By Joe Gibson
Very suddenly, the anniversary of the original 1965 Gamera film, November 27th, 2024 (otherwise called Gamera Day) is close upon us. Now, here at Plan9Crunch, I, Joe Gibson, have been working my way through specifically the Showa Gamera series (1965-1980) out of order, and I eventually intend to have reviews up here for all of the Showa Gamera films + Gamera The Brave and Gamera Rebirth (if you are interested in essays on the Gamera Heisei trilogy, let us know). However, Gamera Day comes only once a year, and this ranking can serve as a preview for those later thoughts and a concise summary of earlier articles (links interspersed throughout). If you disagree, share your own rankings below.
13. Gamera vs Zigra 1971 (Link here to a Plan9Crunch review: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/07/gamera-vs-zigra-turning-53-years-old.html)
As I have already expressed, Gamera vs Zigra is constrained by such lack of budget that Director Noriaki Yuasa's creativity is unable to realize in any substantive charm. The film, set almost entirely in Kamogawa Sea World has to contrive reasons to stay at the setting without destroying it and proves unable to use the setting to ground any main characters' arcs and actions (outside of a superfluous aquarium worker that somehow contributes more than the children do). The plot comes off as a retread of Gamera vs Viras, and the intention and powers of Zigra and those under his thrall as well as the stakes are very inconsistent without many creative fight scenes to offset that. As I will discuss in the following sections, most Showa Gamera movies are a mix of high highs and low lows; this film is just the same bland tripe throughout where the contrivances in Zigra's paralysis working differently for different people leads into the contrivance of the main cast's ultimate survival, but the more clever choreography and aquarium juxtaposition taper off into nothing by the end of the film.
12. Gamera 1965
Being the first Gamera movie ever made and one of the most influential kaiju films (at the very least, Yongary seems to have copied this film's tonal inconsistency of designating the title monster as terrible destroyer as well as friend to a child), it is surprising I have not discussed this in its own dedicated review yet. Personally, I find it quite hard to watch with its very abrupt storytelling and confusing character motivations of Toshio and his family, but it places here on the list because the image of Gamera catching Toshio from the lighthouse (as well as other scenes that support Yuasa and writer Nisan Takahashi's intent for Gamera as an icon to children) touched upon something that would go on to fuel the childlike whimsy of this franchise. Gamera 1965 is a movie at war with itself, with the studio Daiei wanting a darker Godzilla ripoff and Yuasa wanting to emphasize his childlike creativity; Gamera vs Barugon 1966 shows us Daiei's vision more fully realized, and Gamera vs Gyaos 1967 is the earliest film where Yuasa can show off what he wants to do unopposed. Both are much higher on this list so stay posted for my thoughts on those.
11. Gamera vs Viras 1968 (link here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-best-of-scenes-and-worst-of-scenes.html)
In my review of Gamera vs Viras, I emphasized the growing pains of the transition from early to late Showa Gamera with the decreasing role of series mainstay Kojiro Hongo and introduction of an American child alongside a Japanese one per AIP's dictates, and, consequently, this very uneven film is the best of the Showa series...and also the worst. It averages out to merely decent (there are more things done well here than in the original Gamera). Whenever I get to reviewing Gamera Rebirth, I will have to compare Viras' utilization there to his original film, so while I do not have much new to say on this movie now, it will get its time for fresh thoughts.
