User blog:Johnosfirewalker/The Gamera Franchise; An Overview

Gamera. Originally an attempt to compete with the ever legendary Godzilla, he has since grown to be a cult legend in his own right. Today, ill be looking at each series in the franchise as a whole, and give my opinions on the subject. Let us begin

The Showa Series
Where it all began. The first film was a great monster movie, and one of the first examples(to my knowledge)of American actors being in a Japanese film. After that, the series became, well, just that, a series. Numerous films were made, one a one-a-year schedule for 6 years afterward. I would like to call attention to a fact about these films, and that is that these films featured a lot of death. This is only shocking because these movies were made for children. That is just one thing that bothered me. Another is the phenomenon i refer to as "The Space Cougars", alien women that(for some odd reason)prey on young boys. This is featured in three films in the series, and it creeps me out. What the heck?! Who would think of that? Also, in my opinion, all of the films after the third one are extremely silly and i don't like them very much. especially Gamera: Super Monster. It is to the Gamera franchise what Godzilla's Revenge is to the Godzilla franchise, except in my opinion its worse. It is made mostly with stock footage, and the plot is just plain weird. So, that's the Showa series. Memorable, but for the most part, not too fantastic.

The Heisei Trilogy
These films are great. Just fan-frigging-tastic. I'd like to stat here with a request for confirmation on an interesting find: on the DVD copy i have, the Toho logo appears at the beginning of all three movies. Did Toho really work on these films? Please tell me in the comments section below. Now that we have that out of the way, the movies are great. The special effects are totally amazing, rivaling Hollywood standards. The plots are deep and interesting, with recurring characters throughout the trilogy. These films were pretty dark, but the amount of death is still rivaled by the Showa series. They have many memorable moments, with both the characters and the monsters. These films should not be missed.

The Millennium Film
This one is the best of both worlds in a way. On one hand you have the child friendly atmosphere of the Showa. On the other you have the great special effects of the Heisei series. Overall, a good movie for the whole family to enjoy. Just one thing: they didn't use any of the familiar sound effects from the past, and that was pretty disappointing.

Afterword
In conclusion, the Gamera franchise is pretty good. A must see for kaiju fans everywhere. Now i'd like to discuss my plans for my blog: Johnos's Daily Rant. I'm planning on posting a new article on my blog every day i'm on wikizilla from now on. If you have any suggestions for what i should rant about next or have any questions, leave a comment and ill respond as soon as i can. Thanks for reading, and have a good day.