The Gamera (ガメラ Gamera?) of the Heisei era is a giant turtle daikaiju that first appears in the 1995 Daiei film Gamera: Guardian of the Universe.
Name[]
Gamera's name comes from the Japanese word kame (カメ?), meaning "turtle," and ra (ラ?), a common suffix in kaiju names.
Design[]
Appearance[]
HeiseiGame[]
In comparison to the Showa series Gamera, this Gamera is noticeably different. The HeiseiGame's eye sockets are also more circular compared to the previous, and the head is more muscular. The shell is similar to previous designs, but its plates are affixed tightly, and are more detailed. It can also be noted that this is the first Gamera to utilize animatronics, both located in the head and the eyes, giving Gamera the ability to blink. As the Showa Gamera was linked to "Eskimo" (Inuit) mythology, Heisei Gamera's design was influenced by ancient Chinese mythology as there have been similarities in motifs, and the design of shell was based on Turtleback tombs. Turtleback tombs were also designed to depict the Black Tortoise as the deity was believed to travel underworld to obtain prophecies, and is the symbol of immortality and life forces. Aspects from ancient Chinese mythology were also used for Gyaos' design; designs of Chinese Dragons from the Spring and Autumn period and western Dragons.[1] This also begins a trend of designing Gamera to resemble a Leatherback Turtle.
RegionGame[]
The RegionGame is similar to HeiseiGame, but has some minor differences. The RegionGame's arms now have extensions on them which would lock into points when it was being used for flight scenes. Gamera's head is also slightly different, and the bones of its skull are more defined. The tusks are also slightly longer. The pattern of plates on the belly were also made larger so that the Mana Blast attack could be animated.
IrisGame[]
In comparison to the previous appearances, the IrisuGame more closely resembles the ShodaiGame. It is generally far more fierce in appearance. Gamera's eyes are less circular than the previous Heisei suits, and the extensions on his arms are no longer present. The plates on his shell are longer, articulated and more irregular in shape, and its legs and arms are more muscular. There are points on the suit which are comprised of softer parts, much like the RegionGame, which allow for Iris and Gyaos to damage it. The IrisuGame also has a "mane" of spikes on the top of its neck, which are a dark blue color. A separate suit was used for the Nightmare Gamera (トラウマガメラ Torauma Gamera?, lit. Trauma Gamera) that appears in Ayana's nightmares. This version of Gamera was actually portrayed using the Gamera suit from the previous film only modified, and was portrayed by Akira Ohashi.
Roar[]
Some of Gamera's roars would later be reused for the Godzillasaurus. Many other monsters of different series such as GeGeGe no Kitarō (S1E43, S2E15) or Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (Stardust Dragon) used Gamera's roars.
Personality[]
In the Heisei trilogy, Gamera is portrayed as being actively concerned for the well-being of the planet from the very start, consistent with his creation as a guardian of Earth. When given the opportunity, Gamera will actively protect humans, especially children. However, Gamera will show a disregard for destruction and death he causes as collateral damage when he is preoccupied with stopping a pressing threat. This is most pronounced in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe when he leaves a path of destruction through Fukuoka while trying to reach the Gyaos trapped in the Fukuoka Dome, and even more so in Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris when he kills thousands of people while trying to stop two Hyper Gyaos in Shibuya. In the latter example, Gamera does take a moment during the battle to actively save a young boy from a Hyper Gyaos. Gamera never once retaliates against the military when he is attacked, even when he is actually injured by them. Asagi Kusanagi, who forms a psychic link with Gamera that allows her to read his thoughts, says that Gamera actively fights for all life on Earth, and humans are just one thing on this list. Gamera tirelessly battles against the Gyaos, as he was created to destroy them, and it is suggested in Gamera 3 that he has traveled around the world to hunt down and destroy all the Gyaos that have appeared. By the film's end, after he has been horribly maimed by Iris, Gamera prepares to face down a swarm of thousands of Hyper Gyaos.
