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Kaiju
General Kaiju Tropes
- Alien Blood: Blue, acidic, and highly reactive toxic blood. The sequel reveals it explodes when it comes into contact with certain rare earth elements.
- Artistic License – Physics: Without getting into the obvious Square-Cube Law problems, the given weights of all the Kaiju are unbelievably low. The Category V Slattern is stated to weigh around 6 750 tons while being 596 feet tall. For comparison, Legendary's Godzilla is about 355 feet tall and was calculated to weigh approximately 90 000 tons (if his volume was filled with water). The only way the kaiju could possibly be so light is if they were completely made of something like styrofoam. Otachi at least has some justification due to her body being partially hollow to account for her ability to fly.
- Ambiguous Gender: Otachi is the only one with a confirmed gender, being revealed as female due to her pregnancy and
Word of God. All of the genders and pronouns given on this page are fan-assigned, and many fans have their own interpretations that differ from the ones here. - Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Jaegers were specifically built to fight them at their level.
- Bioweapon Beast: Despite their wildly varying appearances, all Kaiju share the same DNA due to having been engineered by the Precursors to facilitate their conquest of other dimensions, devouring the indigenous populace and/or terraforming the planet with their toxic blood.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: They have extremely poisonous blood, they often have more limbs and/or eyes than Earthly animals, and they combine vertebrate and invertebrate traits. Much of their biology appears to be based on ammonia, or at least, thrives in an ammonia-based environment.
- Determinator: Even when sustaining numerous fatal injuries, they will absolutely not stop trying to cause as much destruction as possible before dying, in some cases not even a huge gaping chest wound or the loss of an appendage will stop them immediately.
- Didn't See That Coming:
- They and their creators clearly weren't expecting humanity to fight back to any useful effect, something humans theorize on. This is best shown when the first Jaeger utterly demolished its Kaiju opponent.
- On the other side, humanity didn't expect that the Kaiju and their creators could think beyond animalistic behaviors and evolve to deal with the Jaegers.
- Humans certainly couldn't have been expecting Kaiju Blue when they decided to Nuke 'em in early attacks...
- Jake and his comrades definitely don't expect the three Kaiju in Tokyo to merge into a singular Mega-Kaiju.
- Extra Eyes: Most, if not all, of the Kaiju have more than two eyes.
- Genetic Abomination: They're all biological monstrosities created to wipe out humanity. Their appearances have things like multiple arms, giant blade-like protrusions on their heads, Nested Mouths, and in at least one case, the eyes located below the mouth.
- The Heavy: While they have wreaked havoc on Earth for many years, they are basically just attack dogs created by The Precursors, the true Big Bads of the series.
- Hive Mind: They are all mentally connected to one another. Even the still living but damaged brain of a dead Kaiju is connected to the hive. Despite this, they all seem to have individual personalities, with Otachi and Slattern being noted to be more intelligent than the others.
- It Can Think: It had been assumed that the Kaiju were acting on instinct, but nobody expected them to adapt to counter the Jaegers.
- Kaiju: Duh.
- Kill All Humans: This is why the Precursors sent the Kaiju through the Breach this time.
- Leitmotif: "2500 Tons Of Awesome", which is shared by the Kaiju as a whole. The one exception is Slattern, as detailed in his entry.
- Living Weapon: They turn out to be genetically engineered attack dogs of a human-sized race from another universe. The humans don't realize that the emergence of bigger and tougher examples that can better fight the Jaegers is an arms race until the aliens have added projectile acid and EMP attacks and it's too late.
- Male Might, Female Finesse: The Kaiju that attack Hong Kong; Leatherback, a massive, hulking brawler, and Otachi, a more slender creature with faster attacks, and the ability to fly. Otachi is shown to be female when it turns out she's pregnant.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Quite a few Kaiju have a combination of different animal traits. Considering the Precursors assembled them, it's not entirely surprising. The Kaiju generally evoke a single particular animal or mythical creature, such as Otachi resembling a dragon, Leatherback resembling a gorilla, Onibaba resembling a crab, and Slattern's multitude of tentacles evoking the legendary Kraken. The one exception is Mutavore, the Sydney Kaiju, who has a strange, crescent shaped head, scissor-like tail fins, ''eyes on its chin, its mouth on its forehead, and a single crest-like wing on its back''. It SO does not resemble any familiar shape, possibly barring a bio-raptor from Pitch Black. Of course, there is also the possibility that it resembles a creature from the Precursors' or another conquered world, which they may have used to their advantage against Vulcan Specter and Echo Saber.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Subverted with three of the Kaiju (Scunner, Trespasser, and Knifehead), as they rarely use their smaller extra arms. Otachi, however, has a claw on her tail that she uses more than her actual arms.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The designations assigned by the PPDC are typically and understandably distasteful and terrifying.
- People in Rubber Suits: A featurette revealed that Guillermo and the character designers wanted to invoke this when designing the Kaiju as a homage. Basically, the Kaiju are all designed as if an actor would be able to fit into them like a rubber suit, hence why most of them are bipedal.
- Proportionately Ponderous Parasites: Isopod-like creatures the size of footballs live on the Kaiju. They actually die very quickly once exposed to Earth's atmosphere, to the point that the PPDC was never able to recover them alive, so they're not really a threat. Black market scavengers selling kaiju parts, however, figured out that they can be kept alive if you put them in an ammonia bath.
- Square-Cube Law: The Kaiju and Jaegers alike play hell with this law; Kaiju shouldn't be able to ambulate without severe damage to their joints and whatever skin surfaces contact the ground alongside muscle tearing from the torque and stresses of combat, whereas flying Kaiju like Otachi would be far too heavy to take off even with a proportionate wingspan. Justified by the ocean-dwelling Kaiju like Slattern, where we have examples of massive creatures on Earth right now that can maintain that size due to the ocean taking most of the stress off of their bodies, as well as by the Rule of Cool.
- Taking You with Me: Prior to the creation of the Jaegers, the only reliable way to take down a Kaiju was to hit it with a nuclear weapon. Aside from the resulting collateral damage and fallout that would occur if deployed in a populated area, the issues with this are further compounded by the fact that Kaiju blood is toxic, and that the resultant overkill ends up spreading a large amount of that blood over a wide area.
- Throat Light: Most Kaiju have bioluminescence coming from their mouth. It signals an EMP in Leatherback's case.
- Volcanic Veins: A number of the Kaiju have glowing blue vein-like markings on their bodies.
Debuted in Pacific Rimnote
Trespasser
Category: Unknown (pre-scale)
Breach Date: August 10, 2013
Target: San Francisco, USA
The very first Kaiju.
- Dead Guy on Display: Its skull becomes a trophy on public display.
◊ - Death of a Thousand Cuts: How he was killed in the movie, after 6 days and 35 miles of tank and jet attacks.
- Meaningful Name: The first Kaiju to invade Earth, or trespass, in human history.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The game shows Trespasser having a pair of smaller arms underneath the primary set.
- Nuke 'em: How he was ultimately defeated in the comic.
- Starter Villain: Only the first of many Kaiju.
Knifehead
Category: III
Breach Date: February 29, 2020
Breach Date: February 29, 2020
Target: Anchorage, USA
The Kaiju that killed Yancy and crippled Gipsy Danger in the prologue. Though Raleigh managed to kill him, this attack heralded the apparent end of the Jaeger age, as the Kaiju were beginning to counter the robots.
