Gamera

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Gamera ( Japanese ガ メ ラ ) is a Godzilla- inspired, turtle-like monster ( Kaijū ) from a Japanese feature film series.

Just like Godzilla, Gamera has special powers. He can spit fireballs and fly. In more recent films, he can also connect telepathically with a person and in this way gain strength or even be revived. In contrast to Godzilla, who is an opponent of humans in many films, Gamera is for the most part a protector of humanity.

Gamera made his first appearance in 1965 in the film Gamera (originally Daikaijû Gamera or Giant Monster Gamera ). In the years that followed, other films appeared until the monster fell silent in 1980. It was not until 1995 that a new film was released under the direction of Shusuke Kaneko , and two more sequels followed. This trilogy is considered a milestone among monster films by fans, and Gamera 3 is often referred to as one of the best films of its kind. A new film called Gamera: The Brave was released in (Japanese) cinemas in 2006.

For the 50th birthday of the film series, a new film by director Katsuhito Ishii should be released in 2015. The release has been postponed indefinitely, only a half-minute trailer can be seen so far.

Gamera also attracts attention outside of the actual films. B. in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft , the manga "Dr.Slump", the RPG Terranigma for SNES or in comics the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles . There is also an episode in the anime series Detective Conan in which Gamera plays a role.

Anatomy and skills

The anatomical concept of Gameras was not established by Shoji Otomo and Shogo Endo until 1967 (two years after the first film) and was retained for the entire Showa series. Gamera is the last specimen of its kind. These giant tortoises lived on the sunken continent of Atlantis 8,000 years ago. Gamera was frozen in the ice of the Arctic and was brought back to life by the shooting down of a Soviet bomber over American territory and the ensuing nuclear explosion.

Gamera can absorb inorganic matter such as fire, magma, petroleum, coal, electricity, geothermal energy and radioactive substances and convert them into organic energy. In the body, Gamera has five chambers that store fire, uranium, coal, oil and magma, from which Gamera draws enormous power and energy for breathing fire in combat. There are also other chambers in the four limbs that are needed for flying.

Gamera has two different flight techniques. When the head and limbs are drawn into the body armor, the Gamera can rotate like a top, which is mostly used in combat. For fast flights, Gamera only uses the “nozzles” on the rear legs, while the front legs are used for steering. The maximum flight speed is Mach 3. On land Gamera reaches a speed of 20 meters per second, while swimming it is 150 knots. When erected, Gamera is 60 meters high and weighs 80 tons.

There is disagreement about the gender of Gamera as there are no articles in Japanese and pronouns are not used for animals. There is no clear statement on this from the creators. In the English dubbing, Gamera is male (he… / his…). In the German dubbing and on the DVD covers, masculine pronouns, but also feminine terms (the protector of the earth) were used mixed.

Film list

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ガ メ ラ 生 誕 50 周年 記念 特別 サ イ ト. In: ガ メ ラ 生 誕 50 周年 記念 特別 サ イ ト. Retrieved October 1, 2016 (ja-JP).
  2. ↑ Gamera: The Giant Monster. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 1, 2016 ; accessed on October 1, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.shoutfactory.com