Kaiju Profile: Gigan

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VIDEOS

Monster Planet

The Gigan kaiju profile is the 15th episode of Wikizilla's Kaiju Profiles video series. It was uploaded on July 12, 2017.

This video corresponds to the Showa and Millennium incarnations of Gigan.

Video

Wikizilla: YouTube Kaiju Profile: Gigan

Transcript

Kaiju Profile Gigan.png
KP Stats Gigan.png

Gigan, the Future Monster (ガイガン)

Intro

Gigan is a cyborg space dinosaur that debuted in Toho’s 1972 "Godzilla vs. Gigan."

Sometimes considered Godzilla's most brutal and violent opponent, Gigan is shown to be very vicious and sadistic in combat, preferring to shred his opponents up close with his hook hands and buzzsaw. However, at least in the Showa series, Gigan appears to be a bit of a coward, retreating and leaving his ally at the mercy of his enemies as soon as the tide of battle turns against him. In "Final Wars," Gigan is shown to be somewhat incompetent, having his head easily blown off by Godzilla's atomic breath and later slicing his own head off with two razor discs intended for Mothra.

In his original appearance, Gigan stood 65 meters tall, and weighed 25,000 metric tons. The "Godzilla: Final Wars" incarnation of Gigan was 120 meters in height and weighed 60,000 metric tons, with a scythe length of 45 meters. The chainsaw-equipped Modified Gigan retains the same stats as his pre-decapitated form before being upgraded by the Xiliens.

Appearance

Gigan's design is notoriously strange and more akin to an Ultraman kaiju than a Godzilla one. The space monster, in the Showa series, has green skin with golden scales not too dissimilar from King Ghidorah's that adorn his body along with three gold, though scale-less fin-like sails on his back. He also has a red visor, a beak with sharp teeth inside, a buzzsaw running down his chest, and spikes on his head and tail, in addition to hook-like appendages in place of hands and feet. Also, little known fact: there are actually two different Showa Gigan suits. (The first one was used in "Godzilla vs. Gigan," the second in "Megalon" and "Zone Fighter.") The second suit is slightly wider at the shoulders, a shorter visor and slightly differently-shaped back fins.

In his Millennium redesign, Gigan becomes more robotic in appearance, with a midnight blue palette with red fins on his back and his hooks being changed to scythe-like blades, while retaining many aspects of the original design. In addition, he takes on a more muscular and humanoid body shape. He also gains more defined plating around his joints.

Modified Gigan was Gigan's second form in "Godzilla: Final Wars," where he is rebuilt with a different head, braces to protect the back of his neck and, most notably, a set of two-pronged chainsaws instead of hooks

Origins

In the Showa Series, Gigan was a dinosaur from another planet that was converted into a Cyborg monster by the M Space Hunter Nebula Aliens.

In the Millennium series, Gigan was a Cyborg monster sent to earth by the Xiliens thousands of years ago, who was defeated by Mothra and left underground where he mummified over the years until he was discovered Earth Defense Force.

History

Showa Series


Godzilla vs. Gigan: Gigan first appeared in "Godzilla vs. Gigan" where he was controlled by giant cockroaches from a dying Earth-like planet in the Space Hunter Nebula M. Their plot was to colonize Earth and destroy all cities to make it more "peaceful" using the space monsters King Ghidorah and Gigan (guided by two "Action Signal Tapes") to wipe out civilization. The aliens were doing this from the Japanese branch of the peace-themed theme park World Children's Land, the centerpiece being the Godzilla-shaped "Godzilla Tower," which they had equipped with an extremely powerful laser in an attempt to use it to kill Godzilla. When the Space Hunter Nebula M aliens finally called Gigan and King Ghidorah to Earth, the monsters arrived and immediately attacked a city, but they were interrupted by Godzilla and Anguirus. They battled at the World Children's Land, and they nearly killed the two monsters. After the destruction of the Godzilla Tower by the humans, Gigan and King Ghidorah are released from their mind control, dazing them and allowing Godzilla and Anguirus the chance to regroup. Following this, the two Earth monsters finally drove Gigan and Ghidorah back into outer space.

