilla film series character
First appearance	Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
Last appearance	Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
Created by	Jun Fukuda
Portrayed by	Shōwa Series Kenpachiro Satsuma Millennium Series Kazuhiro Yoshida

Gigan (ガイガン, Gaigan) is a kaiju who first appeared in Toho's 1972 film Godzilla vs. Gigan. Gigan is a cybernetic space monster sporting a buzzsaw weapon in its frontal abdominal region and large metallic hooks for hands.^[1][2] Gigan is considered one of Godzilla's most brutal and violent opponents, being the first monster in the Toho sci-fi series to cause Godzilla to visibly bleed.^[3]

Overview

Gigan's first appearance was in the 1972 film Godzilla vs. Gigan, in which Gigan is summoned to Earth by the antagonist Nebula M Space Hunter aliens where he was paired with King Ghidorah to destroy Tokyo. They were challenged by Godzilla and Anguirus, and after a long fight the two space monsters were driven away. Then, in the 1973 film, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Gigan was again sent by the Nebulans to assist the people of Seatopia in their assault on humanity by aiding their god, Megalon, in a battle against Godzilla and Jet Jaguar. After receiving a broken arm at the hands of Jet Jaguar, Gigan fled to space, leaving Megalon to face Godzilla and Jet Jaguar alone. This is the second time Gigan has abandoned an ally. Gigan then made an appearance on Toho's television series Zone Fighter the same year. After his battle with Godzilla and Jet Jaguar, Gigan was captured in space by the Garoga army and sent back to Earth to prevent Godzilla from rescuing Zone Fighter, but he is soundly defeated by him. Left for dead, Godzilla leaves believing he is victorious, but Gigan revives shortly afterwards and battles Zone Fighter himself. In the final battle, Gigan is seemingly killed by Zone Fighter.

Showa Gigan was 65 meters (213 feet) tall and weighed 25,000 metric tons (25,557 short tons). Showa Gigan could fly at speeds of up to Mach 3 on Earth and up to Mach 400 in outer space.

In Godzilla: Final Wars, Gigan is one of the main antagonists for Godzilla to fight. In the film, Gigan once fought Mothra for the fate of the Earth and ultimately was defeated. Later, his mummified body is discovered and revealed to be a weapon used by the Xiliens. Gigan then awakens and creates havoc and destruction in Japan, but is sent to destroy the Gotengo in hopes of not awakening Godzilla, but fails. Gigan does manage to bring down the Gotengo, however, and then faces off against Godzilla and fails. During the battle between Godzilla and Monster X (King Ghidorah) at the end of the film, Mothra tries to assist Godzilla, but is intercepted by a revived Gigan (whose arms have been retrofitted with enormous chainsaws in place of his iconic blades). The two engage in combat and, after briefly interrupting Godzilla and Monster X's battle, Gigan seemingly kills Mothra by firing his optic laser into her scales. Gigan turns around to aid Monster X against Godzilla, but he is decapitated by his own razor disks (fired at Mothra beforehand and reflected by the scales), and finally killed by Mothra.

Final Wars Gigan was 120 meters (393 feet) tall and weighed 60,000 metric tons (66,138 short tons) in both his original and Modified forms. Both forms could fly at speeds of up to Mach 3.

Characteristics

Gigan, as a cyborg, possesses razor-sharp hooked blades in place of hands, which the monster uses to both batter and stab his opponents. According to Zone Fighter, the tips of the hooks can also release an explosive charge on contact with an enemy (Gigan's arms were replaced with chainsaws after being initially defeated by Godzilla in Final Wars). In addition, Godzilla Island and Final Wars also give Gigan an optically-mounted laser and Final Wars version of his eye laser was named Giganume Cluster in Godzilla: The Game. He was as equipped with as jetpacks and grappling hooks. The Pipeworks trilogy gave Gigan the ability to teleport, as well. Final Wars also introduced Gigan's ability to fire boomerang-like razor discs which was named Blooded Slicer in Godzilla: The Game. However his razor discs' boomerang effect turned out to be a double-edge sword as they unintentionally ended up killing him in the climax of the film.

Appearances

Films

• Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
• Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
• Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
• Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure (2007) - Gigan appears living on Monster Island.

Television

• Zone Fighter (1973)
• Godzilla Island (1997-1998)

Video games

• Godzilla: Monster of Monsters (NES - 1988)
• Kaijū-ō Godzilla / King of the Monsters, Godzilla (Game Boy - 1993)
• Godzilla: Battle Legends (Turbo Duo - 1993)
• Godzilla: Monster War / Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters (Super Famicom - 1994)
• Godzilla Giant Monster March (Game Gear - 1995)
• Godzilla Trading Battle (PlayStation - 1998)
• Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (GCN, Xbox - 2002/2003)
• Godzilla: Save the Earth (Xbox, PS2 - 2004)
• Godzilla: Unleashed (Wii - 2007) - The Millennium version is exclusive in the Wii version.
• Godzilla: Unleashed (PS2 - 2007) - The Showa Gigan is exclusive to the PlayStation 2 version.

Gigan was originally considered to be a playable character in Godzilla: Domination! (2002) but was cancelled because of budgetary reasons.

Literature

• Godzilla at World's End (1998) - In Marc Cerasini's series, Gigan is one of six genetically engineered monsters created to destroy mankind.
• Godzilla: The Half-Century War (2012) - Gigan again appears, alongside King Ghidorah, in the fifth issue of, published by IDW, where he is drawn to earth by a psychic signal, where they are depicted destroying roughly half the world in the year 2002. In a final battle with Godzilla (allied with a version of Mechagodzilla) in Antarctica, the team-up of Godzilla and his robotic duplicate is able to fight them long enough for a group of human soldiers to deploy a black hole weapon that seemingly destroyed all four monsters.
• Godzilla: Rulers of Earth (Comic - 2013)

Music

• Gigan (a.k.a. Zymeer) is a rapper from hip-hop group Monsta Island Czars also featured on the Take Me to Your Leader album.
• Guitar virtuoso Buckethead wrote a song called "Gigan", as well as another named "Mecha Gigan". They appear on his 2006 albums The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock and Crime Slunk Scene, respectively, as well as inSonic Riders: Zero Gravity there are two tracks called Gigan Rocks and Gigan Device. Each has a statue of a birdlike creature with a sharp beak, which looks similar to Gigan himself.

Cultural references

• The character Ponygon from Zatch Bell has a toy that is similar in appearance to Gigan.

References