Kaiju

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Godzilla, a well-known kaijū.

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 kaijū include Mothra, Anguirus, Rodan, King Kong, Gamera, and King Ghidorah. The term ultra-kaijū is short-hand for monsters in the Ultra Series.

Though kaiju and kaijin are typically modeled after conventional animals, insects or mythological creatures, there are more exotic examples, featured primarily in the Super Sentai and Kamen Rider television franchises. For example, 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]