GODZILLOWEEN - Baragon and Frankenstein
Baragon
Continuing with Kaiju that went from funky one-off to sharing a space with Godzilla, today we have Baragon, who is definitely another one of these that feels like another-one-of-these-Kaiju, a bit. I don't know a ton about Ultraman, but it definitely feels like it sprouted from its monster-of-the-week format rather than something that could've carried its own theatrical film.
That isn't to say he isn't cool in his own right, though. He visibly combines a lot of the ideas of burrowing creatures, like you explained the idea of an animal that hides underground to an alien or something. With big, sharp front paws not unlike a mole's, though it could probably stand to be moley-er. Otherwise, it's biggest features are its crescent-shaped ears and big horn that, again, could look a little more like a burrowing horn but I digress. There is a cool bit of the design where Baragon can shield his eyes with his ears, supposedly while burrowing. Neat!
And I do think there is an underappreciated art in making a monster design that is understated enough to be believable. It just feels like his most noteworthy features are that he's the potential inspiration behind Pokemon's Nidoking. Though there is something else. Baragon doesn't have a solo-film, rather, his debut movie is a "versus" one. But his opponent wasn't Godzilla. It was...
Huh?!?
Frankenstein
Now, I actually didn't even know this until doing preliminary research when organizing my list of kaiju to cover, but I can't not include the absurdity that is the fact that the Toho kaiju universe has a giant-size Frankenstein's monster in it. Which only makes me feel that much more vindicated in making this "Godzilloween".
But yes, believe it or not, Baragon's debut film was 1965's Frankenstein vs. Baragon. (Or Frankenstein Conquers the World, as it was known in the states. Not even a mention of Baragon in that one!) And it isn't even retroactively calling an unrelated humanoid creature "Frankenstein", it's indeed an artificial human built with an immortal heart. Of course in the Tohoverse, becoming feral and giant after being irradiated by the atomic blast. He was hunted and blamed for the destruction caused by Baragon before he went out of his way to kill Baragon, succeeding only to disappear into a fissure to never be seen again. Doomed to fall into the Godzilla extended universe's memory hole.
Design-wise he's perhaps not all that outrageous, honestly looking more like a caricature of a caveman than Frankenstein's monster, with his fur pelt, copious amounts of body hair, and crooked teeth. So apart from the enlarged head, there's only so much Frankenstein going on here. But I suppose what else can you do with a kaiju-sized neanderfaux.
