#gamera guardian of the universe

[spicypopsicleng]

Gamera Rebirth poster I did in hype of the new anime!

[artblooger19moon]

Happy Birthday Gamera [ ガメラ ]

November 27, 1965

Gamera is 58 years old !!! !!!

Earth Defender and friend to all children

From Gamera franchise

[talesfromtheshatterhome]

"Atlantian Justice"

[rwac96]

Batman Contingencies: Gamera

Agamemnon Contingency: "The Last Hope"

Gamera, known as 'The Last Hope' by the ancient Atlanteans, is also labeled the 'Guardian of The Universe' by JSDF, G-Force, and Monarch. Like Mothra, Gamera is a Guardian Kaiju known to defend the Earth, not necessarily humanity. From the records I've gathered referencing this creature from ancient Atlantean monoliths, Gamera is the last of a group of advanced, bio-engineered giant turtles created in the ancient past. The purpose is unclear, though there are many possibilities: To defend themselves, to combat something called 'The Shadow of Evil' and 'The Great Enemy', or to protect humanity. It is clear that despite Gamera being destructive, it's evident that he protects humanity, specifically children, from destructive Kaiju and hostile extraterrestrials. He was first discovered in 1965, awakening from his slumber after a nuclear warhead detonated in the Arctic.

Seeing the devastation from the blast, Gamera became enraged, laying waste to Tokyo once he reached landfall. His rampage came to an end when the JSDF lured him to an experimental rocket ship, launching him into space. He would return to Earth in 1995, thirty years after his rampage, the emergence of giant, avian-like Kaiju known as Gyaos emerged and wreaked havoc upon Japan. The JSDF and G-Force mobilized to combat the Kaiju, though Gamera proved to be the more benevolent when he saved the life of a young boy from the Gyaos. Through months of research, it was discovered that Gamera had a supernatural origin, unlike the number of monsters that were a result of radiation exposure. Gamera draws his power from a mystical life force known as Mana, which, according to Doctor Fate and Aquaman, is an essential essence that gave him life.

Despite Gamera being a Guardian of Earth, in his battles against Kaiju such as Gyaos, Virians, Legion, Irys, and Godzilla, he leaves collateral damage in his wake. His connection to humanity, namely a young woman named Asagi Kusanagi, thankfully restrains him from performing more reckless tactics. Through an Atlantean Magatama, a priest or priestess can command Gamera, sharing a psychic rapport with him. From what Oracle gathered regarding Miss Kusanagi, she's a woman with a conscious who believes in Gamera's role as one of Earth's Protectors. But, there was an incident where he fell under the thrall of a rogue scientist, Greta Karbone, who got hold of a Magatama, which she manipulated with her own latent telepathic abilities to gain control of him. With him enthralled, she used him along with her own creation, Viras, to lay waste to Paris but was thankfully stopped by Asagi and the arrival of Mothra.

Gamera has numerous abilities that range from immense strength, unleashing and absorbing fire and plasma, flying, regeneration, converting energy, and manipulating his own body, these abilities make him a dangerous opponent. This contingency is in place should Gamera break his connection with humanity and grow reckless or a Magatama fall into dangerous hands. If a scenario such as Dr. Karbone getting another Magatama should occur, the first step is to destroy it or in a sense, strengthen Kusunagi's connection with Gamera. An alternative is to concoct a spell that drains the mana from the Magatama, breaking the user's connection with Gamera. Should the situation escalate, the next step is to deploy an experimental Mech known as the 'Titan Bat'.

Unlike other Anti-Kaiju Mechs, this one is in line with my moral restraints, even if Gamera is a monster. The mech is armed with Cryogenic technology that can freeze him. But, Gamera has a history of studying his opponents, which would prolong the confrontation. The technology within the mech is connected to a Batsuit that makes controlling it without issue, though it is fueled with a potent but draining battery. Stalling him would end in disaster and a mass loss of life. The metal alloy can withstand atomic blasts, though it is unclear if it can withstand plasma blasts.

Gamera is one of the remnants of Atlantis past and a Guardian of Earth. His death or corruption would be a tragedy, as the good he did for humanity makes him an essential ally...should we find ourselves against terrestrial and extraterrestrial threats.

