History Main / Kaiju

* Anteaters, aardvarks, sloth bears, echidnas, regal horned lizards, throny devils, armadillos, woodpeckers, frogs, toads, sloths, sloth bears, and pangolins are this trope for ant and termite "cities". As hilariously pointed out [[https://true-king-of-monsters.tumblr.com/post/184620886006/since-ant-colonies-are-like-tiny-insect-cities#notes by this Tumblr post.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSeaBeast'', the titular beasts certainly qualify. They're massive, aggressive, and very dangerous. History books state that they used to come right up to shore and destroy whole towns, until the royal family funded monster-hunting crews to drive them back. [[spoiler: As it turns out, the sea beasts are actually [[NonMaliciousMonster totally placid unless provoked]]. The history books [[HistoryIsWrittenByTheWInners were rewritten]] and the public lied to in order to promote the hunting campaigns, which in turn would drive the monsters to extinction and allow the royal family to [[EvilColonialist engage in conquest and expansion]] without worrying about the sea beasts destroying their ships by accident or due to territoriality.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSeaBeast'', the titular beasts certainly qualify. They're massive, aggressive, and very dangerous. History books state that they used to come right up to shore and destroy whole towns, until the royal family funded [[CreatureHunterOrganization monster-hunting crews]] to drive them back. [[spoiler: As it turns out, the sea beasts are actually [[NonMaliciousMonster totally placid unless provoked]]. The history books [[HistoryIsWrittenByTheWInners were rewritten]] and the public lied to in order to promote the hunting campaigns, which in turn would drive the monsters to extinction and allow the royal family to [[EvilColonialist engage in conquest and expansion]] without worrying about the sea beasts destroying their ships by accident or due to territoriality.]]

* From Abrahamic traditions and ''Literature/TheBible'', there are the lords of the animals: Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz. One's a giant aquatic dragon, the other an immense mammalian beast with tusks or horns, and the last is a giantic bird. The three are treated like primordial forces of nature in apocryphalt text, with the only thing that can stop them aside from God is each other.

Skyscraper-sized monsters that assault {{Tokyo|IsTheCenterOfTheUniverse}} (though other cities like UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco and UsefulNotes/HongKong are also popular choice lately), hapless island explorers, or each other are called ''Kaiju''.[[note]]literally translated, "strange creature"; the more accurate name for these things would be ''Daikaiju'', "great strange creature"[[/note]] While they have no ''specific'' form even in their own mythology, by Japanese standards they are traditionally monstrous, scaly water elementals of [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever about 50 feet and taller]] that commonly though not universally resemble [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaurs]] (due to those being the largest known land vertebrates in real life).

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2954 SCP-2954 ("Looping Kaiju Killing")]]. Every seven days, an example of SCP-2954-2 appears and attacks. SCP-2954-2 are bipedal and 50-60 meters tall. They have a mixture of traits from fish, amphibians and reptiles, including spiny fins on their back and forearms.

* Rampant in ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' as well as their American import ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', thanks to MakeMyMonsterGrow; less common in ''Franchise/KamenRider'', where the monsters tend to stay small-sized. (Except Film/KamenRiderJ.) [[note]]There's actually a generic term in Japan for MonsterOfTheWeek types in the spandex-versus-PeopleInRubberSuits genre -- a ''kaijin'' is like a ''kaiju'' but smaller and more humanoid. Of course, as special effects grow on television but traditionalism and NarmCharm rules in monster movies, there are creatures who are considered kaijin because of the show they're on that are [[http://images.wikia.com/kamenrider/images/8/8c/Jashin_14.jpg more monstrous than]] creatures who are considered kaiju because of the films they're in. So, in real-life terms, a kaiju is a movie giant monster and a kaijin is a ''{{Toku}}'' series' MonsterOfTheWeek.[[/note]]

** The Manga/MarvelMangaverse version of Comicbook/IncredibleHulk.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', [[spoiler: Ming Lee's red panda form is ''[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever massive]]'', and harbours an UnstoppableRage. Ming unleashes it in the film's climax after her daughter Mei openly defies her by remaining bound to hers, then running off to the 4*Town concert to reunite with her friends. Ming, in her panda form, proceeds to stomp through the streets of Toronto and tear open the roof of the [=SkyDome=] to attack the concert.]]

* From Abrahamic traditions and ''Literature/TheBible'', there are the lords of the animals: Leviathan, Behemoth, and Ziz. One's a giant aquatic dragon, the other an immense mammalian beast with tusks or horns, and the last is a giantic bird. The three are treated like primordial forces of nature in apocryphalt text, with the only thing that can stop them aside from God themself being each other.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': The [[StrongerWithAge oldest Grimm]] can get ''very'' big, most famously the sea-borne leviathans. The Atlas military base protecting Argus has to deal with these on a regular basis, which is why they have a series of HardLight energy shields to delay any giant Grimm long enough for the [[HumongousMecha Atlas colossus]] to fight them.

* From Music/MichaelNesmith's "Elephant Parts" (1981): [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDhbK7NFpQw Her Name Was Rodan]], and she lived in the ocean off Japan.

* Blondie's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_TgNaDoUao Attack of the Giant Ants]]
* Music/BlueOysterCult's "[[https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Blue+Oyster+Cult+Godzilla Godzilla]]", predictably enough.

* Marvel briefly had the rights to publish ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' comics (''Comicbook/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters1977''), and featured him as part of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse. As with Marvel's [[ComicBook/{{Micronauts}} other]] [[Comicbook/RomSpaceknight licensed]] [[Comicbook/ConanTheBarbarian property]] titles, he accrued a supporting cast of friends and enemies whom Marvel ''does'' own and who still pop up once in a while, such as Yetrigar the giant [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti yeti,]] a [[HumongousMecha giant robot]] named Red Ronin, and a MadScientist named Dr. Demonicus who specializes in mutating animals into Kaiju.

