Godzilla’s cheaper, sillier cousin, the Gamera franchise kicked off just over 10 years after the debut of Ishirล Honda’s Gojira stomped into the hearts of film fans across the globe. Like Godzilla, it’s proved successful enough to last through several eras of Japanese cinema, including eight films in the Shลwa era (to Godzilla’s 15), three in the Heisei era (to Godzilla’s seven), and now, one animated web series in the Reiwa era. Like with the Big G, the Gamera films are very much a mixed bag, with entries ranging from atrocious to surprisingly poignant. What’s remained consistent across them all is that Gamera’s heart has always been warm, whereas Godzilla took some time to get to that point (and didn’t stay there).
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12) Gamera: Super Monster
The undisputed nadir of the Gamera franchise, Gamera: Super Monster was made solely to get Daiei out of financial trouble. It was released nearly 10 years after the franchise’s previous entry, Gamera vs. Zigra, long after the audience had lost its already dwindling interest. So, it was instead the final nail in the coffin for the company.
Super Monster is less an actual movie and more a stock footage parade. Just about every shot of Gamera comes from a different movie. The only thing that’s new is the final moments, which kill Gamera off.
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11) Gamera vs. Zigra
The seventh entry of the franchise and penultimate movie of the Shลwa era, Gamera vs. Zigra is one boring experience. It says a lot that it’s only slightly better than Super Monster.
It’s yet another alien invasion plot, this time with the majority of the narrative following two boys (as was franchise tradition by this point) at a SeaWorld-esque park. The vast majority of the movie is plodding dialogue, with very little monster action. And, once the monster action does happen, it’s brief, and shows just how low on money Daiei was at the time. At least the design for the alien bird-shark was inspired in a Gigan from Godzilla kind of way.
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10) Gamera vs. Guiron
Some entries of the Gamera franchise are bizarrely violent and blood-soaked for what amounts to decidedly children’s fare (naturally the blood is usually purple or light green). No entry serves as a better example of this than Gamera vs. Guiron, which focuses on two children on a planet being held against their will by aliens who scarf down brains.
Of course, the viewer doesn’t see the aliens chew on brains, but they do see the films knife-skulled kaiju antagonist slice the flying Gyaos to chunks before attempting to do the same to Gamera. It’s another bizarre and sometimes lethargically paced installment of the franchise.
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9) Gamera vs. Viras
The fourth Shลwa era film, Gamera vs. Viras, is basically where things went off the rails and flew into sillyville. The film follows an invasion by the residents of Planet Viras, who intend to take over Earth for its Nitrogen. They’re foiled by Gamera but learn that he’s susceptible to his need to protect children. They kidnap a pair of boy scouts and hold them hostage while also implanting a mind control device into the back of the turtle’s head, sending him on a rampage.
In the end it’s revealed that the residents of Planet Viras are all just wearing human-like disguises. They far more resemble squids, which is revealed when the two kidnapped boy scouts stumble upon the aliens’ leader. This head Viras is not wearing a disguise and talks, which was a one-and-done concept for the franchise. The highpoint of the bizarre film must be the onset of the climax, when the head Viras beheads its minions, which then spawn little Virases that merge into a big Viras so it can fight Gamera head-on. Well, that and the fact the fight basically has the same ending as the original Iron Man.
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8) Gamera, the Giant Monster
If one were expecting the first Gamera to be the best Gamera, it’s far from the case. Gamera the Giant Monster is far too content being a standard kaiju movie for that. If there’s one entry in the franchise that is blatantly cribbing from Godzilla’s playbook, it’s this. There are even scenes that are directly lifted from the 1954 classic original film, e.g. having the kaiju get electrified by purposely placed extra-powerful powerlines only to walk away just fine.
The only thing that really keeps Gamera the Giant Monster and Gojira from being the same film is, one, Gamera’s kind of nice (as the little boy protagonist loudly points out every 12 seconds), and two, the film possesses none of the emotionally charged thematic heft of Ishirล Honda’s masterpiece.
