Toho Kingdom

Miguel's post made me realize has a super-power that is rarely discussed: dragging foes. Gamera drags Barugon into the water which kills him. Gamera drags Gyaos into Mt. Fuji, killing him. Gamera drags Zigra onto land, where Zigra is at a disadvantage. My memory is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure Gamera did it other times to other foes.

miguelnuva wrote: ↑Wed Nov 23, 2022 5:52 pm Gamera dragged a sea creature to the surface, trapped it on land then played his theme on his back. That might be more psychopathic than Godzilla running down and Killing Titanosaurus.

Also Super monster gets 1 star just for Gamera going out like a boss.

I'd give it another star for its music score. It's so rad.

LSD Jellyfish wrote: ↑Wed Nov 23, 2022 5:56 pm Miguel's post made me realize has a super-power that is rarely discussed: dragging foes. Gamera drags Barugon into the water which kills him. Gamera drags Gyaos into Mt. Fuji, killing him. Gamera drags Zigra onto land, where Zigra is at a disadvantage. My memory is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure Gamera did it other times to other foes.

Gamera bites onto Viras's tentacle to drag the squid out of the water.

There's also how Gamera uses his flight against foes. Zigra is flown out the water before being killed. Guiron is also flown from the water, and then his head is stuck into the ground. Jiger was lifted into the sky and then dropped to the ground.

The city of Tokyo (along with the greater Tokyo area) needs a break from kaiju attacks. Why can't they depict other Japanese cities under attack more often? Just to name one, I'd pick Osaka.

LegendZilla wrote: ↑Sat Nov 26, 2022 12:02 am Why can't they depict other Japanese cities under attack more often?

Tokyo’s got somewhere in the ballpark of a third of Japan’s population.

I think the most intriguing contrast between Gamera and Godzilla I stumbled upon -- a few years ago I did a writing experiment of summarizing each Gamera film as a Godzilla film -- was realizing that Gamera has no monster allies ever, at any time, only human allies, whereas the Godzilla franchise, including not only famously the Showa films but the mid-Heisiei era as well, has been partly defined by the fact that Godzilla has often had allies on his side. Gamera's list of monsters is a list of foes, whereas Godzilla's list of monsters includes a lot of characters with complex relationships with him. This kind of difference made me appreciate both series better a little by underlining what made each of them more unique.

Also, while almost every kaiju swap for that project involved some amusing out-of-character points, you can switch Gigan and Guiron pretty well in terms of basic thematic role. (Sharp sadist space monster!)

JVM wrote: ↑Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:00 am I think the most intriguing contrast between Gamera and Godzilla I stumbled upon -- a few years ago I did a writing experiment of summarizing each Gamera film as a Godzilla film -- was realizing that Gamera has no monster allies ever, at any time, only human allies.

I've always found that interesting, too. Another notable contrast is that Godzilla is traditionally as strong or stronger than his adversaries whereas Gamera is usually overwhelmed by them and has to be crafty (or pull out a brand new power*) to win. I think this power disparity is another important part of what makes the series/characters unique.


*To be fair, Godzilla does this a few times too...

HedorahIsBestGirl wrote: ↑Sun Nov 27, 2022 7:41 pm

JVM wrote: ↑Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:00 am I think the most intriguing contrast between Gamera and Godzilla I stumbled upon -- a few years ago I did a writing experiment of summarizing each Gamera film as a Godzilla film -- was realizing that Gamera has no monster allies ever, at any time, only human allies.

I've always found that interesting, too. Another notable contrast is that Godzilla is traditionally as strong or stronger than his adversaries whereas Gamera is usually overwhelmed by them and has to be crafty (or pull out a brand new power*) to win. I think this power disparity is another important part of what makes the series/characters unique.


*To be fair, Godzilla does this a few times too...

Another difference between the two characters is that in films featuring multiple monsters, Godzilla plays the antagonist several times, with his opponent (be it Mothra, King Kong, Kiryu, or the Guardian Monsters) in the role of the hero. That's never been the case with Gamera. The closest is Gamera vs Barugon, and even there Gamera was arguably the lesser of two evils.