Godzilla vs. Megalon: Gigan was later lent to the Seatopians of Earth by the M Space Hunter Nebula Aliens to help them conquer Earth and overthrow the human race. He arrived to help Megalon battle Godzilla, and they nearly killed him. Jet Jaguar attacked Gigan, but he was also defeated. The two monsters regained their strength, and they fought Gigan and Megalon off again. Gigan retreated back to space, and Megalon returned to Seatopia.

Zone Fighter: After his defeat at Godzilla and Jet Jaguar’s hands, Gigan returned to space and was captured by the Garoga aliens. They repaired and upgraded his cybernetics, which had been heavily damaged in the fight, and he was sent back to Earth to battle Zone Fighter. Unfortunately, Godzilla arrived and aided Zone Fighter in defeating Gigan, who was sent back into battle unrepaired under Garogan control, and he was defeated by Zone Fighter before exploding.

Millennium Series


Godzilla: Final Wars: A mummified monster known as "Gigan" was discovered in Hokkaido by the Earth Defense Force in the 21st century. According to the Shobijin, Gigan invaded the Earth thousands of years ago, but was defeated by Mothra. Gigan was awakened by the Xiliens to help them conquer the Earth. He chased the Gotengo to Antarctica to stop it from awakening Godzilla. He nearly destroyed the ship, but he was blasted by one of Godzilla's nuclear beams. Gigan battled Godzilla, trapping him in barbed wire and pulling him toward his buzzsaw. However, Godzilla fired his atomic breath at Gigan's head, decapitating him and causing him to fall to the ground.

After his earlier battle with Godzilla, a rebuilt Gigan, dubbed Modified Gigan, was released by the Xiliens to battle Mothra, and seemingly defeated her after slicing off part of her wing. Gigan then attempted to help Monster X in his battle with Godzilla, slicing him in the chest while Monster X held him still. Mothra flew into the battle and knocked Monster X and Gigan over. Gigan shot his blades at Mothra, but she dodged them. Gigan then blasted Mothra with his laser beam, causing her to burst into flames. Gigan struck a victory pose, but his razor discs flew back and sliced his head off. Gigan wandered around blindly after his head was severed until Mothra, now on fire, flew into him, causing him to explode and finally die.

Abilities

Hooked Appendages - Gigan's forelimbs sport a pair of large metal hooks in place of hands which he can use these to batter and stab an opponent. In "Zone Fighter," the tips of the hooks can release an explosive charge on contact with an enemy. In "Godzilla: Final Wars," instead of hooks Gigan's forearms ended in scythe-like blades, the undersides of which were each equipped with dual grappling hooks which Gigan could use to bind an enemy and then drag them straight into his buzzsaw. Following his initial defeat by the recently awakened Godzilla, the blades were replaced with double-pronged chainsaws. Gigan was also able to use his scorpion-like tail to aid him in melee combat.

Antigravity Flight - Gigan is capable of flying at speeds of up to Mach 3 while in Earth's atmosphere. However, in space, the Cyborg Monster Gigan is capable of flight at speeds of Mach 400 by encasing himself in a diamond.

In battle Gigan will often use flight to engage in aerial slams to continuously topple his opponents without giving them a chance to get up. In "Zone Fighter," owing to the hasty repair work conducted on his cybernetics by the Garogas, Gigan's deceleration was extremely poor, meaning that he had to be fitted with a set of deployable drogue parachutes to slow his immense flying speed down upon approaching a battle. Another mode of movement that Gigan utilizes is his teleportation ability, only seen in the video games.

Laser Beam - In addition to his melee weapons, the Showa era Gigan was depicted as having an beam aperture set into his forehead just above his visor. Official art would frequently depict him as firing a laser from this device although he was never shown to actually doing it in the films.

