First Exposure to Gamera?

For the discussion of any Gamera related movies, comics, video games, etc.
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Chrispy_G
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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

Post by Chrispy_G »

I owned a few Godzilla films on VHS, and rented ones I didn't own as my "Default" choice from Blockbuster. In that VHS section, I often saw the famous Gamera: Guardian of the Universe box...but since it wasn't Godzilla, I never watched it.

One time, my dad and brother called me into the living room when they were channel surfing and said "Hey there is a monster movie on do you want to watch it?" and it was black and white footage of a giant turtle. They pulled up the TV guide and told me it was "Gamera" and again, I was like "eh, that's not Godzilla" and they told me it was LIKE Godzilla, but I passed.

Occasionally when searching up Godzilla movies and monsters on the internet, Gamera vs Barugon would pop up and I would get confused...that split second of thinking "Godzilla vs Baragon?" before realizing it was Gamera vs another monster called BarUgon. I remember the image/poster used always looked corny.

I kept hearing about Gamera in the circles of discovering and talking about Godzilla on internet message boards. But never bothered. There were more than enough Godzilla movies for my attention, I didn't need to bother with any other monsters.

In the early days of IMDB, in a Godzilla forum someone shared a link to a website called something like "Baragon Underground"...and a section had Godzilla and Kaiju music videos. I obviously watched music videos that were set to my favorite Godzilla movies. Megaguirus set to "Super Beast" by Rob Zombie, Godzilla vs Mothra 1992 set to "Bring me to Life" by Evanescence. "In the End" by Linkin Park laid over footage of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. "Till I collapse" by Eminem laid over GMK. "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down set to Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla.

The editing was always so impressive to me I watched them all many times, which is why I still vividly remember them.

I clicked on "Gamera 2: Attack of Legion" that was set to "Tomorrow" by SR-71....young me LOVED the song and I REALLY dug the awesome monster visuals I was seeing. Seeing the moments where Gamera was stabbed and green blood just blasted from the wound seemed so much more hardcore than what you got in most Godzilla movies.

Then there was "Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris" set to "Chop Suey" by System of a Down. A song I already loved, great editing, and visuals that just seemed insane for a monster movie.

I also watched a "Classic Gamera" music video set to "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas. Relentlessly entertaining but I couldn't help but just be shocked at how "old and cheap" Gamera looked...and I was a kid who loved Showa Godzilla films. This seemed like an entire rung down on the ladder.

So I did a bit of digging and research before deciding to just rent a random Gamera movie. Found out quickly that just like Godzilla there were separate series within the Gamera franchise, and that the "Trilogy" is what everyone was buzzing about as the great ones.

The next day I rented Guardian of the Universe from Blockbuster, then the next chance I got asked for the ADV Trilogy DVD set as a gift. I was a HUGE fan of DVD bonus materials. Star Wars and Lord of the Rings on DVD had gotten me hooked on behind the scenes material and audio commentaries. I always was a little let down that none of the Godzilla DVDs(except for Godzilla 2000) seemed to have any kind of bonus features. I thought it was just a Japanese thing.

So I was blown away by what seemed like a boat load of bonus material on the Gamera Trilogy DVDs, and was immediately a bit jealous that Godzilla movies didn't have cool features like "Funny Dubs", bloopers, and mock audio commentaries. Funny how the more some things in the world change, the more some things stay the same. Gamera is still crushing Godzilla in the "Great bonus materials on home market releases" category.

I faded away from Gamera but when the Box Set was announced I found ways to watch all of the old films and found them to just be incredibly charming and endearing in their nature. Showa Gamera just struck me as the modest, humble, but incredibly charming younger brother to Godzilla. Not really as big or successful...but in some ways more likeable and easier to get along with.
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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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Yooooo. Not to suddenly change topics here but...
Chrispy_G wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:49 am "Till I collapse" by Eminem laid over GMK. "
Not only do I remember that fondly, it was the song/video that really got me into Eminem/rap when I was straight rock and metal back then. Even now, when I listen to that song, I can't help but to "mentally hear" Godzilla's roar alongside the beat at the end where the video synched it up. God, I'd kill to have that video again.


