Gamera

Gamera
Name
Japanese	ガメラ 玄武
Rōmaji	Gamera Genbu
Profile
Species	Unknown (Kaijū) God (2021)
Gender	Female (2021, Presumably)
Home	Mountains in the north of the Heiankyō centering Mount Ōe (2021)
Abilities	Fireball Flight Materialization
First Appearance
Novel	USO MAKOTO Yōkai Hyaku Monogatari (2011)

Gamera (ガメラ Gamera), also known as "Genbu"(玄武 (げんぶ) Genbu), is the ancient, heroic, great turtle daikaijū.

Appearance

Within The Great Yōkai War: Guardians: Side Story: Heian Hyakkitan, Gamera physically rivals Nue, the "False Yōkaijū" which is about 40 meters in height with unknown body length as it has a quadruped posture. She generally resembles the traditional appearances of the character to have deep-green massive shell, powerful limbs, intimidating fangs and claws, a pair of iconic elongated fangs on the lower jaw.

Personality

In the 2021 novelization, Gamera is rather humble and shy, describing herself a senile, and noted that it is rather embarrassing to have numerous yōkai and humans witnessing her. Gamera didn't reveal her true name while she noted that she was once also called by yōkai and humans as "Genbu", and Tarōbō described she being "Genbu but also someone else other than Genbu".

History

The Great Yōkai War

Although Gamera didn't make appearances in the film directly, a man who witnessed Yomotsu-Mono refereed it to the daikaiju. Gamera's voice effects were also used for its roars.

In the novelization, Gamera and Dai-Majin were briefly mentioned by yōkai without much details about them.

USO MAKOTO Yōkai Hyaku Monogatari

The "Japan Yōkai Promotion Committee", whose members include Shigeru Mizuki and Natsuhiko Kyōgoku and Hiroshi Aramata, summoned "entities" to fend off evils led by Daimon and Yasunori Katō, and humanity's military forces. Gamera was summoned along with many other "entities" such as Dai-Majin, Kitarō, Ittan-Momen, Maruge, Yo-kai Watch characters, Godzilla, and many other yōkai and fictional characters.

Iris, the main antagonist of the 1999 film Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, was also mentioned although it didn't make a direct appearance.

The Great Yōkai War: Guardians: Side Story: Heian Hyakkitan

In the final battle against antagonists, Gamera, the Lord Genbu, the "God of North and Mountains there", appeared to protect Kyoto along with many other iconic Yōkai of GeGeGe no Kitarō franchise including members of Kitarō Family and others including Nurarihyon and Shu-no-Bon, except for Kitarō and Medama-Oyaji and Nezumi-Otoko and Neko-Musume who are original creations. Gamera overwhelmed the gigantic Nue who was empowered by Abe no Seimei, and helped the protagonists to fulfil their destinies.

Yōkai also praised Gamera by singing modified versions of Gamera March and Song of Gamera, and the tumult by yōkai in the scene was described by Tarōbō as "a sports festival in the graveyard at night".

Powers and Abilities

Fireball: Gamera can shoot powerful fireballs from her mouth to damage Nue, and she can empower the attack by inhaling more oxygen.

Flight: Gamera can fly by emitting jets of flames from her arms and legs. She can also ram into an opponent by spinning rapidly.

Physical Prowess: Gamera is physically immensely powerful to overwhelm gigantic Nue.

Human Speech: Gamera can freely communicate with yōkai and humans via oral communications.

Materialization: Gamera can freely switch between spiritual and physical forms. Gamera in spiritual form initially appeared from Mount Ōe, and she dematerialized after defeating Nue.

Aura: Despite seeing Gamera for the first time, yōkai and humans instantly feel that they knew her since they were young, and feel nostalgic by her appearance and abilities.

Legend

Gamera as he appears in Gamera Rebirth (2023).

