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Gamera Rebirth Netflix


September 7th finally arrived, and the new Gamera anime has dropped. I'd been eager to catch this, as I'm a big fan of kaiju media, and being that Gamera doesn't get nearly as much love as Godzilla these days, I was thrilled when this series was announced. I grew up watching the Showa films of the 60's and early 70's, and always enjoyed the weird creatures that Gamera would be pitted against. Then the 90's Heisei trilogy came, and my love of Gamera grew immensely. The last Gamera film that was released, 2006's Gamera The Brave, was kind of a letdown for me. I wasn't a fan of the return to more kid-friendly vibes after the serious, adult tone of the 90's trilogy. I sat and watched the first 3 episodes of this new series on Thursday afternoon, and thus far, I'm enjoying it.










The story begins in Japan in 1989, where we're introduced to 3 kids, Boco, Joe and Junichi. They are on summer break and are trying to save up money to purchase a communication device so that they can stay in touch with each other once school begins. One day they come across a large turtle that's stuck in some tree roots and set about to free it. Once they've acquired enough money to buy their device, they get ambushed by a group of American teenagers, led by Brody, who's the son of a military captain. The 3 friends get their money stolen, and then devise a plan to get it back from the bullies. They track the teenagers to an arcade, and just as they're about to get into another brawl, a large explosion rumbles through the city. Running outside, they see a bunch of military jets engaged in battle with an army of Gyaos creatures, who are attacking and eating the citizens. The monsters had previously been discovered in New Guinea on an expedition. The military's efforts to thwart the Gyaos fail when a much larger one appears and attacks their jets. Suddenly, Gamera the giant turtle appears in the city and kills the small ones and engages in battle with the large one, defeating it and then flying away. After his buddies abandoned him, Brody befriends Boco, Joe and Junichi. Two scientists, Emiko and Tazaki, who are studying the kaiju, partner with the kids, as they realize that everywhere they go, kaiju, and especially Gamera, follow.









What I found enjoyable about the series thus far is that it combines the kid-friendly plots of the Showa era, with the more mature adult content of the Heisei trilogy, resulting in an entertaining series that does a good job of balancing both human scenes and kaiju action. None of the kids are portrayed as nauseatingly cutesy (they actually dropped a few cuss words), the monster attacks were all well done and exciting (you actually see the Gyaos eating and dismembering people), the new kaiju designs look great in action, and the storyline is not overly saturated with too many characters and subplots. Zigra so far is my favorite of the kaiju antagonists. Its new design looks great in action, including its sonar attack and the character's efforts to evade its assault. Gamera is also great, his chest and throat glowing before shooting fireballs, and the scenes of him in flight, either speeding into battle or using electrical shockwaves to evade a military attack. The big turtle has been shown respect with this anime series. I can't, however, help but feel irritated that Godzilla got such a raw deal with his anime outings, which degenerated into long, drawn out bore fests with uninteresting storylines, unlikeable characters, and pathetic monster action (Godzilla Earth in particular just standing there like a statue and doing very little). I'm pleasantly surprised with this Gamera series, and I hope that it's successful enough to get at least another season or two. And you know that I would love for his co-stars to get figures in the S.H. MonsterArts line. Here's hoping that Gamera fans come out in droves to support his latest outing.







 

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