Why is Tsuburaya so obsessed with Gubila?

[LegendZilla]

Hey there, LegendZilla here with another thread. This time, I want to discuss a particular Ultra-kaiju of which has become quite prevalent in recent years, if not a little too much. The kaiju in question is none other than the Narwhal-esque Gubila.



This character has showed up in at least one episode of over half of every new Ultra-program made since the "New Generation Era" began with Ginga. Understandably, most audiences will be getting pretty damn tired of seeing him so frequently. Can anyone care to speculate as to why Tsuburaya Productions has become so overly reliant on this monster? I saw someone suggest that maybe Gubila suits are just easy to make. What are your theories? One idea I have is that he has the similar "cute" charm as Toho's Baragon.

Feedback will be much appreciated. Peace out.

[JAGzilla]

I haven't seen any of the New Generation shows, but I'm glad and pleasantly surprised that Gubila became popular and was revived. He was one of the more memorable kaiju from the original Ultraman show, and his design has a ton of goofy charm.

[LegendZilla]

I haven't seen any of the New Generation shows, but I'm glad and pleasantly surprised that Gubila became popular and was revived. He was one of the more memorable kaiju from the original Ultraman show, and his design has a ton of goofy charm.

There's plenty of kaiju in the franchise that match that criteria, but why must everyone be spoiled with just one?

[Voyager]

What makes Tsuburaya “obsessed” with Gubila? Would you say they were obsessed with Zetton or Gomora?

[LegendZilla]

What makes Tsuburaya “obsessed” with Gubila? Would you say they were obsessed with Zetton or Gomora?

Until just the last decade, Gubila is a kaiju who showed up just once back in 1966. Tsuburaya suddenly salvaging him from the Showa era and developing a subsequent fixation on him just seems a bit out of left field. Monsters like Gomora and Zetton left a big impact when they first showed up and built up popularity with the passage of time. So naturally, Tsupro would treat us to such kaiju every now and then to capitalize.

Gubila however, does not seem quite like the same story to me.

[Voyager]

What makes Tsuburaya “obsessed” with Gubila? Would you say they were obsessed with Zetton or Gomora?

Until just the last decade, Gubila is a kaiju who showed up just once back in 1966. Tsuburaya suddenly salvaging him from the Showa era and developing a subsequent fixation on him just seems a bit out of left field. Monsters like Gomora and Zetton left a big impact when they first showed up and built up popularity with the passage of time. So naturally, Tsupro would treat us to such kaiju every now and then.

Well, I guess that is a bit odd, randomly bringing him back from the grave.

[LSD Jellyfish]

What makes Tsuburaya “obsessed” with Gubila? Would you say they were obsessed with Zetton or Gomora?

Or literally a dozen other Ultraman monsters. They made a new suit, had it available, and it's a very basic monster that doesn't require much explanation of why it might reappear (versus something like Greeza).

[Dracosaurian]

Gubila's got a simplistic/effective design and can have simple reasons why it can appear in a show.

- Disturbed by the activities of mankind.
- Driven out of his territory by another sea monster.
- Looking for food on land.
- Mind controlled by an antagonistic alien.

Or in Trigger's case, A subspecies/variant that has adapted to live on land (Which is pretty cool imo.) chasing after a signal from an ancient relic.

[o.supreme]

I know he was in Ultraman Saga...was that his first modern appearance? It seems TPC is the master of reuse, and that is fine. But what started with Max, bringing back Showa Kaiju, and expanded on in Mebius has been a solid trend. They also pull out occasional Kaiju from older series such as Nexus it TDG. I think after the Ultra Galaxy movie and it's 100 Kaiju, they kept these suits as best they could to lower the budget. Now most New Age" series that have an average of 25 episodes will only introduce 3 or 4 new Kaiju, with the rest being responses of previous ones..it's a smart strategy, as long as they keep the rotation going, but admittedly, yes some get overused. Bemstar is one of my favorites from RoU. But he has been in popping up quite a bit recently as well.

[Angilasman]

You know, the Gubila episode is like the only Ultraman '66 episode I actively dislike.

[Terasawa]

You know, the Gubila episode is like the only Ultraman '66 episode I actively dislike.

I'd seen the entire show when BCI/Mill Creek released their DVD sets. When I was rewatching the series via dubbed YouTube uploads only a few years later, I had absolutely no recollection of that episode; it had totally wiped itself from my memory. I also had to look it up just now because I couldn't remember what "the Gubila episode" is, lol.

I'm not so familiar with the series today that I could definitively say which is my least favorite episode, but that one is a *strong* contender.

[Angilasman]

^ It's a whole lot of waiting around and actors pretending to be underwater.

You get a lot of old scifi shows that fall into that trap of just making time to fill the episode, and Ultraman usually doesn't do that.

[eabaker]

Okay, I think this topic has run its course.