Kaiju
Main article: Kaiju
Kaiju (怪獣, kaijū?, literally "mysterious beast") productions primarily feature monsters, or giant monsters (大怪獣, daikaijū?). Such series include Ultra Q, the Godzilla film series, the Gamera series, the Daimajin series, and films such as Frankenstein Conquers the World, War of the Gargantuas, and The X from Outer Space (宇宙大怪獣ギララ, Uchu Daikaijū Girara?).
Kaijin
Kaijin (怪人, Kaijin? literally "mysterious person") productions primarily feature Supervillains as the central character. This includes films such as Secret of the Telegian, The Human Vapor, The H-Man, Half Human, and Tomei Ningen.
Yōkai
Main article: Yōkai
Productions that feature yōkai (妖怪, yōkai?) feature central characters that can be called "apparitions", "spirits", or "demons" the Yokai Monsters series of films were a popular series of yōkai series.
Popular franchises
Over the past half-century, there have been long running television series that are often a combination of several other themes. Tsuburaya Productions has had the Ultra Series starting with Ultra Q and Ultraman in 1966. P Productions began their foray into tokusatasu in 1966 with the series Ambassador Magma. They have also been behind the Lion-Maru trilogy which concluded recently. The Toei Company also has several series that fall under their Toei Superheroes category of programming, starting in 1961 with the single series, Moonlight Mask. Then, they produced several other longrunning series, starting with the Kamen Rider Series in 1971, the Super Sentai Series in 1975, the Metal Heroes Series in 1982, and several Mysterious Comedy series (不思議コメディーシリーズ, Fushigi Comedī Shīrizu?). Toho, the creators of Godzilla, also had their hands in creating the Chouseishin Series of programs from 2003 to 2006.
Yasmine Mhaidra on 30 Apr 08The article reports on the dynamic cinematic heritage of Japan. Japanese cinema is best known for classic samurai movies and contemporary animated features. The Japanese New Wave filmmakers of the 1960s, like those in France and Italy, were more highbrow and politically radical than the earlier studio directors. With the decline of the studio system, and the popularity of Hollywood blockbusters with Japanese audiences, the Japanese cinema in recent decades has struggled to survive. The traditional genres of the industry in its heyday have moved into television, which screens women's melodramas, period films and home dramas as television serials and series.