10. Gamera Super Monster 1980
Having Gamera Super Monster this high is an insane hot take; I understand that. Hear me out. While I enjoy the common joke that Gamera Super Monster, as a trashy clip show, makes the worst Godzilla films look like Shakespeare, that just is not true according to the way I am watching these movies. The two films before this on this list are intensely inconsistent, detrimentally affecting their value as stories and art to relay a theme, emotion or internally consistent script. Do I enjoy any of the component parts of Gamera vs Viras less than watching a dorky child try to impress three good spacewomen and an evil one? No, obviously not since I haven't talked about this one and only intend to reference it as scarcely as necessary, but this movie is consistently about Keiichi seeking an older sister influence, said arc justifying his interactions with the three good spacewomen and his naivety that redeems the evil spacewoman. Add in the genuinely good transitions into the stock footage segments and a great soundtrack, and it is better than several Godzilla films (but I should probably stop that train of thought before I incite a mob against me). If you want some literature to give you a newfound appreciation for Gamera Super Monster, pick up Constantine Furman's "The Unoffical Tokusatsu Fan's Handbook For Gamera Super Monster" (link here: https://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Tokusatsu-Handbook-GAMERA-MONSTER/dp/B097VBGYTL).
9. Gamera vs Jiger 1970
I feel kind of bad having this film this low since, though I have not yet had the opportunity to talk about it, I genuinely think this is one of the best Showa Gamera films and a darn fine Showa kaiju film in general. Because I mentioned that Vs Viras is an awkward intermediary stage between early and late Showa Gamera, I should probably expound on how I would characterize both halves of this era. Just like with Showa Godzilla (where I would argue Ghidorah The Three Headed Monster 1964 exemplifies grounded but absurd early Showa with Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 1974 carrying with it the tropes of goofy late Showa and Godzilla's Revenge being the awkward middle step where priorities reframed to children), the trajectory changed, and this film pays off the influence of Yuasa the best in AIP era Gamera. Yuasa's childlike creativity is best epitomized by the treatment of Jiger, a triceratops with an absurd amount of long range weaponry I can't even summarize efficiently that has been locked away for a long time. But Yuasa tackles this daunting premise in a way only he can. So Jiger escapes her captivity, right? Immediately, she goes to take a long drink of water. It's so simple (this is the way a child thinks) but it helps to not only characterize the villain monster but also set the creative and whimsical tone. Throughout the movie, Jiger cycles through her absurd arsenal believably and efficiently, again in a childlike cycle: Jiger lands her attack, Gamera recovers, Gamera learns how to counter the attack, and then Jiger moves on to the next weapon because the other one stopped working. It is a simple formula, but this series' creativity thrives in simplicity.
8. Gamera vs Gyaos 1967
Though I am placing this film this low, I can understand and would defend any placement above this point; everything just genuinely comes together extraordinarily well: Kojiro Hongo is a very engaging hero, there is enough social commentary to keep the intersecting subplots and archetypes purposeful, and the influence of child character Eiichi on this plot helps to keep the sci-fi aspects simple and creative. Gyaos gets its name from Eiichi imitating the cry it makes (meaning the pronunciation regardless of how you spell it is probably meant to be Gy--oww-ssss as one syllable), and the explanation of Gyaos' head stiffness is a unique way to account for the limitations of suitmation. All in all, this is just a great example of Showa kaiju eiga and proves what Noriaki Yuasa and Nisan Takahashi can do when Daiei appoints a producer Hidemasa Nagata that agrees with their child marketing enough to write children's songs for them.
7. Gamera vs Guiron 1969 (read Doug Gibson's review here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2023/04/gamera-versus-guiron-was-fun-fare-for.html)
You may be thinking that this film has no valid reason to be this high, that it messes up incredibly easy dumb things like Akio and Tom's mothers not remembering that aliens literally invaded last film when they say that there is nothing left to be discovered in space. You would be kind of right. You may also say this a morbid trainwreck of a fairy tale, but I'd contest the label fairy tale when portal fantasy is much closer philosophically and by counting common tropes. Technically speaking, I am evaluating this film's placement with different rules than the previous ones, but that is because no one else seems to have considered the portal fantasy connections or the ones I can draw between this film and the teachings of Carl Jung (see my Jungian Analysis of Gamera vs Guiron here: https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-jungian-exploration-of-gamera-vs.html). Most speakers on this movie have some knowledge on how Noriaki Yuasa's psychology made it into these films, but the literary criticism stops there for some reason. All art is art, and, if any art deserves deeper in depth analysis, all art does. If we were just focusing on the craft and internal consistency, this film's placement would slip, but I also will point to the possibly unintentional way that this film transforms Gamera's stock footage into a very effective Jungian Answer to Job Christ figure. If the pendulum ever swings to favor this film intellectually, I will be more critical of it; as of now, I have the most fun being its most stalwart defender. If you want to hear a more dynamic presentation of this argument, you can visit our YouTube page, watch this podcast episode (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsnr2cNOm2c) and comment your thoughts.
