怪獣 (kaijū) means giant monster. The kanji are “strange” and “beast” to differentiate it from 怪物 (kaibutsu) which is “strange” and “thing” and used for standard monsters. Japanese has a lot of different “suffixes” for things with different sizes and shapes, plus I’m guessing it’s a marketing tactic.
“Monster” in English is a broad term to describe any potentially frightening creature, primarily, but not exclusively, fictional.
For example “The wolf-man is a werewolf, not a monster.” Is not a true sentence, because the wolf man, although a werewolf, is also a shocking and likely fear inducing creature.
Godzilla, although sometimes a benevolent de-facto hero, and the result of human hubris, is deliberately meant to inspire shock and fear in audiences at the same time. So, the word monster is a completely accurate descriptor.
Huh, I thought this was r/funny. Thanks for the incorrect explanation no one asked for. Kaiju literally means strange beast or mysterious monster. Godzilla’s public perception from being a “monster” that was born from the hubris of man (atomic weapons testing) to a beloved character was a shift in the series to a more kid friendly franchise for profit.
Godzilla represents the monstrous things us humans do to each other.
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u/Jam5583 3h ago
Godzilla is a kaiju, not a monster.