Difference between revisions of "Gigan"

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Gigan

Gigan (ガイガン, Gaigan) is a robot kaiju, introduced in the 1972 film Godzilla vs. Gigan.

Description

Gigan is sporting a buzzsaw weapon in its frontal abdominal region and large metallic hooks for hands. Gigan is considered Godzilla's most brutal and violent opponent, alongside Destroyah.

Etymology

Gigan is a Japanese word meaning artificial eye.

Features

Height 65-120 metres
Weight 25,000-60,000 tons
Air speed Mach 3

History

Gigan's first appearance was in the 1972 film Godzilla vs. Gigan. In the film, Gigan is summoned to Earth by the antagonist Nebula M Space Hunter aliens where he was paired with the three-headed space dragon Monster Zero to destroy Tokyo. They were challenged by Godzilla and Anguirus, and after a long fight the two space monsters were driven away.

In the 1973 film, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Gigan was sent by the antagonist Nebulans to assist the people of Seatopia in their assault on humanity by aiding their god, Megalon, in a battle against Godzilla and the robot Jet Jaguar. After receiving a broken arm at the hands of Jet Jaguar, Gigan fled to space, leaving his erstwhile ally Megalon to face Godzilla and Jet Jaguar alone. This is the second time Gigan has abandoned an ally. This seems to indicate that Gigan has a traitorous personality.

Also in 1973, Gigan made an appearance on Toho's television series Zone Fighter. Gigan was defeated by Godzilla once again. Left for dead by Godzilla, Gigan was revived later to battle Zone Fighter. In the final battle, Gigan is killed by Zone Fighter, making him the only Godzilla monster to have been introduced in the main movie series but whose death is only shown in another media.

Gigan's latest appearance was in the 2004 Millennium film, Godzilla: Final Wars, where he is one of the main antagonists for Godzilla to fight. After Gigan is beheaded and seemingly killed by Godzilla, his alien masters recover and rebuild his body, upgrading him with claws designed like double pronged chainsaws. This time, Gigan is killed by Mothra, who sacrifices her life to kill the ancient cyborg.

Powers

Hooked arms

Gigan's forelimbs sport a pair of large metal hooks in place of hands which the monster uses to both batter and stab his opponents. In his appearance on the television series Zone Fighter, the tips of the hooks can release an explosive charge on contact with an enemy. In Godzilla: Final Wars, Gigan's arms were replaced with chainsaws after being defeated by Godzilla.

Antigravity flight

Gigan has a trio of retractable wings which is capable of allowing Gigan to fly at speeds of up to Mach 3. This normally assists in interstellar travel and is utilized very little, if at all, during battle situations. When it is used in battle, however, Gigan will often use it to engage in aerial slams to continuously topple his opponents without giving them a chance to counter, or even get up. In Godzilla: Final Wars, the antigravity flight was replaced by jetpacks, presumably to give Gigan more of a robotic feel.

Teleportation

In Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, Godzilla: Save the Earth, and Godzilla: Unleashed, Gigan has the ability to teleport in a green flash

Buzzsaw

Gigan has a buzzsaw built into his abdominal area. It is of considerable durability and effectiveness as it was sharp enough to cause severe epidermal damage to Godzilla and Anguirus (being the first weapon shown to breach Godzilla's skin and actually draw blood) and brought down a weakened Gotengo.

Grappling cables

In Godzilla: Final Wars, Gigan was able to fire two hooked grappling cables from beneath both of his hand blades which he used to snag onto his opponents and reel them into range of his deadly buzzsaw.

Razor discs

In Godzilla: Final Wars, the upgraded Gigan was able to fire two razor sharp disks from just above his buzzsaw. Mothra however dodged them and simultaneously released her poisonous powder, which caused them to malfunction and boomerang back towards Gigan who was promptly decapitated the second time in that movie.

Eye beam

In Godzilla: Final Wars, Gigan could fire a red beam from his eye that scattered into a shot-gun like blast of energy. It should be noted that Gigan can be seen firing his eye beam in poster artwork for Godzilla vs. Gigan and Godzilla vs. Megalon, yet he never uses this ability in those films.In Godzilla vs. Gigan a blue light sparkles on his forehead only for a split second

Film appearances

Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
Zone Fighter (1973) (Episode 11: In the Twinkling of an Eye: The Roar of Godzilla!)
Godzilla Island (1997)
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