6. Gamera Rebirth 2023
Despite poor viewership, I honestly think Gamera Rebirth was one of the best shows of 2023 (far better than the Skull Island cartoon anyway). It has the unique and unfortunate position as the revival for Gamera while kaiju reintrepretations are at an all time high in supply and Gamera's popularity is high among fans but low generally. As a kaiju/tokusatsu fan entering 2023, distributions of Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider were on the horizon as well as Godzilla Minus One, Godzilla x Kong, etc, and Gamera Rebirth pretty provably fell out of attention. But it somehow managed to thread together Showa and Heisei sensibitilies to be a love letter to this series, the Shin Gamera that no one seems to want to make. The 6 episodes each give Gamera a different opponent (Gyaos, Jiger, Zigra, Guiron, Viras and a really big mutated Gyaos called S-Gyaos) mostly in retrospect to each kaiju's film (the Jiger episode brings up the subplot from that movie of the military not trusting Gamera, and the Guiron episode is when the characters realize they cannot necessarily trust the adults, which is a major idea in that film as well). As such, I really will need to have fleshed out reviews for all the relevant movies to point to when I end up reviewing this show. Broadly, I can say this series builds up its characters really well because the templates of Toru (from Gamera Rebirth), Asagi (from the Heisei trilogy) and Akio and Tom (from Gamera vs Guiron) exist and can be revised and shaken up for Boco, Joe, Junichi and Brody. The last episode is, by far, the worst one (something this show has in common with Johnny Sokko) because, given the explanation provided, S-Gyaos really should not exist (if Viras can absorb dead kaiju parts while they are enclosed in a box, how did it fail to assimilate living tissue that had no plastic protection from his body?), and Joe, Junichi and Brody have barely any relevance during the final battle.
5. Gamera vs Barugon 1966
While I am mainly a fan of Noriaki Yuasa's Gamera vision, I cannot deny that Gamera vs Barugon 1966, the only Showa Gamera film not to feature Yuasa as director is really really good. It focuses on human greed and the collateral damage that causes as dastardly villain Onodera murders his friends and sics a kaiju on Japan because of his self serving greed. This is Kojiro Hongo's first Gamera role as the brooding protagonist Keisuke Hirata who deconstructs his own blame for these events and selfishness throughout the runtime. This film otherwise will probably assault the senses in a marathon: it is dark and edgy with bloody human fights that outshine the monster ones, the only child character is newborn monster Barugon, who Gamera drowns, and for some unknown reason, there is a shot that simulates oral sex when Karen licks Keisuke's blood from his arm at an odd angle. In retrospect, does this make sense as part of this series? No. But is it a great blockbuster achievement for Daiei? Yes.
4. Gamera 2. Advent of Legion 1996
For the 30th anniversary of Gamera, Daiei allowed Shusuke Kaneko and Kazunori Ito to reboot Gamera, and the ensuing 90s trilogy that places these next three spots on the list was born. There was some executive meddling in keeping Gamera's cuddly and childlike nature around and only incrementally letting Kaneko and Ito bring in their darker ideas, but, like an ouroboros, that meddling ended up clarifying how they wrote their story (i.e. building up Gamera as an obvious hero and then casting that in doubt as the stakes, building dread by showing Gamera getting scarier and scarier but still being on our side...for now). As the middle chapter in this story, Advent of Legion has to build the stakes from the previous film and provide something new and interesting. The worldbuilding of the Legion alien army is spectacular, being somewhat feasible pneumatic aliens that spread through pods. As I mentioned in the third part of my Godzilla x Kong review (https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2024/07/part-three-nuanced-deconstruction-of.html), I do take issue with a major contrivance toward the end that goes unexplained, namely how Gamera does defeat Legion. It is debatable if it actually ruins the cause and effect of the climax, but I do not like having to make inferences for a movie even if it has definitely earned that.
