Month: March 2020

Known as Gamera tai Daimajū Jaigā in Japan, or Gamera vs. Giant Devil Beast Jiger, this is the sixth Gamera film. In the U.S., it was released straight to television under the name Gamera vs. Monster X. The American version contains stock footage from Gamera vs. Guiron and Gamera vs. Barugon to extend the movie’s release time. […]

Gamera tai Daiakujū Giron was released in the U.S. — on TV only — as Attack of the Monsters. At this stage in the Gamera series, the special effects are starting to not feel so special and there’s even more padding than in past films. But you know, Guiron looks so awesome — he has a […]

This film was released in the U.S. as Destroy All Planets, which may have been a ploy to make people think it was Destroy All Monsters, perhaps the greatest of all Toho monster battles. This time, Gamera is defending our planet from aliens. He starts off by destroying one of their ships, but not before an entire […]

This movie was released in the U.S. by American International Television, who renamed it Return of the Giant Monsters. It all starts when a series of volcanos go off, attracting Gamera, who enters one of them. This reveals a new monster, Gyaos, named for the sounds he makes. It looks like a giant bat and […]

Known as War of the Monsters in the U.S. thanks to its English-language dubbing by American International Television, the second Gamera film has twice the budget of the first and realizes what they should have known all along: Gamera isn’t the villain. He’s the good guy and ready to defend children against more dangerous kaiju. Those […]

I’ll come clean. As a kid, I liked Gamera more than Godzilla. Sure, Daiei Film Studios was just following the success of Toho’s kaiju superstar, but I always felt a kinship to a monster who could just withdraw into his shell. Gamera was, after all, a friend to all children. And man, I wanted to […]