Art/Fiction

Gigan appeared as a villain in the 1988 Nintendo game Godzilla: Monster of Monsters!
Gigan also appeared in the 1998 Playstation game Godzilla Trading Battle.
The Showa Gigan is a playable character in Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, Godzilla: Save the Earth and the PlayStation 2 version of Godzilla: Unleashed. The Millennium version appears in the Wii version of Godzilla: Unleashed.
Gigan appeared in The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy movie, living on Monster Island.
Guitar virtuoso Buckethead wrote a song called Gigan, as well as another named Mecha Gigan. They appear on his 2006 albums The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock and Crime Slunk Scene, respectively.
In Marc Cerasini's Godzilla At World's End, Gigan is one of six genetically engineered monsters created to destroy mankind.
In the video game Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity, there are two tracks called Gigan Rocks and Gigan Device. Each has a statue of a birdlike creature with a sharp beak, which looks similar to Gigan himself.
In the anime Negima!? a robotic chupacabra is featured that looks similar to Gigan.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{|
+[[Image:Gigan.jpg|thumb|Gigan]]
-|
+'''Gigan''' (ガイガン, Gaigan) is a robot kaiju, introduced in the 1972 film ''Godzilla vs. Gigan''.
-|-
-! Name:
-! Gigan
-|-
-!Location:
-!Outer space
-|-
-! Known Allies
-| Megalon, King Ghidorah, Nebula Space Hunter M, Seatopian Empire
-|-
-! Signature weapons
-| Blades, Buzzsaw
-|-
-! First appearance:
-| Godzilla vs Gigan 1972
-|-
-! Status
-| Destroyed.
-|}
-==Gigan==
-Introduced in 1972, The monster Gigan was to be the direct opposite of the monster [[Hedorah]] Where as the smog monster was formless and dark, Gigan was solid and brightly colored with a definite form. Quite often this monster is regarded as Godzilla's most brutal opponent as it is the first enemy to cause Godzilla to bleed outright. The monster does not come from the earth, and it's true origins are unknown. The beast has hooks for hands, and a horrible saw in his chest. This monster was created for violence and bloodshed, and has only ever been a weapon.
+==Description==
+Gigan is sporting a buzzsaw weapon in its frontal abdominal region and large metallic hooks for hands. Gigan is considered Godzilla's most brutal and violent opponent, alongside Destroyah.
-He is controlled by the Nebula Space Hunter M aliens, a race that is escaping their own world and have decided that earth would be a suitable home, so long as "peace" could be created. Their version of peace is vastly different from our own, however. They wish to destroy the human race and in doing so they summoned Gigan and King Ghidorah to the earth. In their plans they were going to destroy the monsters of [[ Monster Island]]. Developing special signals to place the monsters in a state of suspended animation. The plan would have worked if the aliens hadn't been discovered. A group of self motivated investigators discovered and obtained the first part of the signal tapes. When they were played, they made no sense to the humans, but the monsters understood them. Godzilla and Anglias left the island. With no other choice the aliens had to accelerate their plans and play their trump cards.
-Gigan and Ghidorah arrived on the planet and easily made it to Tokyo before Godzilla ever could. The destruction the two titans was unrivaled, but strategic at the same time. The Armed Forces were helpless against these two over all. With the super intelligent aliens in the command, the two were unbeatable. When Godzilla and his ally finally showed up, the match was not in their favor. The battle raged, but the controllers had everything planed. It seemed this would be Godzilla's last battle.
+==Etymology==
+''Gigan'' is a Japanese word meaning ''artificial eye''.
-Eventually however, the original investigators managed to get to the authorities and tell them of the weakness. The monster battle raged until it reached the Alien's hidden headquarters, Children's land and at the center of it, A giant statue of Godzilla fully equipped with a extremely powerful death ray. While the aliens were distracted trying to kill Godzilla, the humans sent an elevator of explosives up to the top floor.
-The explosion was enough to destroy the control room, and break the power over the space monsters. With out this control, The space monsters never stood a chance after this. Godzilla was able to easily dispatch Gigan from the air several times. When the battle turned against them, Gigan was the first to retreat. Ghidorah followed soon after.
+==Features==
+*'''Height''' 	65-120 metres
+*'''Weight '''	25,000-60,000 tons
+*'''Air speed '''  Mach 3
-One year later, Gigan was again called upon for assistance against Godzilla to assist [[Megalon]] to destroy the surface world. Gigan was defeated, suffering a broken arm. This was more then enough to send him packing once more into the depths of space.
+==History==
+Gigan's first appearance was in the 1972 film ''Godzilla vs. Gigan''. In the film, Gigan is summoned to Earth by the antagonist Nebula M Space Hunter aliens where he was paired with the three-headed space dragon Monster Zero to destroy Tokyo. They were challenged by Godzilla and Anguirus, and after a long fight the two space monsters were driven away.
