8/23/13

Top 10 Kaiju/Giant Monsters


Yesterday Siskoid and a couple of his friends did a little crossover where they all posted their favorite giant monsters, and being a fan of the genre, I have come from the depths of the ocean to partake in this free-for-all myself.  Without further ado, here we go.

10. Glenn Manning (The Amazing Colossal Man - 1957, War of the Colossal Beast - 1958)

What do you mean, you're out of king-sized beds?
"What do you mean, you're out of King-sized beds?"
Poor Glenn Manning, survives a plutonium blast, only to be turned into a gigantic freak.  The fifties were a wonderful time for radiation, need to make a character bigger, smaller, super-powered? Sprinkle them with radiation!
Sally's "Visible Man" re-creation had gotten out of hand.

One of the few American International sci-fi/horror movies to get a sequel, The Amazing Colossal Man, while a little ropey effects-wise, deals with a man's attempts to fit into a world he no longer feels a part of.  A little returning soldier allegory digestif to go with your B-Movie entree.


9. Terminus (various Marvel Comics)


A dying race's giant middle finger to the Celestials, Terminus's only real goal is to destroy worlds the Celestials have "tampered" with.  A limited concept, but the initial stories are well worth reading.

8. Mecha-Kong (KING KONG ESCAPES - 1967)


Built by Doctor Who (not THAT Doctor Who, but he looks enough like Peter Cushing) to mine Element X at the north pole, Mechie's fatal flaw is that his systems break down when exposed to Element X's radiation, whoopsie.  He miraculously revives to fight Kong later in the film.  I chose him over the original Kong because he's kind of a sad sack, can't really catch a break.  Besides, how fun would these lists be if everyone kept picking the same characters?

7. Destroyer (Godzilla vs. Destoroyah - 1995)

King Who-dorah?
Say you need to defeat a horrifically mutated dinosaur that can breath atomic flames and is currently destroying the entire country and your only hope is a device called the Oxygen Destroyer, which for all you know has no side effect.  You'd use it, right?  Well, I hope that at some point you don't become too friendly with said dinosaur, because your 'only hope' created ANOTHER horrifically mutated dinosaur that is completely, totally evil.  Nice one.

Destroyer had a number of forms, and a subtle link to another of our entries!

6. Debo Akkumoon (Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger episode 25)

Yes
Akkumoon (which I believe translates to "sleep soundly") is our newest Kaiju, debuting about a month ago on the latest iteration of the Super Sentai series of shows.  I have not responded this strongly to a character in quite a while, but that may have to do with my hours of operation and relative lack of sleep.

Powers include - Memory Foam Shield: A memory foam pillow soft enough to absorb any attack, Super Slumber Attack: A body pillow that instantly outs you to sleep, and Hot Side of the Pillow Firebomb!: He lures you in with the "Yes" pillow pictured above, when within range he suddenly flips the cool side of the pillow away from you, flames erupting everywhere.

The team defeats him by getting hopped up on cappucino so they can't sleep.

5. Starfish Hitler (Kamen Rider X - 1974)

Starfish Hitler went viral when io9 posted a youtube clip of him on July 4th.  As a nerd, I was happy and sad that one of the craziest thing from Kamen Rider had gotten that much more mainstream.

4. Talos (Jason and the Argonauts - 1963)


Having skipped Kong, this is my paean to the somewhat lost art of stop-motion animation.  Ray Harryhausen's homage to the Colossus of Rhodes is, of course, an amazing achievement, and my favorite of his work, given my childhood love of Hellenic mythology.

3. Hedorah - (Godzilla Versus The Smog Monster - 1971)


This was the first Godzilla movie I recall seeing, and being a child of the late '70s/early '80s the environmental angle stuck out to me.  Hedorah appears to have been a favorite of someone else at Toho, as the multiple tiny organisms making up a Godzilla foe would be picked up later by Destroyer and in the Gamera foe - Legion.

2. Gamera (Gamera - 1965, etc.)

Twirling, twirling, toward democracy.

Gamera was the first Kaiju movie I ever saw.  It was late on a Saturday night, and for some reason I could pick up the Green Bay NBC station.  Rather than go to bed after sneaking out to the kitchen to watch Saturday Night Live, I was amazed to see a guy calling himself Ned the Dead, made up like a zombie introducing this weird movie about a giant flying turtle.  Even though I had to wake up for church the next morning, I was hooked instantly.

Gamera combines the best of Godzilla and Mothra - never a horror, always a protector, he's the Captain America of giant "monsters"
 
1.Daimajin (Daimajin, Return of Daimajin, Wrath of Daimajin - 1966, Daimajin Kanon - 2010-Present)


Daimajin leading the exodus from Egypt


While Gamera was my first kaiju film, the Daimajin series (and now TV series) dovetails into my other great love - Golems.