Gamera: Super Monster


Gamera: Super Monster is a 1980 Japanese kaiju film directed by Noriaki Yuasa and produced by Daiei International. It is the eighth film in the Gamera film series and its first installment by Tokuma Shoten, following the release of Gamera vs. Zigra in 1971, while it is a new story and doesn't share the lore with the previous Showa films.
Gamera: Super Monster was distributed by New Daiei, and was released theatrically in Japan on 20 March 1980. It was followed by Gamera: Guardian of the Universe in 1995, which would mark the beginning of the franchise's Heisei period.

Plot

When the evil alien Zanon comes to enslave Earth, all hope seems lost. The Earth's resident superheroes, the Spacewomen, are powerless to stop him. They must enlist the help of a young boy who has a special connection with the giant turtle Gamera, who is potentially a pond slider magically turned into the kaiju by the Spacewomen. The Friend of All Children then battles a legion of kaiju sent by Zanon; Gyaos, Zigra, Viras, Jiger, Guiron, and Barugon.
After successfully defeating villainous monsters, Gamera sacrifices himself in the end to destroy Zanon once and for all and to protect Earth one last time, but his exact fate remains unclear.

Production

Gamera: Super Monster was the first post-Daiei installment of the franchise by Tokuma Shoten and was produced as an attempt to help Daiei get out of its turbulent financial situation.
It contains extensive stock footages of the entire Showa Gamera film series, as well as Space Battleship Yamato and Galaxy Express 999. Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen-mae Hashutsujo and Kinnikuman were also briefly featured and parodied. The spaceship of "Zanon" and its introduction scene are identical to that of Star Destroyer from Star Wars, while its video game adaptation involved a character based on Gyaos.
Almost all of the footage of Gamera and his enemies are stock footages from previous films mostly due to budgetary and schedule constraints, and influences from the 1979 Ultraman video by Akio Jissoji which successfully contributed to revive the Ultra franchise; various materials were lost during the turmoil when Daiei Film was officially declared bankrupt, and a number of suits and props were destroyed either by Noriaki Yuasa himself or a riot among staffs. Newly produced tokusatsu scenes were exclusively filmed with the flying model of Gamera, which was preserved at the and evaded the riot. The model was subsequently used for the promotion of Gamera: Guardian of the Universe. Its production faced additional constraints such as music licenses, and the film didn't utilize music and songs from previous films, including the iconic .
Tamotsu Taga, one of former Daiei Film staffs who had abandoned the near-bankrupt company for P Productions due to the aftermaths of the scrapped project Giant Horde Beast Nezura prior to Gamera, the Giant Monster, participated in Gamera: Super Monster as an editor along with additional crews from P Productions such as.

Release

Gamera: Super Monster was released theatrically in Japan on March 20, 1980, where it was distributed by New Daiei. The franchise has prioritized reducing competitions against Toho's Godzilla franchise for financial constraints, and the film was released during the temporal cease of Godzilla film productions.

Home media

''Elvira's Movie Macabre''

The movie was featured on a 1983 episode of Elvira's Movie Macabre, which Shout! Factory released on a DVD in 2007 together with the 1967 British film They Came from Beyond Space. The two films can each be watched with or without the Elvira host segments.

''Cinema Insomnia''

In 2007, Gamera: Super Monster was shown on the horror hosted television series Cinema Insomnia. Apprehensive Films later released the Cinema Insomnia episode onto DVD in both regular and special "Slime Line" editions.

Shout! Factory release

Shout! Factory acquired the rights from Kadokawa Pictures for all eight of the Showa era Gamera films and have issued the uncut Japanese versions on DVD for the first time in North America. These "Special Edition" DVDs were released in sequential order, starting with Gamera, the Giant Monster on May 18, 2010.

Reception

Gamera: Super Monster was a commercial failure. Its box office gross was presumably affected by the time period where the kaiju genre itself stagnated; the was short lived as the entire tokusatsu genre suffered multiple factors like the 1970s energy crisis.
It was the first Gamera film released almost a decade after Gamera vs. Zigra. The franchise was again inactive until the 1995 film Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, although there had been several cancelled projects during the dormancy.

Legacy

The 1994 manga series Giant Monster Gamera by Hurricane Ryu serves as a sequel to Gamera: Super Monster: Gamera was artificially resurrected after the incidents in the film and gained the physical appearance and abilities of the Heisei Trilogy incarnation of the character.
, who played Kilara and sang the theme song ' in Gamera: Super Monster, later participated in the 2020 biopic film Nezura 1964 as an actress and the singer of Nezura March, the films theme song which is a homage to '.