Origins[]
In the Heisei series films, the origin of Gamera was retconned, giving him a much more directly heroic themed origin. In Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, it is explained that Gamera is a bio-engineered super-being created by the lost civilization of Atlantis with the purpose of safeguarding the Earth from threats. Upon his creation, Gamera was set loose upon the Gyaos, another ancient creation that threatened to exterminate human life. In order to maintain cohesion with humanity, the Atlanteans created gemstone-like artifacts called magatama, which allowed for a psychic link between Gamera and humans. While Gamera succeeded in quelling the Gyaos, Atlantis crumbled and Gamera himself went dormant. He is found thousands of years later floating adrift in the Pacific, encased in rock and mistaken for an atoll. Within the rock, investigators discover a large monolith explaining Gamera's purpose, as well as dozens of magatama. When three Gyaos were reawakened around the same time, Gamera awoke from his stupor in response to their activities. In the third film of the Heisei era, Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, an undersea graveyard is found with many other Gamera skeletons, suggesting that the Atlanteans created several other prototype guardians before finally creating Gamera. One character in the film refers to these skeletons as "beta versions" of Gamera, possible failures in Atlantis' attempts to create the final version. Another scene provides Gamera with a link to Asian folklore, with a character relating a story in which a giant tortoise is considered the Guardian of the North, with separate, rival creatures defending the East, West, and South.
History[]
Gamera: Guardian of the Universe[]
Gamera in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
The plutonium transport ship Kairyu-Maru ran aground on a floating atoll in the waters off Japan, narrowly avoiding a disastrous radiation leak. A joint government-private sector expedition was sent to investigate the atoll, discovering various small orichalcum beads and a large ancient tablet in the center of the atoll. Suddenly, the atoll began to shake and break apart, revealing the monster Gamera within it. Gamera swam to Fukuoka, where the J.S.D.F. had trapped two giant man-eating bat creatures called Gyaos, with one escaping. Gamera killed the escaped Gyaos as it tried to fly out over the ocean, then proceeded towards the Fukuoka Dome. The Gyaos sensed Gamera's approach and escaped, with Gamera taking flight and pursuing them. When the Gyaos attacked a village in the Japanese countryside, Gamera arrived and killed one with a fireball. The second Gyaos fought Gamera briefly before retreating. Despite insistence from witnesses that Gamera was trying to save them from Gyaos, and the ancient prophecy on the tablet claiming he was destined to stop the Gyaos, the J.S.D.F. designated him as the larger threat and attacked him at Mount Fuji. As Gamera was attacked, Gyaos swooped down and attacked him as well. Seriously wounded, Gamera fled to the ocean floor to recover. Asagi Kusanagi, a teenage girl that had formed a telepathic bond with Gamera through one of the orichalcum beads, claimed to be able to read his thoughts and insisted he was fighting to save the world. The last surviving Gyaos, meanwhile, evolved into Super Gyaos and descended on Tokyo, plunging the capital into a state of panic. After recovering from his wounds, Gamera traveled to Tokyo and destroyed Super Gyaos' nest, then engaged it in battle. After battling Gyaos in the city and in the skies, Gamera was sent crashing into a refinery and was consumed by flames. As Super Gyaos believed itself victorious, it witnessed Gamera absorb the fire and blast it with a giant plasma fireball, which instantly decapitated Gyaos. Gamera roared victoriously before swimming back out to the sea.