[redsamuraiii]

Gamera : Guardian of the Universe (1995)

Since post World War II, under the post war constitution, Japan cannot engage in any military offensive unless provoked (attacked).

[balakinlb]

After Godzilla I just had to draw my absolute favourite big boy, Gamera. (+ turtle in a turtleneck just to be a little silly)

[teegaken]

Gamera vs Viras

[moviecinepelis]

[ash40k]

Gamera 🐢 ... Instagram

[enderon]

Finally trying some Gamera and starting with the 90s series, cause I've been interested in those for a while.

[spicypopsicleng]

Gamera Rebirth was amazing y’all go watch it-

Anyways, BIG TURTLE.

[artblooger19moon]

Happy Birthday Gamera [ ガメラ ]

November 27, 1965

Gamera is 57 years old !!! !!!!

Earth Defender and friend to all children

From Gamera franchise

[thezanyarthropleura]

March 11 (1995)

Happy 28 years to Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, the first film in the Heisei trilogy.

Nope, it’s not the one with Rocket Raccoon, or the one with Jack Frost, or the one with the owls, this is the film that reinvented and redefined Gamera! You will absolutely still hear me singing praises for the Showa films once we get to those, but any Gamera fan will most likely agree with me on principle, even if not always for the same exact reasons, that the 90’s Heisei trilogy is cinema on an entirely different level.

This film in particular is not quite the beginning of women taking on prominent roles in Gamera movies, as that honor goes to either the film prior, 1980’s Gamera: Super Monster, or, mainly on a technicality of how top billing is distributed when the main characters are children, the film before that, 1971’s Gamera vs. Zigra. It’s also, going by its own cast credits, arguably not one of the better examples, but the movie itself didn’t seem to get that memo, as the women in this film most definitely steal the show (and literally did, right from under the noses of their male co-stars, if you judge according to who was invited back for the sequels).

We begin with Nagamine Mayumi, an ornithologist who works at a zoo under a Professor Hirata and gets involved in investigating the Gyaos attacks after Hirata is killed. And if they’d found a way to include her in the second film despite Gyaos not being relevant, she’d probably be considered the unambiguous lead character of the trilogy. She’s determined, brave, and yet sensible and caring, her qualities brought out by the characters she’s contrasted with – Inspector Osako, a comic-relief policeman character whose main role in the film is to panic in fear of the Gyaos while Nagamine takes charge, and Commissioner Saito, an obstructive bureaucrat who insists on trying to capture the Gyaos alive and destroy Gamera despite the former being a predator of humans and the latter proving to be their ally. Her strengths show throughout the film, but after one of her most defiant and focused scenes – pursuing the Gyaos in a helicopter and risking her life to prove they’re a real and growing threat – we also see her at her most vulnerable, finally seeking a chance to rest and mourn after learning earlier about Hirata’s death, and frustrated at being continually confronted for information and assistance in spite of her neglected feelings.

The other leads of the film are the two men who end up investigating Gamera: Asagi’s father and the crewman from a ship that runs aground on Gamera at the beginning of the film. Both are dropped completely after this film (with ship guy’s set-up as Miss Nagamine’s love interest being kinda-sorta replaced by Inspector Osako in Gamera 3, and brief excuses needing to be made each time to explain Mr. Kusanagi’s absence from both sequels), leaving Mr. Kusanagi’s daughter, Asagi to continue being the face of the trilogy and the only character to have significant, non-cameo appearances in all three movies.

Asagi’s arc is really the heart of the film, and she’s a fun character from the beginning, outspoken and snarky and implied to be a bit of a troublemaker. And I’ll give you that in respect to her, her interactions with ship guy as he begs to be included in the plot are entertaining, and the conflict with her father (that she’s admittedly asleep for most of) is a highlight of character development and a realistic take on the ‘child hero’ story that would be revisited in Gamera the Brave. I think a large part of the film’s appeal and charm is that Asagi is just a normal girl, who goes to school and has friends, only now she has a telepathic and spiritual link to a giant flying turtle named Gamera. This element of the story is only touched on in brief scenes, and probably could have been expanded upon if this were a series and not a movie, but it’s felt throughout the film even as Asagi goes on her own journey to find Gamera (with the help of a meme-worthy taxi driver) and meets up with the adult characters in time to be present for the climactic battle.

