Well, these last few episodes has been fun as we’ve watched everybody’s favourite fireball spewing turtle tear his way through a succession of weird and wonderful challengers, but now it’s time for the show to start wrapping things up as we approach the end of the Gameras six episode run.
The next Kaiju from the turtles Showa Era to get the spotlight is Viras, who back in the rubbery days ot 1968, looked more like a greying banana peel than the multi-tentacled menace that needs to fuck shit up here; but thanks to yet another extreme – but still weirdly faithful – redesign, we have yet another formidable opponent for the increasingly worse for wear Gamera.
However, he’s going to have to wait his turn, because before he can go toe-to-tentacles with his shelled nemesis, we’ve got something of a log jam of plot, extreme twists and even a shock death to get through first – so if you could take a number and wait patiently, that’ll be great…
Thanks to the knife-faced Guiron slicing up the Eustace Foundation’s mining base like a professional chef chopping veg, Boco, Joe, Junichi and Brody had found themselves in the bowels of the facility and face to whatever with the mummified corpse of the squid-like Kaiju known as Viras. This would be bad enough, but left down in the shaft with them is the Orylium Crystal, the element that’s not only used to locate Kaiju, but in certain instances can heal and even resurrect out of action monsters. However, when Boco touches the blue, glowing mineral, it triggers something and the kids are given a holographic rundown of Eustace’s true intentions and let’s just say they’re a little short of benevolent.
Simply put (and I mean that, because the plan is hella complex), the good news is that Eustace do indeed want to make the world a better place – the bad news is that they’ve decided to do it in a way that makes Thanos The Mad Titan look like Mother frickin’ Teresa. In order to combat the planet’s overpopulation, they are planning to let a revived Viras gorge itself on mankind until only around a billion people are left while they and all their key workers hang ten on the moon and the reason they’ve been letting the kids tag along for all this time is that the unscrupulous death-squid requires a sacrifice/snack of children to get his motor running. However, the most disturbing thing of all is that the seemingly kind Emiko is the one pulling the strings and simultaneously wants to perform a coup against the Eustace elders for an older sleight against her family. Talk about multitasking.
As if on cue, Gamera arrives, but considering all the punishment he’s been through (he’s missing an arm for god’s sake), victory is hardly assured, so the Kid’s only way out is seemingly to hijack Eustace’s moon rocket. But the only person who can help them is is Tazaki – whose side is he on?
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is an episode that comes laden with a lot of baggage – possibly too much, I’d argue – as the episode has a huge amount of payoff to wade through before Gamera gets his chance to lay his webbed claws on his fifth enemy. As a result we’re given multiple examples of huge moments to try and process as we’re mercilessly peppered with surprises that usual turn out to be unexpectedly harsh and flip everything we know on it’s head. Some of them are complete, 180 degree status shifts with the sudden villainizing of Emiko coming so far out of left field, it’s almost a struggle to keep up as the seemingly kind, open scientist flicks her switch to evil bitch faster than you can say Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Granted, the revelation that the giant, well-funded, monster studying foundation is actually evil is hardly groundbreaking or even that shocking, but Emiko’s transition into a cold blooded, arch villain is certainly a surprise. As a result, the true alligence of Tazaki seems to make up the main thread of the episode as it takes an unsurprisingly long time for Viras to rouse himself from his earth-like state and the bulk of the running time is literally the kids trying to work him out. Is he truly willing to help eradicate the majority of the world’s population just because Emiko made goo-goo eyes at him while sporting a pair of tight-as-a-drum jean shorts, or is this some elaborate ruse for him to finally show that he really does give a shit about Boco and co.? It’s handled well enough and he did actually have me going a little for a second there, but while this works well with the character, it’s kind of a distracting subplot when your simply waiting for Gamera to turn up and do his thing. In many ways, that’s the issue with the episode in a nutshell – while we’re getting treated to players you’ve come to enjoy actually getting character development that ties directly in with the plot, it does come at the expense of settling back and enjoy the suitably vicious show of Gamera Vs. Viras. However, when that moment finally comes after a lot of running around, fake outs, lies and a lot of scrabbling around with the inner workings of a space shuttle, the battle with the fifth Kaiju leaves you wanting, especially after the barnbuster that’s the battle with Guiron.
Viras looks great and not only does it fulfil the updated brief of Viras is, there’s also a visual hint of Heisei Era villain, Legion, too and the child gobbling squid even gets to bust out some funky new moves too such as gravity distorting rays than ensemble mass destruction and/or space flight, take your pick. However, after all the set up, it turns out that all the accumulated injuries Gamera has absorbed are finally slowing him down and the “final” battle is blatantly overshadowed by the episode’s big moment.
With spoiler warnings on high alert, the moment where Joe truly proves how protective he truly is of Boco and his friends will no doubt split audiences just like a hurtling Gamera splits Viras, as he sacrifices himself to make sure the shuttle’s escape pod launches in time before a fiery fate claims them all. It’s a bold move and it perfectly suits in with semi-tragic, coming of age stories such as Stand By Me and while Joe’s immolation with a plummeting spaceship may not be as heart rending as Richard Dreyfuss casually stating in voiceover that his best friend died in Vietnam, it’s still an impressive gut punch from a show about a giant turtle.
Some will no doubt complain that the death of a young boy as he proclaims that he’s going to see his late mother and brother again is simply too heavy for animated, Kaiju shenanigans – however I feel that it’s given Gamera something of an edge over other shows of it’s kind. It’s just a shame it had to sacrifice the monster time in order to sacrifice one of its leads…
However, one question still lingers: if the ad campaign states that Gamera fights five monsters, where does the show go now?
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