In your opinion is there a difference between kaiju and other giant creatures, or is it a matter of semantics? Would Cthulhu be a kaiju? The Iron Giant? The Jolly Green Giant? Grape Ape?
A couple years ago I might have had a solid answer for you, but my opinion on the matter has become kind of fluid.Ā On the one hand, I think that thereās enough cross pollination between different giant monsters in fiction - Kong partially inspires Godzilla, Godzilla inspires Gorgo, kaiju like Manda and King Shisa take inspiration from myth, et cetera - that you could make a pretty argument for them all belonging to the same archetype.Ā Ā
At the same time, an argument can be made that the way East Asian giant monster movies characterize their monsters is fairly unique - Godzilla, Gamera, and Yongary have far more in common with each other than they do with, say, Gwangi or the giant ants from Them!Ā when it comes to how theyāre characterized and their exact role in the narrative.
So how do you define ākaijuā?Ā Iām not exactly sure.Ā Iāve heard a lot of different arguments that all make valid points, and I donāt think Iām enough of an authority on the matter to make the call.
I do think there are some bare minimums we can agree on, though - namely, I think a kaiju must at the very least be a monster whose immense size is one of its primary monstrous attributes.Ā A lot of monsters are big, but a kaiju has to be a monster whose bigness is one of the traits that defines it as a monster.Ā Jason Voorhees is tall, but thatās not the first trait that comes to mind when defining why heās monstrous.Ā But Godzilla?Ā Godzillaās bigness is one of his defining attributes.
And if we accept that minimum as our definition, then yeah, all those guys you mentioned could be considered kaiju.Ā But Iām not sure thatās where the definition ends.
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