About The Kaiju Papers

The Kaiju Papers is a transmedia arts and social justice advocacy project that combines futures thinking, political education, speculative fiction, and storytelling to build more just and equitable futures through the lens of Kaiju media.

The Kaiju Papers is presented as a Very Serious research mission that aims to answer the question, “What might the future(s) be like if humankind were to implement lessons from Kaiju about love, anti-fascism, the world, and ourselves?”

NOTE: if you have further questions, feel free to visit our FAQ page.

WHAT FELLOW KAIJU SCHOLARS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE KAIJU PAPERS

[The Kaiju Papers] will undoubtedly be doing incredible things for [the Kaiju] community and the broader conversation behind these films. ... TKP gets it, while also making their field reports incredibly funny, deeply thought-provoking, and educational for both casual fans and seasoned kaiju enthusiasts alike. The Kaiju Papers was such a wonderful new introduction the past few months, and I am very much looking forward to future collaboration with them. - Jacob Lyngle, Kaiju United

I was very excited to see [The Kaiju Papers] undertaking this project that highlights the connection between the emergently monstrous and futures consciousness, and especially happy that she has given so much love to to what we might categorize as metaphorical hyper-objects that elicit transfixing fascination across the world. - Frank Spencer, The Futures School

WHAT THE PUBLIC IS SAYING ABOUT THE KAIJU PAPERS

The Kaiju Papers is such a fun and wonderfully invigorating creative project about Godzilla.

I find this work to be delightful - I appreciate the whimsy woven into the reflections on the current state and possibilities for the future. It's a powerful way to radically reimagine a better future.

[this is] really cool art!

The Kaiju Papers is amazing. I love it. It — and ts general sense of playfulness — bring me so much joy. Thank you!

absolutely love this!!

The Kaiju Papers is critical thinking, necessary knowledge, and Design Action.

THE TEAM

The Kaiju Papers, or Mission Kaiju_Love_Care_Futures_02026 is supervised by the mysterious Mission HQ. We don’t know much about what goes on at Mission HQ, aside from the fact that the Director is a cat and doesn’t seem to have much patience for the Mission Team. We don’t know for sure, but we can assume that Mission HQ is in charge of reigning in the Field Office team and supervising a myriad of other research missions investigating Sci-Fi franchises across space and time. Mission Headquarters is very busy.

The Field Office Team is the heart of the mission. This team, based in Brooklyn, NY, is in charge of an artifact review wherein they watch each Godzilla film in chronological order and produce a Field Report for each film. Each Field Report offers between three and five lessons for humanity for building better futures.

NOTE: There is a man who lives at the Field Office who is unaffiliated with the mission who commits acts of sabotage, such as leaving notes like “Kong is King” and stealing the team’s mission logs. We have not figured out how to navigate this.

The Arts Department is global and multidisciplinary. The mandate of the Kaiju Papers Arts Department is to create art that imagines what the future might look like if humankind were to implement some of the lessons and themes outlined in the Kaiju Mission Field Reports. These might be illustrations of the futures themselves, or imagined artifacts that exist in these futures. Interested parties can access the Creative Brief here.

For a more in-depth understanding of the methods underlyng this research, pease see our Research Metholodology.

JOIN US:

Members of the public can engage with the mission in the following ways:

A. Subscribe to The Kaiju Papers. (remember to verify your email!)

B. Join the Mission’s Board of Directors by becoming a paid subscriber. While—in accordance with the mission’s belief in Knowledge as a Collective Good—non-confidential mission assets will never exist behind a paywall, paid subscribers do receive the following benefits:

All Paid Subscribers will have a seat on the Mission’s Board of Directors. Ours is not a working nor a governing nor a managing Board, but Board Members will be invited to an annual virtual Board Meeting.
Paid subscribers will receive Kaiju postcards from the mission’s Lead Investigator with behind-the-scenes mission updates, dispatched monthly.
Mission Patrons will have a plaque with their name on it installed at the Kaiju Mission Field Office, and they will have helped the mission obtain access to artifacts such as the Japanese cut of King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), which is very difficult to do in the United States, where this mission is headquartered.

…If you are unable to become a paid subscriber, but you would like to make a one-time contribution, you can do so using this link.

C. Share The Kaiju Papers with friends and colleagues, especially those interested in futures and foresight work (and those able and interested to provide finanical support).

D. Join the Godzilla Mission Arts Department, whose mandate is to create art in any medium that imagines what the future might look like if humankind were to implement some of the lessons outlined in the Mission’s Field Reports. These might be illustrations of the futures themselves or imagined artifacts that exist in these futures. Interested partied can access the Arts Department Creative Brief here.

E. Sign up for Community Sensemaking Sessions: The Field Office and Mission HQ will partner to host in-person and virtual Community Sensemaking sessions. These sessions will center around community Backcasting exercises. We are planning on facilitating six sensemaking sessions (five for each era of Godzilla films, one for the entire franchise) between Summer 02026 and Fall 02027 to answer the question: “what will it take to achieve a version of these imagined futures?”(five sessions, one for each of the five eras). The hopeful outcome of these sessions is an understanding of what we can change or adopt now in order to make these futures more likely.

F. Follow the mission on social media: IG | TikTok | LinkedIn | Bluesky

G. Prefer physical media? Check out the growing zines page!

Thank you for your support of curiousity and rigor and joining us as we explore the Kaiju archives.

Yours in Science,

The Kaiju Mission Team

This mission is dedicated to the memory of Harvey Rowe.

A NOTE ON AUTHORSHIP:

The Kaiju Papers is the absolutely bonkers brainchild of genevieve smith of GV Advisory, where she works as an organizational effectiveness consultant to philanthropy and social change organizations.

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