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Gamera
first introduced in Daikaiju Gamera
[trans. Giant Monster Gamera] (1965; dir. Noriaki Yuasa)
[aka Gammera the Invincible (US, 1966)]
Gamera! Gamera!
You’re so groovy, Gamera!
You’re so groovy, Gamera!
You are groovy, Gamera!
Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury
There’s a big monster headed our way
Coming out of deep freeze
Whether we like it or not
Here it comes, flying down
Go! Go! Go!
Down it with jet flame
Groovy, groovy Gamera!
Groovy, groovy Gamera!
You are groovy, Gamera!
The creators of this Japanese kaiju hero, the “friend of children”, were either big-time drug users or had incredible imaginations. In their attempt to rip off the success of Toho’s Gojira (Godzilla) but to do something different with the concept, Daiei Studios came up with something very different indeed! A giant fireball-spewing, often bi-pedal, jet-propelled flying turtle from space! (Or, in Kaneko’s superior 1990s trilogy, a bio-engineered Gaia figure, designed to protect the Earth.) The huge lumbering creature retracts his legs, shoots flames from the holes and takes to the air, spinning like a giant nuclear-powered top. All you strange supporting kaiju villains beware! Groovy!
A collection of Gamera trailers (US versions):
Gamera vs Zigra trailer (original Japanese version):
And the trailer for what might be the best daikaiju eiga of all time, Gamera 3: Iris kakusei (1999; dir. Shusuke Kaneko) [aka Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris):
And finally, coming soon: Kaiju Search-Robot Avery’s Top 20 Craziest Kaiju Countdown Number 1! The weirdest of the lot!
Top 20 Craziest Kaiju Countdown articles:
- Kaiju Search-Robot Avery’s Introduction
- Number 20: The Monolith Monsters
- Number 19: The Giant Claw
- Number 18: Dogora
- Number 17: The Trollenberg Terror
- Number 16: Rectuma
- Number 15: The Outlander
- Number 14: The Host
- Number 13: DeepStar Six
- Number 12: Gojira
- Number 11: Monster Shark
- Number 10: The Milpitas Monster
- Number 9: Space Monster Wangmagwi
- Number 8: The Relic
- Number 7: Angry Red Planet
- Number 6: Birth of a Legend: The Story of the Wawa
- Number 5: Cloverfield
- Number 4: Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster
- Number 3: Mothra
I always found Gamera to be the cuddliest Kaiju of them all. And I’ll honor Shusuke Kaneko forever for taking this absurd thing and making three incredible films with it.
I totally agree with you. That trilogy is his great achievement, as much as I like some of his other work…
Man, Gamera 3 looked BADASS.
It is. To my mind one of the top 5 giant monster films of all time.
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i think i must of saw this creature and laughed my head off when it flew, such a cool monster though, brilliant design