Happy Birthday Gamera!

Today marks Gamera's 56th birthday. He first appeared on the Japanese Daikaiju scene in 1965 as competition for Toho's successful Godzilla series. A giant fire breathing turtle who could fly by hiding in his shell and blowing flames through his arm and leg holes, spinning around around like a flying saucer (and later, jetting around Superman-style with flames shooting from his legs), the first film was a bigger hit than the studio (Daiei) expected, so they continued to release more. Soon enough, Gamera had his own series of movies and set of villain kaiju to battle, including Gyaos (arguably his most famous foe), Barugon, Viras, Jiger, Guiron, and Zigra.

By 1971, the studio went bankrupt. In 1980, the company New Daiei released Gamera Super Monster, in which they took footage from all the previous movies and used it to create a new story, with a few new added scenes of the star turtle himself. It's considered one of Gamera's worst films, on par with Godzilla's Revenge (which also re-uses old footage). The story about an evil space woman who tries to take over the Earth by sending monsters to attack, and the 3 hero space women who try to stop her is quite ridiculous, yet I've always found that film fun and entertaining, in a so-bad-it's-good sorta way.

Then, in 1995, Gamera returned, in Shusuke Kaneko's fantastic, fun Gamera Guardian of the Universe. He was once again pitted against his greatest foe, Gyaos, and the result was a successful film that kick-started what I consider the greatest kaiju trilogy of all time. Kaneko returned to direct the next two in the series, Gamera II: Advent of Legion (aka Attack of the Legion) and Gamera III: The Incomplete Struggle (aka The Revenge of Irys). Guardian was a throwback to the fun kaiju films of before, while Gamera 2 was a serious, awesome monster film with a great story and impressive action. Gamera 3 was like an art house apocalypse film with monsters. Kaneko was a great director, giving all three movies their own individual styles and touches. The success of these films lead him to get the job of directing 2001's Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, or GMK for short, one of the best Godzilla films ever made.

Gamera's final film was in 2006, with Gamera The Brave. I didn't really care for that movie. It seemed to abandon the more serious, adult themed 90's trilogy for a return to more kid-friendly fare. Gamera is adopted by a young boy as a baby turtle and grows giant, eventually saving him from a monster named Zedus. This monster was very cool, but Gamera looked goofy, like with his large, anime eyes. I just didn't find the movie all that interesting. It opened at #6 at the Japanese box office and became a commercial failure. And thus, we never saw Gamera on the screen again. Though fans like me hope that someday he makes his triumphant return.