Gamera
| Daiei's Gamera series | |
|---|---|
| Gamera | |
 Gamera featured in the original 1965 film |
|
| First appearance | Gamera: The Giant Monster (1965) |
| Last appearance | Gamera the Brave (2006) |
| Created by | Yonejiro Saito |
| Portrayed by: |
Shōwa series Teruo Aragaki Umenosuke Izumi Heisei series Naoaki Manabe Jun Suzuki Akira Ohashi Hirofumi Fukuzawa Millennium Toshinori Sasaki |
| Alias | The Invincible Super Monster Guardian of the Universe The Last Hope The Brave The Absolute Guardian of the Universe Friend of All Children Guardian Supermonster |
Gamera (ガメラ?) is a giant monster or daikaiju originating from a series of Japanese tokusatsu films of the same name. He first appeared in Daiei Film's 1965 film Gamera: The Giant Monster, which was initially produced to rival the success of Toho's Godzilla, however, Gamera has gained fame and notoriety as a Japanese icon in his own right. The character has appeared in other media such as comic books and video games.
In the United States, Gamera attained prominence during the 1970s due to the burgeoning popularity of UHF television stations featuring Saturday afternoon matinee showcases like Creature Double Feature and later in the 1990s when several Gamera films were featured on the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Gamera has the general configuration of a turtle, albeit a tremendously large one that is capable of walking on two legs and flying. He does occasionally walk quadrupedally in his first three films. Gamera demonstrates the ability to manipulate objects with his forefeet. He possesses a pronounced sagittal crest on top of his head and his mouth is filled with teeth, which is unprecedented in turtles – with the exception perhaps of the prehistoric turtles Proganochelys and – plus a pair of large tusks protruding upward from the lower jaws.
In the Shōwa era series, Gamera was a titanic, fire-breathing, prehistoric species of turtle who fed on petroleum-based material, presumably giving him the ability to breathe fire and fly by "jets" ignited when the monster retracts its legs – it can propel itself by spinning through the air with all four legs in and (shown in later films) can fly straight with just the rear legs drawn inside its shell.
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