- Evil Is Petty: It took a detour from its main mission of attacking Anchorage to slaughter the crew of a passing fishing boat. Good thing Gipsy Danger was there.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Has a large, knife-like blade jutting out of its head.
- Expendable Clone: Newt's first drift shows dozens of identical Knifeheads in pods, showing the one Gipsy fought was just one copy out of many.
- Hero Killer: Kills Yancy Becket in the beginning of the film and destroys Gipsy Danger.
- It Can Think: Mild example. Knifehead was the point when kaiju fight tactics upgraded, making it smart enough to play dead — something kaiju had never done before. This caught Gipsy Danger by complete surprise — given that kaiju can and do usually fight until they're hamburger.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Has the features of a shark, a turtle, and a dolphin.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has a smaller pair of arms under its larger primary set.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If Knifehead had just swum to Anchorage like planned, it could have slowed Gipsy Danger down for quite a while by causing their deviation to help the fishing boat turn into a dead end.
- Not Quite Dead: The initial encounter looks like a short Curb-Stomp Battle, but then it bursts from the water looking barely worse for wear.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Appears onscreen for less than ten minutes, and manages to turn the tide of the war back in favor of the Kaiju.
- Threatening Shark: The featurette on Kaiju suggests he's meant to resemble a goblin shark. He swims like a shark would as well.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Its fight with Gipsy Danger was the moment that asserted "Jaegers aren't invincible."
Mutavore
Category: IV
Breach Date: January 2, 2025
Target: Sydney, Australia
The Kaiju that tears through the Life Wall in under an hour, proving the entire fortification worthless. Killed by Striker Eureka.
- Adaptational Badass: It's dodgy as to which came first, the novelization, based on an older script most likely or the movie release and so one. The film has her as a Category 4, but serves more as a mook, while the novelization has her tear through two Jaegers (Vulcan Specter and Echo Saber) before encountering Striker Eureka. Either way, she is there to show how powerful Striker Eureka is, and that the wall is useless against Kaiju.
- Expendable Clone: Along with Knifehead, there is a glimpse of at least two more Mutavores already assembled.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: Her eyes are on her lower jaw instead of her upper jaw.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": Everybody pretty much had this when she simply rammed through the Coastal Wall meant to protect people from the Kaiju like it was nothing.
- Mook: Serves as grunt Kaiju in the Jaeger Combat Simulator online game.
- Multiple-Tailed Beast: She has a bifurcated tail, which can be used like a pair of scissors in the video game.
- Small Role, Big Impact:
- Its smashing through the Sydney Wall is seen by Raleigh, confirming the anti-Kaiju barriers are useless in the end and leaving Raleigh open to rejoining the Jaeger program when Pentecost comes calling.
- According to Travis Beacham's Tumblr, the kaiju brain Newt drifts with to discover the existence of the Precursors and their plans came from Mutavore.
Onibaba
Category: II
Breach Date: May 15, 2016
Target: Tokyo, Japan
The kaiju that Mako encountered as a child. It is only seen in her dream sequence, in which it appears bigger than a Cat 2 should — but then again, it is a memory seen through the eyes of a frightened child. Some Unreliable Narrator may be in play.
- The Cameo: A simulation of Onibaba appears in the sequel in a training simulation for upcoming Jaeger pilots to fight against.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: It evidently did not last long against Coyote Tango — at least, that's how Mako remembers it.
- Dead Guy on Display: The Novelization states that the Japanese mounted his skull on the side of Mt. Fuji as a warning to the Kaiju.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Looks eerily like a giant crustacean.◊
- Meaningful Name: Playing very much a nightmarish role in Mako's psyche, it can be said Onibaba(Demon Hag) can be said to represent her inner demons.
- Near-Villain Victory: Not apparent in its brief appearance in the first movie, but the sequel establish the Kaijus primary motive is not to destroy cities, but to reach Mount Fuji so that their Alien Blood can react with the minerals inside the mountain to create a chain reaction in the Earth crust that results in The End of the World as We Know It. Since Onibaba was the only Kaiju that managed to reach Tokyo, Japan of all the others, it could have destroyed the entire world. Good thing Stacker Pentecost was there to stop it, meaning he actually saved the Earth TWICE.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Easily the least humanoid of the Kaiju seen in the film.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Chases a ten-year-old girl down the street and then tries multiple times to grab her out of the alley she's hiding in, despite being so big that just reaching down and grabbing her should outweigh the energy gained from eating her. This is presumably a trait of all the other Kaiju as well.
- You Killed My Father: He basically killed Mako's parents in his attack on Tokyo.
Otachi
Category: IV
Breach Date: January 8, 2025
Target: Hong Kong, China
One of the Kaiju that attacks Hong Kong during the movie. Has a powerful acid attack that can eat through metal, and is one of the few confirmed female Kaiju.
- Acid Attack: She can spit blue Hollywood Acid that makes short work of any type of metal, which it uses to help kill the Russian jaeger.
- An Arm and a Leg: Has her tail frozen and shattered and her wing sliced off by Gipsy Danger.
- Armor-Piercing Attack: The corrosive substance she sprays from her mouth easily dissolved Cherno Alpha's heavy armor.
- Attack the Tail: Gipsy managed to freeze and sever her tail at the end of their fight.
- Earlier brutally inverted upon Crimson Typhoon with the claw at its end.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: She has a claw on her tail, though it functions more like a third hand.
- Body Horror: Her lower jaw splits in half. Also, the scene of her infant bursting out of her womb.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: She has several eye-like organs on her nasal crest.
- Expy: More of a visual expy than a role-in-the-story expy, but if one were to take Otachi, chop off her tail pincer, retractable wings and nose horns, and then dunk her in white paint, you’d be forgiven for mistaking her for a more draconic version of the Cloverfield monster.
- Force and Finesse: Relatively speaking, in the team of her and Leatherback, she's the finesse while Leatherback is the force.
- Genius Bruiser: Otachi is a cunning and resourceful ambush predator, much like Leatherback (if not moreso).
- Giant Flyer: She vaguely resembles a giant bat capable of lifting a giant robot of equivalent size. Uses its wings in one final attempt to destroy Gipsy, by taking it up into the stratosphere and planning on dropping it to its doom. It would have worked, if not for the fact that Gipsy has a sword.
- Hero Killer: She destroys Crimson Typhoon and kills its pilots.
- Hollywood Acid: Her acid is corrosive enough to cripple Cherno Alpha and immediately liquify a small section of a building.
- Ironic Name: Otachi means "Big sword" in Japanese. Just guess how Gipsy Danger kills her.
- It Can Think: One of the most intelligent and thus, among the most dangerous ever encountered. Otachi was directly responsible for the destruction of two Jaegers, specifically negating their strengths and taking full advantage of their weaknesses. She also very nearly manages to destroy Gipsy Danger, who only manages to survive through quick thinking.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: No Sells Crimson Typhoon's Thundercloud Formation attack by catching all three of its arms. She also severely weakened Cherno Alpha by managing to damage its heavily-armored reactor.
- Literally Shattered Lives: Her tail suffers this, courtesy of Gipsy Danger.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: Originally, her tail was supposed to be torn off only to come to life until meeting death by ice. This was kept in the novelization.
- Made of Iron: Takes hits from all four of the Jaegers but keeps on fighting.
- Monster Is a Mommy: Upon Otachi's death, a team is sent into an orifice in her body. However, it is found that Otachi is actually pregnant, and the newborn beast quickly wreaks havoc on the team.