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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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I wish they hadn’t shut down the IMDB forums. I suppose next to no one actually used them, but i enjoyed them.

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

Post by UltramanGoji »

My first true exposure to Gamera was through these two DVD releases which I found with a whole bunch of other Alpha Video releases in a local mall:

ImageImage

From there, it led to the usual suspects: old kaiju websites and reading about Gamera movies in issues of G-FAN and other American books and magazines.

I was always a Godzilla fan from the start, but I never considered Gamera to be any sort of "inferior product". I was simply happy to just have more kaiju stuff to discover.
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Chrispy_G
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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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Mac Daddy MM wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 6:45 am Yooooo. Not to suddenly change topics here but...
Chrispy_G wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:49 am "Till I collapse" by Eminem laid over GMK. "
Not only do I remember that fondly, it was the song/video that really got me into Eminem/rap when I was straight rock and metal back then. Even now, when I listen to that song, I can't help but to "mentally hear" Godzilla's roar alongside the beat at the end where the video synched it up. God, I'd kill to have that video again.
You and me both! Glad someone else saw that one...at least I'm assuming it HAD to be the same one!
UltramanGoji wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:40 am My first true exposure to Gamera was through these two DVD releases which I found with a whole bunch of other Alpha Video releases in a local mall:
I remember seeing those from time to time in my local Wal Mart! I also recall one of those big '20-50 sci-fi classics' type of DVD sets that had Gamera on the cover representing a slew of old B movies.
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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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Chrispy_G wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:49 am In the early days of IMDB, in a Godzilla forum someone shared a link to a website called something like "Baragon Underground"...and a section had Godzilla and Kaiju music videos. I obviously watched music videos that were set to my favorite Godzilla movies. Megaguirus set to "Super Beast" by Rob Zombie, Godzilla vs Mothra 1992 set to "Bring me to Life" by Evanescence. "In the End" by Linkin Park laid over footage of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. "Till I collapse" by Eminem laid over GMK. "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down set to Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla.
Those MVs were my jam back in the day.
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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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G-Matt wrote: Wed Mar 16, 2022 12:22 am
Chrispy_G wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 3:49 am In the early days of IMDB, in a Godzilla forum someone shared a link to a website called something like "Baragon Underground"...and a section had Godzilla and Kaiju music videos. I obviously watched music videos that were set to my favorite Godzilla movies. Megaguirus set to "Super Beast" by Rob Zombie, Godzilla vs Mothra 1992 set to "Bring me to Life" by Evanescence. "In the End" by Linkin Park laid over footage of Godzilla vs King Ghidorah. "Till I collapse" by Eminem laid over GMK. "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down set to Godzilla vs MechaGodzilla.
Those MVs were my jam back in the day.
More of a ‘Monster’ by Skillet set over Destroy All Monsters, Godzilla vs SpaceGodzilla and Final Wars kinda guy, myself.
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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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I got the pack that contained all the Gamera movies from the Showa Era except Super Monster. Also had Gappa. Watched em in order. Great stuff, though The Jiger movie was a bit low quality and Zigra was less impressive than the previous.

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

Post by Showa Gyaos »

Even back in the day, AMC would regularly play monster movies around Halloween. They'd play anything from Hammer horror to kaiju films. First exposure to Gamera came in October of 2000 with his very first film.

I never saw another Gamera film on TV after that. I'd come across a DVD at a Pawn Shop that had Gamera vs. Jiger and Gamera vs. Barugon in a double feature that was less than $1.

Edit: It actually MIGHT have been 1999. Found this gem. Some of it seems familiar, but I really don't know if I saw it that year or the year after.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUKP-M_PPhk
Last edited by Showa Gyaos on Tue Mar 29, 2022 10:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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I've known about Gamera since 1987, but was there anyone here who remembers when "Return of the Giant Monsters" aired on UPN (of all stations) in PRIME TIME in 2002?

