# Godzilla (or other Kaiju critters) eating people?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [June 17, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470 "2021-06-17T14:34:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/1 "2021-06-17T14:34:37Z")
Are there any instances in Japanese movies of kaiju critters like Godzilla and his ilk actually consuming people as food? The beasties are usually portrayed as so large that they are menacing to actual cities, killing people by knocking buildings over, without seeing individuals as prey items. I cannot remember any of them pursuing humans and eating them, but my memory might be faulty…
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/2 "2021-06-17T14:42:32Z")
When Roland Emmerich got permission to make the 1998 version of Godzilla (the one with Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno), Toho Studios gave him some rules. One of them was “Godzilla only eats fish, never humans.”
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/3 "2021-06-17T14:45:59Z")
I’ve seen all the Godzilla movies from the 1954 black and white version until the one just released. I can’t remember a single instance of a human being consumed either as a food source or simply out of anger.
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### Author:  [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/4 "2021-06-17T14:47:37Z")
Godzilla’s brood of Godzookies in that movie, which were totally not _Jurassic Park_-style velociraptors, certainly seemed like they _wanted_ to eat Our Heroes. But, they also were definitely sub-kaiju size at that point.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/5 "2021-06-17T14:50:34Z")
The bad Gargantua ate people.
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### Author:  [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/6 "2021-06-17T14:51:57Z")
Yes, I was just going to amend my post with the statement from Broderick’s character stating the hatchlings were hungry, which implied that, if caught, they would be a food source.
[One guy sure looks like a Happy Meal!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnGpfWa6FAQ)
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/7 "2021-06-17T15:17:36Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> The bad Gargantua ate people.
Most memorably, in the scene where he consumes an unfortunate lady, he then spits out her clothes onto the street.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/8 "2021-06-17T15:21:04Z")
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMkd8I49X8E)
They seem to have cut out the actual eating. ISTR him eating more people in the movie, but I don’t know where my DVD is right now.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/9 "2021-06-17T15:33:19Z")
I guess they might qualify as Kaijus since they’re not technically dinosaurs–in Skull Island the “Vultursaurs” fly off with one of the mercenaries and pick him apart (nicely silhouetted against the sun, I might add).
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/10 "2021-06-17T15:35:16Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> The bad Gargantua ate people.
You beat me to it. This is the only case of a Japanese kaiju actually eating anyone. The giant caterpillar things\* in **Rodan** attacked and mauled people on an individual basis (rather than simply killing people _en masse_ when wrecking a city), but they didn’t seem to be eating them.
On the other hand, Western giant monsters apparently did eat people.
Winsor McCay’s **The Giant Pet** (1921) eats a passing streetcar, which must have had at least one person on board. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQb3TmGpVog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQb3TmGpVog)
**King Kong** (1933) wasn’t shown actually eating people, although he put two in his mouth and bit down on them.
**The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms** (1953) eats a policeman who has the nerve to shoot at him – [The Beast from 20'000 Fathoms... My kinda bedtime classic movie! #monster #blackandwhite #beast #inspiration #motivation #friday #black #cop #film... | By Mister Sam Shearon | Facebook](https://ne-np.facebook.com/MisterSamShearon/videos/the-beast-from-20000-fathomsmy-kinda-bedtime-classic-moviemonster-blackandwhite-/10155595085636535/)
\*Meganuron, according to the Japanese script, and later retcons, but when I was growing up this wasn’t available info.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/11 "2021-06-17T15:40:07Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> ISTR him eating more people in the movie,
It wasn’t shown, but Brown G sees enough evidence of Green G dining on some hikers to start kicking his ass.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/12 "2021-06-17T15:51:09Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> This is the only case of a Japanese kaiju actually eating anyone.
Sorry - I meant to add “that I know of.” There might be other cases, but I can’t recall them.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/13 "2021-06-17T15:58:49Z")
Has Godzilla ever been depicted eating anything? It’s implied he lives off of radioactivity. I seem to remember other kaiju who were nourished by electricity.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/14 "2021-06-17T16:05:58Z")
In the classic The Movie Monster Game ( I forget the release date. It was 198-something) Godzilla appers as an officially licensed character. He and the other kaiju in the game can eat humans. Due, I think, to graphics limitations this is not really depicted. You move into the same space as a human, there is a squishing sound, and you gain some energy. However, you gain considerably more energy by performing the same maneuver with cars. In the also classic game Rampage, the kaiju gain energy by eating various foods and by grabbing and eating people.
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### Author:  [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/15 "2021-06-17T17:40:44Z")
The Skullwalkers eat a few people as well, including John Goodman and his camera.
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### Author:  [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/16 "2021-06-17T17:59:37Z")
Thanks for the info!
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/17 "2021-06-17T19:46:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Winsor McCay’s **The Giant Pet** (1921) eats a passing streetcar, which must have had at least one person on board. [Winsor McCay’s: Dreams of the Rarebit Fiend - The Pet (1921) - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQb3TmGpVog)
The subtitle for that movie totally should have been
> _The Streetcar Named Dessert_
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### Author:  [@ThisOneGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisOneGuy)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2021, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/18 "2021-06-17T21:24:28Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> There might be other cases, but I can’t recall them.
I remember one of the “bad” kaiju in a Gamera movie eating people. Don’t remember which one.
…
Looked it up, Gyaos: [Gamera vs. Gyaos - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamera_vs._Gyaos)
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/godzilla-or-other-kaiju-critters-eating-people/944470/19 "2021-06-18T00:38:12Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> In the also classic game Rampage, the kaiju gain energy by eating various foods and by grabbing and eating people.
And in the so-bad-it’s-good movie based on the game, the good kaiju, George, eats a person. But it’s OK, because a, she’s really, really bad, and b, he wasn’t entirely himself at the time, having had his aggression levels artificially increased (by the really bad person he was eating).
One of the two bad kaiju is also shown specifically targeting and killing individual humans, but I don’t think it’s explicitly shown eating them (though there’s really no reason to think it didn’t).