Spuro wrote: ↑Sun Nov 27, 2022 7:51 pm

HedorahIsBestGirl wrote: ↑Sun Nov 27, 2022 7:41 pm

JVM wrote: ↑Sat Nov 26, 2022 3:00 am I think the most intriguing contrast between Gamera and Godzilla I stumbled upon -- a few years ago I did a writing experiment of summarizing each Gamera film as a Godzilla film -- was realizing that Gamera has no monster allies ever, at any time, only human allies.

I've always found that interesting, too. Another notable contrast is that Godzilla is traditionally as strong or stronger than his adversaries whereas Gamera is usually overwhelmed by them and has to be crafty (or pull out a brand new power*) to win. I think this power disparity is another important part of what makes the series/characters unique.


*To be fair, Godzilla does this a few times too...

Another difference between the two characters is that in films featuring multiple monsters, Godzilla plays the antagonist several times, with his opponent (be it Mothra, King Kong, Kiryu, or the Guardian Monsters) in the role of the hero. That's never been the case with Gamera. The closest is Gamera vs Barugon, and even there Gamera was arguably the lesser of two evils.

Let’s not forget that Gamera unlike Godzilla often requires human assistance to win. The boys in their respective films helped Gamera overcome Viras’s mind control, provided Gamera with the missile that was used to blow off Guiron’s head, and eliminated the parasitic embryo that Jiger had deposited to paralyze Gamera.

Y'all are missing something critical - Godzilla has displayed *zero* gymnastics chops.

Major sssspielberg! wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 1:46 pm Y'all are missing something critical - Godzilla has displayed *zero* gymnastics chops.

What do you call that dropkick balancing on his tail.

miguelnuva wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 3:45 pm

Major sssspielberg! wrote: ↑Mon Nov 28, 2022 1:46 pm Y'all are missing something critical - Godzilla has displayed *zero* gymnastics chops.

What do you call that dropkick balancing on his tail.

.....chutzpah.

Don't know the opinions of majority here, but these are mine that folk from other sites yell at me for

• The Heisei Godzilla movies are either just ok or really bad (with the exception of GvB)
  The millenium series is the best one
  1998 wasn't that bad. Still mediocre, but not absolutely terrible.
  K:SI id the best MV film

GoldenGoat2000 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 29, 2022 7:26 am K:SI id the best MV film

Completely agree with that one

GoldenGoat2000 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 29, 2022 7:26 am Don't know the opinions of majority here, but these are mine that folk from other sites yell at me for

• The Heisei Godzilla movies are either just ok or really bad (with the exception of GvB)

You'll fit right in here if you believe that. We do a lot of Heisei trashing on TK.

The Millennium Series being the best, though... you don't want to go saying that in an isolated thread at night around here. You'll get your car smashed up, maybe worse. This is Showa fan country. We like our Honda and Fukuda, and we aren't ashamed to call Godzilla's Revenge a good movie.

Seriously, though, you don't see too many people put Millennium at the top of the list. It's kind of overlooked and underappreciated, sometimes.

Huh? Whats that? Someone doesn't like the Heisei series? Time for me to butt in and say how unintelligent they are.





Eh, I dont feel like it.

The Milliemmium series really just has GMK going for it. Otherwise it's full of films that are decent (GxMG, SOS, G2K), mediocre (GxM) or aggressively mediocre (GFW).

Millennium has nothing on Showa but I do favor it over Heisei if only because it brought more variety to the table. GMK is better than anything Heisei, I think most of us can agree that's the strong point of the series. G2K, GxM and GxMG are all flawed but I still enjoy them a lot and give them big points for trying something new; more than can be said for half the Heisei films. GFW is what I call a "messterpiece" - it's pretty terrible objectively but it's a long, loud, colorful romp that's easy to enjoy if you turn your brain off. SOS is the only Millennium film that I don't really have any use for but I still don't hate it.

I'd much rather hear someone argue why Millennium is their favorite than groan my way through another "Heisei best because cOnTiNuItY" rant.

I do love me some showa. It has some of my favorite films.