The Gamera is the daikaijū from Daiei Film's series of the same name. Daiei Film which was at the brink of bankruptcy, was saved by the success of the 1965 film Gamera, the Giant Monster, resulting in the productions of Dai-Majin and Yōkai Monsters Series and Kazuo Umezu's The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch directed by Noriaki Yuasa. The Daimajin was initially designed to be his first enemy so-called the "Space Giant" before being redeveloped into Barugon for the 1966 film Gamera vs. Barugon, and productions of both Daimajin and Yōkai Monsters Series franchises were strongly influenced by the Gamera franchise from casting to special effects techniques. In the Showa period, Gamera films were collaboratively distributed with Dai-Majin and Yōkai films such as Yōkai Monsters Series on several occasions.

The "First Yōkai Boom" was created by Yōkai Monsters Series and Shigeru Mizuki and Kazuo Umezu, and Daiei Film positively collaborated with Mizuki and Umezu while The "First Yōkai Boom" was actually developed as the successor of the First Kaiju Boom involving Gamera and Daimajin, and the kaiju medias has had extensive influences on both Akuma-kun and GeGeGe no Kitarō to have heroic protagonists to battle against antagonists, appearances of gigantic characters, and so on.

Ever since the Heisei trilogy, Gamera has been referred to the Black Tortoise (Genbu), one of his possible inspirations, and battled against Iris to protect Kyoto in Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris. This is consistent with his role in The Great Yōkai War: Guardians: Side Story: Heian Hyakkitan, being summoned to be Kyoto's protector. One of early concepts of the trilogy by Chiaki J. Konaka and Kazuya Konaka was later adopted for Gamera the Brave, Digimon Tamers, and Ultraman Tiga.

Depictions of Gamera in the 2021 novelization bear several similarities to that of Nue in the 2007 anime while the turtle goddess fought against Nue; both Gamera and Nue intentionally didn't reveal their true names and others referred to them with more well-known aliases, they are noble and powerful, but are also humble and shy to usually avoid to appear in front of general yōkai and humans intentionally, and they appeared in the Heiankyō to save the city and inhabitants including yōkai. Both of them were also depicted to be rather different from previous images of the characters; Gamera to be a female and an actual god, Nue to be a Qilin-like, heroic creature. The 2021 "Black Tortoise" (Genbu) is either the second or third incarnation of the character being a god after the 2006 film Gamera the Brave (potentially), and the 2015 novelization Holy Beast War Chronicle: White Shadow (聖獣戦記：白い影 (せいじゅうせんきしろいかげ) Seijū Senki - Shiroi Kage). These incarnations, where the 2015 and 2021 ones being exclusively referred as "Genbu", are capable of divine-like feats such as materialization, empowering humans, time manipulation, and so on. On the other hand, Gamera and Daimajin's residing regions within the 2021 film mediums, Heiankyō and Tokyō respectively, are on the contrary to their images in the Showa era; Daiei separately produced Gamera and Daimajin films in the Tokyō and Kyōto studios respectively, hence the characters were also referred as "Gamera from the east" (東のガメラ Higashi no Gamera) and "Daimajin from the west" (西の大魔神 Nishi no Daimajin).

Gamera and Dai-Majin, along with characters from GeGeGe no Kitarō and Akuma-kun, have been featured as mascots of the Chōfu City in Tokyo, with their statues and illustrations being situated among various spots, as Kadokawa's studio is located in the city and Shigeru Mizuki lived there. Notably Gamera and Daimajin and Kitarō Family and Sadako Yamamura have been featured with occasional collaborations occurred in events where all these characters made appearances in the USO MAKOTO Yōkai Hyaku Monogatari series. In 2017, official mascot character of the city Gachora was created based on Gamera.

Mizuki's Mammoth Flower shares the basic concept with Juran from Ultra Q series, and Juran became the basis for the Legion Plant in Gamera 2: Attack of Legion.

