Gamera Vs. Viras

"After the first film was released, we got a lot of information about the reaction of children to that film. The first and the second ones had children playing on the floor, or buying popcorn out in the lobby during the adult scenes, so from the fourth film we made them like a children's storybook."

-Director Noriaki Yuasa [Stuart Galbraith IV, Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo! p.74]-

Gamera Vs. Viras (1968), or Destroy All Planets, was originally intended to be the final Gamera film. Unexpectedly, thanks in part to that great creature design, aliens and the support of children to boot, it resonated, especially with kids across Japan, and became a huge hit calling for more Gamera pictures.

Long before the heroes on a half shell (the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) were a hit with kids the world over, there was the real turtle OG on the half shell and its name was Gamera.

Boy oh boy oh boy with Gamera Vs. Viras. Indeed. There were a lot of boys for this one. It was thanks to the Boy Scouts to be exact, back when the boy scouts were a just for boys organization. They are front and center in Noriaka Yuasa's latest kaiju exploration for the Gamera character.

Gamera Vs. Viras is framed around two monsters (no real surprise there), two boy scouts (one American and one Japanese), and a group of strange space aliens with glowing eyes. Viras would be the latest villain to challenge the terrapin in his menagerie of monster nemeses. The concept borrows something from the Invasion Of Astro-Monster (1965) or Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964) while further delving into the connection Gamera appears to be establishing with children. Director Noriaka Yuasa and company (Daiei) knew they were onto something and wisely capitalized upon it.

Yuasa unabashedly brings that industrious kid power to the fore of his third picture in the franchise (of the four Gamera pictures to date). Yuasa may have missed the boat on an early surge of girl power though he displays cursory attention to a couple of attractive Japanese older sisters for the Boy Scouts.

Unfortunately, on the whole, Gamera Vs. Viras did not present as well as I had recalled from my youth and I had very distinct memories of those Boy Scouts and the creature dubbed Viras. But alas even my rose-tinged Nostalgia glasses couldn't quite rescue the film from its storytelling shortcomings. It feels like an altogether hackneyed and all too brief story that is sorely lacking in story depth. This Showa era release feels inconsequential and to endure long term needed to be more significant. Of course, in the moment, it reached its target audience.

It's not a complete wreck of a short movie, but the Gamera outing is indeed hamstrung by budget restrictions. The film even defaults to a large segment of re-utilized footage from both Gamera Vs. Barugon (1966) and Gamera Vs. Gyaos (1967). Having seen both fairly recently combined with a busy schedule I was forced to simply fast forward through the re-used footage. All of this and the film was just 72 minutes to begin with.

Sadly the new footage is only fair to good. There isn't nearly as much monster blood as seen in the previous films and the battle is fairly ephemeral between Viras and Gamera. Though the effects work isn't the biggest problem here. Again, it's the writing. This is interesting and may not bode well since scriptwriter Niisan Takahashi penned every single screenplay for the Gamera pictures. Time will tell if this is a misstep or a sign of things to come as this is arguably the weakest of the four films to date.

The story is simple and logically tailored toward children with only a few stunning moments. In one scene Viras beheads all of the aliens to absorb their bodies and become a giant monster Viras bursting forth from the space ship. Spurting blood from their necks might have been a tad too much to expect for the kiddies given our two protagonists are two young scouts roughly 12-13 years old. Additionally, the spearing to the gut of Gamera by Viras is shocking and the great turtle somehow manages to survive it.

Gamera Vs. Viras is highly recommended as a film to show to young kids currently engaged with scouting. It could be a lot of fun for parents. I wish I had realized this when my son was a scout. That was a missed opportunity. As a kaiju film it's fairly underwhelming and not nearly as wonderful as I remembered it to be. Still, there are some interesting effects shots of Gamera and Viras if a touch low budget. Nevertheless, they are creative and are far more interesting than the bulk of today's cold, soulless, unimaginative CGI garbage that has inundated the popcorn film landscape.

Let's hope Noriaka, can bring our turtle hero, Gamera, the Friend Of All Children and Guardian Of The Universe, back for a more interesting picture with Gamera Vs. Gurion not to mention a proper battle royale. I'll be sure to bring those rose-colored glasses just in case.

Writer: Niisan Takahashi. Director: Noriaki Yuasa.

Gamera Vs Gyaos

Director Noriaki Yuasa retook the reins of the Gamera franchise for Return Of The Giant Monsters, more commonly referred to as Gamera Vs. Gyaos (1967).





