Pachishohma: Riza of the Bloody Gaze

Around May 2022, I started my own series of Pachimon-inspired parody illustrations, repurposing my fan art of pre-existing fictional characters, all popular pieces online but useless for professional reuse, and dubbed the endeavor as Pachishohma (Pachimon + Enshohma).

I've made nearly 40 entries in this series and plan to independently print some art books featuring these weirdos in early 2025.

In the meantime, I'll be sharing my Pachishohma monsters here as well, both as extra content and as an additional backup for the aforementioned art book.

We'll start with the very first, off-color entry into the series, starring Riza of the Bloody Gaze, alias Bloodsucking Eyeballs.

NAME: Riza of the Bloody Gaze

ALIASES / NICKNAMES: Bloodsucking Eyeballs; Eyeboobies; Vampire Giantess

SPECIES: Demonically-enhanced vampire / parasitic demons

GENDER: Female

HEIGHT: 10 meters (over 32 feet)

WEIGHT: 90 metric tons

EYES: Red / yellow on both pairs

HAIR: Picotee blue

HOMEWORLD: Earth (Universe 1052620221970-S)

AFFILIATION(s): Rainbow Rogue (ex-boyfriend)

Riza was a callous and spoiled vampire mistress of lesser nobility who was active in 16th century Spain until her unnatural undead life was forever changed by an encounter with The Bloody Gaze, a bizarre pair of floating demonic eyeballs who may have originated beyond our known universe.

True to their title, The Bloody Gaze invaded Riza's hunting grounds and started absorbing the same human peasants that the vampire routinely feasted upon.

This macabre conflict lasted for six gore-filled nights until Riza and her loyal human familiars cornered the monster eyes, attempting to destroy them, only to have The Bloody Gaze violently possess Riza, resulting in a horrific battle of wills and a physical transformation into a twisted combination of the three fiends: a half-demon blue-skinned freak with a new pair of jumbo eyeballs, protruding from where Riza's bountiful bust once resided.

For most villains, merging with a demonic force would be considered a dark blessing, abandoning one monstrous form for an even greater one. However, for a vain and self-conscious blood-sucker like Riza, a giant pair of ill-placed eyes was too embarrassing to handle, and soon she ran off into the nearby woods, but not before drinking her familiars dry in a violent tizzy.

As the centuries passed, Riza mutated further into a wild giantess who could now magically extract and absorb the blood of her victims through her mutant optics, earning her the moniker of Riza of the Bloody Gaze.

Sometime in 1976, Riza's global hunting leads her to meet and fall for a fellow weirdo with fatal powers, the interdimensional taker of literal colors known as The Rainbow Rouge. The two were a terrifying power couple of gigantic proportions until an epic breakup in 1999 when they became bitter enemies.

Why the falling out isn't known by mere mortals but, as one last slight against his ex-girlfriend, The Rainbow Rogue lured Riza to the mountainous outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where a local giant statue has effectively imprisoned her within the region to this day... Though Riza still finds wayward prey who tragically venture beyond the city limits.

Artist's Commentary: Riza is a reworking of Maximax, a bodacious Brazilian giantess, greedy hoarder of treasure, and occasional predator of lesser mortals, created by fellow artist of monsters and babes Animewave-Neo, as shown in the compilation piece above. Another major influence was the colorful if unsightly and crass demons-of-the-week from the 1972 animated series Devilman.

EXTRA ARTWORK:

PREVIEW: Pachishohma, Volume One

Inspired by the real-world phenomenon of Pachimon (unofficial Japanese bromide cards featuring dubious reworkings of pre-existing giant monsters), I've been taking all my past fanart illustrations and portraits to rework them as parody characters, inserted into comical photo-collage backgrounds, coining my process as Pachishohma (Pachimon + Enshohma).

I'm gathering all these gag monsters into an art-book for this coming October. With additional creature contributions by my friend Mark / Hawanja, who is also serving as an editor and co-writer, alongside author Patrick Galvan and comedian Banjo Wilkins as extra proofreaders, I'm presenting a preview of the book thus far below - enjoy!

One of Mark / Hawanja's contributions.

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Tabby-Imago

The Pachimon Kaiju Showcase series returns with a vengeance! And this time, with kitties!