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7) Gamera vs. Barugon
We’re in higher-quality waters now. Gamera vs. Barugon follows three men as they travel to New Guinea and the least scrupulous of them steals a giant opal. But it’s not an opal, it’s an egg, and the monster within that egg grows to an enormous size (like, immediately) and storms across Osaka.
Gamera was already pretty friendly for a kaiju in the first film, but Gamera vs. Barugon (which is set six months after the original film) officially established him as a protector of the people. The title antagonist of the film is pretty lackluster, aside from the fact it can shoot a rainbow out of its back, but Gamera vs. Barugon scores points for not focusing on an annoying kid for most of its runtime.
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6) Gamera vs. Gyaos
If there’s an iconic entry of Gamera’s Shลwa era it’s Gamera vs. Gyaos. Without a doubt Gyaos is the Ghidorah of the Gamera franchise, and it makes sense the Heisei era would kick off by bringing him back.
This third film was also the point where the franchise started to be geared even more towards children than it already was. Even still, the film oscillates between some pretty grim territory and kiddie stuff, making it tonally jarring in the same way Return of the Jedi would later be. But, overall, it’s very nearly the best entry of its era.
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5) Gamera the Brave
Starting in the 2000s, the Godzilla franchise entered its “Millennium era.” It was technically still the Heisei era, but that’s what that stretch of six films (Godzilla 2000 to Godzilla: Final Wars) was called. Gamera the Brave is technically the fourth and final film of the Heisei era, but it is very much equivalent to the Godzilla franchise’s Millennium era.
This applies in terms of tone and over-stylization. The franchise’s “Heisei trilogy” found the perfect balance in terms of taking itself seriously as a narrative and containing action that is involving without being over-stylized. Gamera the Brave skews a bit too far in both categories, but all in all it’s still much better than the majority of the Shลwa era. Plus, there’s novelty in seeing a baby Gamera grow up into the Earth’s guardian. Gamera the Brave is the Casino Royale of the franchise.
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4) Gamera vs. Jiger
It’s rare for a franchise to peak as it nears the end, but that’s the case with Gamera’s Shลwa era. It’s not high art, but Gamera vs. Jiger is the closest the franchise’s first era came to possessing a narrative that can be taken seriously while also featuring some silly-fun monster action.
The film’s ace in the hole is the title antagonist. She’s not even so much an antagonist as much as a monster who has been stolen from. Add in a subplot where an egg has been planted in Gamera’s lung (which, in typical Gamera fashion, is a problem left to children to solve) and Gamera vs. Jiger did some admirable things to shake up a worn-out formula.
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3) Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
The Heisei Trilogy, as it’s known, is such a night and day improvement over the Shลwa era that it’s still something of a surprise. Whereas Gamera’s first era was a pale and cheap imitation of Godzilla’s, the two IPs’ Heisei eras are actually on a fairly level plane.
Even still, there has to be a weakest link in a trilogy, and that’s the first, Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe. It was wise to bring back the Shลwa era’s best kaiju antagonist, Gyaos, but the subsequent two films did a great job creating new monsters for the turtle to battle and, plot-wise, the trilogy would only become more interesting.
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2) Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris
One of the things that works best about the Heisei trilogy is that it has stakes. In Gamera’s Shลwa era, it felt as though he could be cut apart (or have an egg planted in his lung) and he’d be fine by the end of the movie. In the Heisei era, it felt like he could die.
And, in Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, he did. It’s a movie that knows how to carry thematic heft, it features a memorable antagonist (who has a personal connection in the way Biollante did with Godzilla), and the monster action is just about the best the franchise has ever given fans.
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1) Gamera 2: Attack of Legion
As solid as Revenge of Iris is, Gamera 2: Attack of Legion is better. Like the film that followed it has a fight that carries with it a certain level of danger, it’s never over-stylized in the way Gamera the Brave would end up being, and, as a cherry on top, it has one of the best plots of the franchise if not the very best.
As a character, Gamera works best when he’s serving as an actual guardian of Earth. Without him, the Earth is gone. What better way to emphasize that role than to have the planet’s ecosystem threatened by a parasitic insect that wants to eliminate the humans and take over the globe for its own purposes. Attack of Legion is essentially the Godzilla vs. Destoroyah of the big turtle franchise, and that’s a very good thing.
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