Gyaos

Gyaos ギャオス (Gyaosu) is a bat-like created by Daiei that first appeared in the 1967 Gamera film, Gamera vs. Gyaos.

Appearance
Gyaos resembles a giant pterosaur or bat creature, with a flattened, arrow shaped head, leathery wings with three claws on each, taloned feet and a flat tail. It is reddish brown in both incarnations. The Gyaos in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe had a more streamlined appearance, with larger wings and a longer neck, as well as red eyes after its evolution in Tokyo.

Origins
In the Showa series, Gyaos has no definitively explained origin, and is discovered living in a large cave. In Gamera vs. Guiron, it is revealed that there are multiple silver space-faring Gyaos, suggesting that Gyaos may be an extraterrestrial species, or that there are multiple species of Gyaos specific to other planets.

In the Heisei trilogy, Gyaos are the result of genetic engineering by the ancient Atlanteans in order to create a genetically perfect organism, possibly as a weapon. However, the asexually-reproducing Gyaos began breeding out of control and turned on their creators. The Atlanteans created Gamera as a last-ditch effort to stop the Gyaos, but their civilization was ultimately destroyed by the Gyaos. While Gamera successfully destroyed most of the Gyaos, several clutches of their eggs survived into the present day and were able to hatch due to human activities causing a decrease in the Earth's levels of Mana.

Gamera vs. Gyaos
In Gamera vs. Gyaos, Gyaos appeared in Japan from a large cavern, and feasted on blood, principally that of livestock and humans. Soon, Gamera confronted Gyaos, and after a battle, Gyaos was forced to flee, and Gamera was forced into the ocean to recover. It is soon learned that light causes Gyaos' skin to shrink, so the light of the city stadium of Nagoya kept Gyaos at bay. Gamera soon returned to finish Gyaos off and, after a battle in the air, Gyaos cut off his own foot to escape from the sun.

The protagonists developed a plan to place artificial blood on a rooftop in Nagoya. The plan was to keep Gyaos drinking the blood for so long that the sun would come up and kill him. But Gyaos proved more cunning than originally thought and used a strange fog attack to protect himself from the sun. The next plan was to lure Gamera to Gyaos' lair in the forest by setting the forest alight. Gyaos used his fog attack to put out the flames, but Gamera arrived and eventually defeated Gyaos by throwing the beast into a volcano.

Gamera vs. Guiron
A silver Space Gyaos 宇宙ギャオス (Uchū Gyaosu) appeared briefly in Gamera vs. Guiron, as a victim of Guiron. A swarm of Space Gyaos had attacked the planet Terra, an undiscovered planet in our solar system, being kept at bay only by the Terrans' guardian monster, Guiron. A Space Gyaos arrived near Guiron and tries to attack, but Guiron cuts off his wings and then cuts off his head and body. After Gamera had killed Guiron, the planet was seemingly abandoned to the Gyaos.

Gamera: Super Monster
Stock footage of Gyaos was later featured in the Showa series recap Gamera: Super Monster along with the other Showa era Gamera.

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
Three Gyaos appeared on an island archipelago on the coast of Japan, where they wiped out entire villages, eating every human being they could find. Ornithologist Mayumi Nagamine and police inspector Osako were sent to the islands to investigate, where they saw the three creatures up close. Together with the J.S.D.F., Nagamine and Osako formulated a plan to lure the Gyaos to the Fukuoka Dome in Fukuoka, using hunks of raw meat laced with tranquilizers. By nightfall, the three Gyaos arrived at the stadium and descended. The stadium lights were activated in order to trap the Gyaos, which had an aversion to light. Two of the Gyaos were sedated and captured, but one escaped. The Gyaos tried to fly over the ocean, but was suddenly swatted into a nearby refinery and destroyed by Gamera, who proceeded towards the Fukuoka Dome. The two Gyaos awakened and used their sonic beams to cut free of the cages restraining them. The Gyaos flew out of the stadium, avoiding Gamera, and retreated.

The two Gyaos later attacked a village in the Japanese countryside, but were intercepted by Gamera. Gamera destroyed one of the Gyaos with a fireball, but the other escaped. When Gamera was attacked by the J.S.D.F. near Mount Fuji, the surviving Gyaos attacked him with its sonic beam. Gamera was seriously wounded by the J.S.D.F. and Gyaos' attacks and was forced to rest underneath the ocean. Gyaos began feeding on wildlife, livestock, and humans and eventually grew into the 85-meter tall Super Gyaos スーパーギャオス (Sūpā Gyaosu). Super Gyaos flew to Tokyo, where it fed on the helpless populace. Super Gyaos later built a nest on the Tokyo Tower and laid eggs. Gamera traveled underground and surfaced in the center of Tokyo to challenge Super Gyaos. Gamera blasted the nest with a fireball, destroying all of the eggs. Super Gyaos and Gamera fought throughout Tokyo, causing major damage to the city. Eventually, the two took their battle to the sky, engaging in a supersonic dogfight that reached the top of the atmosphere. Gamera and Super Gyaos plummeted down to Earth, and Gamera crashed into a factory which exploded. Super Gyaos stared at the fireball, believing itself victorious, when suddenly the fire was absorbed by Gamera, who stood unharmed. Gamera fired a massive fireball at Super Gyaos, which blasted its head clean off. Super Gyaos' headless corpse then fell backwards and exploded.

Stock footage of Super Gyaos and its battle with Gamera was later shown in Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, where it is revealed to be the cause of the death of Ayana Hirasaka's parents.