Pachimon is a modern slang term used to describe bootlegged and stolen versions of more famous kaiju, notably in regards to bromide cards and similar prints from the 1970s that reused and repurposed elements of pre-existing kaiju characters to create quote — unquote "NEW" monsters.

While the mainstream movie kaiju are the most recognizable examples (Godzilla, Gamera, Gappa, ect), the pachimon phenomenon is taken from multiple sources including-but-not-limited to: Ultraman and other tokusatsu characters, American movie and television creatures, vintage paleo-based artwork, real-life photography of animals and locations, science fiction illustrations, and lesser known manga and other foreign comic books.

Pachimon has garnered a cult following with modern Japanese otaku, toy collectors, independent filmmakers, and artists, often leading to limited edition and expensive vinyl figures based on these suspiciously familiar faces. FAR LESS so here in America, but obscure kaiju loving weirdos like myself try our best.

In the past, I've shared Pachimon who had an official name (as official as these illegal cons can muster), but there's also a larger number of these characters lacking such titles and it's about time I started highlighting them, starting with this adorable abomination.

Again, the monster lacks an official name (or a previous fan-made one), but I personally like to refer to this one as Tabby-Imago due to it being a young tabby cat spliced with colorful butterfly wings.

Sure, Tabbyra, like the moth monster Mothra, would have been the more obvious fan-moniker to adopt, BUT that would have been the obvious way out and Tabby-Imago has a better ring to it in my opinion.

According to the Japanese web-site Room103 and its Pachimon subsections (the site's very old, so beware its lack of security), today's feature was the first in the Iwata Pro Large Monster Edition, one of the latter-era series published and sold on the cheap (5 yen a piece, apparently).

As for the real-world location shown within the card image, that's the Nishinomaru-enokida gate of Nagoya Castle in Nagoya, Japan. The gate is probably most recognizable to American kaiju fans as one of Larva Battra's targets from Godzilla and Mothra: Battle for the Earth (1992), ripping its roof to shreds in a less-than-convincing composite shot.

I'll have another menace of Nagoya next week.

Barizogon: Hey! That's Not King Caesar!

I was originally going to add today’s entry into my Pachimon Kaiju Showcase series but, considering the long-after-the-fact-parody nature of this article's titular feature, I decided to keep it relatively separated.

Plus, there isn't much to say on the character beyond its origins and obvious appearance.

Amapro is a ridiculously small (seriously, there’s like two or three people running it) independent Japanese toy company that specializes in limited edition vinyl figures based on overlooked and obscure kaiju. In addition to those, Amapro also creates arguably weirder and sillier original characters.

Sitting between these two extremes are figures inspired by the aforementioned Pachimon, taking different elements from more famous movie and television kaiju,  haphazardly birthing supposedly new (rip-off) monsters in turn.

That said, Barizogon is basically King Caesar from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) but with condor-like wings and a third eye in place of Caesar's forehead jewel.

Based on what little I could find online (again, these guys are S-M-A-L-L), Amapro will often repurpose their toy molds to make variations by reincorporating different body parts from different figures like an interchangeable jigsaw. Barizogon seems to be their own King Caesar figure reworked with a pair of wings taken from their numerous other bird-based ones.

There's also the official Sailor Fight channel, based around the robotic heroine from a series of short films that also showcases these same oddball vinyl toys. This channel may-or-may-not have ties to Amapro, seeing how one of its two public faces hosts the aforementioned content.

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Doilar

The Pachimon Kaiju Showcase returns with today's subject, Doilar!

Cleaned-up and enlarged version of Doilar's bromide by your truly

For the uninitiated, the so-called Pachimon phenomena were cheap bromides (collectible postcards) created by Yokopro in the 1970's, around the time when movie monsters and television superheroes were very popular among children within Japan, all apart of The Henshin Boom or The Second Kaiju Boom as some pop culture scholars have dubbed it.

These bromide cards consists of 'new monsters' created from altered or touched up images of pre-existing characters, ranging from icons like Godzilla, Gamera, or the many opponents of Ultraman, to unorthodox sources like illustrated dinosaur books, real-world animal photography, foreign comic books, and lesser-known television monsters.

"Pachimon" itself is an unofficial and relatively recent fan-made term meaning 'stolen monster' which gives you a clear sign how suspect if not shoddy Yokopro's otherwise successful attempt was.

