The anime adaptations of classic kaiju seem to be made for no one. It costs millions of dollars to bring Legendary’s Godzilla to life, but a 3D-animated series can be built on a budget and dropped onto Netflix. The King has enjoyed several Netflix animated projects, as have the kaiju ofPacific Rim.Gamerais a lesser-known giant monster, but even he isn’t safe from the new wave of half-hearted, straight-to-streaming outings.
Gamera Rebirthcomes to Netflix from Studio ENGI. ENGI provides in-house animation for various projects of its owners, Kadokawa and Sammy Pictures. Their best-known project is probablyUzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!The studio is set to produce a full-length anime adaptation ofKantai Collection.Gamera Rebirthproves their 2D animation is substantially better than their 3D work.
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For those who don’t know Gamera, Guardian of the Earth and friend to all children, this is not an ideal introduction. Like most kaiju who came out after 1954, Gamera was designed to capitalize on the success of Godzilla. Godzilla was and is owned by Toho. Daiei Film fought back with Gamera. Gamera is a giant turtle who breathes fire and fights other kaiju. He’s a heroic character, devoted to defending the Earth from various enemies. In his first outing, he saved a child during a rampage. That act of kindness later developed into the turtle’s primary character trait. Unlike Godzilla, Gamera is explicitly magical. He gathers mana from the Earth to defeat his foes. He can fly by sticking his extremities into his shell, ejecting energy from each hole, and spinning like a Beyblade. He’s a wonderfully bizarre character from a delightfully weird franchise. Anyone who wants to experience this turtle as he was meant to be seen is advised topick entries at randomor check out the 90s Heisei era.
Gamera Rebirthis set to be the beginning of a new Reiwaera of the franchise. It re-establishes the titular turtle and his enemies. The heroes are four teens who accidentally stumble into a fight between giant monsters. As a winged beast prepares to kill them, mighty Gamera saves their lives. A pair of government agents pull the kids aside to determine what happened. The kids argue Gamera is a force for good, but the armed forces see him as another monster to be feared and attacked. As the kids get closer to the center of the kaiju issue, they uncover an absurd plot that borders on sketch comedy. Without wishing to spoil,humans are the real monsters, and not in an intelligent way. The monsters tearing each other apart won’t stick in the audience’s mind as long as the twists in this show.
The animation ofGamera Rebirthis deeply unnerving. It looks a bit like the stop-motion used inshows likeRobot Chickenbut without the implicitly impressive work of puppeteering action figures. Everything is constantly jittering, like the TV is being gently shaken at all times. The human characters look wrong, and the show spends far more time than necessary with them. The action barely works, with a few exciting exchanges and enough unique monster designs to stay entertaining. However, the show hardly gets credit for that because it’s just adapting monsters from 50 years ago. This is the firstGameraproject in 17 years. It’s nice to have him back, even if he occasionally exhibits different powers. It’s just hard not to want something more substantial for the Guardian of the Earth.
Gamera Rebirthis a flawed concept. The most upsetting element is the tone. Despite all the terrible jokesand massive monster exchanges,Gamera Rebirthis a deeply sad series. Some spoilers will be necessary. Skip to the final paragraph to avoid them. A kid dies near the end of the season. That will be a dealbreaker on its own for some audiences, but it’s handled as the most important moment of the series. The entire final episode is spent listening to a child explain that he’s finally grasped the concept of mortality through the in-depth lesson of his best friend dying. This is not the tone of aGamerastory. It’s certainly not the right tone for a series in which the rich try to use kaiju to wipe out most of the population so that only the chosen few survive. Imagine if Millie Bobbie Brown had been obliteratedinGodzilla vs. Kong,and the last 15 minutes of the film had been dedicated to crying about it. Extend that to 90 minutes, and that’sGamera Rebirth’s grand finale. Except then, there’s a teaser for a follow-up season and a completely absurd post-credits gag. It’s a terrible conclusion.
Gamera Rebirthstarts rough, gets weird, and ends almost impressively poorly. Every element that works flies in from an earlierGamerafilm. The potential upside of this series is that it could lead to a new outing for the character, but it lacks ambition and will almost certainly end up spoiling that opportunity. Daiei should have takeninspiration fromShin Godzillainstead ofSingular Point. Next time, put a professional in a suit to bring Gamera to life.