* Rampant in ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' as well as their American import ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', thanks to MakeMyMonsterGrow; less common in ''Franchise/KamenRider'', where the monsters tend to stay small-sized. (Except Film/KamenRiderJ.) [[note]]There's actually a generic term in Japan for MonsterOfTheWeek types in the spandex-versus-PeopleInRubberSuits genre -- a ''kaijin'' is like a ''kaiju'' but smaller and more humanoid. Of course, as special effects grow on television but traditionalism and NarmCharm rules in monster movies, there are creatures who are considered kaijin because of the show they're on that are [[http://images.wikia.com/kamenrider/images/8/8c/Jashin_14.jpg more monstrous than]] creatures who are considered kaiju because of the films they're in. So, in real-life terms, a kaiju is a movie giant monster and a kaijin is a ''{{Toku}}'' series' MonsterOfTheWeek.[[/note]]
** While most of the monsters in ''Super Sentai'' and ''Power Rangers'' start off human-sized and only become giant at the end of the episode, occasionally we get monsters that [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever start off being gigantic already]], such as the Giganoids of ''Series/BakuryuuSentaiAbaranger'' and Daitanix/Titanisaur from ''Series/SeijuuSentaiGingaman[=/=]Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy''.

* ''Series/KamenRiderHibiki'' has a lot of gigantic Makamou beasts, and in ''Series/KamenRiderDenO,'' there are Imagin capable of going OneWingedAngel, becoming giant beasts called Gigandeaths. In ''Series/KamenRiderWizard,'' a Phantom who hasn't hatched from its host yet appears as a monstrous beast within the mind of the victim, which must be battled within the mindscape by Wizard. The franchise is actually no stranger to giant beasties, and not a HumongousMecha in sight! However, the Riders' vehicles are sometimes very weapon-laden. Interestingly, Wizard has to use his ''own'' Inner Phantom, Dragon, to fight the Inner Phantoms, his [[SixthRanger Second Rider]] Beast having to do the same thing.
* The 4-episode miniseries ''Agon: The Atomic Monster''/''Giant Phantom Monster Agon'' is one of the earliest attempts at a TV show about a giant monster. Notably, the producers got into trouble early in production because Toho felt the title creature looked too much like Godzilla, though they let it go when it turned out the creators were members of Toho's own ''Godzilla'' team.
* Creator/DiscoveryChannel aired a docufiction story entitled ''Film/AlienPlanet'', loosely based on Creator/WayneBarlowe's ''Literature/{{Expedition}}''. One of the freaky beasties we see is the Emperor Sea Strider, a creature dwelling in the Amoebic Sea that stands ''620 feet tall -- that's as high as London's BT tower''.

* ''Series/TheMandalorian'' Season 2 has the Tatooine Greater Krayt Dragon whom has gotten some AdaptationalBadass from it's [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/42/4c/1f/424c1f35d78b8fb6bebc0f6d4092c599.jpg original design]], going from a big dragon-like beast to proper Kaiju-sized [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fa/34/c4/fa34c412025cef9ff63fc3c5349419dd.jpg massive monster]] which can spew acid from it's mouth and devour entire villages whole. It's also nigh-invulnerable to all kinds of laserfire and explosions, [[spoiler: Mando has to pull a Iron Man and KillItThroughItsStomach]].

A related term, "kemono", was used on many equally-monstrous creatures in a similar vein as kaiju (if not ''quite'' as massive), before it shifted into a common term for {{Beast M|an}}en or LittleBitBeastly. However, it's still not rare for some to refer to a Kaiju as a kemono. Another related word is ''kaijin'', which applies to more human-like monsters; the closest Western equivalent to this category of creature is perhaps the MonstrousHumanoid.

** Creator/{{Toho}} got into the act to with the likes of ''Series/ZoneFighter'', ''Sandbox/GoGreenman'', ''Series/GoGodman'', and ''Series/{{Megaloman}}''. The first one is also notable for having Godzilla as a recurring character.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', [[spoiler: Ming Lee's red panda form is ''[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever massive]]'', and harbours an UnstoppableRage. Ming unleashes it in the film's climax after her daughter, Mei openly defies her by remaining bound to hers, then running off to the 4*Town concert to reunite with her friends.]]

* The ''Series/ChouSeiShinSeries'' from Creator/{{Toho}}, which in a similar manner to ''Super Sentai'' features human-sized heroes jumping into HumongousMecha to fight gigantic monsters.

* ''Series/KamenRiderHibiki'' has a lot of gigantic Makamou beasts, and in ''Series/KamenRiderDenO,'' there are Imagin capable of going OneWingedAngel, becoming giant beasts called Gigandeaths. In ''Series/KamenRiderWizard,'' a Phantom who hasn't hatched from its host yet appears as a monstrous beast within the mind of the victim, which must be battled within the mindscape by Wizard. The franchise is actually no stranger to giant beasties, and not a HumongousMecha in sight! However, the Riders' vehicles are sometimes very weapon-laden. Interestingly, Wizard has to use his ''own'' Inner Phantom, Dragon, to fight the Inner Phantoms, his [[SixthRanger Second Rider]] Beast having to do the same thing.

* Quite a few dinosaurs fit this trope. In particular ''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.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'', [[spoiler: Ming Lee's panda form is ''[[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever massive]]'', and harbours an UnstoppableRage. Ming unleashes it in the film's climax after her daughter, Mei openly defies her by remaining bound to hers, then running off to the 4*Town concert to reunite with her friends.]]