Gamera

About

Gamera is a fictional flying turtle kaiju, first appearing in his own movie of the same name. Created by Daiei to rival Toho’s own Godzilla in the kaiju boom of the 60’s, Gamera grown on to be an icon for the kaiju genre and Japan itself, like Godzilla, although he is not as acknowledged as the king of monsters by people around the world

History

In the 1965 film directed by Noriaka Yuasa, Gamera was gigantic beast with an appearance of a turtle awaken by a nuclear dogfight between the American and Russian forces. At first, he was thought to be a mindless monster who destroyed everything in his path, but was revealed to truly be a sympathetic sentient being who was just misunderstood when he saved a young boy from falling lighthouse. His love for children progressed film after film as he fought dangerous creatures who put the planet in peril. Showa Gamera’s life finally ended when he sacrificed himself to save the Earth by destroying the evil Zanon’s ship which killed him and the alien’s forces in the process.

The Gamera films were rebooted with the release of the Heisei series. This incarnation of shelled hero potrays him as a bio-engineered Atlantean creature created for the purpose of protecting the planet from any imminent threats. In 2006 Gamera was rebooted once more, where another Gamera is shown to be fending off a random group of Gyaos, a bat-like predator. The Gyaos seem to have the upper hand until Gamera self-destructs, killing them all and saving the village who were under attack. This causes a Gamera egg to spawn, where in 30 years a child will find it and keep the Gamera pet until he grows up to fight.

Presence on the Internet

Gamera may not be as famous as Godzilla, but does have a large community. On July 9, 2009, a wiki dedicated to Gamera called the Gamera Wiki was opened.^[1] ScrewAttack uploaded a new DeathBattle episode about Gamera vs Godzilla on August 16, 2014.^[2] As of June 2nd 2015, the video has reached over 9 million views.

Fanart

Search Interest

External References