Following the high production values on kaiju underrated underdog and critically derided Gamera Vs. Barugon (War Of The Monsters), the second Gamera picture and the only one not directed by Yuasa, Yuasa returned with his wide-eyed enthusiasm and youthful love of all things Gamera as if looking at the creature through the lens of a child. The director was exceptional in his approach and his natural connection to the turtle monster ensured it did not take a backseat to Gyaos in terms of film time as he did in Gamera Vs. Barugon.



The concept of a beloved Gamera by children was introduced in Gamera's debut black and white film, Gamera, The Giant Monster (1965), then dropped for Gamera Vs. Barugon (1966). With Gamera Vs. Gyaos Yuasa was no holds barred in brining back the wide-eyed child love for Gamera that was sidelined for a film.

Production values are solid and largely the kind of kaiju fun one should embrace who has any heart and wonder at all.

Is it important that the Japanese technicians are trying to build a road in this latest tale before being introduced to the evil ray-slicing Gyaos? Gosh, Hell no!



The adventure begins when a child is imperiled by Gyaos a strange flat-headed winged creature. A hiker is eaten alive. A plane load of passengers is sliced in half and fall to their deaths. Some grisly stuff for 1967. Gamera comes to the rescue of the child, Eiichi, and saves the adorable, chunky, little Japanese boy, but not before taking some knife-slicing hits on his right arm several times nearly losing it.

Gushing good old-fashioned green kaiju blood Gamera escapes with the boy on his shell for a trusty kaiju version of a magic carpet ride. These child-friendly concepts taken further later in the year for Johnny Sokko And His Flying Robot (1967-1968; 26 episodes).



Gamera beats back Gyaos with his flame-projecting breath and even at one point retracts his legs and arms and rolls downhill straight at Gyaos. The feature is filled with fun, creative kaiju action.

What Gamera Vs. Gyaos does offer is a turtle with significant intelligence. The creature clearly demonstrates an equally mutual affection for the kids as he refrains from spinning through the air, lands and leans into a ferris wheel to dump off the young child into loving arms. That's one smart terrapin people!



Not only was this turtle a hell of a lot of fun to watch but Yuasa's franchise run influenced very early on many of those kid-friendly Godzilla pictures. The Godzilla franchise began infusing its own features with the child wonderment of the great lizard and even began incorporating some kaiju gushing violence to compete with those unique Gamera ideas.

Gamera's unabashed kaiju-gushing violence became a real trademark beginning with Gamera Vs. Barugon.



In the rogue's gallery of Gamera's villains Gyaos ranks among his most well known somehow surpassing the equally interesting Barugon and arguably surpassing, and surprisingly so, the fantastic Viras or Guiron from the menagerie. The strange looking bird creature seemingly part reptile comes off like a lower budgeted Rodan, but those big anime-like eyes give Gyaos a cartoonish, but intriguing allure. Gyaos would be reimagined and revisited for the Heisei period of Gamera and Gamera: Guardian Of The Universe (1995) relaunching the monster in a new film trilogy. The villain would return not as one, not two, but three separate Gyaos with one eventually evolving into a Super Gyaos.



The creature in this classic film is complemented by a terrific series of sound effects and the film itself is accented and enhanced by another outstanding Showa era soundtrack.

When the film culminates in its final act, the boy is naturally connected to Gamera who is at the bottom of the ocean healing his wounded arm. The boy intuitively knows this. Bypassing any scientific mumbo jumbo it is the boy who seems to understand the creature better than the scientists. He even names the creature Gyaos. The youngster determines the creature is nocturnal long before the eggheads. Who needs the W.H.O. (formed in 1948)? This kid is more in touch than the damn scientists and adults. These are quite possibly some of the dumbest overthinkers in kaiju history. Without that kid they would be lost. No wonder the W.H.O. is in trouble.



There are some comedic players in the entry too that keep things light with some wonderfully animated physical performances. A little more of it could have made the film more effective and even more fun.

In a major tussle between Gyaos and the great turtle, Gamera bites and tears off two of Gyaos toes. Meanwhile, Gamera is spurting green blood from a head wound and the two retreat for some healing time. This gives our dumb scientists time to ponder how dumb they are. Understandably they never figure that out.



Eventually, the scientists and military come up with quite possibly one of the most preposterous plans ever conceived to stop Gyaos, but somehow it works for a time. Eventually, the scientists move to plan B and try to snuff out Gyaos with a forest fire, but the bat-like bird creature proves resilient with its extinguishing gas. Nothing like scorched earth and total destruction to meet their ends.



Gamera proves elusive to Gyaos rays seemingly dancing around any direct hits save for Gamera's tail which is punctured and gushing.

It's a battle royale.

Gamera Vs. Gyaos keeps the gushing turtle soup coming in another memorable entry.



Writer: Niisan Takahashi. Director: Noriaki Yuasa.