The "Devil Whistle" appeared in Gamera vs. Jiger (1970) was presumably inspired by the Solomon Flute from the Akuma-kun franchise and The Devil Comes and Blows the Whistle by Seishi Yokomizo, while the whistle itself likely influenced the item of the same name from Android Kikaider where the author Shotaro Ishinomori listed the Gamera franchise as one of productions that had affected his manga style.

Daiei Film's 80th Anniversary event poster featuring Gamera and Dai-Majin and Daimon and various other yōkai.

Double Featuring Poster of Gamera and The Great Yōkai War

Double Featuring Poster of Gamera vs. Viras and Yokai Monsters: 100 Monsters

Double Featuring Poster of Gamera vs. Guiron and Yokai Monsters: Along with Ghosts

The suit of Toto along with sculptures of Kitarō and Nurikabe at Gegege no Kitarō Chōfu Nukumori Station where sculptures and models of Kitarō and Gamera and Dai-Majin and Sadako Yamamura have occasionally been exhibited alongside.

Trivia

• Gamera and Godzilla's voice effects were used for Nozuchi and Keukegen's dinosaurs in the 1968 anime, and Gyūki and Yamata-no-Orochi in the 1971 anime. Jiger's voice effect was also used for the latter.
• The descriptions of yōkai and humans sensing Gamera in the 2021 novelization is a reference to The Myth, the theme song of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe.
• The description of Gamera to empower her fireballs in the 2021 novelization is presumably a reference to both Gamera 2: Attack of Legion in 1996 and the 50th anniversary short film in 2015 where both incarnations of the character increased powers of Plasma Fireball and Fire Blast by deeply inhaling airs respectively.
• Several scenes in Monster Raban which became the basis for Dai-Kaijū, coincidentally bear some remembrances to that of the Gamera franchise; Monster Raban and the 2006 film Gamera the Brave depict titular monsters to be placed within labs and being aided by humanity to recover original biological states with biological materials of the monsters, and Godzilla's initial appearances in Monster Raban is strikingly similar to that of Gyaos in the 1967 film Gamera vs. Gyaos although Mizuki predated the Gamera film by 9 years while Dai-Kaijū may have been inspired by the 1962 Daiei film Kujira-Gami, which also has several connections to the Gamera franchise.
  • Gamera the Brave was produced after Toho turned down Kadokawa's offer for Godzilla vs. Gamera, and Zedus, the Gyaos-related mutant was presumably based on Godzilla and Jirahs and other Toho kaiju.
  • Mizuki also made the Kujira-Gami to appear in his 1964 non-kitarō manga story Kaidan: Kaeribune.
• Mizuki's designs of Perorigon and Bichigon and Kibungo, notably their abdomens, might have been influenced by the Showa incarnations of Gamera. This is further supported by the fact that Perorigon's abdomen was specially altered in the later released live-action drama, similar to the alias of Dai-Kaijū, the Whale God, which was only used in Hakaba Kitarō era.
• The scene of Nurarihyon as Shokuyōki to destroy a bullet train in the final chapter of Saishinban GeGeGe no Kitarō resembles that of Gamera in the main visual of the 1965 film Gamera the Giant Monster; Shokuyōki itself was an intended reference to traditional kaiju films.
• USO MAKOTO Yōkai Hyaku Monogatari is not the first direct collaboration between characters from GeGeGe no Kitarō and Daiei Film and Tsuburaya Productions; Kitarō, Gamera, Daimajin, Gyaos, Ultraman and Ultra kaijū co-participated in the 1986 event "Shine: Super Heroes' Ōzumō Tournament" within the popular variety show Tensai, Takeshi no Genki ga Deru Terebi, and another popular variety show VOCABULA had also featured Gamera and Daimajin and Medama-Oyaji and Konaki-Jijii and Ultra characters both as direct cameos and modified parodies. Shōichirō Akaboshi, who played Konaki-Jijii in the 1985 drama series, also played Konaki-Jijii in both VOCABULA and Usoppu Land .

External Links

• Gamera on Wikipedia
• Gamera on Gamera Wiki
• Gamera on Wikizilla