Gamera 2: Attack of Legion[]
Gamera in Gamera 2: Attack of Legion
A year after Gamera defeated the Gyaos, an alien species called the Symbiotic Legion arrived on Earth in a meteor and planted a gigantic plant in Hokkaido. As the plant prepared to launch its seed into space, which would annihilate the surrounding area in the process, Gamera arrived and destroyed it. Enraged, the Soldier Legion swarmed Gamera, biting into his shell and drawing blood. Eventually, the Legion were distracted by nearby power lines, giving Gamera the chance to fly away and escape. The gigantic leader of the Legion, the Mother, traveled with her swarm to Sendai and planted a new flower. The J.S.D.F. began evacuating citizens before the flower could seed, but the helicopters transporting the civilians were prevented from taking off when the Mother Legion attacked the Sendai airfield. Sensing his human counterpart Asagi Kusanagi was on one of the choppers, Gamera arrived and attacked the Legion, holding her off long enough for the choppers to escape. Legion gored Gamera with her sharp legs and blew his shoulder off with her laser beam, then left him for dead as the flower began to seed. Gamera limped to the flower and held himself in front of it when it seeded, preventing the seed from launching but falling victim to a nuclear force explosion that leveled the entire city. Gamera was apparently killed by the explosion, giving the Legion free reign to move on to Tokyo, which was still recovering from the previous year's battle. Several people, including Asagi, surrounded the fallen Gamera, praying for him to recover. Asagi held out the bead that bonded her to Gamera, which shattered in her hand as huge amounts of energy were absorbed by Gamera's body. Gamera was revived and flew to Tokyo to stop the Legion, while Asagi noticed that her bond with Gamera had been broken. Gamera engaged the Mother Legion outside of Tokyo while the J.S.D.F. trapped and annihilated the Soldier Legion. Despite his best efforts, Gamera was unable to defeat Legion. Out of options, Gamera absorbed a large portion of Earth's Mana energy, which gave him enough power to perform his ultimate attack: the Ultimate Mana Blast. Gamera's plastron opened and fired a huge beam of plasma that vaporized the Mother Legion. Gamera looked at the J.S.D.F. forces that had aided him before roaring victoriously and flying away. Realizing Gamera's dedication to defending the Earth from any threat, humanity was left to wonder of the consequences if he ever deemed them a threat to the Earth.
Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris[]
Gamera in Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris
Gamera's use of Earth's Mana to revive himself and defeat Legion severely depleted its presence on Earth, allowing clutches of Gyaos eggs across the globe to hatch and evolve into more powerful forms called Hyper Gyaos. Gamera, believing himself responsible for this situation, traveled across the globe aggressively hunting down and eliminating all of the Gyaos he could find. When two Hyper Gyaos appeared in Shibuya, Gamera arrived and caused horrific destruction and countless deaths in his attempts to kill them. The J.S.D.F. determined that Gamera was now their enemy and decided to hunt him down and kill him. Meanwhile, a girl named Ayana Hirasaka, who blamed Gamera for her parents' deaths during his battle with Super Gyaos in 1995, discovered a strange creature in a shrine, which she named Iris and began to raise in the hopes it would one day kill Gamera and take revenge for her. When its attempt to bond itself to Ayana failed and she was taken away, Iris rampaged through the village where she lived and killed countless villagers before escaping to the countryside. When Iris detected Ayana was in Kyoto, it began to fly there, attacking J.A.S.D.F. planes along the way. Gamera arrived and attacked Iris in the air, but was shot out of the sky by the jets, who still believed him the bigger threat. Iris arrived in Kyoto as a typhoon struck the city, intent on recovering Ayana. When Gamera touched down in the city, Ayana ordered Iris to kill him. Gamera and Iris battled in downtown Kyoto, setting the city ablaze. Iris impaled Gamera with its spear-tipped arm, and the two monsters tackled each other into the Kyoto train station. Gamera fell unconscious from his wounds and appeared dead, leaving Iris to bond with Ayana. Iris forced Ayana into its chest against her will, showing her visions of the people it had killed. Gamera regained consciousness and interrupted the fusion by punching into Iris' chest and grabbing Ayana. Iris reacted by impaling Gamera's hand against a wall with its spear hand, then drained his blood through it. Iris copied Gamera's plasma fireballs and prepared to fire them at Gamera. Gamera used a fireball to sever his own hand, then caught Iris' fireballs with the stump, using his Mana manipulation powers to form a fiery plasma fist. Gamera plunged this fist into Iris' chest wound, causing the creature to explode from the inside. Gamera set Ayana down in front of Asagi Kusanagi and her friend Mayumi Nagamine, who tried desperately to revive her. Gamera roared loudly, causing Ayana to awaken. Ayana wondered why Gamera saved her, then began to sob and beg for forgiveness. Sensing a swarm of thousands of Hyper Gyaos approaching, the wounded Gamera exited the station and waited for their arrival. Nagamine remarked that it appeared Gamera would continue to fight, even if alone, while Asagi stated that Gamera wasn't alone, knowing humanity was ready to fight by his side once more.