Although still quite obscure, The Pachimon Kaiju have garnered something of a cult following among modern-day collectors and otaku, which have resulted in vinyl figures (both official products and custom-built independents), fan-made video games, artwork, direct-to-video films, comedy spoofs, and other inspired extrapolations.

Unaltered version of the original Doilar bromide

Originally presented in Yamapro Edition set, Doilar is a thinly disguised Gorosaurus, a fictional descendant of Allosaurus who first appeared in King Kong Escapes (1967) as one of the dangerous beasts who roamed the equally fictional Mondo island.

Gorosaurus was meant as a one-time only homage to The Meat-Eater from the original King Kong but, due to a fortunate stroke of luck via quality prop storage over at Toho Studios, Gorosaurs was re-used in the 1968 multiple-monster-romp Destroy All Monsters where the former antagonist joined the heroic Kaiju of Earth to battle against the evil space dragon King Ghidorah, delivering a memorably fearsome kangaroo kick to the three-headed villain's back.

Doilar vs. Gorosaurus: Compare and Contrast

The image source used for Doilar's creation isn't a publicity photo of the Toho dinosaur but a beautifully rendered illustration taken from Ultra Books: Destroy All Monsters, a tie-in book and record album combo based around said film.

Upon retrospect, I believe a lot of the Pachimon based on the more famous movie monsters used secondhand materials, perhaps in a half-hearted attempt to avoid lawsuits or copyright infringement. it obviously worked considering how many of these oddball cards that there was.

LIES! The freeways in downtown Los Angeles are never this nice or vacant!

Speaking of things that makes ones heart sinks: I couldn't find the background of an urban highway used in Doilar's card though I'm tempted to say it's downtown Los Angeles due to how it reminds me so much of the area, particularly the road bridges overhead, having driven through it myself many times before, trapped in way worse traffic than what's falsely presented above (Rainbows? Bull!).

In typical Pachimon fashion, not a single driver seems phased by the giant Doilar creeping towards them.

Doilar's Arctic Holiday (1967...NOT)

While I usually don't do corresponding artwork for my Pachimon Kaiju Showcase articles (cannot afford the time and related stress), I did manage to whip up this photo-manipulated mock-up, taking a publicity photo from Gorosaurus' debut and added some rhinoceros horns and stegosaurs back-plates, all to give you Doilar's Arctic Holiday: a not-at-all-real production where the monstrous reptile saves a struggling ski resort and science station from a nefarious land developer.

Again, in true Pachimon fashion, I threw in some indifferent, un-phased, non-reactive vacationers (familial in-jokes) into the picture, like the indifferent, un-phased, non-reactive Londoners surrounding Danopura.

Lastly, here's an alternate version with just Doilar all by himself.

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: It Came from Africa

Something I've learned from last month; don’t make promises on a blog, where you’re the only guy working on it.

As such, I’ll do whatever updates I can muster, without trying to be too ambitious in themes, or related schedules. One could accuse me of being lazy, but it’s easier on me, the lone author. And you the readers, will be getting more updates in turn.

I’m also NOT going to let the blasted holidays, or similar events and circumstances, interrupt me from doing said updates. So forgive me if I post one of my frivolous articles, while the real-world goes to Heck, in some form or another.

Though know that I often do so in innocent ignorance.

The otherwise nameless African Pachimon, or 'Afurika' for short.

Today’s Pachimon Kaiju Showcase is a fairly easy one, in that the featured monster has no name, beyond the country it’s shown menacing above.

Oh how I love to unofficially name the nameless!

The Africa Monster, or ‘Afurika’ is another entry in the ‘globetrotting’ monster bromide cards, published by Japan’s Yokopro in the 1970’s. And of whom previous spotlights Danpuraa and Wadorisu also hail from.

The country of Africa is home to many gorgeous, spectacular waterfalls, so I cannot definitively say which one that Afurika is shown standing over. But my guess would be the famous Victoria Falls, or Mosi-oa-Tunya, located in Southern Africa on the Zambezi River.

Image courtesy of Famous Wonders

As for Afurika / The Africa Monster itself; The head / face is a fully artistic original, but the rest of its body is directly taken from Sadora, who first appeared in episode 3 of “The Return of Ultraman”, “The Evil Monster Realm of Terror” (April 16th, 1971).

Sadora, who donated his body to Pachimon science.

