Kaiju

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Base Info
Moe Point Kaiju (Japanese: 怪獣)
Moe Point Synonyms Monster
Symbolic Characters Godzilla, King Kong, Zetton, etc.
Related Moe Points Yōkai, cryptid

Kaiju (Japanese: 怪獣, かいじゅう) is a collective term for fictional creatures in fantasy and science fiction works, and it is also a moe point in ACG subculture.

Introduction

In general, kaiju is translated as "weird beasts", which refer to all creatures that are beyond the scope of human understanding, but still have obvious biological characteristics, including yōkai, cryptids, beasts and other life forms that are incomprehensible to humans. The kaiju-like enemies that appear in tokusatsu series such as Kamen Rider and Super Sentai can generally be regarded as "human-sized kaiju".

Kaiju in the narrow sense usually refers to a series of fantasy creatures that appear in tokusatsu and science fiction works, and may occasionally include a small number of monsters in the broad sense.

Features of kaiju

Image

Usually, the appearance of a kaiju can reflect their weird, kai (かい) side, a unique physiological structure that cannot be interpreted by modern biology, even if the shape is basically copied from other existing creatures, extremely prominent features will also be added to the kaiju as a distinction (such as body type, appearance, habitat, etc.)

Due to the huge influence of Godzilla, the "King of the Monsters", in the history of kaiju movies, the "Godzilla-style" appearance became a blueprint for most kaiju in other monster movies.

Origin

As beings existing almost beyond the scope of human biology, the origin and causes of kaiju are also very different.

Based on elements such as the birthplace and nature of the kaiju, they can be generally categorized as:

  • Natural growth type: Many kaiju are part of natural ecology, many features other than appearance are close to those of existent creatures, and they are able to reproduce, feed, form a society, etc. Such kaiju are not limited to Earth, kaiju from outer space or even other dimensions can also be from natural ecology, but only exist within their respective populations.
  • Mutation type: Ordinary creatures that have been mutated due to external factors (such as radiation, magic, etc.). Their behavior will be guided by natural instinct, however, it is generally difficult to revert the kaiju to its original form.
  • Energy type: Kaiju formed by the collection and materialization of intangible substances, such as negative emotions or energy.
  • Artificial type: New species artificially created by intelligent lifeforms. In addition to the more common mechanical kaiju, most mutation kaiju may also be the product of artificial creation, and can be classified as such.
  • Mythical type: The being itself is a mythical creature, but in appearance it still resembles a kaiju.

Powers

Apart from a physiology beyond human understanding, the kaiju may also have powers that may seem god-like to humans: flight and invisibility, among other abilities commonly possessed by some other creatures, some kaiju also have the ability to have fire breath or spew some other substance, regenerate, among other superpowers.

While kaiju are thought to lack the same intelligence as animals, it should not be excluded that some kaiju have relatively high intelligence and learning ability.

In many early kaiju works, space kaiju were commonly portrayed as being stronger than Earth kaiju, but over time, the distinction between space kaiju and Earth kaiju gradually blurred.

Kaiju and humans

Kaiju and aliens

Characters with this moe point

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This is just a list of a few classical characters (note) with this moe point. Please do not add an excessive number of characters to this list.

Works with kaiju elements