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Kaiju Cold War: Gigantus Raids Again
(aka: Kaiju Cold War Gigantis Raids Again)

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Kaiju Cold War: Gigantus Raids Again (Literature)
Mighty Gigantus, crushing whole cities in its wrath! And deadly Gyottos, screaming its challenge of mortal combat!

Kaiju Cold War: Gigantus Raids Again is a Kaiju novel written by Jack Blackburn, who previously wrote Prehistoria.

The start of the story should sound familiar to those versed in Kaiju lore. A giant monster, dubbed Gigantus, rises from the depths of the Pacific Ocean after being awakened by nuclear testing, and ravages Tokyo before a brave scientist pulls a Heroic Sacrifice using an experimental superweapon. Both he and Gigantus are killed.

The following year, the people of Japan are struggling to rebuild. The story follows the scientist's best friend, his fiancé, and his mentor, in addition to a Naval captain who was present during the rampage and a secretary to the newly-crowned Emperor Akihito as they navigate the personal traumas and geopolitical chaos left in Gigantus's wake.

However, reports emerge that a new inexplicable monster has risen in the Soviet Union and is making its way towards Japan and Korea, leaving a matching trail of destruction behind.

And to make matters worse, Gigantus might not be as dead as assumed...


This work provides examples of:

  • Alternate History: Tokyo is rendered uninhabitable by a giant monster attack in 1954, killing thousands including Emperor Showa (a.k.a Hirohito). Osaka becomes the new capital of Japan, the Heisei era begins decades early with a 22 year old Akihito becoming emperor, and the post-Korean War period gets even more complicated when another giant monster appears in the Soviet Union.
  • Ambiguous Gender: In Japanese kaiju tradition, Gigantus and Gyottos are referred to exclusively with neutral pronouns (they/them and it/its).
  • An Ice Person: Gyottos constantly generates an icy cold mist around their body- which also happens to be highly radioactive and combustive. It is also accompanied by a massive blizzard wherever it goes.
  • Animalistic Abomination: Both Gigantus and Gyottos. They look like chimeras of multiple animals and specifics of their origin are vague beyond being nuclear mutations or dormant ancient species. This trope is played straight as the two kaiju are revealed to be 100% supernatural entities, which are implied to have been “corrupted” by the amount of war and bloodshed throughout Asia and driven to enact vengeance upon humanity for it.
  • Arc Words:
    • “Mad world” and variations thereof, referring to the suffering and strife caused by both political tensions and kaiju chaos.
    • “Thunk… thunk…”, or the sound of Gigantus’s heartbeat as it slumbers in the deep sea trench.
  • Armies Are Evil: Zigzagged. Individual military personnel like Colonel Liao and Captain Andrews often have the peoples' best interests in mind; but larger forces can cause plenty of issues and have internal problems. It's also heavily implied bloodthirsty military imperialism and warfare is what set off Gigantus and Gyottos in the first place. Being the Cold War right after the Korean War, both sides heavily distrust one another and refuse to cooperate, but their attempts to stop Gyottos often wind up resulting in screwing the other side over; intentionally or not.
  • Answer to Prayers: When plummeting to their doom inside a trolley, Hana prays for something, anything, to save Yukiko as she couldn't. The tidal wave kicked up by Gigantus bursting out of the bay to tackle Gyottos cushions their fall and saves them.
  • Bears Are Bad News: Gyottos possesses a bear-like build in addition to thick fur on their legs and underbelly, likely in homage to bears often representing Russian/Soviet aggression in political imagery.
  • Behemoth Battle: Gyottos and Gigantus finally meet and battle it out across Osaka. Dr. Jobon Shimura specifically hoped for this as a huge gambit as nothing could possibly stop Gyottos but the first monster.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Zig-zagged. Snippets of Korean and Spanish are spoken but translated, either in parentheses or by other characters. Then, snippets of ancient Ainu and Proto-Indo-European are spoken, but all but two of the Ainu phrases are left untranslated.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Gyottos and Gigantus are still out there and nobody can stop them, but they are mutually avoiding each other and haven’t launched renewed attacks. Osaka was saved Tokyo’s fate and the surviving cast have promising lives ahead of them after healing.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: The kaiju are revealed to have this. They’re sapient, but they think and operate on an entirely different scale from humans.
  • Central Theme: Sometimes horrible things happen for reasons outside your’s or anyone’s control. The best you can do is help others and keep on living anyway.
  • Cold War: The book is set in an alternate 1955, where kaiju attacks complicate the ongoing wars and political tensions. American bomb tests in the Pacific unleashed Gigantus on the world a year prior, and Gyottos first appearing in the USSR before marching eastward complicates the ability of other nations to respond to it.
