Model: Toy Monsters
Company: Bandai, Hasbro….
Year: 1950s – 2000s
Location: Japan
Materials: Plastic & Rubber
Size: Various sizes
Kaiju (japanski: guài shòu, Hepbern: Kaiđu, bukvalno „Čudna zver“) je japanski žanr filmova i televizije u kojima se pojavljuju džinovska čudovišta. Termin kaiđu može da se odnosi na sama džinovska čudovišta, koja su obično prikazana kako napadaju velike gradove i angažuju vojsku ili drugi kaiju u borbi. Žanr kaiđu je podžanr zabave tokomsatsu (tè cuō, „specijalno snimanje“). Film Godzila iz 1954. se obično smatra prvim kaiđu filmom. Kaiđu likovi su često donekle metaforične prirode; Godzila, na primer, služi kao metafora za nuklearno oružje, odražavajući strahove posleratnog Japana nakon atomskog bombardovanja Hirošime i Nagasakija i incidenta Lucki Dragon 5. Drugi značajni primeri kaiju likova su Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah i Gamera. Popularnost ove franšize je inspirisala mnoge kompanije za proizvodnju igračaka da pokrenu svoje linije velikih i jako zanimljivih čudovišta, čija je pozadinska priča bila inspirisana KAIJU žanrom.
*Kaiju (Japanese: 怪獣, Hepburn: Kaijū, lit. ’Strange Beast’) is a Japanese genre of films and television featuring giant monsters. The term kaiju can refer to the giant monsters themselves, which are usually depicted attacking major cities and engaging the military, or other kaiju, in battle. The kaiju genre is a subgenre of tokusatsu (特撮, “special filming”) entertainment.
The 1954 film Godzilla is commonly regarded as the first kaiju film. Kaiju characters are often somewhat metaphorical in nature; Godzilla, for example, serves as a metaphor for nuclear weapons, reflecting the fears of post-war Japan following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Lucky Dragon 5 incident. Other notable examples of kaiju characters include Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Gamera. The popularity of this franchise has inspired many toy manufacturing companies to launch their lines of big and very interesting monsters, whose background story was inspired by the KAIJU genre.