Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Nink

Nink; today's featured Pachimon Kaiju.

From my experiences among American Kaiju fans, giant primates in the vein of King Kong are surprisingly unpopular. Maybe it’s a sort of bias against such simple monsters, when compared to more imaginative laser-blasting dinosaurs, jumbo-sized space invaders, or super robots of the genre.

That...Or a lot of die-hard Godzilla fans here in the states, are still sore about King Kong winning his famous fight with The King of the Monsters.

Kong won. Deal with it America.

I actually love a lot of these giant primates and similar simian monsters. But even I must admit, that there’s very little in the way of creative variety, within this category.

And if I was to do two separate articles separating the creative and unique ‘monkey monsters’, from the giant primates that could all pass off as ‘The Clones of Kong’, I’d probably end up with more of the latter, than the preferred other.

Such is the case with today’s Pachimon Kaiju, the suspiciously named Nink.

And I say suspicious, because there is no real name for this guy. Beyond the original file name connected to this image, when I originally ‘saved’ it from a now long-defunct Japanese web-site.

Oh yes, there is a Japanese katakana name on the bromide card itself. But obscured by such background darkness, that not even my sufficient Photoshop skills can salvage it. So we’ll just call this hairy fellow Nink!

Not counting the bright orange-colored fur, there’s not much to Nink’s simple design, thus adding to the ‘primate monsters are boring’ argument. The face is an artistic, painted original (possibly along with his one visible foot), but the body appears to be taken from photos of Goron; an arguably more interesting monkey villain from “Ultra Seven”.

Goron, from the classic Tokusatsu series "Ultra Seven"

Alien Goron (alias Goron-seijin) first appeared in episode 45 of “Ultra Seven”, entitled "The Great Apeman of Terror" (original air-date: August 11th, 1968).

Despite his primitive looks (and likewise fighting style), Goron is actually an intelligent alien invader. Sent from his home-planet as a vanguard, to convert humans into ape-like slaves. Or to simply mind-control others with his technology, at a Japanese zoo.

The only transformed ‘ape man’ that we’re shown is Gorry; a hapless janitor, who serves as Goron’s brutal pawn.

Goron’s nefarious plan is ultimately discovered by the paramilitary organization dubbed The Ultra Garrison, forcing the ‘Space Monkey-Man’ to reveal himself and go giant size. Goron than battles the title hero, Ultra Seven, who is a benevolent alien on mankinds’ side, often disguised as Garrison member Dan Moroboshi.

Goron made additional appearances in the television shorts of “Ultra Fight” (1970-to-1971). And more recently in cameo capacity, in the full-fledged series “Ultraman Ginga” (2013).

In the American dubbed version “Ultra-7”, which aired on TNT (Turner Network Television) in the early 1990’s, Goron was renamed The Tamberlan Lion. That’s probably a humorous reference to the real-world monkey Goron shares some resemblance to, The Golden Lion Tamarin.

Goron vs Ultra Seven

Going back to Nink itself; the Japanese landmark of which the ‘Pachimon Ape’ is shown menacing, is non other than the clock tower of the Wako Department Store, in Ginza. The same clock tower of whom Godzilla himself knocked down, during his original 1954 film debut.

Godzilla attempting to stop Marty McFly from going back to the future.

Godzilla shamelessly ripping off Mommy Gorgo's Big Ben routine.

Judging by Nink and Godzilla’s relation to the Wako Clock Tower, I'd say both monsters are roughly the same height of 50 meters (roughly 165 feet).

And finally, I end this ridiculously long-winded article with pictures of the real clock tower, in more recent times. Because effects models based on real locations only scare and confuse most mortal men. Trust me...I know A LOT of unfortunate humans in this regard.

(Please insert Godzilla and Nink above)

Yes. It's real.