GAMERA – ガメラ – غاميرا

“Gamera is a giant, flying turtle from a popular series of  kaiju (Japanese giant monster) films produced by Daiei Motion Picture Company in Japan. Gamera made his first appearance in 1965’s Gamera, which was also the only Gamera film to be in black-and-white. Subsequent films, usually directed by Noriaki Yuasa and written by Nisan Takahashi, quickly became a big hit with children, who loved watching Gamera fight monsters. A seventh sequel was slated for a 1972 release, tentatively titled Gamera vs. Garasharp. Gross mismanagement of Daiei, however, put the company into bankruptcy, and the Gamera films were forced to cease production. After Daiei was purchased by Tokuma Shoten in 1974, the new management wanted to do a new Gamera film in 1980, so Gamera: Super Monster was produced. The majority of the film used stock footage (with limited new scenes of Gamera flying), and acted as a “recap” of Gamera’s history. However, Yuasa and Takahashi felt that they had done all they could with the monster, so they respectfully killed off Gamera at the end of the film.

Gamera’s shell is extremely resilient and strong. Missiles and other weaponry merely bounce off it, along with most of his opponents’ attacks. There have been a few times where his shell has faltered, most notably when the alien Guiron hammered at the same spot several times and began cutting through. The flying monster Gyaos’ sonic beam, the alien shark Zigra’s paralyzing beam, and the mutant lizard Barugon’s rainbow ray cannot penetrate Gamera’s shell, shown in the films when he withdraws into his shell to avoid the attacks. Gamera’s underbelly, however, is softer and not as resilient, and he has been cut and gouged in his stomach to the point of bleeding.” (www.wikipedia.com, accessed March ’10)

The first time that I’ve ever knew Gamera was in 1995 by Hobby Japan magazine. It was showing some photos for ‘the making of Gamera’, I really liked the scenes and how fine their work was, the color, the features and the background/surroundings of the artificial scenes. The idea of making a turtle as a giant monster is it self cool and I liked how powerful turtles can be! yes and they can even defeat dinosaurs!!! Now I feel like I wanna raise a giant turtle Gamera!