39,327
edits
Gamera: Difference between revisions
m
update links
m (Mass update links) |
m (update links) |
||
Line 12:
The legacy of Gamera modestly carried on however, particularly in America. The first six films were shown constantly on local television stations in the 70s and 80s. The [[Clip Show|aforementioned]] eighth film [[Gamera Super Monster]] aired on [[MTV]] at time when they rarely showed movies and was also released to local television. In the late 80s the seventh film [[Gamera vs. Zigra]] had its [[Missing Episode|long overdue]] release along with differently edited/dubbed versions of four other Gamera films via airings on [[USA Network]] and local stations as well as video releases from new distributor Sandy Frank. Gamera was introduced to a new audience when the Sandy Frank versions aired as episodes of the series ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''. On the show, it was derided for having too many [[Narm|cringe-worthy Gamera moments]] (One infamous scene had Gamera swing up and down a pole, [[Gymkata]] style), bad dubbing, and [[The Scrappy|too much emphasis on the kids]].
Then, the Heisei series came. After a long wait, it was decided that the Gamera series should be revived. A man named Shusuke Kaneko, currently famous for the [[Death Note]] movies, was chosen to direct a new Gamera trilogy. What we got was a drastic change from the previous series. The movies became much darker in tone. The monsters ended up becoming much more abstract than anything seen in a [[Kaiju]] movie. The trilogy has been praised by critics from both sides of the Pacific.
After that, the Heisei trilogy ended. It took 7 years for a new Gamera movie to come. ''Gamera The Brave'', the franchise's lone (as of yet) contribution to the "Millennium" era of kaiju, attempted to be more like the Showa films while still keeping the Heisei trilogy's tone. It tells the story of a younger Gamera named Toto by a young boy called Toru Aizawa, who raises him from a hatchling, having to rise up to face the threat of a frilled lizard monster called Zedus.
Line 53:
* [[Batman Can Breathe in Space]]: And so can Gamera. (The rocket exhaust from his leg-holes apparently works without air, too.)
* [[BFS]]: Not quite a sword, but Guiron does have a big effin' blade sticking out of his head.
* [[Big-Budget Beef-Up]]: Gamera vs. Barugon was made as an A-list film and it clearly shows compared to all the other films. No kids, darker and edgier, the suits look awesome, an actual story attempt ect.
* [[The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In]]: Gamera does this to Guiron's head and it leads to the beast's destruction.
** Even more so with Jiger.
Line 88:
** All of ''Gamera Super Monster'''s fight scenes are taken from the older movies. And unlike ''Godzilla's Revenge'', there aren't any new fights mixed in. The film also manages to incorporate footage from ''[[Space Battleship Yamato]]'' and ''[[Galaxy Express 999]]''. Wait, what?
* [[Swiss Cheese Security]]
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Onodera from ''Gamera vs. Barugon.'' That's right: Try and snatch the giant diamond... ''The one explicitly being used as monster bait.''
* [[Too Long; Didn't Dub]]: The children's nickname for police officer Kondo, "Kon-chan", was left untouched in the Sandy Frank dub - where it makes no sense. This led to a running gag in the [[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] episode he appeared in where the cast mishears it as "Cornjob".
* [[Underdogs Never Lose]]: The plots of the Showa films usually involved Gamera's opponent have a major advantage over him then engage and defeat him in combat, Gamera retreats. The protagonists discover the opponent's [[Achilles' Heel]] and attempt to defeat the opponent with it but it only weakens it or backfires. Gamera returns and uses the opponent's weakness to his own advantage, defeating the Monster.
* [[Wolverine Publicity]]: Gamera gets top billing in ''Gamera Vs. Barugon'', even though he has almost nothing to do with the plot.
Line 130:
* [[Godzilla Threshold]]: Legion forces Gamera and mankind to cross this in the second film. She's so powerful and her kind such a threat to the planet that the military has to backup Gamera for them to have a chance to stop her. Even this proves to not be enough to stop her and Gamera ultimately has to resort to his strongest weapon, the Mana Beam, to kill her. This ironically forces him to cross it further in the third film because it not only revives the Gyaos but makes them multiply to staggering numbers to the point Gamera has to disreguard humanity to hunt them down and destroy them.
* [[Good Is Not Nice]]: For the first two films Gamera smashed stuff but he was doing it to stop monsters and he was good at not killing people. Come Gamera 3 and it seems like Gamera is more of a knight templar where isn't worried about people getting caught in his fights. Either a)he has become more savage because there are more Gyaos b) his link with Asagi/humanity made him more savage c) the places he trotted through were usually evacuated so no one expected him to get 80,000 people killed when he fought Hyper Gyaos one night, or a combo of all of them.
* [[Hachiko]]: Gamera accidently torches the statue--a symbol that he has lost his connection with humanity in ''Gamera 3''.
* [[I Am Legion]]: Guess who.
* [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice]]: Gamera in ''Gamera 3''.
Line 139:
* [[Naughty Tentacles]]: The human-sized version of Iris gets a little too friendly with Ayana at one point...
* [[New Powers as the Plot Demands]]: BRUTALLY deconstructed and actually explained.
** Well, except for the Plasma Fist...Though it's not that weird it was merely Gamera re-taking his own element back, mana he originally accumulated and since he suddenly had a limb missing he had a place to store it.
* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: ''Gamera 3'''s Hyper Gyaos and the briefly-seen Nightmare Gamera.
* [[Not So Stoic]]: Legion who after getting its head damaged uses energy whips and fights more frenzied.
Line 148:
* [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]: Iris.
* [[Sea Monster]]: Gamera.
* [[The Smurfette Principle]]: Surprisingly averted. While technically Legion, Gyaos(and by extension, probably Irys) are genderless, Gyaos was played by a female actor specifically to give it a feminine quality, while Legion tends to be referred to with female pronouns due to being the queen. In a sense, this means that all the monsters besides Gamera are female(ish).
* [[Wave Motion Gun]]: Gamera's Mana Beam.
* [[We Come in Peace, Shoot to Kill]]: In the first film, the military gets which of the giant monsters they should actually be trying to destroy ''very'' wrong. The Gyaos are ''not'' just a nuisance, and Gamera is trying to stop them -- he's tremendously destructive and his victories come at a high cost in human life, but given that the Gyaos ''wiped out the civilization that preceded humanity'', he's definitely the lesser of two evils.
| |||