Abilities[]
Brain[]
Gamera's semicircular canal was developed to withstand his rotation, even in disk flight his eyes and brain are unaffected by the rapid spinning. Gamera was also made to be very intelligent. Gamera was created to communicate with people using the jewels left behind by the ancient civilization. With these he could sense Asagi Kusanagi's spirit.
Cellular manipulation[]
Like the Gyaos of the Heisei era, Gamera could manipulate his own genetic structure to adapt to his environments. Although his mass never change, his appearance altered over the course of the three movies as his body evolved for combat.
Regeneration[]
Because of his superior ability to regenerate, Gamera can recover quickly even when wounded.
Energy absorption and projection[]
Gamera can fire an endless series of powerful, highly explosive blasts of plasma fire from his mouth, usually very quickly and with varying accuracy, that could dissemble whole city blocks and kill weaker monsters in one shot. At the end of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, Gamera absorbs fire and fires a "Super-powered" plasma fireball and in Gamera 2: Attack of Legion, he breathes in the oxygen produced by a Legion plant and fires an "Oxygen-Powered" plasma fireball. The Heisei version could also absorb and manipulate "Mana", or the living essence and energy of life on Earth, and release an extremely powerful stream of pure plasma and fire from an opened, organic "cannon" in his chest, that could annihilate anything in its path. In Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, Gamera blasted his own arm off, absorbed plasma fireballs shot by Iris, and used his stump arm to grow back his arm in a plasma form. From this, it appears Gamera has the ability to manipulate fire. However, as shown in this film, this ability to regenerate limbs in plasma form seems to be only temporary, as the plasma arm disappeared after defeating Iris.
Strength and combat[]
Gamera possesses superhuman strength, with physical strength alone Gamera was able to tear off Legion's nose horn. He uses his physcial strength in battle with hand strikes mainly used in dog fights, an attack to tear into the flesh of the opponent using his sharp claws. Used to take Ayana out of Iris' body and a bite attack using sharp fangs and a strong jaw. The grip is so secure Gyaos had to cut of its own leg to free it self.
Shell[]
Gamera's shell provides some defense for himself; however, compared to his Showa counterpart, its defensive abilities are lacking. For example, it can withstand Gyaos' ultrasonic scalpel, but could not completely withstand the missile assault from the Japanese SDF, resulting in him being knocked from the sky. Legion was also able to damage it with its attacks. However, Gamera makes up for the low defense with offensive ability, using his shell as an attack via the rotating shell and the shell's sharp edges.
Flight[]
Perhaps most famously, Gamera also has the ability to fly. Generally Gamera will pull his arms, legs, head, and tail into his shell, fire flames out of his arm and leg cavities and spin around like a frisbee. This mode of flight had an added advantage in the later films, where he would use the sharp edges of his shell to cut enemies while spinning, similar to a circular saw. He has a second way of flying, where he only pulls his legs and/or tail in, fires flames from the leg cavities, and flies like a jet.
Elbow spikes[]
The Heisei films gave Gamera one more additional weapon: a pair of sharp spikes protruding from his elbows. In his first Heisei era appearance, these spikes were hidden during the majority of the film, extending only when needed in battle. In later appearances they were permanently extended. In Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, another pair of spikes can be seen behind hind legs along the Achilles' tendons.
Healing[]
When seriously or gravely injured, Gamera can enter a coma-like state in order to heal. This often fools his opponents into thinking that he is dead. This ability has been used in almost every film.
