The Kaiju Sci-Fi Subgenre, Explained

gamerant.com:

Monsters are a hallmark of all forms of genre fiction, but when sci-fi gets involved, there's an even wider variance that fans can expect. When the monsters grow above the treetops and the ground quakes with their every step, the controversial term Kaiju gets thrown around and a few specific references come up.

The term kaiju comes from Japan, and it literally means «strange beast.» The popularization and codification come from Japan, but other cultures have made changes to the genre. The subgenre has become enduringly popular, despite a variety of interesting debates surrounding just what falls into its broad clutches.

Godzilla Vs. Kong: Most Powerful Kaiju Godzilla Has Fought Other Than Kong

Everyone knows that the inflection point for the kaiju movement in cinema is Ishiro Honda's 1954 classic Godzilla. This central archetypal figure in the genre still stands as the go-to example when someone imagines the term. The great strange beast who walked out of the sea in that iconic original horror film wanders back to shore every few years, even into the modern day. Godzilla remains popular almost seventy years after his origin story, settling the King of the Monsters among the most successful media properties in cinematic history. Despite 1954's Godzilla being the codified apotheosis of the term and the origin of its biggest franchise, he is neither the first use of the term kaiju, nor is he the first giant monster story.

Before the cinematic examples, the term kaiju was used to describe mythical creatures of ancient Chinese and Japanese folklore. Often, the term would be used much in the same way modern English-speaking people would use the word «cryptid.» When the 1908 story The Monster of Partridge Creek told of a living