After five episodes, five different Kaiju fights and one shock death, theres a very good chance that when all is said and done, Gamera: Rebirth may be one of the finest anime based on a classic Kaiju property that’s ever existed. In fact, the only thing standing between the show and that title is the small matter of sticking the landing, but considering that Gamera’s well versed in flight despite being a gigantic turtle, sticking the landing should come as second nature to the big guy.
With an emotionally charged plot all ready to be wrapped up, the only question is: if the show’s entire ad campaign was based around the tag line of Gamera vs. five Kaiju, who the hell is he going to fight in the sixth episode
The answer, while fitting, kind of plumbs the depths of a technical loophole, but ultimately gives us the big finish such a show deserves.
The creepy, child-bearing, giant squid monster, Viras, has been squashed, but at a tremendous cost. The seemingly benevolent charity known as Eustace has been revealed to be hell bent on mass genocide, kindly scientist Emiko is actually a villainous psycho, a severely battered Gamera has collapsed into a giant turtle-coma after his hard fought victory and, most bruising of all, Joe has sacrificed his life in order to help Boco and his friends escape from a malfunctioning space shuttle before it blows up.
In the cold light of day, things look grim, but finally realising that Gamera is their only effective defence against any future Kaiju attacks, the Japanese government start gathering various scientists and egg heads to start figuring out ways to help heal the awesome amphibian despite him suffering a missing arm, internal bleeding and apparently over one hundred broken bones.
Similarly wounded – although far more emotionally – Boco mourns his dead friend by slightly losing his grasp on reality as he equates Joe’s death and Gamera’s coma as the same thing, but while Brody and Junichi attempt to console him, the scattered shards of the broken Orylium Crystal some clues spotted in an earlier hologram give the kids an idea how to nurse the Kaiju back to life like a monstrous version of Casualty.
They’d better get their skates on, because emerging from the rubble of the Eustace facility is one final baby Gyaos, who gathers its strength first by eating Emiko’s face and then gorging itself on the corpses of other dead Kaiju in order to become a misshapen, Super-Gyaos who immediately makes a beeline for the downed Gamera.
While the military try and hold off the giant bat-bastard to give scientists enough time to heal Gamera and the sinister heads of Eustace plan from their Moon Base to use this new villain to re-start their nefarious plans, the entire fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Childhood’s End should feet like an anti-climax, after all, Viras, the apparent big bad of the series has been defeated with an entire episode to spare and we’ve also got a full, 45 minutes of episode time to watch a distraught Boco go through layers of grief. However, the show’s last hurrah proves to be something of a satisfying – if understandably somber – climax that ties everything together rather nicely.
The first element is Gamera himself who, rather annoyingly, still remains something of an enigma as the show decides to keep his link to Boco and his overall origin a secret for now. However, despite the fact that the titanic turtle spends most of the time out colder than a freshman at spring break, the fact that the bulk of epidode is dedicated to scientists discussing his comatose form means its iroincally the best character work Gamera’s had all season – although, I’m not sure what the boffins think their going to do if things go South, Gamera’s hardly built for mouth to mouth resuscitation. Still, after Junichi figures out that the shards of the Orylium crystal can be used to speed up the healing process, it looks like were back in the game. however, the rise of Super-Gyaos that the threat of Eustance is still very present, if not terribly original – and yet, while just jacking up the show’s first antagonist may seem slightly lazy while barely staying within the lines of that “Vs. 5 Kaiju” promise, long time fans will understand that, as Gamera’s most tenacious villain, the final battle always had to be with Gyaos in some form or another. Although the battle hardly contains the intensity of the brawl with Guiron (still the show’s most impressive fight), matters still feel appropriately desperate as Gamera is half dead and Super-Gyaos is still going through an awkward teen phase. However, the most entertaining thing about the whole battle is that everyone gets involved – even that weird, continuing back and forth between the tank commander and his second in command that’s been going on gets a rousing payoff – and we even get a resolution to the matter of Brody and Boco’s parents being unbearably strict. Bizarrely, they don’t have this revelatory moment with their actual kids, but instead with one another, which again shouldn’t work, but somehow does.
However, the episodes best moment ends up being arguably the craziest moment of the entire season as Gamera, in his final moments, selflessly ties up the dangling threads of the Eustace plot lines by performing the most metal, goddamn move I’ve seen in the entirety of his entire back catalogue when he powers up the last of his energy to fire a laser that blows a hole in the fucking moon, thus bestowing upon the bad guys a nuclear-level tan that leaves them utterly vaporized.
Anyone who has seen any of the bittersweet, 80s, coming of age movies that Gamera: Rebirth has been expertly using as inspiration shouldn’t be that surprised when Gamera finally dies after saving the world (after all, Harry ultimately left the Hendersons and even E.T. went home), but this, twinned with Boco’s rawness over Joe’s selfless, gives the show weight that similar shows haven’t quite managed.
On the whole, Gamera’s rebirth has been something of an impressive success, allowing itself to be easily accessible to newbies while remaining incredibly respectful to the classic (mostly iffy) series of movies – hell, the closing credits even contain a far less grating version of Gamera’s original theme song just for extra nostalgia.
Whether the Guardian Of The Universe manages to get a second season or not remains to be seen, but a lengthy after credits sequence not only hints at what comes next, but even walks back a few of the more devastating twists. Still, with some untapped monsters still floating about (Barugon, Legion, Iris and Zedus are no doubt patiently waiting for their redesign) and the final moments revealing a devastatingly cute baby Gamera, Netflix blatantly has enough material to give us another taste of turtle soup.
Now, how’s about another movie…
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