Living in the shadow of Toho’s Godzilla is Gamera a giant turtle who shoots fire balls out of his mouth, and who’s legs can turn Jet propelled lifting the turtle into the sky in seconds. This entry of the Gamera series was a revitalization to the franchise that began in 1967 with Daikaijû kûchûsen: Gamera tai Gyaosu or Gamera vs. Gaos, and this film is a re-imagining of that title. Gamera awakens from the sea to battle his nemesis the giant man eating bird Gyaos, but his collision course with the city sets off the military who do everything in their power to destroy poor Gamera, ‘friend of children.’ While the military is focused on Gamera, the spawn of Gyaos take the opportunity to feed on the citizens of Tokyo eventually nesting on top of the destroyed Tokyo Tower where the two meet in a final showdown. The film was released theatrically in 1995 at the peak of the men in rubber suits technology and it shows with it’s beautiful visuals. Gamera and the Gyaos look fantastic and the miniature Tokyo flows nearly seemless with the real Tokyo city scape. Kaiju just doesn’t get much better than this.