+In the 1973 film, ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'', Gigan was sent by the antagonist Nebulans to assist the people of Seatopia in their assault on humanity by aiding their god, Megalon, in a battle against Godzilla and the robot Jet Jaguar. After receiving a broken arm at the hands of Jet Jaguar, Gigan fled to space, leaving his erstwhile ally Megalon to face Godzilla and Jet Jaguar alone. This is the second time Gigan has abandoned an ally. This seems to indicate that Gigan has a traitorous personality.
-Gigan's last adventure had him return to earth to do battle with the hero known only as Zone Fighter. Not having a chance to recover from his last battle and nowhere near full strength, the monster was no match for the hero, and a volley of missiles would finally put an end to Gigan once and for all.
+Also in 1973, Gigan made an appearance on Toho's television series ''Zone Fighter''. Gigan was defeated by Godzilla once again. Left for dead by Godzilla, Gigan was revived later to battle Zone Fighter. In the final battle, Gigan is killed by Zone Fighter, making him the only Godzilla monster to have been introduced in the main movie series but whose death is only shown in another media.
-== Gigan's Return ==
+Gigan's latest appearance was in the 2004 Millennium film, ''Godzilla: Final Wars'', where he is one of the main antagonists for Godzilla to fight. After Gigan is beheaded and seemingly killed by Godzilla, his alien masters recover and rebuild his body, upgrading him with claws designed like double pronged chainsaws. This time, Gigan is killed by Mothra, who sacrifices her life to kill the ancient cyborg.
-In 2004 the Monster Gigan would return to the big screen once more. This time his story is better known. He is found as a mummified monster, well over 12,000 years old. The monster is clearly alien and his story is told by Mothra's fairy guardians that Mothra defeated Gigan, but could not kill him. So she trapped him under the earth.
-Gigan has been drastically improved in his appearance and his power base for this showing. Instead of brightly colored he became black and much more streamlined to portray his evil nature. Despite his power increase, when he is confronted by Godzilla for the first time, he gets his head blown off with an attack by an oral beam. Gigan wasn't quite finished yet though.
-Repaired by the invaders, he returned with chainsaws for hands instead of hooks and participated in the final battle with Monster X. The pair would have done Godzilla in, but the timely intervention by Mothra. Gigan fired his blades to kill Mothra with them, but her poison powder attack caused the blades to malfunction, upon their return trip instead of reloading, they ended up decapitating him again, thus ending his threat once and for all.
+==Powers==
+* Hooked arms
+Gigan's forelimbs sport a pair of large metal hooks in place of hands which the monster uses to both batter and stab his opponents. In his appearance on the television series Zone Fighter, the tips of the hooks can release an explosive charge on contact with an enemy. In ''Godzilla: Final Wars'', Gigan's arms were replaced with chainsaws after being defeated by Godzilla.
+* Antigravity flight
+Gigan has a trio of retractable wings which is capable of allowing Gigan to fly at speeds of up to Mach 3. This normally assists in interstellar travel and is utilized very little, if at all, during battle situations. When it is used in battle, however, Gigan will often use it to engage in aerial slams to continuously topple his opponents without giving them a chance to counter, or even get up. In ''Godzilla: Final Wars'', the antigravity flight was replaced by jetpacks, presumably to give Gigan more of a robotic feel.
-== Gigan's Powers ==
+* Teleportation
+In ''Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee'', ''Godzilla: Save the Earth'', and ''Godzilla: Unleashed'', Gigan has the ability to teleport in a green flash
-Gigan has a variety of powers and abilities, they will be listed here:
+* Buzzsaw
+Gigan has a buzzsaw built into his abdominal area. It is of considerable durability and effectiveness as it was sharp enough to cause severe epidermal damage to Godzilla and Anguirus (being the first weapon shown to breach Godzilla's skin and actually draw blood) and brought down a weakened Gotengo.
--Flight: Gigan uses an anti-gravity system to fly. He can reach speeds up to mach three. Gigan does possess wings, they might be the source the anti-gravity, otherwise they appear useless.
+* Grappling cables
+In ''Godzilla: Final Wars'', Gigan was able to fire two hooked grappling cables from beneath both of his hand blades which he used to snag onto his opponents and reel them into range of his deadly buzzsaw.
-- Metallic blades: Gigan hand's are blades of metal, unknown material strong enough to pierce through the skin of other monsters, with seemingly ease. Despite this his skeleton does not appear to share the same quality, as his arm was broken and made useless.
+* Razor discs
+In ''Godzilla: Final Wars'', the upgraded Gigan was able to fire two razor sharp disks from just above his buzzsaw. Mothra however dodged them and simultaneously released her poisonous powder, which caused them to malfunction and boomerang back towards Gigan who was promptly decapitated the second time in that movie.