It's significant that it’s specifically Asagi’s strength that helps Gamera win (we’re shown and told that several adult male characters touched the beads but weren’t chosen like Asagi was). Another side effect of the bond that we see throughout the film is that Asagi shares Gamera’s injuries, having bruises or beginning to bleed in the same place whenever one of Gyaos’s sonic beams cuts into Gamera’s hide. Asagi shows pain, but also her strength in pushing through each of these injuries and accepting them as part of her role as priestess. It’s also kind of cute that she feels sleepy because Gamera needs to rest, with her confused father covering her with a blanket after she just suddenly lays down on the hospital bed.

The special effects don’t include so much mixed-in CGI as the latter two, which keeps things interesting from a practical effects standpoint but also leads to a few relatively cheesy visuals with certain props. Just a few, though. As a rule, the monster action is well-done and the suits themselves look incredible, as does most of the combat including several brief fights that take place in the sky (one appears to have clouds as physical props, and they’re strangely captivating and beautiful). The miniature work especially is far superior to other films in the genre and in some scenes is indistinguishable from real filmed exterior shots until the monster shows up in frame or some other special effect happens (this would continue to be the case for the subsequent Gamera films).

Minor gross-out warning for a scene that involves digging through a Gyaos pellet and finding the personal items of someone it ate. Also a dog dies, but all we’re shown is a shot of the chain pulling tight on the pole after a Gyaos flies by. The woman who goes outside after the dog and gets in the sights of the next Gyaos does end up surviving, although later on we do explicitly see Gyaos eating people.

This is another fierce contender for my favorite Gamera film. The only real drawback is that while we get some wonderful, competent women leading the action and moral center of this film, they don’t say a single word to each other during the runtime, and are nowhere even close to shippable until they meet again four years later in the third film (and even that is a stretch, and one I personally tend to lean away from). But despite even that, I still rank this film highly in shippability due to one last, minor character I haven’t mentioned yet for worry of derailing the entire review…

Yukino, Asagi’s best friend from school, is in two scenes of this movie with a total screentime of about thirty seconds. And you’d be forgiven for missing her entirely here, it was mainly hers and Asagi’s interactions in the next film Advent of Legion (still less than 5% of that movie) that made me ship them. But in retrospect, they’re cute here as well, shown visiting the aquarium together where they discuss the legends of ancient civilizations (Atlantis and Mu are both namedropped in the US dub) while speculating about the recently-discovered floating atoll that would turn out to be Gamera. Later, Yukino is the one who calls out with concern when Asagi runs out of class unexpectedly, something that hits different when you know what Asagi goes through during the rest of the movie while Yukino is probably still wondering whether she’s safe.

Asagi/Yukino is my main ship in the Gamera fandom. There’s not much actual, on-screen content for them in this movie, or even in the sequel, but I think what makes the ship so appealing is that it’s familiar. All you really need to know is what’s shown on screen, that Yukino is a close, caring friend of Asagi’s, and it’s easy enough to extrapolate her feelings and reactions to the other events of the film in which only Asagi takes part. And the urban fantasy wlw friends-to-lovers dynamic where one character is put through a supernatural, traumatic experience, and the other acts as her support, comfort, and guide-to-interacting-with-the-world-again (more on that element in my upcoming Advent of Legion review), is at least personally, a story I could read in a hundred different versions.

And I’m certainly up for one that involves a giant flying turtle and kaiju fights.

[monsterasia-zero]

Gamera vs Zigra was released

[redsamuraiii]

Shinobu Nakayama in Gamera : Guardian of the Universe (1995) by IMDB

[visplay]

Chris: Gamera: Guardian for the Universe is the first Gamera film in 15 years starting the Gamera Hesei era, featuring the Gyaos, somewhat standard Gamera fare, noticed that the Earth forces seemed a bit colder towards Gamera, Watch: When Free for kaiju aficionados.

Richie: The googly-eyed Gyaos make this a lot of fun, it’s not the best Gamera movie but it’s not the worst, it’s one of the first Gamera films that doesn’t focus on six year old so it is refreshing, Watch: On Subscription Service.