Known as a ‘Rock Monster’, Sadora was one of two murderous creatures that appeared in the legendary (and fictional) summit dubbed The Misty Mountains. And has since made recurring appearances in more recent Ultra sequels, such as “Ultraman Mebius” (2006-2007) and “Ultra Galaxy: Mega-Monster Battles” (2008-2009).

More information on Sadora can be found HERE.

******

Kaiju, and other Giant Monsters, are more infamous to mainstream audiences for their destructive deeds against civilization.

And although The Africa Monster doesn't look at all placid, with its protruding devil horns and sharp pincer-claws, I’d like to think it’s behaving like a more peaceful, natural animal, while standing among the beautiful surroundings of Victoria Falls.

Further Reading:

Famous Wonder's Victoria Falls Gallery
Cool Ass Cinema's Review of Sadora's Debut Adventure
Club de Monstres Pachimon Gallery

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Shirako

Whoa...That last article on the giant primate Nink was really, really long!

So for today's Pachimon Kaiju Showcase, I'm going to keep things as simple as 'Enshohmaly Possible', and discuses a fairly simplistic reptilian named Shirako!

Shirako (name translated from the katakana at the upper left corner)

While going through all these different Pachimon Kaiju, I've come to discovered that even the fully illustrated characters, are taken from preexisting sources. Including some from American comics, and picture books. Such as "Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery", and the works of science fiction illustrator Edd Cartier.

Despite my initial hopes, it looks as if these vintage bromide cards, really do live up to their modern nickname of Pachimon ('Stolen Monsters').

However, Shirako here (along with past showcase Danopura) appear to be fully original designs, made exclusively for these offbeat cards. Or at least until I stumble onto said monsters' origins, within some obscure Japanese source. Courage.

Alternate Shirako file, take #1

Not much to say on Shirako himself, other than he's a old school reptile monster, done with a healthy amount of appealing goofiness. And the chosen colors of violet-blue skin, piercing red tongue, and bright yellow eyes are nice touches.

But poor Shirako would still disappear among all the other reptile and dinosaur-inspired beasts from the golden age of Japanese giant monsters.

The photo background before Shrako, is clearly New York from the same time period (possibly the '60's). But Shirako's placement within the image raises some visual confusion for me; is Shirako standing on a skyscraper, looking down onto an already massive Big Apple, via King Kong?

Or is Shirako so ridiculously colossal, that even skyscrapers hundreds of meters in height, are literally beneath his titanic foot?

I favor the former theory, due to my appalling habit of applying logic to silly fantasy monsters, without denying base silliness.

And here's Take #2

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.

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Daigoras

I know I promised the weird vampire critter Kyuradoros, but my hopeful collaborator Dr Zock is currently unavailable. And I wish not to showcase that monster if Zock has some unique, additional information to share. Needless to say, Kyuradoros will have to wait.

And besides, I have TONS of other Pachimon Kaiju to share until then.

Daigoras, also known as Dygorus - possibly from 1968

This handsome fellow is known as Daigoras, or Dygorus as it’s sometimes spelled.

Daigoras is a reworking of the character of Eleking; an electrical Space Kaiju who made his debut in the classic series “Ultra Seven” (1967-1968). And like all popular Ultra Monsters, Eleking would make multiple reappearances throughout the franchisee. Including that of a ‘Hero Kaiju’ in “Ultra Galaxy: Mega-Monster Battles” (2007-2008).

Eleking; the popular “Ultra Seven” character whom Daigoras is taken from

Daigoras...would not.

Like a lot of the Pachimon Kaiju, Daigoras has only this lone bromide card to be remembered by. Though there might be some Daigoras vinyl figures, made for the modern collector markets.

Actually, that’s a little unfair for me to say, as Daigoras is one of the more recognizable Pachimon Kaiju since the frivolous internet began! And this bromide is an admittedly impressive piece of pre-digital photo art, at least where the lead monster is concerned.

It might be an altered Eleking photo. But the execution is so solid (compared to other Pachimon), that I was honestly convinced Daigoras might have been an actual creature suit. Instead of just well done airbrushing.

The only major give away (beyond the disconnected background), is Daigoras’ mouth and eyes, which is the most obvious in the airbrushing department.