--Laser: Gigan has been shown to fire a laser from his forehead, in the Showa series it was never seen, save for a brilliant flash of light, this weapon seemed to sap Godzilla of most of his strength. In the 2004 version, this laser has two forms, the first a short range shotgun like blast, the second is a long range weapon. Both versions emanate from the same place.
+* Eye beam
+In ''Godzilla: Final Wars'', Gigan could fire a red beam from his eye that scattered into a shot-gun like blast of energy. It should be noted that Gigan can be seen firing his eye beam in poster artwork for ''Godzilla vs. Gigan'' and ''Godzilla vs. Megalon'', yet he never uses this ability in those films.In ''Godzilla vs. Gigan'' a blue light sparkles on his forehead only for a split second
--Buzzsaw: Gigan has a horrible saw in his chest made from the same metal his hands are, it was able to slice through Angilas' face with ease, and Godzilla's skin as well.
--Grappling hooks: In 2004 Gigan was given hooks attached to cables, this was supposed to allow Gigan to pull any monster into his Buzzsaw, this was the cause of his first demise.
+==Film appearances==
+* Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
+* Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
+* Zone Fighter (1973) (Episode 11: In the Twinkling of an Eye: The Roar of Godzilla!)
+* Godzilla Island (1997)
+* Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
-- Razor Discs: Also the 2004 version was equipped with flying miniature blades. These blades were sent after Mothra, but they were damaged by her attack and flew right back into Gigan's neck, killing him.
-== Gigan's Biology ==
+==Art/Fiction==
+* Gigan appeared as a villain in the 1988 Nintendo game ''Godzilla: Monster of Monsters!''
+* Gigan also appeared in the 1998 Playstation game ''Godzilla Trading Battle''.
+* The Showa Gigan is a playable character in ''Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee'', ''Godzilla: Save the Earth'' and the PlayStation 2 version of ''Godzilla: Unleashed''. The Millennium version appears in the Wii version of ''Godzilla: Unleashed''.
+* Gigan appeared in ''The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy'' movie, living on Monster Island.
+* Guitar virtuoso Buckethead wrote a song called ''Gigan'', as well as another named ''Mecha Gigan''. They appear on his 2006 albums ''The Elephant Man's Alarm Clock'' and ''Crime Slunk Scene'', respectively.
+* In Marc Cerasini's ''Godzilla At World's End'', Gigan is one of six genetically engineered monsters created to destroy mankind.
+* In the video game ''Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity'', there are two tracks called Gigan Rocks and Gigan Device. Each has a statue of a birdlike creature with a sharp beak, which looks similar to Gigan himself.
+* In the anime ''Negima!?'' a robotic chupacabra is featured that looks similar to Gigan.
-Gigan is a true herald of death for many worlds, he was created to be the perfect weapon against any force. His singular red eye is able to see in several different environments, including complete darkness. The monster is able to survive with out breathing, or requiring any form of external energy. The monster is powered completely internally, this unknown power source seems to be limitless. His mind is mostly a super computer built to completely see all and assess the threat level of any enemy, and stratagem to defeat it. The computer is purely logic based, if it is outmatched it will retreat. His wings generate the anti gravity field that enables him to fly in and out of gravitational fields of any planet at will. In space he can propel himself to incredible speeds of mach four hundred.
-Gigan's Buzzsaw is a weapon feared by any opponent whose flesh can be cut, the metal it is made from is unknown. It it capable of tearing through any known material on almost any planet. His skeletal structure is not comprised of the same metal as his hook hands and saw is. His bones are hollow and can be broken with enough force applied, this structure is made for speed in the air and combat speed.
-Gigan's singular long range weapon is the beam from the forehead. This is a weak attack that is designed for three purposes, first to create a surgical strike from afar, second as a distraction tactic, and third the beam seems to have the same function as a taser and stuns the enemy for a period of time. It is seldom used.
+[[Category: Kaiju]]
-The monster's environment can be anywhere it seems, but when not destroying the worlds of the universe he likes to spend his time on a asteroid in deep space, away from any interlopers or explorers. But his harsh masters give him little down time. Gigan can live anywhere for any amount of time, it would seem. As of this writing, he is the only known member of his race and being a cyborg he may be a unique creation all on his own.
-== Gigan's future ==
-Gigan has remained a fan favorite since the day he was unleashed, it is because of this that the beast has appeared and reappeared in books, and video games alike. Playable in all the versions of the Next Generation Godzilla fighting games, and a boss in Nintendo's Godzilla Epic game as a highly dangerous boss.
-The beast may yet return once more, but with the entire series in hiatus this is unknown.