E-Mail This Article to a Friend Monsters, Inc. Kaiju Big Battel builds a new beast BY CARLY CARIOLI

This week Boston’s Kaiju Big Battel — the monster-wrestling league that has grown from an art-school goof into a cult phenomenon that’s so popular it landed an MTV special and so complex that it recently spawned Kaiju Big Battel: A Practical Guide to Giant City-Crushing Monsters (Hyperion) — will unveil its latest creation in a "Mystery Hero Debut Battel" that also features Gomi-man, a walking heap of toxic landfill. And though the identity of the new combatant is being closely guarded by the mad scientists at Kaiju HQ in Jamaica Plain, I asked Kaiju chief officer David Borden to walk me through the process of creating a new threat to the universe.

"Contrary to popular myth," Borden explains, "no creative rituals, alien abductions, or drugs — Sid and Marty Krofft already have that covered — are used to create Kaiju Big Battel characters." Instead, most of Kaiju’s creations begin with the Borden’s brother Rand, the company’s co-founder and resident creative genius, who maintains an encyclopædic command of obscure and kitschy Japanese and American pop culture. Kaiju’s Sky Deviler, Borden points out, was created "in the spirit of the nameless destructive monsters in live-action programs like Kamen Rider, Cosmic Sheriff, and Intergalactic Monster Maniac Hour." The Super Dimensional Slug, also known as SDS-1, "is a reference to Robotech’s Super Dimensional Fortress."

In the early days of Studio Kaiju, the company made the most of its limited budget. There was to have been a Mad Cow, "but Rand couldn’t afford any piebald fabric, so he went with a red fabric, added a devil tail, and Hell Monkey was born." Likewise, the since-retired Multi Moog was pieced together in a matter of weeks out of spare parts, leftover rubber, and remaindered paint. These days, the process tends to be less haphazard: the designs originate with Rand’s sketches, which are fleshed out into a small-scale paper model. "Once he’s happy with the model, he re-creates it full-scale out of upholstery foam, then adds multiple layers of tinted latex. After the suit is fully formed, he adds fur, eyeballs, and other assorted details. Finally, it’s finished with a secret, proprietary latex-paint mix." If the finished product looks uncannily like the costumes in live-action Japanese mutant-hero shows, it’s no coincidence: the manufacturing process is based on the one used by Japan’s legendary Tsuburaya Productions, creators of Ultraman.

But costumes are only half the battle. As in any other modern wrestling universe, the monsters of Kaiju are engaged in an ongoing soap-opera-like drama — this one just happens to concern the fate of the universe. "Usually Rand comes up with the core characteristics and story points," Borden says, but the work of fleshing out the general idea into specific story lines and scripts trickles down to a core of about five full-time writers, who work with the performers on choreography. "Good story lines help the popularity of the characters. Dr. Cube is not the most dynamic fighter, and neither does he possess the most exciting moves in the ring, but everyone appreciates the story of a megalomaniac mad genius who’s hell-bent on ruling the world but repeatedly fails to do so."

Still, even the Kaiju writers can’t always predict which characters will catch on with the audience. Some combatants have distinguished themselves with their signature superpowers — Napalean’s audience-splashing "sleep spit," Silver Potato’s breakdancing moves, Unibouzu’s "high-flying fighting technique" — but others have lingered on even after their creators have tired of them. Kung-Fu Chicken Noodle, Borden acknowledges, is "not one of our favorite characters." Borden is still not quite sure what the audience finds appealing about a fighting can of soup — other than sheer absurdity, which is not to be underestimated in any consideration of Kaiju’s success — but he suspects the Soup sells for the same reason that Sky Deviler and Call-Me-Kevin have prospered: "They have really cool-looking suits."

Kaiju Big Battel’s "Mayday! Mayday! Boston SOS!", with musical guests Officer May, takes place this Saturday, May 1, at 6:30 p.m. at Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston. Tickets are $18.25; call (617) 423-NEXT.