- New Powers as the Plot Demands: Otachi ends up being quite distinct from just about every other Kaiju in the first film by virtue of her sheer number of abilities, even compared to the more powerful Kaiju that comes after her. First we see her speed and agility. Then when Crimson and Cherno engage her she reveals her tail-claw and her acid spray. Then we see she has a weird flowery tongue, then we discover her tail has a mind of its own and can fight independently. And when Gipsy tears out her acid sac and her tail, she unfurls her wings and takes to the sky. When she is finally downed, she has one last postmortem surprise for us... she is actually pregnant. This in turn makes her one of the most versatile and dangerous of the Kaiju, simply because her opponents have to constantly adapt to her varied abilities.
- No-Sell: Otachi manages to catch two of Crimson Typhoon's arms and stop the blades from rotating.
- Off with His Head!: Gipsy Danger chops its head and a wing off with its sword, killing it in mid-flight.
- Possibly a Karmic Death given how Otachi dispatched Crimson Typhoon in the same manner.
- One-Hit Kill: Otachi's Prehensile Tail beheads Crimson Typhoon in a single strike, killing its pilots and downing the Jaeger.
- Pregnant Badass: She was pregnant the whole time she attacked Hong Kong.
- Prehensile Tail: The claw on the tip allows it to act more like an extra arm than a tail.
- Rasputinian Death: Otachi takes a ton of punishment from the moment she engages the Jaegers: she endures numerous slices from Crimson Typhoon and beatings from both Cherno Alpha and Striker Eureka, then when she battles Gipsy Danger she has her tail frozen by Gipsy's coolant and shattered completely, before Gipsy rips her acid gland out. Finally, Gipsy slices her in two 50,000 feet above sea level, her corpse presumably partially burning in the atmosphere as she falls.
- Ribcage Stomach: The scene of Hannibal's team entering her entrails shows that a large amount of her abdominal cavity is hollow, as her womb is seen suspended upside down next to her dinosaur brain. Quite a logic body trait when one considers that the monster can fly.
- Story-Breaker Power: The only entity (Jaeger or Kaiju) with a demonstrated ability to fly. It's obvious that Jaegers were never built for aerial combat. This revelation also should have revealed the wall defense, which had already been proven ineffective, to be a complete waste of time, but it's never brought up. Likewise with its corrosive acid.
- Tongue Trauma: After missing its spray of acid at Gipsy, the Jaeger rips out Otachi's tongue (and acid-producing gland) to keep it from trying that again.
Leatherback
Category: IV
Breach Date: January 8, 2025
Target: Hong Kong, China
One of the Kaiju that attacks Hong Kong. Big, muscular, with approximately the shape of a gorilla.
- Acrofatic: Not only is he burly, but his midsection is noticeably prominent and bloated-looking. Doesn't make him slower or any less menacing than any other Kaiju.
- An Arm and a Leg: Had its EMP emitter ripped off and arm blown off by Gipsy Danger.
- The Brute: He has a few tricks up his sleeve, but mostly relies on raw brute force.
- Didn't See That Coming: Winds up on both ends of this. Nobody anticipated that there would be a Kaiju with an in-built EMP shockwave generator designed specifically to deal with Striker Eureka. Of course, the aliens didn't plan for Gipsy Danger's presence.
- Dynamic Entry: His In the Back jump against Cherno Alpha was the first time he was seen in the fight.
- EMP: Has an EMP emitter on its back.
- Eye Scream: Gets shot in the eye by a flare shot by Striker Eureka's pilots. All it does is piss it off.
- Extra Eyes: Six total.
- Fat Bastard: He's rather heavyset for a Kaiju, and is just as vicious as the others.
- Force and Finesse: Relatively speaking in the team of him and Otachi, he's the force while Otachi is the finesse.
- For the Evulz: One of the few Kaiju who shows signs of open sadism, taking his time with Cherno Alpha and Striker Eureka's crews.
- Genius Bruiser: Performs well-coordinated teamwork with Otachi using his partner as bait to set up an ambush, shuts down Striker Eureka just when it's putting itself in a position of vulnerability to use a genuinely dangerous weapon, shows ponderation about his and his opponent's strengths and odds, and is the only Kaiju in the film to use tools.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: His primary fighting style, helped by his hard mace-like fists.
- Hero Killer: Destroys Cherno Alpha and kills its pilots.
- In the Back: His Dynamic Entry against Cherno Alpha.
- It Can Think: A cunning and resourceful Kaiju like its partner Otachi, Leatherback not only is intelligent enough to use tools, he also has a sense of tactics: he stays near the disabled Striker Eureka and lumbers cautiously around it in case it is not completely out and just Playing Possum as Kaiju themselves do. As Leatherback has no ranged weapons to safely maim him from away and Striker is his strongest foe in close quarter range, this is the safest stance for him to prevent a turn of the tables.
- Improvised Weapon: Uses a crane as a mace to batter Gipsy silly.
- Kevlard: Gipsy Danger has to shoot him nearly a dozen times to make him go down. Unlike more armored Kaijus, the individual shots do damage him, it's just that they are not enough to get through his bulk until the damage builds up.
- Killer Gorilla: Has a gorilla-like body. Also, although it's named after the leatherback turtle, the name still evokes a silverback gorilla.
- Lightning Bruiser: Can move incredibly fast and agile for his size, marking a difference with the slow, cadenced Kaijus introduced until that point in the film.
- Living Weapon: While all Kaiju qualify, Leatherback's arrival serves as chilling proof of what Newt had already theorized: these monsters aren't just showing up randomly — someone is deliberately sending them. Animals don't just "evolve" a natural EMP generator against prey they've never personally met.
- Magic Knight: As noted he's a big burly beast with monstrously powerful fists and enough arm strength to tear up the heaviest Jaeger, Cherno Alpha. He's also packing a EMP pulse weapon on his back that can fry a Jaeger's electronics - and black out a good chunk of Hong Kong.
- Make Sure He's Dead: Even after Gipsy Danger shoots off his arm and blasts him in the gut several times, Raleigh tells Mako that they need to "check for a pulse." Cue Gipsy Danger blasting Leatherback's body several more times. "No pulse" indeed.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Gipsy Danger rips it apart and blasts it several more times to be sure. Justified; Kaiju have learned to play dead, so Jaegers will let their guard down. Raleigh was making sure that when Leatherback was dead, it stayed dead. Also a pretty nifty double-payback for the two pilots: one for Mako, whose parents were killed by a Kaiju, and one for Raleigh, in his first Kaiju fight since his brother was killed by one.
- Stealthy Colossus: Despite his enormous size, he goes completely unnoticed under the water until the very moment of his Dynamic Entry.
- Story-Breaker Power: His EMP enables him to take out just about any Jaeger, as well as the Shatterdome, in a single move. This allows Leatherback to be the only Kaiju capable of defeating Striker Eureka.
- Stone Wall: Took several point-blank Plasma Caster shots into the chest before going down, and that's not counting all the punishment it received beforehand.
- Villainous Breakdown: Initially smart enough to use ambushes and Improvised Weapons, it becomes visibly enraged as Gipsy Danger is winning their fight, ultimately abandoning tactics to bum-rush Gipsy.
Raiju
Category: IV
Breach Date: January 12, 2025
Target: Unknown
One of the Kaiju fought at the Breach. Looks like a flower jawed pangolin. Much faster than other Kaiju.
