Avant Gamera
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Avant Gamera (アヴァンガメラ Avan Gamera) is a giant turtle kaiju who appeared in the 2006 Kadokawa film Gamera the Brave.
A huge turtle, Gamera suddenly appeared in the fishing village of Shima in 1973 to save its inhabitants from a flock of man-eating bat-like creatures called Gyaos. Gamera found himself outnumbered and outmatched and was forced to self-destruct in order to eliminate the Gyaos and defend the village. 33 years later, the next Gamera hatched near his final resting place and was raised by a young boy named Toru Aizawa, who named him "Toto."
Name
Avant is a French word meaning "before." The name Avant Gamera was likely chosen as a pun on "avant-garde" while also distinguishing him from his successor Toto, otherwise known as simply Gamera.
Design
Avant Gamera possesses light brown skin, in contrast to the greenish-blue skin of previous Gamera incarnations.[3] His head is relatively large, as are his eyes, which are yellow. Gamera's teeth are very small, save for the two gigantic tusks which jut out from his lower jaw. His right tusk is broken. He also has a noticeable overbite, his lower jaw not extending forward very far. Gamera possesses five digits with long claws on each of his hands and feet, and his arms and legs are covered in spikes.[4] His shell is composed of ridged plates which extend partially beyond the width of his body. Gamera has light-colored markings around the center of his plastron which resemble the Japanese kanji 炎 (honō), meaning "flame".[5]
In the novelization Friends: Gamera the Brave, Avant Gamera and Toto both bear spiral-shaped markings instead of the torso markings in the film.[6]
Development
Along with Toto, Avant Gamera was designed by Kan Takahama and sculptured by Tomoo Haraguchi and his team. Unlike Toto, Haraguchi also named this Gamera incarnation, and completed the prototype of the head model overnight, just as he did for Gamera in Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999).[7] Concept art for Avant Gamera lacks the beak and spiked limbs seen on the final design. Various eye models with differing iris and coloration patterns were prepared for both Avant Gamera and Toto, including yellowish ones,[8] and both Gamera incarnations were originally equipped with more vividly green eyes. These were eventually replaced by different models, although less vividly greenish models were kept for Avant Gamera.[9] Both Avant Gamera and Toto were portrayed by Toshinori Sasaki.[10]
Avant Gamera's battle was filmed after the completion of all of Toto's scenes. Special effects director Isao Kaneko sought to minimize the use of gunpowder for the sake of realism. Filming proved difficult due to Avant Gamera's body color and the low light. Satoshi Murakawa was dissatisfied with the first scenes of Godzilla in Godzilla 2000: Millennium because Godzilla was easily visible even before being illuminated by lights, and thus sought to fully conceal Avant Gamera before revealing him.[10]
Personality
Avant Gamera is a benevolent creature who selflessly intervened to defend the citizens of Shima from a Gyaos attack, even going so far as to sacrifice his own life to stop the monsters. In the novelization The Story of Me and Toto, Avant Gamera intentionally avoided using fireballs and repeatedly tackled a Gyaos to allow humans to escape into a mountain.[11]
Origins
Avant Gamera's origins are shrouded in mystery, as he simply appeared in 1973 and completely vanished after self-destructing. He is noted to resemble a gigantic turtle, but the specifics of what kind of creature he is remain a mystery. Humanity's knowledge of Avant Gamera's ability to fly indicates that the battle in Shima was not their first encounter with him; Gamera is never depicted flying in his appearance in Shima, and both Gamera 2006: Hard Link and The Story of Me and Toto have him arrive by sea. In the novelization Friends: Gamera the Brave, Avant Gamera fought against an unspecified number of Gyaos, including about a dozen in the battle of Shima; at least 30 Gyaos were confirmed to exist by humanity. Within this novelization, Avant Gamera arrived in Shima by air.[12]
The book Gamera the Brave Super Complete Works speculates that Avant Gamera resides "somewhere in a/the volcanic belt" (火山帯のどこか kazantai no dokoka), possibly referring to the Ring of Fire.[1]
History
- Gamera the Brave (2006)
Gamera the Brave
In 1973, the Japanese fishing village of Shima came under attack by a flock of four giant man-eating winged creatures called Gyaos. The inhabitants tried fleeing to safety, and it looked as if their village would be destroyed by the creatures. However, Gamera suddenly appeared from the nearby forest and killed one of the Gyaos with a fireball. The remaining three promptly attacked Gamera, striking him with their supersonic scalpel and knocking him to the ground. The Gyaos set upon the downed Gamera, biting and tearing off his flesh. Gamera stood upright and began to glow bright red, generating intense heat. Just as the Gyaos realized what was about to happen, Gamera self-destructed, exterminating all three Gyaos in a fiery explosion. However, Gamera's sacrifice had saved the region, and the villagers rejoiced. Following Gamera's sacrifice, strange red pearls were discovered around the village, which became a popular tourist item and helped boost Shima's local economy and put it on the map. Since many believed the pearls were connected to Gamera somehow, he was held to have saved Shima in more ways than one. The Japanese government formed a task force to investigate monsters in the wake of Gamera's battle with Gyaos, and began gathering these pearls over the ensuing decades.
