Gamera: The Complete Collection

After the rather disappointing Godzilla box set released by Criterion last fall, kaiju aficionados were holding their collective breath that Arrow Video's Gamera: The Complete Collection would stick the landing.   Happily, it's 10s across the board, from the gorgeous and colorful new transfers to the hours of new and archival bonus features.  If you're a fan of the terrible terrapin, this is more than you could have ever asked for!

 

The only real rival to Toho's kaiju monopoly, Gamera was a tougher sell to American audiences, lacking the early pathos and technical sophistication of Godzilla's shared monster universe.   But the third film in the series finally found a niche to exploit: turning the oversized turtle into "the friend of all children" and making sure each story revolved around a pair of precocious kids.  Once the films made their way onto American television (courtesy of a distribution deal with AIP), Gamera secured his own unique place in pop culture history.

 

Shooting on a lower budget, director Noriaki Yuasa focused on imaginative monster designs and striking color schemes to make up for the lack of miniaturized mayhem.  Of course, Gamera's jet-propelled Frisbee flying ability is iconic on its own, but the series is almost as notable as much for which bizarre creature our hero is fighting against.  The first two entries take a more serious approach, but with Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967) everything falls into place:  children in peril, cities under attack and buckets of green and purple monster gore!

 

The rest of the series is more a less a shuffle of the same ingredients until Gamera: Guardian of the Universe re-launched things in a big way in 1995.  Director Shusuke Keneko, who would also helm the next two films in the modern trilogy, masterfully updates the kaiju genre with a mix of practical and digital effects.  Even audiences that wouldn't typically enjoy a "man-in-suit" monster movie can't help but be impressed.   2006's Gamera the Brave launched a worthy attempt at a new origin story, but, unfortunately, the series wraps up there.

 

Arrow's set includes all twelve uncut original Japanese version of the films in new transfers that simply burn up the screen.  Various English dubs are available on each film, or you can stick with the Japanese subtitles.  Gamera expert August Ragone provides a great introduction for each film that encapsulates what was happening at each stage of the series' creative evolution.  But if you're looking for more detail, there are commentary tracks to boot!  Additional extras include interviews with the cast and crew and (not included for review) a 120-page comic book reprint of the Dark Horse series and a hardbound 80-page illustrated retrospective.  That, my friends, is how you pay tribute to one of Japan's most enduring movie monsters!

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