#gigaman

Design

In some ways there isn’t much to talk about. I mean Gigaman is an Ultraman expy. He does have a few specific references though.

One of his skins is named Multi-Type, a reference to Ultraman Tiga, and another skin is yet another reference to Ultraman Belial.

Gigaman also has a dad bod, and this is because he actually was retired for 8 years but suddenly came back in modern day, so he’s let himself go a bit and age is catching up to him. But I think he’s still got it. One of his skins depicts him in his prime.

Here’s some concept art. I think my favorite is the shirtless one with G plastered on his face, it’s so stupid looking.

Lore

Gigaman is very secretive over who he is so let’s cover what we do know before getting to the implied stuff.

Around the 80’s a teenage Gigaman would make his first appearance in the San'ya district of Tokyo to defend it from a kaiju. And for around 30 years, up until 2012, he would defend Japan against monsters. This also meant that Japan didn’t need to rely on the Global Titan Defense Initiative.

Gigaman made sure that people were safe… and that he entertained them while he was at it. Every single time he appeared he brought something new to the table; a new technique, catchphrase, or move. Every time he showed up it was exciting. While he definitely liked the attention, he primarily did it all to spread hope to people. Showing that underneath all his showmanship, Gigaman is truly a humble dude.

Of course, when the person defending your country from monsters is a 132 foot superhero who likes posing for the camera, it’s understandable that there might be fanaticism. Indeed, there was a time when Japan was overflowing with “Gigamania” and a movie called “Rise of Gigaman” was even in production during this period.

Eventually though Gigaman would retire in 2012. He was getting around middle age at that point, and he couldn’t keep fighting kaiju forever. But this didn’t last long, and in 2021 he would come out of retirement to help the world deal with the new rise in kaiju activity.

Few other things to note are that Gigaman’s power is tied to the Giga Core and he personally knows Dr. Otama Kazuo, and even knows the inner workings of Thundatross, meaning he was present for its development.

So… is Gigaman a human who can transform into a kaiju, or a humanoid kaiju who can speak and understand technology and culture? There is some implication that it might be the former. His lore files follow a reporter trying to uncover his identity and his findings led him to the San'ya district and eventually Kamikuzu Orphanage, which was packed with orphans at the start of the first kaiju crisis in the 70’s. Sadly only a few were ever actually selected to receive formal education. There was one kid named “Sho” though, who was a big Gigaman fan and skipped class whenever he appeared. It’s possible that Gigaman is this “Sho” but there’s no confirmation. Sho would probably be in his 50s by now, and presumably so is Gigaman. Also I’m wondering, did Dr. Otama grow up in the same orphanage?

Sadly there wasn’t much to talk about this time, but I think we can all appreciate Japan’s masked hero. He’s certainly the first to come to my mind when people say “Ultraman expy”!