Gamera: Guardian of the Universe

Gamera has had a rough go of it. Besides being constantly treated as a crappy Godzilla clone, apparently Daiei produced a series "the worst of all time movies" that came out in the late 70's starring the titular turtle monster. To demonstrate the point, in 1980 Daiei released Gamera: Super Monster and all of the Gamera footage in the film was stock footage that was simply reused. While I haven't seen most of these later movies in the original Gamera series, I can say that watching a kaiju movie with stock footage is genuinely unpleasant, and the Godzilla series is not immune to doing this for some of their worse efforts. Super Monster was the last film made in the Gamera series when it went on hiatus, like the more famous Godzilla series before it. But it's 1995 baybee, and it's time for the giant turtle to return!

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe is, effectively, a reboot of the Gamera series. It's interesting, as the last several Gamera films clearly intended to set Gamera up as a defender of the Earth (or universe) when the first several did not have this focus. At the best, Gamera was originally intended to be a vicious monster that was maybe less vicious to children, but eventually grew to be a defender of all. Right in the title of the reboot, Guardian of the Universe sets Gamera up as a monster which is designed and intended to be a protector rather than a destroyer. Naoki Manabe and Jun Suzuki portray Gamera, and Yuhmi Kaneyama comes to the series as the returning monster Gyaos. Shusuke Kaneko directs, taking over from previous director of the series Noriaki Yuasa. Let's talk about giant turtles!

If You Haven't Seen it Before

- A ship carrying plutonium crashes into some unseen force in the ocean, initially assumed to be a floating atoll. This is not the case, of course, and we discover this to be the ancient monster Gamera.

- Elsewhere, a different group of people are attacked by a "giant bird." These creatures are lured into a stadium and captured for scientific study. When one escapes, Gamera appears and kills the fleeing Gyaos.

- Worse than Gamera appearing on land and causing chaos while he killed the escaping Gyaos, the 2 which were captured manage to escape.

- Researching, humans manage to find beads/magatama made of legendary (and supposedly fictional) metal called Orihalcum. When Asagi touches the magatama, it is warm to the touch and glows but the effect fades.

- In another encounter, some Gyaos attack and are stopped by Gamera. He even defends humans on a bridge from their laser attacks, causing himself to be wounded. Both creatures flee after one of the Gyaos' is killed.

- Gamera is attacked by the JSDF. While he survives, he's clearly wounded before flying away using his rocket legs. Asagi passes out when his happens, and mentions that she and Gamera need rest. Her brother hypothesizes she has a connection to Gamera through the magatama and is now his priestess.

- The remaining Gyaos continues to grow, eventually becoming quite tremendous. Just like in its first appearance, the JSDF launches a sneak attack during the daytime since Gyaos seems nocturnal. This goes relatively poorly, and they realize they are totally helpless without Gamera.

- With Tokyo overtaken by the single surviving Gyaos, the JSDF plans to launch a final attack that will likely decimate Tokyo. Fortunately for them, Gamera has recovered and arrives just in time to fight his ancient enemy.

- After an epic kaiju battle, the two monsters ignite a refinery and land there. This is a strategic mistake on the behalf of Gyaos, as Gamera eats fire, and absorbs almost all of it here. He is empowered, and launches a final fireball at Gyaos' head to destroy it.

- Sharing a nod with Asagi and healing her wounds, Gamera journeys back to the sea where he can be at peace.

Kaiju Notes

- The new Gyaos is design is a step down from the first. The color and design is a bit more generic version of "giant bat" where the old design was goofy but distinct. An updated version closer to the original probably would have looked very cool. In contrast, new Gamera manages to maintain all of the major design elements but look more realistic, intimidating and yet more sympathetic.   

- Gyaos' first appearance is a lesson in restraint, initially simply showing the wave of force that follows after it dives. It is shown shortly after, but in passing. With even the small Gyaos able to knock people off their feet with an unintentional passing by, it helps elevate their power when they become large and powerful, which the later Gyaos does.

- Gyaos is also changed, of course, to be a species rather than a singular creature. This is a bold choice given kaiju movies obsession with single important figures and having never committed to monsters being one of many before. While Destoroyah and Hedorah are technically collections of smaller creatures, they've always worked as more of a single mind split amongst smaller pieces rather than actual separate entities. This pays off in multiple ways: being an easy explanation for why Gamera and Gyaos are enemies, allowing Gyaos to be a versatile threat which can be a nuisance or Gamera's deadliest foe, and paying homage to the classic version and allowing Gyaos to be in ever film if desired without necessarily needing to rely on the single popular Gamera opponent to  carry the weight of antagonist.

- Gamera's fire breath has taken a level in badass, and looks somehow more fiery or dangerous despite the fact that the earlier version of it (Showa era) was also just actual fire. It also can apparently cause Gyaos to explode, which looks hilarious.

As far as reboots go, Guardian of the Universe is a very good one. There's an emphasis on giving Gamera a clear character, as well as introducing Gyaos as both a potential major and minor threat (to Gamera) which allows the new series to pay homage to the older villains of Gamera while building new ones alongside the homage. It's a good strategy, functionally playing the old hits while mixing in some of the new stuff. While the new design of Gyaos is not a fun or interesting as the old one, Gamera's design is also a good example of how to do a reboot the right way: keep the good, trim the fat, add some new elements that work. On another note, the budget gap between Gamera and Godzilla films is less obvious now. While I have no doubt that Gamera was a cheaper movie, it looks as good as any rival kaiju flick from the era and so no longer appears to be the little brother of the industry.

Beyond a good example of an entertaining reboot, however, there's not much interesting or exciting about the movie. I do enjoy it, I do think it's entertaining and fun, but I'm having trouble coming up with anything substantial to sink my teeth into. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, any reader of this blog knows that I can enjoy a movie for raw entertainment value, but it does make writing an essay about the film difficult. Gamera saves the Earth from Gyaos. What's next? It's a substantial upgrade from the movies from the Showa era, but what else can you say about that? It's worth seeing and sets a good stage for sequels, but is Gamera always going to be an "entertainment only" series or was this more an attempt to see if the character was still viable?

Guess there's only one way to find out.

Next: Gamera 2: Attack of Legion!