- Expy: Its real head which is hidden inside an armor plated head bears a striking resemblance to Gabora from Ultraman.
- Fragile Speedster: Not very durable at all, but the fastest Kaiju underwater on record and easily sneaks behind Gipsy Danger and bites its right arm off.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Sliced in half lengthwise through a combination of Gipsy Danger's Blade Below the Shoulder and Raiju's own momentum.
- Nested Mouths: According to his Hero Clix figure, it looks like his head splits open to reveal a purple wormlike head.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: His design is very crocodilian.
- Raijū: Named after the thunder beast Youkai of Japanese folklore.
- Technicolor Toxin: A secondary power in the game. It can release a toxic and corrosive cloud of poison into the air as a ranged attack, and cover the battlefield in it as a Finishing Move.
Scunner
Category: IV
Breach Date: January 12, 2025
Target: Unknown
One of the Kaiju fought at the Breach. Looks like an aquatic bull.
- Facial Horror: Gipsy Danger drags its face into a volcanic vent, burning half of it before it breaks free.
- Jack of All Trades: Between ramming horns, a biting mouth, large clawed hands, and a whip-capable tail, it doesn't seem to have any specialized focus.
- Meaningful Name: "Scunner" is a Scottish word for "a strong dislike."
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Has the features of a bull, a shark, and a turtle.
- Rasputinian Death: It's stabbed through the neck like a kebab, dragged over to a volcanic vent and roasted, and finally caught in Striker Eureka's nuclear payload.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has a smaller pair of arms under its larger primary set.
- Threatening Shark: Has a hammerhead shark-like head.
Slattern
Category: V
Breach Date: January 12, 2025
Target: Earth
One of the Kaiju fought at the Breach. The first and only Cat 5 ever encountered (at least until the sequel), it is the largest and most dangerous monster anyone has ever seen.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: Not only can they club but are strong enough to stab into Gipsy Danger's back during their tumble.
- Cats Are Mean: When he's on all fours his body looks very feline influenced as well as the shape of his front two hands/claws look like a lion's.
- Dance Battler: His tail-end, anyway. He twirls them disorientingly before lashing out with all three to devastating effect.
- Dragon-in-Chief: While all Kaiju serve as The Dragon to their other-dimensional masters, Slattern is the worst of them all and serves as the final obstacle of the story. A bit literal as well, during the fight with Eureka, he emits an enormous roar that summons Scunner back to double team the MkV Jaeger
- Evil Counterpart: In a way, Slattern is this to Striker Eureka in the first movie. At that moment, both were the first and last iteration of Kaiju and Jaeger, being Category 5 and Mark-V respectively, having the highest combat stats, and a leading position among their ranks.
- Final Boss: Sent out at the very end to deal with Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka.
- Large and in Charge: He is a Category 5, the most feared among the Kaiju that attacked Earth, although Newt suggested that he may have merely been the first member of a second wave of more powerful Kaiju.
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: Subverted; villainous. Has quite the double chin.
- Leitmotif: "Category 5", a darker, faster-paced, highly varied and even more ominous variation on the main Kaiju leitmotif (complete with choral backing!) which emphasizes the power and dread that Slattern possesses.
- Made of Iron: Even compared to the other Kaiju. To the point of surviving the equivalent of 1.2 million tons of TNT blowing up in his face.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": His appearance causes one for the forces back in Hong Kong.
- Multiple-Tailed Beast: He has three main tails with numerous smaller tails besides.
- Non-Indicative Name: The word "slattern" basically means "promiscuous woman" (or, in more vulgar terms, "slut"). It's revealed in the novelization that when this Kaiju first appeared, all the Rangers were struck by its utterly massive size:Tendo Choi: Bitch is big.
Pentecost: Don't use that word. Call it "Slattern", if you must. - Rasputinian Death: Cut open numerous times by Striker Eureka (including having his throat slit and his arms nearly sliced off), has a nuclear bomb explode in his face, stabbed repeatedly by Gipsy Danger, and then he only dies when he's cooked alive by Gipsy Danger's nuclear turbine at point blank until the blast starts coming out his back.
- Shock and Awe: His tails are electrified.
- Slashed Throat: Striker Eureka manages to inflict this on Slattern. It doesn't even flinch.
- Threatening Shark: His head greatly resembles a hammerhead shark's.
- You Shall Not Pass!: A villainous example. He is the guardian of the Breach (the portal from which the Kaiju enter our world).
Kaiceph
Category: Unknown (pre-scale)
Breach Date: June 1, 2014
Target: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
The third Kaiju ever, killed by a nuclear strike that wipes out the city it was attacking.
- The Cameo: Appears very briefly as a decaying corpse on an aircraft carrier.
Scissure
Category: Unknown (pre-scale)
Breach Date: September 2, 2014
Target: Sydney, Australia
The fourth Kaiju, killed with two nukes.
- Made of Iron: It took two nukes just to kill him.
- Nuke 'em: Defeated by nukes after three days of getting it far enough away from Sydney, Australia.
Karloff
Category:
Breach Date: April 23, 2015
Target: Vancouver, Canada
The fifth Kaiju, and the first to fight a Jaeger. It loses. Horribly.
- Blood from the Mouth: From Brawler Yukon's first blow.
- The Cameo: Has a little more focus in the prequel comic but appears briefly behind smoke during the prologue.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Never stood a chance against Brawler Yukon.
- Frankenstein's Monster: His square head looks like that of Boris Karloff's depiction of Frankenstein.
- Mugging the Monster: He was the first Kaiju to find out the hard way that humanity wasn't going down without a fight.
- Shout-Out: His name is a reference to Boris Karloff.
- As a Kaiju based on Frankenstein's Monster, he may also be an indirect reference to Frankenstein Conquers the World.
Hardship
Category:
Breach Date:
Target:
The sixth Kaiju to appear, and the second to be killed by a Jaeger. Hardship is killed by Romeo Blue.
- The Cameo: Briefly appears in the prologue fighting Romeo Blue.
- Development Gag: Hardship's final design is based on the original concept for Mutavore.
- Merchandising the Monster: Has sneakers designed after it.
Meathead
Category:
Breach Date:
Target:
A Kaiju that only appears on the cover of Tales of Year 0. No other details are known about him.
- The Cameo: Appears very briefly in the comic prequel.
- Prehistoric Animal Analogue: Resembles a stylized Carnotaurus.
Yamarashi
Category: III
Breach Date: October 17, 2017
Target: Los Angeles, USA
A Kaiju that is briefly mentioned in the movie. It was Gipsy Danger's first kill.
- The Big Guy: According to Newt, he was one of the largest Category IIIs on record.
- Meaningful Name: "Yama-arashi" means "porcupine" in Japanese. Newt's tattoo reveals it to be quite prickly. However, Yama-arashi can also mean “Mountain Storm”, a fitting name for any kaiju.
- Razor Floss: Gipsy Danger killed Yamarashi by garroting it with a cargo crane wire until its head came off.
- The Cameo: It's only seen as a tattoo on Newt's left arm, which Raleigh recognizes as Yamarashi.
Hundun
Category: Unknown (pre-scale)
Breach Date: February 5th, 2014
Target: Manila, Philippines
The second Kaiju, and the one that began to make it clear Trespasser was not an isolated incident.
- The Cameo: Appears very briefly in the prologue.