  • Cool Boat: The USS New Jersey features prominently, surviving the first monster attack and being refitted in the interim.
  • Corrupted Character Copy: Gyottos, while primarily an Anguirus expy, also has a sizeable amount of Gamera inspiration. Unlike Gamera however, who is a benevolent protector who only behaves violently towards his enemies, Gyottos is violent and sadistic towards nearly everyone or everything that gets their attention.
  • Different World, Different Movies: Them! and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms both exist In-Universe, with Godzilla being under production when Gigantus’s attack happened, leading to the Trope Codifier of kaiju never existing.
  • The Emperor: Akihito has a benevolent, if very human portrayal. Having been crowned decades early and being the sole survivor of his immediate family from Gigantus' rampage across Tokyo, he is thrown for a loop. The culpability of his forefathers in war crimes and destruction is brought forth many times and part of his arc is figuring out his place as a largely ceremonial symbolic leader, using that for the betterment of the common people.
  • Enemy Mine: Averted. Unlike The Return of Godzilla, the mutual threat of Gyottos isn't enough for the two Cold War sides to come together. Colonel Liao crosses lines to warn the other side solely out of his own volition.
    • One political tie that does wind up happening is South Korea and Japan do begin the road to reconciling, previously just tolerating each other when coordinating against the kaiju threat. The Imperial house sponsoring an evacuation effort to help Korean in harm's way of Gyottos, spearheaded by Korean Japanese zainichi, helped out.
    • In the final battle at Osaka, Captain Andrews takes a metaphoric leap of faith and orders all guns on the New Jersey to focus fire on Gyottos over Gigantus. Other ships follow suit. Gigantus possibly returned the favor by tackling Gyottos out of the way when the other kaiju nearly pounced on the New Jersey.
  • Expy:
    • Among the kaiju, Gigantus is a Notzilla and Gyottos resembles Anguirus but with different powers.
    • Among the humans, most are inspired by the cast of the original Godzilla (1954): Hana Shimura is to Emiko Yamane, Dr. Jobon Shimura is to Dr. Kyohei Yamane, Miguel Clark is to Steven Martin of the American cut, and Dr. Haruo Tanaka to Dr. Daisuke Serizawa.
  • Foreshadowing: A battle between a mako shark and Giant Squid and many small fish caught in the middle seems to forewarn the conflict between Gyottos and Gigantus with the people caught in the crossfire.
  • Fertile Feet: Gigantus is also able to absorb radiation as well as throw it off, and stimulate plant growth. The final scene of the epilogue has them return to Tokyo, where they decontaminate the glassed ruins and allow plants to overgrow the buildings. If they really are Seiryu, this might tie into being affiliated with the element of "wood".
  • The Four Gods: Regarding symbolism and in-universe speculation, Gigantus is tied to Seiryu and Gyottos to Genbu.
  • Giant Squid: One briefly appears in a sequence taking place in the middle of the ocean.
  • Girl Friday: Kaede Gojo, Imperial secretary and government liaison. In practice she’s often the young emperor’s advisor.
  • Historical Domain Character: Emperor Akihito appears as a minor character, having been crowned 35 years early given Emperor Hirohito perished in the 1954 attack on Tokyo. Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai also feature, and a young Yukiko Takayama, the writer of Terror of Mechagodzilla, gets prominent screentime during the finale.
  • Hell Is That Noise:
    • “Thunk… Thunk…” is a sound that haunts the nightmares of Hana, Miguel, and Jobon. It turns out to be Gigantus’s heartbeat.
    • Andrews realizes the strange, uncanny noise Gyottos was making was it laughing at them.
  • In Mysterious Ways: After certain revelations and insight, Dr. Jobon comes to believe sometimes horrid things happen for complex reasons. Be it a hurricane, a war, a nuclear blast, or a Gigantus.
  • It Can Think: During a lull in the final battle, Gigantus and Gyottos talk to each other. None of the human characters (except Hana for a few moments) can tell what they are saying, but it’s clear from context that Gigantus is telling Gyottos to leave. Gyottos refuses, and then the Behemoth Battle resumes.
    • Earlier, attempts to bait and lure the kaiju like regular animals saw minimal success, and Gyottos laughs at seeing the panicked chaos and carnage caused by it’s presence.
  • Kaiju: The novel follows a group of survivors after the first kaiju attack in 1954, as a second monster rampage looms overhead a year later.
  • Kraken and Leviathan: Gigantus is a sea monster, and is suggested to actually be the in-universe inspiration for Leviathan as well as Seiryu and Watatsumi. However, it’s ultimately left ambiguous whether that really is the case or not.
