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What do I think of the kaiju I've seen in the Gamera films? Well, they're all far from being one dimensional, colorless rubber costumes. Take a look down there.
Gamera
Height:
60m
Weight:
80 tonnes
The
giant turtle himself, Gamera has the most personality than any of the other
kaiju, and is defiantly more intelligent. Of course, his persona changes
almost with each movie - starting out as a brutal city smashing maniac
in Gamera and Gamera vs Barugon, but changing to slightly nicer monster
in Gamera vs Gyaos. Gamera then becomes a hero in Gamera vs Viras, and
soon proving his love for children when he risks his life to save 2 boys
trapped on a planet on the other side of the sun in Gamera vs Guiron! Gamera
fights Jiga, but not really defending any children (the only danger the
children are put through is when they are cornered by the baby Jiga, but
that's when they are inside Gamera's lungs!). Gamera fought Zigra for the
same reason he fought Viras - to save the Earth - but he did save some
children along the way. Gamera is one of my favorite kaiju from this series,
but that goes without saying, doesn't it?
Barugon
Height:
Weight:
Barugon
was a monster really effected by his movie's somber approach - whenever
any real action happens with him, it happens at night. This means we still
get a good look at him, but in some shots of him (mostly when he first
appears and begins destroying the city) he is nothing more than a darkened
shadow. Gamera only really won the fight with Barugon because Barugon was
badly wounded by "Operation Reflection", I'd like to see how Gamera would
do in a fight against him without the human characters to help. That having
been said, you could say that Barugon was Gamera's toughest opponent -
none of the other kaiju that Gamera had fought were wounded by humans,
except maybe for Guiron - but he was stuck upside down with his knife head
stuffed into the ground anyway, so Gamera probably would have found some
way to kill him. Just how Gamera learns that Barugon can be defeated by
being drowned is a mystery, maybe he read the script for the movie. One
more thing: after Barugon is wounded by "Operation Reflection", Karen says
that if animals are hurt by themselves, they will never again repeat that
mistake, (which is true) but Barugon leaps at Gamera in their first encounter,
and Gamera smashes his head into a building. In their second fight, Barugon
tries this again, and Gamera swats him away! If that were not enough, Barugon
does that move again straight away! Is Barugon dumb or what? But still,
Barugon is an interesting opponent for Gamera, and follows the laws of
zoology better than some of his other opponents.
Guiron
Height:
Weight:
Guiron
is one of my favourite kaiju, and I think that the reviews his film gets
are unfair. That's probably because adults write those reviews, and, being
twelve years old, I find the movie really amusing and fun. Anyway, when
I was going to watch the movie for the first time, I was wondering, "How
is fighting going to be possible with Gamera and a walking steak knife?".
I then saw that there wasn't really an awful lot of fighting going on,
just Gamera getting stabbed by Guiron's Chinese Stars every 5 minutes.
There is also a crazy scene where Guiron has his head lodged in a rock,
but next time we see him (about 5 seconds later) he has suddenly removed
his head from the rock and turned around to face Gamera! I thought this
would be resolved in the Japanese version and that it was just choppy editing
by Sandy Frank, but no, it wasn't. Anyway, back to Guiron. One thing that
struck me was that, although the title is "Gamera vs the Giant Evil Beast
Guiron", Guiron isn't really evil in any real sense. For most of the time
Guiron was being controlled by Barbella and Flobella, and anyway, Guiron
was a guard dog, so he was just defending his turf. But I guess people
think anything big that doesn't like Gamera must be "evil". It's a real
shame he gets killed, but this leads to a bigger problem in editing - He
gets blown up, and we then see a headless body being hurled into the air.
When Guiron lands, his head is suddenly re-attached. Still, another thing
that puzzels me is why Viras, Guiron and Zigra aren't called Viras-seijin,
Guiron-seijin and Zigra-seijin!
Jiga
Height:
Weight:
The first female kaiju that Gamera has fought was Jiga, reffered to as Monster X in the American version (I suppose AIP got sick of coming up with names like "War of the Monsters" and "Return of the Giant Monsters"). Jiga was, I guess, one of Gamera's toughest adversaries, he put up with Gamera for 3 fights instead of the usual 2, and this was the only time Gamera needed help from Humans to revive himself, or else Gamera would have wound up in turtle heaven. The film (or at least the Japanese version) creates the genuine impression that this is a really tought fight for Gamera, with Gamera in a frequent amount of pain during the last fight (he has to jam telephone poles in his ears to protect himself from Jiga's Super-Ultrasound beams) and getting badly wounded when Jiga impales his limbs with her horn spears and when Gamera gets impregnated with Jiga's offspring. The monster action is generally fast-paced (unusual for a Gamera film, where the monsters usually move slowly), and this kaiju is really one of the best of the Gamera monsters.
Zigra
Height:
Weight:
This kaiju could never really compare to any of the others, and was a real weakling - he hated light, couldn't bare fire and wasn't strong enough to pull a rock off his nose. Zigra started off as a human-sized shark thing covered in cobwebs, but then turned into a big shark-bird creature to fight Gamera. Zigra couldn't really fight on land, but he is the only Kaiju of the classic series to have more than one form - he looks like a bird-shark hybrid when under water, and he can then morph into a land form, where he looks a little bigger, and has legs. I like Zigra's land desgin, but the fighting for this film is sadly minimal. Well, not really, but the first fight consists of Gamera dragging Zigra on land, jumping around at Zigra, and Zigra morphing into his land form to give our turtle a good beating with his nose - laser. The underwater fighting for the climax is pretty good, though. But sadly, there is no doubt as to whether Gamera will win or lose the fight. Once Gamera drops Zigra off on land, the fighting may as well have ended. Movie critics disapprove of Zigra, he is generally reffered to as the worst kaiju of the classic series, and, although I like his desgin, I almost agree with them. (Almost!)
The Movies In General
The classic Gamera movies are generally really fun, but if they had have stayed simmilar to Gamera vs Barugon then they might have caught the movie critics' attention. Still, they are geared at childer, and, being a child, I find them very fun to watch. Kitekutsu, Gamera!