- Nobody Poops: Averted.
Verocitor
Category: N/A
Breach Date: N/A
Target: N/A
A simulated Kaiju used for virtual training.
- Fragile Speedster: Verocitor looks more like it was designed for hit-and-run tactics as opposed to grappling.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Has the most normal-looking designs as opposed to the more alien-looking Kaiju.
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Verocitor's design is heavily reminiscent to terrestrial lizards.
- Training Boss: Like Belobog, Verocitor is a hypothetical Kaiju used in simulations.
Belobog
Category: N/A
Breach Date: N/A
Target: N/A
A simulated Kaiju used for virtual training.
- Development Gag: Much like Hardship is to Mutavore, Belobog is based on concept art of Onibaba.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Designed like one.
- Multi Purpose Tongue: His tongue spears Gipsy Danger during the simulation.
- Training Boss: Not an actual Kaiju, but a hypothetical one used in training simulations.
Rachnid
Category:
Breach Date: September 25, 2024
Target:
One of Striker Eureka's Kaiju kills.
- All There in the Manual: Rachnid is listed in Striker Eureka's combat dossier as one of its kills.
- Nonindicative Name: Its name suggests that Rachnid is a Giant Spider but according to Travis Beacham, this is not the case.
Reckoner
Category:
Breach Date: 2016
Target: Hong Kong, China
A Kaiju that previously attacked Hong Kong. Its skeleton forms the Bone Quarter.
- Cult: Its remains, particularly the skull, is home to a doomsday cult believing the Kaiju are The Scourge of God.
- Dead Guy on Display: The bones remained in Hong Kong, a shanty town being built around it.
Spoiler Character
Otachi Junior
Category: ?
Breach Date: 2025
Target: Hong Kong, China
Otachi's child, rips itself free after its mother is killed.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Strangled by its own umbilical cord.
- Fetus Terrible: It "births" itself and goes after its targets seconds later.
- Not Quite Dead: After ripping its way out of Otachi's corpse and accidentally strangling itself with its own umbilical cord), it springs back to life for a few moments to eat Hannibal Chau, before dying for good.
Spoiler Character
The Precursors
The masterminds behind the Kaiju attacks.
- Abusive Precursors: Dear God, are they ever! Moving from planet to planet, killing the local populations via the Kaiju so that they can move in and harvest the abundant resources, then leaving the planet to die whilst they find the next one. Plus, it's implied that they were responsible for killing the dinosaurs.
- Aliens Are Bastards: Played absolutely straight.
- Alien Invasion: The Kaiju are their means of clearing out Earth so they can colonize it.
- Ascended Extra: They only appear in the final scenes of the first movie as the masters of the Kaiju army. In Uprising, they have a much more active role. Though they don't appear in person, they brainwashed Newt into serving them and kickstarting the second invasion.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Given what was seen in Black, They are winning their war against the humans to harvest the Earth of all its resources, letting the Kaiju roam free and lay waste all over the planet.
- Big Bad: As the creators of the Kaiju and the ones sending them to Earth to kill/destroy everything in their path, they serve as this. And again in Uprising, operating through a Brainwashed and Crazy Newt to almost destroy all life on Earth.
- Evil Gloating: They're not immune to this, taking time to point out to Liwen that they/Newt accomplished everything without her being any the wiser because she's not as smart as she thinks she is. Backfires as it almost gets Newt shot by her on the spot.
- Evil Sounds Deep: They occasionally speak with distinctive flanged-bass style voices when they're talking through Newt.
- Expy: They move from planet to planet consuming all their resources, and exterminate the native population in the process. Sound familiar?
- Extra Eyes: They have six of them on their face.
- Greater-Scope Villain: For Black. While any have yet to appear, most Kaiju that are ravaging the world are still subservient to them while The Sisters formed an Apocalypse Cult around them, making clear that their actions have greatly shaped the series setting and story.
- Hidden Villain:
- In the first film their presence comes as a big surprise, given that up until Newt's drifting with a Kaiju brain there had been no indication there was any sort of guiding intelligence behind the Kaiju (trailers even used parts of Newt's explanation to make it sound like the Kaiju themselves were much smarter than realised, so as to keep the Precursors' presence secret).
- While the viewer is aware something's off in Uprising (given Obsidian Fury's actions) the film frames the events as human-contrived (with the reveal the Kaiju brain was grown on Earth, and the Marshal even saying "Precursors didn't do this, humans did") and throws suspicion on Liwen Shao, which ultimately turns out to be a Red Herring. Even after Newt's role is revealed, it's not until his Motive Rant where their control becomes apparent that Hermann realises they're involved.
- Karmic Death: Del Toro himself points out in the director's commentary that at the end they find out what it's like for a giant monster to invade their world and wreak havoc.
- Laser-Guided Karma: They've completely wiped out countless civilizations in order to drain their planets of their resources, of which Earth and humanity were their latest targets. Humanity, however, fought back and created monsters to fight their monsters. One of these weapons would then make it through the portal they used in order to access our world and nuke them (or at least a base of theirs) into oblivion.
- The Man Behind the Man: They're the ones controlling Newt in Uprising, which, given his manipulations, makes them basically The Man Behind The Man Behind The Man.
- The Man Behind the Monsters: More like Aliens Behind The Monsters, but it still counts given they're responsible for all of the havoc in the film's universe.
- Nested Mouths: Their actual faces pop out of what appears to be a mouth, similar to Raiju and Raijin. It might be a suit, but who knows?
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If sending the pregnant Otachi was a backup measure to kill the interloper Newt via her child, it backfired spectacularly and only provided an easily accessible brain that provided crucial information for the final assault on the Breach. On the other hand, since this leads to Newt's mind being corrupted by the Precursors between the first film and Uprising, it nearly worked out for them in the long run.
- No Biochemical Barriers: Averted. The Precursors first attempted to conquer Earth during the time of the dinosaurs, but the atmosphere was too hostile for them to move in. Millions of years later, humanity has polluted the environment to their standards, allowing them to move in again.
- Nonindicative Name: They are very contemporary and the kaiju are not old, with the term referring more to the fact they're known to have been about long enough to bring about the extinction of the dinosaurs long before humanity ever evolved.
- Oh, Crap!: Their reaction to seeing Gipsy Danger about to self destruct directly in front of them. Downplayed due to their lack of facial expressions, but you know it is there.
- Organic Technology: They apparently wrote the book on this. They have an assembly line of Kaiju.
- Planet Looters: The Kaiju-makers regularly invade planets through rifts between universes and wipe out any native organisms that might become a bother, potentially including humanity.
- Puppeteer Parasite: They're not physically present in Uprising, but their mental control of Newt otherwise fits the bill perfectly. Hermann even refers to Newt as having been infected by them on several occasions.
- Suddenly Voiced: They speak for the first time in Uprising, through Newt.
- Sufficiently Advanced Alien: People have worshiped lesser beings than the Kaiju. The Precursors mass produce them. You do the math.
- Walking Spoiler: Almost a victim of Trailers Always Spoil, revealing their motives but not their existence, implying it belongs to the Kaiju and not the masters.
Debuted in Pacific Rim: Aftermath
Faux Face
Faux Face
A scary monster with two heads that appears in Pacific Rim: Aftermath.- Breath Weapon: Of the electric type.
- The Cameo: Its hologram outline appears very briefly in Uprising when the heroes start examining previous Kaiju movements.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Despite the name it is two fully functioning heads. The closest to something like that is Otachi's tail coming to life once getting pulled off and that was in the novelization.