In "Godzilla: Final Wars," Gigan's laser blast was finally revealed on screen, though it had been heavily altered from the original concept. Rather than being fired from a forehead laser device, it was instead fired from Gigan's eye itself. It also was no longer a traditional laser, but a large energy blast that, in a manner similar to a cluster bomb, would split into smaller explosive bolts of energy upon entering close range of a target, saturating the target in multiple hits simultaneously. The eye beam has been officially titled the "Cluster Light Beam." A similar attack appears in the Atari/Pipeworks games, but the beam scatters the instant it leaves Gigan's eye, has a limited range, and is referred to as the "Shotgun Blast." In the PS3 and PS4 "Godzilla" game, Modified Gigan's laser beam is called "Giganume Cluster."

Buzzsaw - Gigan has a durable and extremely sharp buzzsaw built into his abdominal area. In his first appearance, Gigan's saw was able to draw blood from both Godzilla and Anguirus. In "Godzilla: Final Wars," it was even able to lacerate the hull of the Gotengo. A favored tactic of Gigan is to use his powers of flight along with his buzzsaw in hit and run attacks, slashing his opponent as he passes them.

Flamethrower - In "Godzilla: Battle Legends," and the Godzilla Arcade Game, Gigan displays the ability to spit fire from his mouth. Despite it never being used in a film, the 1998 computer program "Godzilla Movie Studio Tour" confirms that Gigan has and has always had this ability, but had just never used it.

Razor Discs - Modified Gigan displayed the ability to fire guided razor discs from two hidden slots in his upper torso which were able to boomerang back for a second attempt if they initially missed their target. Doing so however is risky as if they missed the target once again, Gigan would find himself right in the path of his own attack; which ultimately was what led up to his death. In Bandai Namco's "Godzilla," Gigan's razor disc attack is called "Blooded Slicer." He also possesses a more powerful version called "Surging Wave Blooded Slicer".

Trivia

Although Gigan never used his laser onscreen in the Showa series, the attack has been featured in some non-film media. Gigan has used his laser in numerous pieces of official print media since the Showa era, including a Zone Fighter manga and the Cinema Shares "Godzilla vs. Megalon" comic adaptation. Gigan also demonstrated the ability in several video games, including "Godzilla: Monster of Monsters," "Godzilla: Battle Legends" and "Godzilla: Great Monster Battle," (Godzilla: Kaiju Daikessen) as well as the three Atari/Pipeworks Godzilla games.

In the "Ultraman Mebius" series, there is a monster called Dinozaur who uses Gigan's roar.

Gigan was the first monster to cause Godzilla and Anguirus to visibly bleed. In "Godzilla vs. Gigan" he had flown over Godzilla and slashed Godzilla's shoulder with his buzzsaw and later stabbed him in the head with his claws, causing blood to run down his face. Fake Godzilla and Mechagodzilla would later continue this.


In the television series "Godzilla Island," Gigan is shown to have become Godzilla’s ally after being defeated, and helps to defend the Earth against alien threats.

In IDW's main Godzilla comic timeline, Gigan first appears in the 2011-2013 series simply titled "Godzilla," as one of the alien monsters that attack the Earth. After being defeated by Rodan and Anguirus, Gigan re-emerges in "Godzilla: Rulers of Earth," where he is upgraded by the Cryogs from his Showa design to his Millennium design, and later to Modified Gigan by the end of the series. This is the first time Gigan starts out in his Showa design and gets converted to his Millennium designs visibly, though Gigan's bio from instruction manual of the Wii version of "Godzilla: Unleashed" states that he was upgraded as well using the latest Vortaak technology, referencing Gigan having the Showa design in the previous two Atari/Pipeworks games.

And that’s all we have for Gigan, be sure to check out Wikizilla for more. Thanks for watching!

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