History Main / Kaiju

* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' includes a particularly formidable bunch called the Endbringers: Massive humanoid monstrosities with extremely powerful macro-scale superpowers and NighInvulnerability, which are collectively engaged in a slow but implacable campaign to wipe out humanity for reasons unknown. They include Behemoth, a 45-foot tall creature resembling a gray demon complete with horns with the power of dynakinesis (control over all forms of energy); Leviathan, a 30-foot tall humanoid with a long tail with macrohydrokinesis and a water "shadow"; And the Simurgh, a 15 foot-tall woman with dozens of white, feathered wings that possesses a particularly malevolent form of precognition, mental influence, and telekinesis. They're smaller than most of the creatures on this page, but don't let that fool you; they're every bit as tough, if not more so, and being relatively small means that they're able to hide, ambush people, and enter buildings.

* A ''Series/DoctorWho'' story called ''Invasion of the Dinosaurs'' contained ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
** Another story called ''The Seeds of Doom'' features an alien plant called a Krynoid, which eventually grows to a size of several tens of feet tall. The Doctor says it will max out at about the size of St Paul's Cathedral (at which point it will release thousands of seeds, dooming all animal life on Earth).
** Then there's the Robot from the serial, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Robot]], and the Cyberking from the 2009 Christmas special.

Typically, they arrive from somewhere Far Away. Whether that means space, BeneathTheEarth, or a [[TropicalIslandAdventure South Pacific island]] varies. Expect lots of StuffBlowingUp to result, but, since GiantEqualsInvincible, don't expect the explosions to actually hurt them. ''Do'' expect at least one case of HelicopterFlyswatter. Examples of this genre can range from straight-up DisasterMovie (''Film/{{Cloverfield}}'', the first ''[[Film/{{Gojira}} Godzilla]]'' movie) to all-out wrestling matches between PeopleInRubberSuits (most of the later ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' movies, every ''Film/{{Gamera}}'' movie but the first), and the characterization of individual kaiju can range from [[BenevolentMonsters guardian hero]] to force of nature to NonMaliciousMonster to EldritchAbomination to TragicMonster. As this genre features a judicious application of RuleOfCool, expect the MST3KMantra to be in full effect. Often, you'll only watch this kind of movie [[JustHereForGodzilla to see the monsters fight]], which can often involve UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny (such as ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla'').

Compare DisasterMovie, AttackOfTheKillerWhatever, {{Robeast}}, and AttackOfThe50FootWhatever. Has its roots in {{Toku}}satsu and {{Mon}}s. See KaijuTropes for a list of tropes on these monsters and their stories.

** ''Maarapunisaurus'' (formerly ''Amphicoelias'') was by some estimates the single largest land-based animal -- never mind dinosaur -- on record. 40 to 60 metres (130 to 200 ft) in length, and may have had a mass of up to 122 metric tons (135 short tons). Unfortunately, it's only known from a single piece of vertebrae that was mysteriously lost over a century ago. Regardless, it still remains the largest terrestrial animal that we know off that is not from a controversial background. A 2018 paper has suggested that ''Maraapunisaurus'' may have belonged to a different family of sauropods called a Rebbachisaurid which was shorter but heavier than the diplocids. As such, recent calculations placed it between 35-40 meters (115–131 ft) long with a weight ranging between 80-120 metric tons.
** Another is the much [[OvershadowedByControversy controversial]] ''Bruhathkayosaurus''. Due to the only fossil material ever found of this sauropod being destroyed by a monsoon shortly after being found in the 1980s (with only a crude sketch confirming they ever existed), debate raged for years as to whether this dinosaur was just misidentified petrified wood or completely faked by its discoverers until the discovery of archived photographs of the fossils in the 2020s. That aside, ''Bruhathkayosaurus'' was around 37-44.1 meters long, and weight estimates for it vary as low as 30 tons to as ridiculously high as ''220 tons'', with a 2023 estimate placing it at a just-as-ridiculous ''[[https://www.idunn.no/doi/10.18261/let.56.2.5 110-170 tons]]'', giving the largest blue whales a run for its money. If we take the upper measurements at face value, Bruhathkayosaurus would be the largest animal ''PERIOD'' (Except maybe the upper estimates of Perucetus, mentioned above).
** On a more complete and less mysterious basis than the above two behemoths (ie. their fossils are still readily available for study), ''Argentinosaurus'' and several other enormous sauropods like ''Patagotitan'' and ''Puertasaurus'', could have broken 100 short tons in weight and been over 30 meters long. Several species like ''Diplodocus'' could get longer, but they weren't as robust.

* Many icthyosaurs could get pretty big, but the "Lilstock specimen" may very well take the cake. Much like ''Maarapunisaurus,'' it's only known from fragmentary remains, but when scaled based on its close relative ''Shonisaurus'' - itself growing up to 21 meters long - the Lilstock specimen is estimated to be up to 27 meters long, rivaling the aforementioned blue whale. Though, like the blue whale, it's destructive power is up in the air. ''Shonisaurus'' itself, however, [[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/paleontologists-uncover-birthing-ground-for-earths-first-ocean-giants-180981320/ was a toothed raptorial predator]], and if the Lilstock ichthyosaur was the same, it would have been the biggest toothed predator ever.