In his native Japan, artist Yuji Kaida is perhaps most famous for his illustrations of Godzilla and other "kaiju" – biological monsters which continue to generate plenty of interest both in the Far East and the rest of the world.
Indeed, this talent has earned him the title "Kaiju Painter" in Japan, but to say that Kaida only creates images of Godzilla and his chums would be doing the man a massive disservice; in fact, there's a very good chance that you've seen a piece of his artwork already, perhaps without even noticing it.
Kaida's work spans the worlds of film, TV and comics, and he has contributed many amazing pieces of art to the likes of Mobile Suit Gundam, Macross, Patlabor and Zoids – but since the '90s, he has also been producing promotional artwork for a wide range of video games, working with companies such as Sega, Hudson, Nintendo, Square, Konami and Capcom during his long and fruitful career.
We've pulled together some of our favourite Kaida compositions below, but this thread on Twitter is also worth a look; we had no idea that he was responsible for 2018's Kirby Star Allies cover, for example.
What an incredible artistic range!
One of the best shooters on the PC Engine, Soldier Blade benefits massively from Kaida's cover image. This would be used on the North American release, too — Image: Damien McFerran / Time ExtensionRanger X (or EX-Ranza as it was known in Japan) has this glorious mech painting as its front cover. The Western version wasn't as lucky — Image: Damien McFerran / Time ExtensionLike Whip Rush, AeroGauge is an example of a fairly unremarkable game getting top-tier cover artwork. Kaida's composition makes it worth owning, and this art was carried over to the Western release, too — Image: Damien McFerran / Time ExtensionBattle Garegga's cover illustrates Kaida's amazing talent for creating mechanical designs - something that's all the more stunning when you consider he has made his career drawing monsters — Image: Damien McFerran / Time ExtensionOne of Kaida's more recent efforts is this amazing cover for M2's recent Zero Fire collection — Image: Damien McFerran / Time Extension
Finally, we'll leave you with this amazing poster, which Kaida-san created for the Japanese release of Ready Player One.
Image: Warner Bros.
Do you have a favourite piece of Kaida artwork? Let us know with a comment below.