- Shock and Awe: Seems to possess an electric breathe weapon.
Spinejackal
A scary monster with lots of eyes that appears in Pacific Rim: Aftermath.
Spinejackal
- Extra Eyes: Has panoramic vision so sneaking up on it was incredibly hard to do.
- Off with His Head!: Lost the top half of his head to Striker Eureka throwing a wind propeller like a shuriken.
Debuted in Pacific Rim: Uprising
Raijin
Category: V
Breach Date: 2035
Target: Tokyo, Japan
The second confirmed Category 5 Kaiju. Appears in the sequel with Hakuja and Shrikethorn.
- Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: Gottlieb gives the monster its official name, Raijin, when it shows up in the radar. As at that time he couldn't know the creature looks like Raiju from the previous film, it's a surprising coincidence.
- Attack Reflector: Its faceplate can absorb kinetic energy and it can use the energy to empower itself or redirect it toward an opponent. It was able to punch Gipsy Avenger across half of downtown Tokyo in one hit by absorbing a single punch from the Jaeger.
- Composite Character: Appears to share traits of several Kaiju from the first film, including Onibaba's temple-like silhouette, Raiju's head plates that close over to protect a softer real face, and Knifehead's stance and body type. Considering the Precursors create the Kaiju in a literal assembly line, this is probably intentional.
- Extra Eyes: Has 16 of them, the most of any Kaiju.
- Large and in Charge: Being a category 5 he towers over his category 4 partners.
- Leader Forms the Head: Averted. When the trio combine into the Mega Kaiju, the final head is more of a fusion between Hakuja and Shrikehorn's faces. Raijin's headplates form the chest below it though.
- Nested Mouths: Has toothed external head armor that closes to protect its real head within.
- Noodle Incident: According to its stat cards, Raijin has engaged in battle with humanity before.
- No-Sell: Gipsy Avenger begins the fight with the famous rocket punch, which Raijin simply absorbs and turns back on the Jaeger, catapulting it back a great distance.
Hakuja
Category: IV
Breach Date: 2035
Target: Tokyo, Japan
A Category 4 Kaiju. Appears in the sequel with Raijin and Shrikethorn.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Saber Athena slashes at its soft underbelly when it leaps overhead.
- Fast Tunnelling: Hakuja can burrow underground extremely quickly for such a behemoth to reposition and ambush any unsuspecting Jaeger.
- Fragile Speedster: With its multiple legs, Hakuja is one of the most agile Kaiju on land, but one solid hit from Guardian Bravo is enough to knock it down.
- In a Single Bound: Hakuja also sports impressive jumping capabilities.
- Impact Silhouette: Is knocked into a building by a strike of Guardian Bravo's electric whip and tunnels straight through it.
- Mix-and-Match Critter: Combines features of a mole, an armadillo, a lizard and a beetle.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has six limbs, and puts them all to good use be it digging, climbing, or leaping at foes.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Is smaller than the other two kaiju (although the same Category as one of them), but puts up quite a fight.
- Stealthy Colossus: Land based version: its tunneling skills make him prone to appear suddenly behind an unsuspecting foe.
Shrikethorn
Category: IV
Breach Date: 2035
Target: Tokyo, Japan
A Category 4 Kaiju. Appears in the sequel with Raijin and Hakuja.
- Advertised Extra: Plays only a very small part in the final battle, before the three kaiju are merged into one.
- Composite Character: Combines features of Slattern and Leatherback, with spikes added for good measure.
- Killer Gorilla: Has this shape, with its thick arms coming down to the ground like a gorilla's stance.
- Meaningful Name: Shrikes are small predatory birds, notorious for impaling dead prey on thorn bushes to cache food for later. Shrikethorn doesn't cache its victims, but does impale them on spikes.
- Multiple-Tailed Beast: Has two tails, which serve as spike-launching weapons.
- Spike Shooter: The spikes at the end of its tails can be shot like artillery.
- Vocal Dissonance: Despite being a 200-foot monster, Shrikethorn's roar is a high-pitched wailing yelp similar to a seal.
Hybrid — Spoiler
Unmanned Jaeger Drones created by Shao Corporation that was to replace the Jaegers, they were secretly modified by Newton to reopen multiple Breaches to let the Kaiju return to Earth.
- Cyborg: Unmanned Jaeger drones that were to be remotely controlled by a human, but were modified to be controlled by a Kaiju brain.
- Light Is Not Good: The Drones body armor is white in color and they look futuristic and heroic in their normal form. Once their Kaiju brain took control and they becomes Kaiju-Jaeger abomination, not so much.
- Mechanical Monster: Once the Kaiju brain assumes control, the Drones grows spikes from inside out, can open their faceplates to reveal fanged jaws, and become much more monstrous.
Unnamed portal kaiju Spoiler
An immense Kaiju of uncertain category who emerges from the Breach.
- Advertised Extra: Is shown emerging from the portal in some trailers though he never actually makes it out alive.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Is quickly and unceremoniously killed once Shao disables the drones: the malfunctioning drones' portal beams cut his face apart before the collapsing portal bisects him to death.
- Giant Enemy Crab: According to Word of God, its lower body resembled that of a lobster.
- Giant Mook: Is easily twice the size of Slattern from the first film- though his full body is not seen, one of his arms alone is as big as an entire Hybrid Drone.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Is bisected by the Breach; his lower half is not seen.
- Portal Cut: A victim of this.
- Rhino Rampage: His head resembles a rhinoceros, with a pair of large horns on his forehead.
Rippers Spoiler
A swarm of small, insect-like Kaiju drones created from Shao Industries prototype mechs. They are unleashed in droves in the final battle to turn the tide in the kaiju's favor.
- Ascended Extra: Combined with Adaptational Species Change. They return in The Black as an actual kaiju species resembling massive reptilian wolves.
- Combining Mecha: Merge together to act as stitches when putting together the kaiju parts.
- Combat Tentacles: Possess numerous tendril-like appendages used for movement as well as grasping.
- The Swarm: Insectlike drones that scamper across the streets and climb all over the kaiju like army ants.
- Zerg Rush: Emerge from the Shao Industries in a seeming river of drones spreading all over the streets and climbing all over the kaiju to cut them apart and reassemble them into one, using their own bodies as sutures.
Mega Kaiju Spoiler
Category: Unknown
Breach Date: 2035
Target: Mt. Fuji, Japan
A Kaiju created from three other Kaiju, the Mega Kaiju is the biggest Kaiju seen so far and is also the toughest and deadliest one yet.- All Your Powers Combined: Being a fusion of three separate kaiju, the Mega Kaiju inherits their special abilities: Raijin's ability to redirect kinetic energy, Hakuja's body armor and multiple limbs, and Shrikethorn's twin weaponized tails (though instead of shooting spikes the tails are used more like spears).
- Attack Reflector: Inherits this ability from Raijin and uses it to send a powerful shockwave that knock back the four Jaegers charging toward it.
- Attack Its Weakpoint: Has three secondary brains due to being three monsters in one body. Getting to them however is harder than it looks.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: Has sharp spear-like tips on the tips of its tails, which can easily skewer a Jaeger in one hit.