Gamera 2: Attack of Legion
The Gyaos do not appear in Gamera 2 physically, but they are mentioned and are the subject of a book in the film.

Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris
After Gamera's Ultimate Mana Blast attack used to destroy Legion depleted the Earth's Mana, thousands of Gyaos began appearing all over the world in new evolved forms known as Hyper Gyaos ギャオス・ハイパー (Gyaosu ・ Haipā). The corpse of one Gyaos was found in a village in the Philippines, where it had eaten a young woman's son and grandson. Gamera was reportedly seen in several locations across the planet battling the Hyper Gyaos, causing terrible destruction in the process. One night, two Hyper Gyaos appeared in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, where they battled Gamera. Gamera killed both Gyaos, but at the cost of thousands of human lives, ending humanity's trust in Gamera and causing them to designate him as an enemy. Meanwhile, a powerful creature related to the Gyaos, Iris, was awakened from a shrine in Nara Prefecture and raised by the vengeful orphan Ayana Hirasaka to kill Gamera, who she blamed for the deaths of her parents in 1995. Iris and Gamera battled in Kyoto, with Iris being killed and Gamera brutally maimed. After the battle, a swarm of thousands of Hyper Gyaos approached Kyoto, intent on finishing Gamera once and for all. However, humanity's faith in Gamera had been restored and they were ready to fight side-by-side with him against the Gyaos.

Gamera: The Brave
The Gyaos also appeared in Gamera: The Brave, called Original Gyaos オリジナルギャオス (Orijinaru Gyaosu), where a flock attacked a small village, only to be stopped by Gamera, who sacrificed himself to destroy the flock. Supplementary materials for the film reveal that Zedus was later mutated from eating the corpses of Gyaos.

Gamera
Gyaos appears in the New York Comic-Con footage for the upcoming Gamera film. Swarms of Gyaos are shown attacking Tokyo ten years in the past, and one of them eats the main character's father. The main character is saved when Gamera smashes through a building and kills the Gyaos. Gamera then destroys the incoming swarm of Gyaos with a fire breath.

Filmography

 * Gamera vs. Gyaos
 * Gamera vs. Guiron
 * Gamera: Super Monster (Stock Footage)
 * Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
 * Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris
 * Gamera: The Brave
 * Gamera (2015)

Video Game Appearances

 * Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
 * Gamera: Gyaos Destruction Strategy
 * Gamera: 2000
 * CR Gamera
 * Gamera: Battle

Gamera 2006: Hard Link
In the spin-off manga to Gamera: The Brave, Gamera's battle against the Gyaos in 1973 is gone more into detail within the "Special Link" chapter.

Gamera is being attacked by four Gyaos' sonic beams. Gamera kills a first Gyaos with a point-blank fire blast and then stomps on its head. The remaining three Gyaos keep firing at Gamera, but Gamera gets in his shell and charges up a fire blast which he fires at one of the Gyaos. Another Gyaos comes in and bites Gamera's arm, and Gamera throws it to the ground and fires at it, killing it. The two remaining Gyaos hover about, and Gamera fires another fire blast at one of them. From the smoke the Gyaos flies toward Gamera and unleashes a flurry of beams. Gamera punches it to the ground. However, the Gyaos continues its onslaught of beams just as the other Gyaos turns out to have survived and flies over to Gamera. Gamera begins spurting blood, and the two Gyaos feast on Gamera's entrails. Gamera, acknowledging he's been defeated, triggers his Fireball Ejection Suicide, killing both him and both Gyaos.

Abilities
In both incarnations the Gyaos have been shown to be astonishingly capable flyers, able to fly incredibly fast and perform agile aerial maneuvers with ease. Also, both Showa and Heisei versions have been able to spit an amazingly precise beam from its mouth, which is actually created by the Gyaos' supersonic scream, apparently able to resonate at 3 million hertz and slice objects into halves. Although they are nocturnal, the Gyaos can overcome the sun by emitting a fog-like gas to obscure the sun and douse flames, while the Heisei version simply hyper-evolved itself to gain protective lenses over its eyes.

Interestingly, the Space Gyaos in Gamera vs. Guiron seems to have no such aversion to sunlight: logical, given that it would be impossible for a space creature to avoid sun and star light. The Showa version also has a regenerative ability, as it was able to regrow its severed foot after only an hour. The Heisei version showed several evolutions: it was asexual and could reproduce on its own. While not shown to be regenerative, the Super Gyaos is immensely physically tough, able to easily shrug off missile attacks, and even survive orbital re-entry.

The source of Gyao's Sonic Beam is through the use of a specially, forked-shaped throat. However, the downside was that it left Gyaos unable to turn it's head sideways. It was able to move it's upwards and downwards. Albeit, this trait was only seen the Showa series.The Heisei versions were able to move their heads as normal.

Trivia

 * The production team of the Heisei Gamera trilogy decided on Gyaos as an opponent, as they believed that Gyaos was Gamera's most famous foe, having appeared in at least three of the Showa Gamera films. Originally, this role was set for Barugon (at least for one of the films) as shown within the manga adaption.
 * Gyaos is the only enemy monster in the Gamera Series to appear in more than one film not counting stock footage.
 * Counting stock footage and photographs, Gyaos have appeared in every Gamera film since Gamera: Super Monster, and have also appeared in the NYCC trailer for the upcoming Gamera film.
 * Gyaos' roar was later altered for the The Return of Ultraman, Earthtron.

Poll
Do you like Gyaos? Yes! No. Kind of.