12 Kaiju for Hipsters (Kevin Derendorf)

Episode 12 of the Japan Station podcast is here and this time we're stomping our way into the world of kaiju. Kevin Derendorf is an expert on the world of giant monster movies and the author of the recently published book Kaiju for Hipsters: 101 "Alternative" Giant Monster Movies. In this episode we discuss: What the word kaiju means The origins of the word kaiju The difference between the more commonly used 怪獣 (kaiju) and its homophone 海獣 What qualifies as a kaiju movie to Kevin The difficulties of finding obscure kaiju movies Director Nobuhiko Obayashi and his many interesting connections to kaiju movies Nobuhiko Obayashi's unmade and totally bizarre Godzilla movie, A Space Godzilla Hideaki Anno and his intense love of Ultraman Sion Sono's 2015 film Love & Peace And much more! It's non-stop kaiju on this episode of Japan Station!