Kaijin

Kaijin, literally meaning mysterious person, is a term used in usually in tokusatsu which describes humanoid monsters; some are depicted as evil, sadistic, and savage, while some are depicted as extremely unintelligent and sometimes perverse. Eventually, later on there would be many ally kaijin as well.

Japanese cinema

Usually, heroic monsters were from the daikaiju films. It wasn't until later on that tokusatsu began using kaijin which aided the hero or saved civilians, which became evident in the Kamen Rider Series. There were also some who just hung out with the heroes and provided the comedy relief, most of this happening in Super Sentai. Examples include:

• Mogura Juujin (from Kamen Rider Amazon)
• Kujira Kaijin (from Kamen Rider Black)
• The Renegade Orphenochs (Yuji Kiba the Horse Orphenoch, Naoya Kaido the Snake Orphenoch, and Yuka the Crane Orphenoch from Kamen Rider 555)
• The Royal Club Undeads (Shima the Tarantula Undead and Jou Hikaru the Tiger Undead from Kamen Rider Blade).
• Yatsudenwani (Mikoto Nakadai/Abarekiller's Servant from Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger)
• The 3 Baka Gorma (Company President Gravestone, Miss Telephone, and Boss Kamikaze; from Gosei Sentai Dairanger)
• Pygmon and Mini Baltan from Ultraman.
• Blaird, Cyclead, and Aqual from Chousei Kantai Sazer-X.
• Daigo Tachikawa and Shuichi Tadokoro (Native Worms) from Kamen Rider Kabuto.

Western cinema

While the term itself is used to describe many monsters from tokusatsu and Japanese folklore, monsters like vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's Monster, mummies, zombies, and other Western monsters are in this category to an extent, but not most of the time; however, some credit them to the contribution of many tokusatsu kaijin.

See also

• Tokusatsu
• Kamen Rider
• Super Sentai
• Metal Heroes
• Mogura Juujin
• Kujira Kaijin
• Orphenoch
• Makamo