He can use this power on other beings as well, as seen at the end of the Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, when Gamera instantly healed scars on Asagi Kusanagi's arm and cheek.
Mana manipulation[]
Gamera manipulates mana energy when using special techniques such as the Ultimate Plasma or the Vanishing Fist.
Plasma fireball/High plasma[]
Gamera's special move; in the throat, oxygen and plasma energy from the body's chamber are combined and compressed together. The condensed energy is ejected from the mouth as a fireball with an Ultra Discharge phenomenon. A high plasma fireball is shot at an output of at least 120% its normal power. It was used in the first movie after absorbing fire from the explosion in the oil refinery and in the second after inhaling the oxygen rich atmosphere. The second instance showcased Gamera's lung power, as his inhale created hurricane force winds.
Ultimate Plasma[]
Gamera summons energy from the Earth, mana, and absorbs it into his body, pushing the limits of his Plasma Furnace to the point that Gamera's Plastron (the covering on his stomach) opens and the energy is expelled outward. It is said it can only be used once during Gamera's lifetime, but whether this is because of the strain on his body or the effects on the Earth is unknown. Due to the large amount of mana absorbed, the technique has adverse affects on the global ecosystem, resulting in the outbreaks of Gyaos worldwide.
Vanishing Fist[]
A one-shot technique used against Iris; Gamera absorbed the plasma Iris fired and used the stump of the hand he blew off to create a fist of plasma by manipulating the energy.
Comics[]
Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe[]
Gamera in issue #2 of the Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe comic
Dark Horse Comics published a four-issue miniseries based on Gamera called Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe in 1996. The events of this miniseries took place between Gamera: Guardian of the Universe and Gamera 2: Attack of Legion - with Gamera taking on a clone of the Super Gyaos as well as the alien shark Zigra and the Gyaos mutant Viras.[2]
Manga Boys Special Edition: Gamera[]
In this manga, Gamera fights a selection of monsters both new and old in a baseball stadium. This Gamera is actually the same Gamera appeared in Gamera Super Monster; he was revived by the descendants of Atlanteans with an artificial sun based on plasma energy technologies used by their ancestors, with Gamera's appearance been changed so he appeared almost identical to the Gamera in the Heisei Trilogy. This Gamera was then sent back to the past with a time machine to defeat evil kaijus and to monitor humanity, therefore the history of humanity was reshaped for the better.[3]
Gamera vs. Barugon[]
Gamera in the Gamera vs. Barugon manga
Gamera appears in the Gamera vs. Barugon manga, which takes place between the events of Gamera 2: Attack of Legion and Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris. The comic serves as a retelling of Gamera vs. Barugon to incorporate it into the Heisei timeline.
Triva[]
- A number of fans in Japan believe that Gamera revived Ayana Hirasaka and Tatsunari Moribe by pouring mana into unconscious them; Nagamine's life support had little or effect until Gamera roared, waking Ayana and Tatsunari almost at the same time, and seeing Ayana's recovery, Nagamine looked at Gamera muttered "could it be", and Asagi smiled at Gamera.
- Shusuke Kaneko revealed in an interview on a magazine that Gamera wins the battle against swarms of Hyper Gyaos after the end of Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris.[4]
References[]
- ↑ Heisei Gamera Perfection. ASCII MEDIA WORKS. 8 February 2014. ISBN: 9784048918817.
- ↑ Pictures of the overs of all four Gamera comics
- ↑ マンガボーイズ版ガメラ、昭和ガメラと平成ガメラを「『宇宙怪獣ガメラ』でザノン号と相討ちになったガメラは転生したことで姿が変わり、人類を守るため過去の地球に送られて歴史が変わったことで、平成ガメラは昭和ガメラの歴史とは異なる別アースとなった」という説明で繋げていてすげえ興奮する
- ↑ SPA!, 1999, Vol. March 17, Fusosha Publishing