By 2006, the monster task force was on the verge of being shut down due to a lack of any monster activity since 1973. However, Toru Aizawa, the son of a man who had actually witnessed Gamera's battle with Gyaos as a boy, discovered a turtle egg atop a mysterious red rock on a small island near Shima. Toru raised the turtle which hatched from the egg, naming it Toto. As the turtle grew rapidly and demonstrated unusual abilities such as flight and the ability to breathe fire, it became clear that Toto was another Gamera. Toto defended Shima from Zedus, a sea monster mutated by feeding on corpses of Gyaos, but was seriously injured in the battle. The government captured Toto and infused him with the energy extracted from the pearls the original Gamera had left behind, helping him grow larger and fight Zedus in a second battle in Nagoya. Toto finally triumphed over Zedus after absorbing the stone on which his egg had been found, and the new Gamera flew off over the horizon.
Abilities
Fireballs
Avant Gamera can spit fireballs (火球 kakyū) which are highly incendiary and deadly toward other monsters. This ability was utilized to kill one Gyaos during Gamera's 1973 battle against the creatures. His aim is impeccable in the version of the battle included in the tie-in manga Gamera 2006: Hard Link, with all four fireballs he shoots hitting a Gyaos. In the novelization Friends: Gamera the Brave, Gamera loses the ability to shoot fireballs after a Gyaos stabs his lower jaw with its beak.[12]
Self-destruction
When overwhelmed in combat and left with no other option, Gamera can cause himself to self-destruct (自爆 jibaku). Gamera overloads his internal furnace with fireballs until he begins to glow bright red and finally explodes, destroying everything in close proximity. Gamera used this self-destruction when overwhelmed by a flock of Gyaos, successfully destroying all three of them along with himself. In the novelization Friends: Gamera the Brave, Avant Gamera emits particles of light from his spiral marking before the attack, and Amamiya later concludes that he reincarnated into Toto.[13] In The Story of Me and Toto, Avant Gamera exploded when the flock of Gyaos stabbed Gamera with their beaks.[14]
Flight
Avant Gamera is capable of spinning flight, known as spinning jets (回転ジェット kaiten jetto).[5] Although this is depicted in neither Gamera the Brave nor Gamera 2006: Hard Link, a webpage Mai Nishio shows to Toru Aizawa in the former mentions that Gamera is known to fly. In Friends: Gamera the Brave, Avant Gamera is capable of both spinning and non-spinning flight.[12]
Physical abilities
In the Gamera 2006: Hard Link manga, Avant Gamera finishes off a charred Gyaos by stepping on its head. Later in the battle, he hurls a Gyaos to the ground even as it blasts him with its supersonic scalpel.
Durability
In Gamera the Brave, Avant Gamera loses his footing after the Gyaos fire their supersonic scalpels at his shoulders and is quickly overwhelmed by them. In the manga Gamera 2006: Hard Link, however, he endures dozens of rays powerful enough to pierce his chest and exit through his shell, only resorting to self-destruction when a Gyaos is in the process of ripping his throat out.
DNA
Through experimentation upon a 99%-accurate recreation of Gamera's DNA, humanity was able to determine that Gamera's DNA is a powerful counter against that of Gyaos. They infused this DNA into Toto in order to give him the strength to defeat Zedus. In Friends: Gamera the Brave, Gamera's cells were specifically dubbed Gamera Cells (ガメラ細胞 Gamera Saibō) or GA Cells (GA細胞 Jī Ē Saibō).[15]
Intelligence
In Friends: Gamera the Brave and Gamera 2006: Hard Link, Avant Gamera specifically aimed to destroy Original Gyaos' heads, and Amamiya speculated that he did so in an attempt to eliminate "GU Cells" within the optic discs of the flying creatures, to prevent ordinary animals from consuming them and undoing monstrous mutations.[15]
In The Story of Me and Toto, Avant Gamera attempted to drive away Gyaos without his fireballs to stall for time for the sake of villagers escaping into a mountain.[11]
Comics
- Gamera 2006: Hard Link (2006)
Gamera 2006: Hard Link
This tie-in manga for Gamera the Brave shows a longer, bloodier version of Avant Gamera's battle against the Gyaos in 1973, while also providing more context for their fight.
