Growing up in a
Godzilla household, there was always
the mindset that
Gamera was just a Big G knock off. The flying, fire
eating turtle certainly came out in the wake of
Godzilla stomping
through the Japanese box office, but for much of the Western cult film fans
Gamera was seen as a joke. Godzilla’s first film received a Criterion release,
but Gamera’s first film was mostly known because of
Mystery Science Theater
3000. Yet, just in my life time, there has been a resurgence in viewing
Gamera
as its own merits and as a series with its own themes and tropes. There was
certainly help from the strength of the 90s reboot trilogy, but even the
original run has had a revitalization worthy of revisiting.
To give even more power to this reclamation of everyone’s
favorite jetpack kaiju, Arrow Video has amassed a massive new collection of all
12 of Gamera’s films. With the original run of 8 films, the 90s trilogy, and
the final film – Gamera the Brave from 2006, this collection features
them all. This series of reviews for the set will go briefly through each entry
and then recap at the end thoughts and opinions on the set itself. Considering
the amount of films included, this series of articles will definitely be as
massive as Gamera, but will serve as a guide to all the films.
