Yuji KAIDA
Yuji KAIDA is an illustrator specialized in kaijus (strange creatures and giant monsters in Japanese movies such as the famous Godzilla), alien superheroes (Ultraman) and other giant robots. Nicknamed "the painter of Kaijus", Yuji KAIDA honors us with his presence at Japan Expo this summer to celebrate Godzilla's 70th anniversary!
KAIDA Yuji
KAIDA Yuji has been greatly influenced by kaiju films, special effects films, and animation works since his childhood. He sponsored a circle of kaiju film fans when he was a student, and the personal connections he made at that time formed the basis of his work as an illustrator.
After graduating from the design department of Kyoto University of the Arts, he moved to Tokyo in 1978 and became a freelance illustrator.
He focuses on illustrations of kaiju and robot characters and has also worked on illustrations for magazines, books, plastic model packaging, software covers, card games, and posters.
He stood out with his work on the Japanese poster for the movie "Ready Player One" by Steven Spielberg and has even been selected as one of the 24 BEST MOVIE POSTERS OF 2017 by Rotten Tomatoes for his "Kong: Skull Island" poster.
Other awards he received include the 28th (1997) Seiun Award in the Art category and the Citizen's Award at the Fantaland Grand Prix at the 24th Yubari International Fantasy Film Festival.
Finally, he published a large collection of works in Japan and organized numerous exhibitions.
Recently, "The Godzilla Art of KAIDA Yuji", the first collection of his works abroad, was published by Titan Books in the UK.
Meet the "painter of Kaijus" at Japan Expo for signing sessions and conferences!
Works
- Kaiju giga (1989, Bandai, ISBN 978-4891890483)
- Meganics (1990, Bandai, ISBN 978-4891890957)
- Works (1992, Bandai, ISBN 978-4891891923)
- Kaiju Garo (1995, MediaWorks, ISBN 978-4073030485)
- Monster Chronicle Chronicles (1996, Bandai Visual) -- CD-ROM Fonctionne
- Generation Ultraman (1999, Moby Dick, ISBN 978-4944190041) – Postcards collection
- Godzilla Generation (1999, Moby Dick, ISBN 978-4944190034) – Postcards collection, the first half is made by Noriyoshi Ohrai
- Illustration collection Ultra Q Yuji Kaida (2001, Kadokawa Shoten, ISBN 978-4048533874)
- Culdcept COMPLETE ILLUSTRATION (2001, Media Factory, ISBN 978-4840103626) – Illustrations drawn by 10 illustrators for the development of the « Culdcept » game software and works in serie.
- Yuji Kaida Peinture Collection Gundam Edition (2015, Peinture Dainippon, ISBN 978-4499231657)
- The Godzilla Art of Yuji Kaida (2021. Titan books, Royaume Uni ; ISBN 978-1789097900)