As stated before, the background, and the foreground for that matter, suffers from a clear disconnect with the central monster figure. But it’s still quite dynamic, complete with a gorgeous fireball explosion, which almost dwarfs Daigoras.

Alternative version of the first Daigoras file

And if that tower (which Daigoras is crushing in one of its hands) seems familiar to you Kaiju fans, well then you’re not mistaken. It’s none other than Kobe Port Tower, located in Japan’s Port of Kobe.

Both the port and its iconic tower are very real places, which have been recreated in model form for both “Gamera vs Barugon” (1966), and episode 15 of “Ultra Seven”, “The Ultra Garrison Goes West, Part 2” (January 14th, 1968).

In the latter example, Ultra Seven defends Kobe Port Tower from the flying saucer robot King Joe. While in the former film, Kobe Port Tower has a far less fortunate fate, being destroyed by the reptilian demon Barugon. Clearly, Daigoras is taking a page out of Barugon’s playbook.

A compilation of Daigoras images, taken from ancient floppy disc storage

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Roboes

By this point, you all know the drill of what a Pachimon Kaiju is, and the story behind these odd bromide cards. However, I’m starting to realize that the term itself (which translates as ‘stolen monster’) might be true even for the original monster designs, and their related artwork.

There was a lot of Japanese picture books made for children during the Golden Age of Japanese Giant Monsters (the 1960’s Kaiju Boom). And a lot of said illustrations could have been re-purposed (borrowed) for these bromide cards.

But then again, maybe I’m just being paranoid here. And last showcase’s Danopura may have made his exclusive debut, in the same Pachimon card which featured him. And that’s my thought process behind today’s subject - the highly unimaginatively named Roboes!

Roboes (also known as Robosu), is probably one of my more favorite characters from these wacky cards.

I would argue that fictional robots are the coolest monsters in all of worldwide fantasy. Especially since they have a greater variety than other monster types, like Zombies, Vampires, or Werewolves, who often must abide to their respective and rigid genre rules.

Make a Zombie that can utter a single word of basic English? Zombie purists and the casual horror fans alike will give you unjust Hell for this one little detail!

But create magical clockwork robots in a fantasy fairy tale kingdom? Or demonic techno-organics (a more extreme take on the cyborg concept) for a grim space adventure? The only real guff you may get will be from the handful of sulking weenies who simply don’t like robots to begin with.

Despite all the ‘Giant Monster vs Giant Robot’ debates you'd find across the internet (First World problems indeed), for someone like myself, its a mute argument. Because there’s giant monsters out there who also happen to be giant robots! The best of both worlds!

And like the aforementioned, these too can come in a wide variety of shapes and story possibilities.

And that’s why I have a certain affinity for Robosu and his jumbo-sized mechanized ilk, because giant robots are almost always better than the regular sized ones.

But even if that wasn't the case, Roboes has a very fun design. Highlighted by an awesome red-coloring scheme, which separates him from the silvers and grays of most other robotic Kaiju.

The retro-pulp feel of Roboes makes it feel like it could exist as an actual creature suit. Or the chosen battle mecha of choice for Ming the Merciless, of “Flash Gordon” fame.

If there is one thing I don’t like about Roboes’ otherwise cool design, is the huge ‘spoon fingers’ on its hands. But that’s a minor complaint, and would still keep them if I could translate the artwork above into physical cosplay (convention costume) form.

Alternate file version of the same Roboes bromide card.

Next Time on the Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: as promised to a fellow Pachimon fan Dr Zock, we'll be discussing the bizarre vampire ace of spades known as Kyuradoros.

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Danpuraa

Although only the third entry into this series, this is the first fully original monster featured in our Pachimon Kaiju Showcase, as opposed to photo-edited redesigns of existing movie, or television characters.

Danpuraa (alias Danpurar, or Danopura) is a plump quadruped, with heavy mammalian features, like some sort of wonderfully freaky walrus beast from a “Flash Gordon” comic strip. And despite not being as large as most Japanese giant monsters, Danpuraa is nonetheless causing destruction by crushing cars, and setting off nearby explosions.

Of course, the stiff upper lipped London pedestrians could care less, as they casually walk away from the mayhem. And virtually giving Danpuraa little, to no attention what-so-ever.

Now I don’t like to harp upon the limitations of artists back in the day, especially since they were able to accomplish a lot with said limitations, than most computer savvy photo-shoppers of today could do with more (myself included).