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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Legion1979 wrote: Wed Mar 30, 2022 5:43 pm I've known about Gamera since 1987, but was there anyone here who remembers when "Return of the Giant Monsters" aired on UPN (of all stations) in PRIME TIME in 2002?

I do. I “taped” it and watched that a broadcast a few times.

For someone who only saw the FHE cut of Guiron growing up and watched it so much that the tape wore out, Giant Monsters and the airing of Gammera the Invincible were eye opening for me. I watched the trailers for those films so often as a kid on the FHE tape but never actually saw the films. When I finally did I was taken aback by how shoddy, and cheap they were. Not many years later and I ended up loving Giant Monsters in particular because I accepted its flaws and just went along for the ride.

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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Wait, when did Gammera the Invincible air?

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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It had to have been around the same time. It was on a weekend. Same channel around noon or maybe 2pm or something.

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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Late 90s/early 2000s for me. I had a Simitar Godzilla VHS with all these additional trailers at the end. “Gammera: The Invincible” was one of them. I got the Alpha Video release a few years later, followed by the Return of the Giant Monsters/Magic Serpent combo not long after that.

It’s kind of a blur from there, as I was in elementary school and the floodgates didn’t just “open” like they did with Godzilla. My only access was what results I got on Google Images (pre-YouTube), and what DVDs I could find at Boarders. Yongary was a big deal.

The toys were, similarly, close to non-existent. I had a 1996 Gamera figure that I had to assemble, but I wanted a Showa version. The vintage Bandais were pretty expensive compared to today but I was able to compromise and afford a “warped” one for $10… and that’s how I got my only standard figure for a long time, Gyaos 1967. I played with it a lot.
Legion1979 wrote: Wed Mar 30, 2022 5:43 pm I've known about Gamera since 1987, but was there anyone here who remembers when "Return of the Giant Monsters" aired on UPN (of all stations) in PRIME TIME in 2002?
This might have answered an age-old question I had regarding a film I caught around the same period. To this day I often wondered if it was Gamera or Yongary; the monster definitely had those trademark Daiei “light up eyes”.

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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Oddly enough, mine was seeing a few movies listed in a mail in movie catalogue.
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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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Celebrity Home Entertainment released the films on VHS!

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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I first saw the original U.S. versions of the first six Showa Gamera films in the back-to-back horror movie shows Mad Theater/Horror Theater hosted by Dr. Shock. They were on Saturday afternoon (I think) on WPHL Channel 17 in Philadelphia, PA. These two shows are where I saw most, if not all, of my daikaiju films when I was a kid.
Last edited by mikelcho on Wed Dec 28, 2022 5:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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YouTube videos and Toho kingdom monster bios. Then I saw the movies from Showa to brave in order. Saw Showa much younger though then Heisei when I had a debit card.

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

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For me it was all the way back in 1998 when I was in the Stop & Shop in Seekonk, Massachusetts. There, I skimmed through one of the magazines for 'Godzilla' 98' (which I'm sure also covered much of the Godzilla franchise in general), the inside of the back cover of which featured an ad for 'Gamera: Guardian of the Universe'.

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Re: First Exposure to Gamera?

Post by HedorahIsBestGirl »

I started it off right with Gamera: Guardian of the Universe. My Dad used to visit the local Suncoast (remember that place?) to pick up whatever Godzilla movies he could find. That's how I first watched most of the Heisei movies and Godzilla 2000. One night when I was 5 or 6, he came back with GOTU as well and told me, "It's like Godzilla but a turtle." He had watched a few of the Showa Gamera movies and was never a big fan but thought this one looked cool. I loved it; for a time it was probably my favorite movie. I discovered most of the Showa Gamera movies were available at my local video rental store and watched them in the months that followed. I didn't get to see Legion or Iris until I was 9 or 10 and I picked up some bootleg DVDs at G-Fest. I also saw the G-Fest screening of Gamera the Brave with my Dad and my best friend.
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