Kaiju
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Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy. They do not attack people because they want to, but because of their size and strength, mankind has no other choice but to defend himself. After several stories such as this, people end up having a kind of affection for the monsters. They end up caring about them.
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Kaiju (怪獣 or 怪獸 kaijū), also sometimes romanized kaijyu and kaizyu, is a Japanese word that literally means "strange beast" and is usually translated as "monster" in English. Traditionally, kaijū can refer to any sort of strange creature, but in recent times the word has become associated with a genre of tokusatsu entertainment, specifically Japanese cinema that involved giant monsters. The most powerful kaiju are at times deliberately referred to as daikaiju (大怪獣 daikaijū), the prefix dai- emphasizing great power or status, and is usually translated as "giant monster." The word entered mainstream English following its usage in the 2013 Legendary Pictures film Pacific Rim, although English-speaking Godzilla fans had been using it for decades prior.
Concept
Kaiju are typically modeled after conventional animals, mythological creatures, and sometimes even plants; though, there are more exotic examples. Chōjin Sentai Jetman features monsters based on traffic lights, faucets, and tomatoes; Kamen Rider Super-1 includes a whole army of monsters based on household objects such as umbrellas and utility ladders. 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 and zombies could fall into this category (Frankenstein's Monster was once a daikaiju in the film Frankenstein vs. Baragon, which was produced by Toho). Kaiju are sometimes depicted as minions 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 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."
Variations
Over the years, film studios have introduced monster characters who, while still considered kaiju, may be referred to by a unique title, usually either beginning with the kanji 怪 (kai) or ending in a long "u" in the same vein as kaijū. These include:
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"Kaiju" may also be substituted for existing Japanese terms such as kaibutsu (怪物), translating to "monster" and used by Varan as well as the Xiliens' designations "Monster Zero," "Monster Zero-One" and "Monster Zero-Two" for King Ghidorah, Godzilla, and Rodan, respectively; seibutsu (生物), translating to "creature" or "organism" and used by monsters such as the Matango, Giant Rats and Zedus as well as in the designation kyodai seibutsu (巨大生物, lit. "giant creature") for the creature resembling Godzilla in GMK, Gaira in Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla, Shin Godzilla, and Godzilla Aquatilis; and kyōryū (恐竜), translating to "dinosaur" and used by kaiju who are more dinosaurian in nature, such as Gorosaurus, Titanosaurus and the Godzillasaurus. Furthermore, bakemono (化け物), a term for a type of yōkai that literally means "a thing that changes" and is often translated as "ghost," is used for Godzilla in The Return of Godzilla.
In Godzilla: The Series
- Main article: Godzilla: The Series.
The kaiju in the show are referred to as "mutations".
In the MonsterVerse
- Main article: Titan.
In the films of Legendary Pictures' MonsterVerse, kaiju are referred to in English as Titans. According to Michael Dougherty, director of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, "Titan" is a translation of "kaiju" and the terms are synonymous and interchangeable,[1] as supported by the Japanese dub's use of "kaiju" in reference to the Titans. The organization Monarch classifies unidentified Titans as Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms (MUTOs) before they receive official designations from Monarch and are denoted as Titans.[2] The two MUTOs which fought Godzilla in 2014, however, never receive names of their own outside of the generic "MUTO" designation.
See also
References
This is a list of references for Kaiju. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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