#kaiju show

Pieces for Giant Robot’s Kaiju show! 

“Kaiju is a Japanese word meaning “strange creature”. In English, it has come to mean “monster” or “giant monster”, referring to creatures of a large size seen in moviesfromAsia. Many kaiju movies are made in Japan. It is a type of tokusatsu entertainment. Kaiju movies usually show a monster attacking a major Japanese city or battling other monsters. The most famous kaiju is Godzilla. Other well-known kaiju include Mothra,King Ghidorah,Mechagodzilla, and Rodan.

Terms that are related to kaiju include kaijū eiga, movies with several large monsters or a single monster, kaijin, movies with a human-like monster, and daikaiju, movies with very large monsters. Kaiju is recognised a lot in the blockbuster film Pacific Rim.” - Wikipedia

My first thought of Kaiju was Godzilla, so I rewatched movie Shin Godzilla ( for like 5th time, one of my favorite ) but realized Godzilla itself hasn’t shown much. Then I moved to research of origin of Kaiju, then history of Godzilla, then landed my focus on Godzilla - original film from 1954. I wrote all of the keywords from the movie, iconic scene and some important names. After I gathered all of the reference and was planning to draw landscape with real size Godzilla, but later I realized there are too many similar composition & art pieces and I assumed that most of the others will draw that way. Since I wanted to create something that is more original with me design, instead I incorporated Godzilla theme to my rakugaki girls like I did with Youkai Girls series.  I drew the landscape which all are iconic with the film, ( especially first drawing with Godzilla cloud ) - Odo Island, Kokkai Gijido, Ginza Wako building and Kachidoki Bridge.

Then I drew girls with street style fashion but with inspiration of main characters from the film, Serizawa ( who has eye patch ), Ogata ( who wear marine hat at end of the movie ), and Emiko Yamane ( hair style & hat she wore in the film ). Also incorporated keywords in their designs such as “Oxygen Destroyer” ( which defeats Godzilla at end ), “呉爾羅” ( kanji of Godzilla ), 8.13.19.5 ( the time when Godzilla show up for first time in water ), strontium 90, Tachibanamaru ( ship where people who discover Godzilla at first), train names, title of the song that was used and many more. 

I also hid Godzilla placed in every background, some obvious, some are not. ( The cloud with Godzilla front view ( iconic ), cloud with back view, shadow and small shadow in the water, bridge where Godzilla dies. ) 

The research part is always the most exciting process part of creating pieces for me. Although most of the time I feel like I’m not able to use or show all of the things I intended and not sure if anyone gets all of the easter eggs or background behind it … But its ok! I just need to do step by step, improvement and continuous improvement. And the most important thing is myself having fun anyway and I did enjoy it. :) Otaku life forever. 

Listening to : Shin Godzilla OST - Who will know