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: Dr. Jobon Shimura, a Japanese man, was married to Mari Shimura, a Korean woman. They had to hide Mari's ethnicity and pass her off as Japanese during the 30s and 40s due to discrimination Koreans suffered. Jobon was always scared for his wife and their mixed daughter being discovered.
  • Man in a Rubber Suit: The time-honored technique is referenced when Gigantus’ appearance is described as like a shark and crocodile blended together and molded into a shape a human could fit in. Special attention is called to the arrangement of their fingers and fins being eerily similar to a human hand.
  • Militaries Are Useless: Zigzagged. Sufficiently powerful weapons like extremely big cannons and bombs can knock down a kaiju for a bit or cause some damage, but the monsters' regeneration and sheer durability means defeating them is all but impossible. Nuking Gyottos makes the situation magnitudes worse both times. They can however distract the monsters to buy time for evacuations.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Gigantus resembles a blend of various shark species (predominantly goblin shark and tiger shark) mixed with crocodilian and Godzilla anatomy, while Gyottos is a mix of bear, turtle, Anguirus, and dicynodont.
  • The Neutral Zone: Gyottos heads right into the Korean Demilitarized Zone and causes a massive amount of chaos as both sides simultaneously try to evacuate, fight it, and try to steer it away from their side.
  • Not Quite Flight: Gyottos uses the recoil from its explosions to attain this.
  • Nuclear Option: When it looks like Gyottos is going to make landfall in Japan and nothing possibly could stop it, the USA options the possibility of using an experimental series of warheads on it in the hopes the sheer force would overwhelm it. It's made quite clear nobody involved wants to do this.
  • Our Dragons Are Different: In stark contrast to Japanese dragons (RyĹ«) being thought of as benign, mythic, wise forces; Gigantus fits the description of a wani pretty closely as a shark-like sea monster with a few reptile traits. Some Shinto temples have even begun considering Gigantus to be a vengeful, angered form of the wani kami, Watatsumi.
  • Psycho Electro: Gigantus.
  • Riddle for the Ages: Just what are Gigantus and Gyottos and why did Gigantus decide to fight on humanity's behalf to stop Gyottos?
  • Sea Monster: Gigantus came from the deep ocean and is an adept swimmer. Gyottos comes from land, but is also a capable swimmer enough to destroy ships at sea.
  • Shock and Awe: Gigantus possesses an electrical Breath Weapon.
  • Shout-Out: In a word, there are tons.
  • Shown Their Work: Blackburn’s familiarity with the kaiju genre and research into history, folklore, and military hardware are on full display.
    • The Spanish slang Miguel occasionally slips into is all correct, as are the occasional lines of spoken Korean.
    • Kaede's explanation of how Shintoism can regard a kami and youkai as one-in-the-same aspects of natural forces is correct. Watatsumi, as an ocean entity, also has many shrines in and around a big port like Osaka.
    • Nagasaki was a hub for the Japanese Catholic community. Saint Mary’s Cathedral was a real place, and services were ongoing when the bomb dropped. Additionally, Christianity is far more common amongst Koreans than in Japanese and thousands lived in Nagasaki at the time.
  • The Stormbringer: Both Gigantus and Gyottos generate massive storm systems as they move: a typhoon for Gigantus and a blizzard for Gyottos. Gigantus channels the lightning from theirs to power their Breath Weapon, and even shows some degree of control over it, directing the storm winds and lightning to down military aircraft.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: The steam that Gyottos throws off, in addition to being freezing and radioactive, is also highly combustive.
  • Take That!: Aside from the one mentioned above, one of the theories of the kaijus' origins is that they're from the Hollow Earth, and the description is taken almost directly from the infamous unmade Godzilla movie, Bride of Godzilla. They even include the mermaids and the giant fleas, something that baffles Miguel to no end.
  • Threatening Shark: Gigantus is a giant shark-like kaiju with Shock and Awe abilities and a hair-trigger temper.
  • Tornado Move: Gigantus can bend its lightning around water to move it, creating a water cyclone to fast travel and attack.
  • Tunnel King: Gyottos can burrow underground via small, controlled detonations of it’s explosive abilities.
  • Walking Wasteland: The amount of radiation thrown off by both kaiju is enough to render the land left in their wake completely uninhabitable. Tokyo even a year after Gigantus' attack doesn't even have animals living in it as they all stay away.
  • Yamato Nadeshiko: Kaede’s first husband thought she was this, due to being from a very old and respected family. Her personality and having Korean blood made him abandon her to join the war.
  • YĹŤkai: Several Shinto temples have begun regarding Gigantus as being one-in-the-same with Watatsumi, the dragon lord of the sea.

Alternative Title(s): Kaiju Cold War Gigantis Raids Again

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