That year, a number of Original Gyaos attacked many urban areas over Japan and caused severe damage to the nation. The JGSDF lost 17% of its forces attempting to combat them. After arriving to defend the village of Shima, Gamera was attacked by five Gyaos' supersonic scalpels. Gamera shot the first Gyaos to charge him with a point-blank fireball, then killed it by stomping on its head. The three remaining Gyaos kept firing at Gamera, but he retracted into his shell and charged up a fireball which he launched at one of the Gyaos. Another Gyaos flew in and bit Gamera's arm, but Gamera threw it to the ground and killed it with a fireball. The two remaining Gyaos hovered about, and Gamera spat another fireball at them. From the smoke, one Gyaos flew toward Gamera and unleashed a flurry of beams. Gamera threw it to the ground, but the Gyaos continued its onslaught as the other Gyaos flew toward Gamera. Gamera began spurting blood as the two Gyaos feasted on his entrails. Gamera, acknowledging he had been defeated, triggered his self-destruction, killing himself along with both Gyaos.
After the battle, the Japanese government embarked on an expensive, 10-year project to recover the remains of Gamera and the Gyaos. Though its 100,000 employees found over 60,000 Gyaos samples, they were unable to locate a single cell or piece of skin from Gamera. Since the government was unable to confirm Gamera's death, it kept its anti-kaiju section (巨大生物対策審議会) funded for another 33 years, despite no further monster sightings during that time, but eventually decided to shut it down and concluded that gigantic monsters no longer existed.
After the incident, humanity launched a project to create a virtual model of Gamera's DNA and spent 22 years with the world's leading scientists. Using a large number of supercomputers to establish a pseudo-Earth-environment in the underground facility in Yokohama and the red pearls which appeared in Shima following Gamera's death, humanity managed to mimic the DNA of Avant Gamera with 99% accuracy to assist the growth of a young Gamera, Toto. Seeing the overwhelming outcome of the project, one of the 12 scientists was utterly "shocked" and was reported to have committed suicide.
Gallery
- Main article: Gamera/Gallery.
Trivia
- Both Avant Gamera and Toto were portrayed by stuntman Toshinori Sasaki, who played the back half of Mother Legion in Gamera 2: Attack of Legion. The front half of Legion was played by Mizuho Yoshida, who opposes Sasaki as Zedus.
- The choice of Shima as the site of Avant Gamera's battle with the Original Gyaos may have been a reference to Gamera vs. Gyaos, in which the second bout between Gamera and Gyaos concluded in Ise Bay.
- Drafts of Gamera the Guardian of the Universe and Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris previously included fights between Gamera and a flock of Gyaos in Shima and Ise Bay, respectively, though these were not included in the finished films.[16]
- At 35 meters in height, Avant Gamera is the shortest incarnation of Gamera to date. At the same time, his 1,200-metric-ton weight makes him the heaviest incarnation of the character.
- Avant Gamera and Toto's designs, especially their shells, influenced the designs of later Gamera incarnations in GAMERA (2015) and GAMERA -Rebirth- (2023).[7]
Notes
- ↑ Screenwriter Yukari Tatsui's novelization The Story of Me and Toto notes that Avant Gamera is much larger than the 30-meter Toto,[2] despite the film version only being five meters taller.
- ↑ The webpage Mai Nishio visits in the movie states Avant Gamera's weight to be "40 tons, but this could be underestimated." This figure is closer to Gamera's weight in previous films.
References
This is a list of references for Avant Gamera. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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Bibliography
- Tatsui, Yukari (25 March 2006). The Story of Me and Toto. Kadokawa Shoten Publishing. ISBN 9784043818013.
- Gamera the Brave Official Guide Book. MediaWorks. 17 April 2006. ISBN 4-8402-3460-4.
- Toumon, Boogey; Tasaki, Ryuta (26 April 2006). Friends: Gamera the Brave. ENTERBRAIN. ISBN 978-4-75-772805-9.
- Maruzawa, Shigeru, ed. (20 May 2006). Gamera the Brave Super Complete Works. Shogakukan. ISBN 4-09-105108-1.
- Nakamura, Satoshi; Shimazaki, Jun; Sugita, Atsuhiko; Shiraishi, Masahiko; Yamazaki, Yu; Maruyama, Takeshi; Hayakawa, Masaru; Tomoi, Taketo; Akita, Hideo (8 February 2014). Heisei Gamera Perfection. Kadokawa. ISBN 978-4-04-891881-7.
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