But little oddball details like the un-amused Londoners are still immensely fun to point out.

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Tobozu

Pachimon is the collective shorthand used for various Japanese bromide trading and playing cards from late 1960's and early 1970's featuring original Kaiju (giant monsters), created through both drawn illustrations and photo manipulations from more famous creatures from Japanese films and television.

Despite the wealth of fully original characters from these bromide cards, it was the 'rip-off photos' that gave Pachimon (Japanese for 'stolen monsters') its more infamous reputation; terrible shame of inaccuracy and people's misconceptions, really, and I'm no better either, by continuing my series of Pachimon Kaiju articles with said infamy.

Today, we have Tobozu (sometimes called Tohboze), who seems to be some type of sea monster who's invading a ship filled harbor. Many of you will immediately notice that Tobozu is a thinly disguised Gamera, lacking his original turtle shell, given a brown / orange-ish colored skin in place of the original dark green, uneven looking head spikes, and an extended under-bite.

But what really gets my interest is the small group of vacationers by Tobozu's hands / feet who haven't noticed or simply just doesn't care about their approaching doom. If you think that tidbit with the oblivious causalities is hilarious, I'll introduce you all to the London-based Danopura next time!

Before I leave you, I'd like to share my own artistic interpretation of Tobozu which is less of an educated guess on the monster's off-camera body shape than I just simply copying Japanese fan art of Tobozu, notably the Mugen video game versions.

Further Reading and Viewing Online:

Wikipedia Article on Gamera
Trailer for Gamera's 1965 Debut
More Pachimon Kaiju Images

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: NOT Godzilla

Pachimon, or Pachimon Kaiju, is a term used for various Japanese bromide cards published around the early 1970's. These bromide cards were known for featuring bizarre imitation monsters, directly and indirectly based on more famous characters, if not outright stealing the likenesses completely through pre-digital methods of photo manipulation; hence the term Pachimon, 'Pachi' as in stolen, and 'Mon' as in monster.

Of course, this being simple 'fan slang', the term Pachimon is quite misleading as a good number of these bromide cards also featured fully illustrated, originally designed creations. Hopefully a better terminology will make itself present in the near future but, for now, we'll just refer to these cards collectively as Pachimon Kaiju.

Pachimon are quite obscure as it is, so instead of doing what every other blog has done in the past by uploading these visual oddities in bulk, I'm going to showcase these images a little at a time, along with my own personal insight towards the monster designs featured.

I'm going to start with two Godzilla-based rip-offs, just to get greater exposure among the more fickle American-based Kaiju fans, and to show off just how extreme the 'borrowed likeness' side of these cards truly went.

Above we have the mid-60s Godzilla suit altered with huge ears and a slightly larger bird-like beak. This entry hails from a particular series published by the company Yokopro which had giant monsters menacing foreign landmarks and countries around the world. Despite the Katakana on the bromide card itself (which simply translates as New York), this bird-beaked Godzilla has no real, proper Kaiju name, but a re-purposed playing card reissue of the image does rectify this.

The playing card names the monster Wadorisu (which can also be read as Waadorisu or Wardorisu). Wadorisu is a name that, to me at least, seems to match perfectly with the design's funny beak and ears.

Not much else to say on this New York Pachimon other than that the poor Statue of Liberty was getting harassed by monsters long before baby Cloverfield came along!

Now onto our second Godzilla knock-off who's been altered oh-so-slightly with a neck-frill and porcupine-style spines. The lower line of katakana on this image roughly translates as Yakobu which also means 'Jacob' in Japanese, however, I no idea if this is the monster's name or the airport location that its menacing. For now, we'll just refer to this critter as Yakobu whose design and overall card is a lot more appealing than the earlier New York Pachimon.

Actually, it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibly that Yakobu is the Pachimon version of Jirass from "Ultraman", who itself was a refurbished Godzilla suit with an added neck-frill.

If that's the case, then this would be creature design equivalent of painting pure karat gold bars with gold hobby store paint. And then wrapping those golden abominations in shiny, gold colored foil, bought from a party supply shop.

Okay, so maybe its not THAT bad, but Yakobu still has the nicer looking bromide card between the two shown.

Further Reading Online:

All Monsters Blog's Profile of Jirass
More Pachimon Images