- Body Horror: Raijin, Hakuja and Shrikethorn are literally torn apart by Newt's drones and reassembled into a single creature.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Once it is formed, it quickly demolish three of the four Jaegers that gave its previous three components trouble. Only Gipsy Avenger is left standing due to her more experienced pilots and even then, she has sustained multiple critical damages.
- Death Glare: Gives Newt a murderous one before stomping over to Mt. Fuji.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Apparently the best name its creator could think of for his giant fusion kaiju is "Mega Kaiju".
- Dragon-in-Chief: Quite possibly the most powerful Kaiju yet for the Precursors.
- Extra Eyes: Has multiple eyes running alongside its head, to a total of ten (strangely, it's a lot fewer than the total of the eyes on the three original kaiju).
- Fusion Dance: A Kaiju created from Raijin, Hakuja and Shrikehorn with the help of Newton and his mechanical drones.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Is killed by Gipsy Avenger dropping from the stratosphere to literally punch it in half.
- The Juggernaut: None of the attacks on it do any real damage, even when aimed its weakpoints: it's simply too thick skinned. And on top of this, it's easily strong enough to rip the advanced Jaegers to pieces.
- Mighty Glacier: Befitting its status as the biggest Kaiju seen so far, it move quite slowly but shrugs off everything the Jaegers throw at it and demolishes them back with ease.
- Mighty Roar: The first thing it does when it is formed is to unleash a powerful and tectonic roar. Also quite fond of doing it, stopping quite regularly to roar for no practical reasons. Even with the mouth of Mount Fuji right in front of it, it still pauses to roar triumphantly, giving Gipsy Avenger enough time to punch it to death. And even with half of its body gone from said punch, it still managed to give one final roar before falling down dead. In a twist of
Fridge Horror, it's possible that the monster is in a constant state of agony from being stitched together, and is actually screaming in pain... - Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Has six limbs, with the four hind limbs seemingly being from Hakuja and the two front arms combining Raijin and Shrikethorn's arms. Like Raijin, the Mega Kaiju can absorb kinetic energy and reflect it back at its foes.
- Tail Slap: Inherits the twin tails of Shrikehorn and one solid hit from them was enough to break Saber Athena in half.
- Transformation Is a Free Action: As the three kaiju are disassembled by the drones and put back together into a single monster, none of the Jaegers intervene or try to stop them combining, simply standing by as the Mega Kaiju forms before their eyes.
Debuted in Pacific Rim: The Black
"Boy" — Spoilers
Voiced by: Ben Diskin
Click here to his Kaiju form
A mysterious white-haired child discovered by Taylor and Hayley Travis in a Pan Pacific Defense Corps laboratory.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Despite having been captured and experimented on by humans, he forms a mutually protective bond with Hayley Travis, who constantly fusses over him.
- Bizarre Taste in Food: He eats a butterfly and tries to eat scorpions and snakes, only for Hayley to stop him for fear he'll be stung or bitten.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: In Season 2, Taylor trades the Boy to the Sisters in exchange for Atlas Destroyer's safe passage through their territory. Not only do the Sisters immediately renege this, they infuse the Boy with their ichor-tainted blood to connect him to their hive-mind and erase his memories of Hayley. This enables them to control him against Atlas Destroyer, and he nearly kills them before Apex intervenes.
- Curious as a Monkey: Boy is constantly wandering off to explore — and hunt for prey — to Hayley's chagrin, as she fears he'll get himself hurt.
- Cute Bruiser: He seems to be a Kaiju with the ability to disguise himself as a human. Normally, he looks like a cute white-haired child who likes to draw pictures and play with rocks. However, if you somehow get him angry enough... run.
- Cute Mute: Doesn't show signs that he's capable of speaking, but has no problem understanding others when spoken to. That, plus he's a little kid, showing curiosity about the world around him.
- Escaped from the Lab: He was found in a stasis tank filled with green liquid in Episode 2 when Taylor and Hayley reach the PPDC Recruitment Center in Meridian in search of power cells. He breaks out and accompanies the siblings from that point on.
- Expy: Along with Rei Ayanami (see below), he also has elements of Eren Yaeger given that he's a young boy who can transform into one of the monsters trying to destroy humanity when sufficiently angry, and is the first of his kind to be depicted as heroic.
- Eye Colour Change: When Hayley is knocked unconscious by Copperhead, the Boy's eyes turn red as he transforms into his Kaiju form.
- Hellish Pupils: One of the tells that he's not human are his eyes, which have vertically-slitted pupils in his human form.
- Hulking Out: Transforms into a medium-sized kaiju when enraged over Hayley being injured.
- Immune to Bullets: He not only survived being shot in the head by Rickter but didn't even get hurt. This also hints at his inhuman biology.
- Not Quite Back to Normal: After he reverts back from his Kaiju form in Season 2, he's left with a scar-like patch of scales across his left eye, which now has a red iris.
- Magic Pants: His black shorts transform with him anytime he switches between his human and Kaiju forms.
- Mystical White Hair: His human form has an albinistic appearance, with white hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. However, it's quickly made apparent that he's not human.
- No Name Given: He is referred to only as "Boy" by Taylor, despite Hayley's initial protests. This ends up catching on with Hayley and even Loa. The end credits omit his character completely until Episode 7, dubbing him "Kaiju boy".
- Non-Malicious Monster: Despite being a Kaiju, he forms a bond with Taylor and Hayley, going as far as to attack his own kind when Hayley is knocked unconscious.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: His Kaiju form is shorter than a Jaeger, but it can beat and even kill other Kaiju with ease.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes flash red before he transforms. In his Kaiju form, he has red irises surrounded by black sclera. Unlike other kaiju, he's only got two eyes.
- Rei Ayanami Expy: He's a white haired, red-eyed young child whose origin is mysterious at first, but clearly has some connection to the large monsters threatening to wipe out humanity.
- Shapeshifter Baggage: Goes from a small, adolescent boy to a good-sized Kaiju when he transforms, gaining at least one thousand times his human-form mass.
- Super-Strength: He is capable of leaping great heights and blocked a punch from the much larger Apex with no harm.
- Sweet Tooth: Upon drinking hot chocolate for the first time, he is ecstatic and playfully tries to grab Hayley's cup.
- Throat Light: When he starts transforming into his Kaiju form, his mouth emits an eerie blue glow.
- Token Heroic Orc: Because of his affection for Hayley, Boy has no hostility towards humans (making him, so far, the only Kaiju character who is good) and after she is injured by Copperhead he transforms to attack the larger kaiju.
- They Look Like Us Now: In the final episode of season 1, Boy is revealed to be a humanoid Kaiju, able to shapeshift into a Kaiju form when sufficiently angry.
Acidquill
Category: III
- Combat Tentacles: In addition to their long, prehensile tails, Acidquills have powerful tentacles with sharpened tips, which they can use to impale prey.
- Non-Indicative Name: Despite their name, they aren't shown to possess either quills or corrosive abilities.
- Top-Heavy Guy: Their legs are noticeably smaller than their arms, making them similar to the Skullcrawlers from Kong: Skull Island.
Copperhead
Category: IV
- Big Bad Ensemble: With Shane for the main villain of season 1. Copperhead serves as the primary Kaiju antagonist, attacking and destroying Hayley and Taylor's hidden village and hunting them relentlessly.
- The Brute: Copperhead doesn't have any special tricks, but plenty of raw strength to go around.
- Disney Death: It's baited into lunging off the edge of a deep ravine and seemingly falls to its death, but when Taylor and Hayley ask if it's dead Loa promptly responds that it isn't and will be back for revenge.
