Japanese Monster Fans Come Out of Their Shells for Gamera

As Japanese monsters go, Godzilla stands tall as both the first and the one that best defines this rubber-costumed creature genre.

But there is a certain percentage of the fan base just as devoted to Gamera, the fire-breathing flying turtle who, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, starred in a series of films in which, like Godzilla, he fought a group of strange monsters with names like Gyaos, Viras, Guiron, Jiger and, last but not least, Zigra.

"To me, Gamera was always a more substantial character than Godzilla," said Mark McLaughlin, a staunch supporter of the flying turtle. "He was more social and had a purpose in life as the protector of all children, unlike Godzilla, who is not a good role model. Plus, Gamera had a great theme song!"

McLaughlin, who covers B movies for Horror Garage, believes that, by all rights, Gamera should be more popular than Godzilla, whom he considers a "typical Hollywood pretty boy."

Admittedly, Godzilla had an 11-year head start over Gamera, who debuted in 1965 as a competitor to Godzilla's crown. In addition, by the time Gamera was introduced, the genre of "kaiju," a Japanese word meaning "strange beast," had come to be considered strictly for kids.

That, plus the fact that Gamera's films were made by a different company than the one that made Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan, has meant that his films have been woefully underrepresented in the U.S. market until recently.

Shout Factory, an entertainment company based on retro pop culture, is helping bring Gamera fans out of their shell by issuing eight of the titanic terrapin's films on DVD in both the Japanese-language versions and the English dubs.

So far, six films have been released on four DVDs, and the final two films, "Gamera vs. Zigra" and "Gamera the Super Monster," will be released on a double feature DVD on March 15.

That excites Japanese monster fans such as Tom Franck, a stand-up comic who riffs on sci-fi at his website, Comics and Comics.

" 'Gamera vs. Zigra' actually has been referenced on 'The Simpsons,' " Franck said. "In the 'Poochie' episode where Homer becomes the voice of a new 'Itchy and Scratchy' character, he goes to a convention filled with fan boys asking questions like, 'When Itchy plays Scratchy's ribs like a xylophone, how come when he hits one of the ribs twice, you hear a different tone the second time?'

"In 'Gamera vs. Zigra,' at the end of the movie, Gamera takes two rocks and plays the 'Gamera' theme on Zigra's spikes and, just like on 'The Simpsons,' one of the spikes makes two different tones."

Franck says Gamera has gotten a bad break over the years in part because shows like "Mystery Science Theater 3000" made fun of the character.

"Fans of Japanese monster movies were outraged when that happened," he said. "Gamera was always more youth-oriented and, I think, as a result, Godzilla became more youth-oriented as well.

"However, the reboots of his character in the 1990s are considered some of the best Japanese monster movies ever made -- you see some real emotions there."

But McLaughlin is not a fan of that era of Gamera.

"In the modern incarnations, he's not a friend of the children as much," he said.

If the old-school Gamera seems happier than Godzilla, there may be a good reason for that. The original 1954 Godzilla movie, called "Gojira" in Japan, was clearly an allegory about the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki less than 10 years earlier.


Make your life more weird! Follow AOL Weird News on Facebook and Twitter.