Canada’s Kaiju: An Exploration of the Great White North’s History of Giant Monsters

Canada is the second largest country in the world, as such if giant creatures were to exist you’d expect for at least a few of them to show up in Canada. As Canada Day is still fresh on everyone’s minds now seems like a great time to catalog the Kaiju appearances in the Great White North.

The biggest name in modern Kaiju ephemera is Pacific Rim (2013). With a deluge of lore and a lot of unseen events, it is second only to Attack on Titan for being the newest obsession in the Kaiju fanbase. From Jaegers to Kaiju you’d think there’d be a lot of cancon. Unfortunately for us Canucks, we have only two Kaiju attacks to our name and one Canadian Jaeger. If you lived in this world you’d be pretty safe here. For those unaware Pacific Rim is a film series featuring giant robots who do battle with giant monsters that appear out of portals deep within the ocean. The first and most important Canadian lore to come from Pacific Rim is the fact that Vancouver was the sight of the very first Kaiju defeat by a Jaeger. Brawler Yukon (an American Jaeger) defeated the Kaiju Karloff in Vancouver by beating it to death with its fists. Honestly, in this scenario, you just feel bad for the Kaiju. Karloff is clearly named and partly modeled off of the work of Boris Karloff, as such the last thing you want to envision is the elderly statesman getting pummeled by a rude American robot. No word on what they did with the corpse; hopefully, his head has become an impromptu museum to Boris.

There was another attack in Canada…maybe? A Kaiju named Taranis is said to have been killed by Cherno Alpha on “Queen Charlotte Sound” however there are two Queen Charlotte Sound’s in the world, one in New Zealand, and one in British Columbia. However, if you’re a big enough nerd and attempt to plot out the other locations in which Cherno Alpha has been deployed, mainly Korea and Russia, it would make more sense for it to be British Columbia as it is much closer to their other deployments. The final and confirmed Canadian element of Pacific Rim is a Mark 3 Jaeger named Chrome Brutus which is piloted by two Inuit cousins. There is very little about this Jaeger in the cannon, it would be nice for someone to at the very least release a toy or official design document for Canada’s only Jaeger.

In the world of comic books, Kaiju have had brief dalliances with Canada. In the comic series based off of the animated series that spun off of the movie Godzilla (1998), Godzilla briefly appears off the coast of Newfoundland where he is hit by a freeze ray and is almost captured by a nefarious scientist. He escapes. The giant yeti monster from the Marvel Godzilla comic series was originally a resident of Alberta, Canada. Due to incredibly convoluted plot machinations, this nuclear (American nuclear tests awaken him) Yeti named Yetrigar manages to get to the Grand Canyon to fight the King of the Monsters. Godzilla proper has appeared in Canada twice, both times in Vancouver.

In the Darkhorse comic Godzilla, King of the Monsters issues 1 to 4 Godzilla rampages through the Canadian wilderness. He destroys another attempt at a mechanized doppelganger and then the real fun stuff begins when he chases an alien bat creature named Bagorah into Vancouver. The two have a mighty battle that ends when, surprising no one, Godzilla defeats Bagorah and retreats back to the ocean. It is a tremendously fun story and was the inspiration for this article. It captures exactly what you want to see in a Godzilla ongoing comic and has wonderful artwork. Bagorah has a magnificent design and the battle is well laid out. Godzilla popped up again in Vancouver 17 years later in the IDW comic series merely named Godzilla. This storyline is a sequel to Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters and features a group of monster hunters using their skills to subdue kaiju around the world, capturing them for profit. The monster with the biggest price tag is Godzilla and they attempt to subdue him in Canada’s largest coastal city. What is entertaining about this storyline is that it showcases the exact same Godzilla design from the Dark Horse comics. It goes to show just how ubiquitous the Heisei Godzilla design is and how it has become the iconic look for Godzilla. This issue does not feature any huge monster fights and Canada is merely a backdrop.

In the world of Godzilla and Tokusatsu cinema Canadians are pretty underserved. A few Canadian actors have appeared in Godzilla films however the only in canon Canadian Godzilla character is Sam Coleman from 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. His backstory as a British Columbia resident must be a nod to actor Thomas Middleditch who himself is a Canadian from British Columbia. In the more obscure line of things is Monster X Strikes Back: Attack the G8 Summit; the Canadian Prime Minister is among the world leaders who attempt to corral the giant invading monster. The movie appears to be parodying Jean Chrétien as the Prime Minister has a very poor French accent. Sam Coleman is a much better rep for Canada.

In videogames we have a little bit more to go with. In the videogame Rampage: World Tour levels are set in Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Moosejaw, Vancouver, and Toronto. Weirdly enough this is the only instance of any giant monsters appearing in Toronto, a city which seems rife with landmarks for giant monsters to fight. In a million years one would never pick out Thunder Bay and Moosejaw to be invaded by giant monsters; as such this may be the only time we ever see it. Rampage: World Tour should be on their city signs: “Ralph stomped here”. The other instance of Kaiju in Canada only occurs if you’re good at the game. In Death Road to Canada, you can encounter a woman who is stuck inside of a dinosaur suit promptly named “Kaiju”. If you win the game….technically a Kaiju enters Canada.

Look, at a certain point you find yourself reaaaaalllly reaching to be completely concrete with every instance of Kaiju in Canada.

The final avenue and the only Tokusatsu proper to be set in Canada is two episodes of Ultraman. Much like Godzilla loves Vancouver in comics, Ultraman apparently love Alberta, as both of these episodes feature Kaiju in the Alberta wilderness. In the Ultraman Gaia episode “Battling the Legend” we see the Science Patrol analog named G.U.A.R.D. arrive in Alberta to witness the launch of a new project meant to revitalize the forest. The project is in danger due to a truly Canadian Kaiju named Syazac who is wreaking havoc. Syazac is named by what can only be described as a Canadian Wizard, who explains the monster is from First Nations folklore. Despite the episode being set in “Fort Peaks” Alberta, the landscape is still very clearly Japanese. Oftentimes you can witness the Rocky Mountains being superimposed on Japanese forest scapes which is a delight to behold. This is a truly fantastic episode that features a great monster and empathy for the monsters. The best part about the Ultraman franchise is that they are not solely obsessed with destroying monsters, oftentimes they want to coexist with the Kaiju. It teaches true empathy for nature, specifically in this episode as we discover that the creature is a mother just looking after its young. After Ultraman spares the creature we learn that the creatures may have been attacking due to the experiments they were enacting having a major flaw which would have caused a great swath of destruction.

The other episode in question features a very odd appearance of Canada. The Ultraman X episode “Bonds Unite” features a team member of Xio (another Science Patrol analog) gaining the powers of Ultraman Nexus in order to save her family who lives in Canada. Ultraman Nexus inhabits Xio team member Sayuri Tachibana who abandons her post in order to save her family. For some reason when she does arrive in Canada to fight the famous Ultra Kaiju “Bemular” all of Canada is in sepia. It’s unclear if I have in fact been living in Sepia tone for all my life without knowing it. The Canada sequence is less than five minutes long but it is very cool to imagine Ultraman showing up to briefly combat a monster in an unnamed Alberta lake. This sequence is also clearly filmed in Japan. The episode talks a lot about family versus duty and acts as a very delightful character study on Tachibana who is not usually more than a side character.

Canada has had more run-ins with giant monsters than one would normally think. Sure they aren’t always propped up on the big screen but it is a more comprehensive list than one would have thought. Still waiting to see Godzilla fight radioactive beavers in Ottawa, call me Toho.