- The Dreaded: It developed a reputation for destroying Jaegers, even earning the nickname "Jaeger Breaker," before the start of the series.
- Extreme Omnivore: It rips off Atlas Destroyer's right arm and eats it during their second fight.
- Feed It a Bomb: In the final episode of Season 1, Copperhead is killed when one of Hunter Vertigo's nukes is shot into a hole ripped in its chest.
- Final Boss: After Taylor and Hayley escape Shane, Copperhead becomes the final threat of Season 1.
- Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: The only reason Copperhead lasts as long as it does is because Atlas Destroyer, as a training Jaeger, has been stripped of her weapons. If she still had her armaments, Copperhead explicitly would have been killed in the very first blow of their first fight.
- Starter Villain: It's the first Kaiju Taylor and Hayley battle when they acquire Atlas Destroyer. It lasts longer than most trope examples, as it takes the entire season for the main characters to finally kill it.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Copperhead pursues Atlas across Australia to find and destroy it, even after being knocked out twice.
Apex
Category: Unknown
The last surviving member of the Jaeger/Kaiju hybrids created by Newton Geiszler and Shao Industries, now evolved into a bio-mechanical creature that hunts and consumes other Kaiju.- Deus Exit Machina: Apex is much more powerful than a normal Jaeger or kaiju and would stand a good chance against a Category IV like Copperhead, but after giving Atlas a new arm, it leaves the children by themselves without any conflict.
- Heroic Sacrifice: In Season 2, Apex rescues Atlas Destroyer from the Boy after the Sisters brainwash him into attacking them, and ends up being savagely beaten and having its skull crushed. It survives long enough to free the Boy from the Sisters' control before succumbing to its wounds, leaving the Boy horrified by what he'd done.
- Hybrid Power: After the other drones were destroyed, Apex underwent an evolution that completely fused its kaiju and Jaeger halves. This not only makes it strong enough to effortlessly catch a punch from Atlas Destroyer and manhandle at least Category 3 kaiju, but it also freed it from any outside influence to make it the only kaiju with true independence.
- It Can Think: Apex shows signs of intelligence, drifting with Boy twice and Hayley once, realizing that Boy saw her as a protector and that Atlas Destroyer was missing an arm. It then brought them a replacement seemingly unprompted.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Apex is extremely powerful and has killed numerous opponents — implicitly both Kaiju and Jaeger — in the past, and it does attack Atlas Destroyer after killing the Acidquill they were fighting. But it's only acting like a territorial animal and even helps the group after Boy calms it down.
- Mechanical Monster: Apex used to be one of the Kaiju/Jaeger hybrid drones, but its biological and technological components have merged to the extent that it's metamorphosed into a predatory biomechanical Robeast with a black-and-red exoskeleton covered in chitinous spikes, eight red eye-lenses, talons, and a mouth full of sharp teeth that it can hide behind a faceplate.
- Monstrous Cannibalism: Despite being a hybrid of Kaiju and Jaeger, Apex's primary food source is other kaiju.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: It has survived many years since Uprising, including, by implication, an interwar period when it probably had the PPDC's undivided attention. By the time we meet it, it's killed every Kaiju and Jaeger it's ever fought and is still going strong.
- Organic Technology - Effectively a Jaeger made of organic material, like other hybrids.
- Robeast: The end result of Kaiju tissue infecting a Jaeger drone from Uprising, becoming a perfect sentient fusion of the two that hunts other Kaiju for sustenance.
- Sole Survivor: It is the only Kaiju/Jaeger hybrid drone known to have survived the self-destructing feedback loop that destroyed the others. It's implied that the surge that was meant to kill it instead severed it from the Precursor's hive mind.
Kaiju Eel
- Feed It a Bomb: Mei shoots an RPG down its throat to kill it.
- Monster Is a Mommy: The Kaiju lays eggs which Bogan periodically steals to trade with the Sisters for Jaeger parts. It's only hostile in defense of its nest.
- Nonindicative Name: Despite being referred to as an eel by showrunner Craig Kyle, its physical features give it a rather newt-like appearance.
The Sisters
A cult of formerly-human women who worship the Kaiju and the Precursors as gods.
- Alien Blood: As a result of infusing themselves with Kaiju ichor, their blood is blue.
- Apocalypse Cult: They worship the Precursors as gods and await the coming of the Kaiju Messiah so that the Earth may be cleansed of humans.
- Bald of Evil: The High Priestess is completely bald, and she's easily the most evil and ruthless of all the Sisters.
- The Beastmaster: The Sisters are capable of controlling the small, dog-like Rippers and are also able to call larger Kaiju.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Like Newt in Pacific Rim: Uprising, the Sisters have been brainwashed by the Precursors, and worship the Kaiju as gods. They forcibly induct any women they capture into their hive-mind, overwriting their past selves into fanatically-loyal cultists.
- Does Not Like Men: They capture and forcibly indoctrinate any women they capture, while sacrificing the men as part of their rituals.
- Fate Worse than Death: Being inducted into the Sisters means being turned into a Kaiju-hybrid and having your mind supplanted by that of the High Priestess. Even the normally unflappable Mei is visibly terrified at the thought of being captured by them.
- Hive Mind: The Sisters are connected to each other and the Kaiju via a hive mind, with the High Priestess as its Queen.
- Light Is Not Good: The High Priestess is the only one who wears white robes and a white bodysuit underneath, and is the leader of a dangerous Apocalypse Cult.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: They wear black and red robes and are a cult that worships kaiju and want to destroy humanity.
- Transhuman Treachery: They infuse themselves with Kaiju ichor, a process that slowly mutates them into humanoid Kaiju while making them fanatically loyal to the Precursors. The High Priestess has transformed to such an extent that she can barely be considered human, sporting an exoskeleton, claws, fangs, no nose, and protruding vertebrae under her mask and robe.
- White Mask of Doom: They all wear white masks with blue tear-like markings around the eye sockets.
The Breacher
Category: VI
A four-armed kaiju that the Sisters call in their last ditch effort to take back Boy. It is easily the strongest kaiju under their command.
- The Ace: It is a Category VI kaiju and is easily the most powerful faced by Taylor and Hayley. Aside from maybe the Mega Kaiju, it is the strongest kaiju seen yet.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The entire fight with Atlas Destroyer is a one-sided beating while the Breacher shrugs off everything the Jaeger hits it with.
- Dragon-in-Chief: The High Priestess is the main antagonist, but the Breacher is the main threat in the finale and outlives the High Priestess after she is killed by Boy.
- Dragon Their Feet: The High Priestess is killed by Boy while the Breacher fights Atlas Destroyer, leaving the kaiju to act as the Final Boss of the series.
- Final Boss: It serves as the final obstacle for Taylor, Hayley, Mei, and Boy trying to reach safety.
- Hero Killer: Not directly, but Loa makes a Heroic Sacrifice to kill the Breacher.
- The Juggernaut: Nothing Atlas Destroyer uses against the Breacher does any real damage. It takes self-destructing the Jeager to destroy the kaiju.
- No-Sell: Atlas Destroyer's blows have no effect on the Breacher, and even Chaos Nemesis' arm fails to hurt it.
- Strong as They Need to Be: Despite otherwise being the major step up in strength and toughness from the Category V kaiju expected of a Category VI, it's killed by a nuclear explosion which the Category V Slattern tanked with only minor damage.