3. Gamera: Guardian of the Universe 1995
Talking about the Heisei trilogy comes far less naturally to me, but again I have nothing but praise for how this movie interprets its monsters, especially the villains where Gyaos returns for a sleek redesign involving better fleshed out science fiction and fantasy by delving into the origins for Gyaos (and Gamera), something that has only really ever had lip service paid. (For what it is worth, the plot point of the Gyaos turning on their creators comes directly from Gamera vs Guiron, if you wanted another reason to reevaluate any negative opinions on it.) To be concise, GOTU, AoL and RoI all have a different focus; this first part is a streamlined kaiju format that balances its plot and character complexities, Advent of Legion was very plot heavy, and Revenge of Iris will be so vague in the plot just to prop up its characters and themes more. What approach you prefer depends on your preference, but I will argue that RoI is superb enough to place above this, and Advent of Legion is flawed enough to deserve placement beneath this.
2. Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris 1999
I suspect later honest inquiry will find this to be the best Gamera movie of all time because Ayana's arc perfectly develops the moral ambiguity, revisionist ambiguity and mythological ambiguity that not only the trilogy up to this point but especially this film is building to in its climax . If you are unaware who Ayana is, I ended up going on a tangent about her in my Godzilla vs Kong review that is a better summary than I can give here (https://planninecrunch.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-godzilla-versus-kong-2021-remake.html). This movie, as I mentioned in my later Godzilla x Kong review manages to redeem the Deus ex Machina of Gamera's final attack on Legion in G2, and it uses the mythology of Atlantis, Gamera, Gyaos and now Mana (what allowed Gamera to kill Legion but seemingly also creates Gyaos if Gamera uses too much in any single dose) to tie together this trilogy's storytelling in a very satisfying way. The storytellling, fight scenes and character progression of Ayana as well as returning characters Nagamine and Osako are genuiney top tier, so there was never any question in my mind that this would be top 2. So what can be better than this?
1. Gamera The Brave 2006
Despite heavy ambivalence, I have chosen Gamera The Brave (original title The Little Braves, Gamera) to be at the top of this list rather than Revenge of Iris. In my defense, this is a close matchup. The debate for best human character in this franchise is always going to be Toru or Ayana, and, ultimately, which one you choose is going to depend on if you prioritize deconstructing the Showa formula or reconstructing it to be stronger in the modern era. (Like the Showa era, this film is about Gamera helping the development and survival of a young boy Toru, caring for him after his mom dies and while his neighbor is about to undergo a surgery, while Revenge of Iris was about a young girl trying to cope with her loss by destroying a very destructive Gamera.) The effects are impressive in both GtB and RoI (surpassed by both GOTU and AoL), and I think both scripts are near perfect. It will be a challenge to find a victor just focusing on either film because the strengths of each film are firmly rooted in retrospect (the flagship scene of this movie involves all the children passing off a magic rock to give to Gamera, which plays off of the series trope that Gamera is the Friend to All Children, while one of the most impactful scenes in Revenge of Iris features Gamera saving a random child seemingly accidentally, deconstructing the purpose that we apply to Gamera or gods in general in our relationship with him). But if you prefer slice of life character development to dramatic philosophizing, you may see what I see in Gamera the Brave that makes it the very best this franchise has to offer.
Hope you enjoyed this ranking and that you enjoy Gamera Day by watching some of the above films and show. Gamera Rebirth is on Netflix, and you can stream all the other Gamera films on Amazon Prime Video. Tubi, Pluto and YouTube should also have listings to stream for most of these films.
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