English Dub Review: GAMERA: Rebirth

Overview

Netflix’s GAMERA – Rebirth tells the tale of a group of young boys who spend the summer of 1989 watching the iconic kaiju battle the various giant monsters threatening the city. Rebirth is the first animated entry into the long-running Gamera canon, and features some of the franchise’s most beloved baddies, including Gyaos and Jiger. The four boys must work together to convince their elders that Gamera is a good guy, thwart the machinations of a shadowy organization, and save the whole damn planet, all while working out their own interpersonal issues. Director Hiroyuki Seshita is also one of the show’s writers, along with Kenta Ihara (Vinland Saga), Hitoshi Seko (Attack on Tiran) and Tetsuya Yamada  (Knights of Sidonia).

Our Take

Since his first appearance in Gamera: The Giant Monster in 1965, this cult favourite kaiju has evolved from a simple Godzilla riff to so much more than the standard giant turtle that flies using leg blasters. Over 11 films, Gamera has become the peopke’s champ, whirling through the sky and defending helpless citizens from an endless onslaught of giant monsters, while still finding the time to be a friend to all children. Sure, he ocassionally destroy cityscapes, but that’s just Gamera being Gamera.

This show has a lot of good things going for it. After Seshita’s totally out-there Godzilla trilogy, it was hard to say what to expect from his interpretation of Gamera. Rather than giving this gentle-ish giant the hard sci fi treatment, a la Godzilla, Seshita has chosen to stick fairly close to the source material – a move that benefits this kaiju coming of age story. It hits all the standard notes of a giant monster story, allowing grade students Joe, Boko, Junichi and Brody to anchor the series. Seeing the battles through their eyes makes them extra thrilling, and their full-fledged support for their massive friend is infectious. Joe, Boko and Junichi are considerably less annoying than Toshio, Gamera’s original kaiju kid from the 1965 film. Brody, the group’s bully, is the son of a U.S Forces Commander, and the complicated relationship between father and son adds depth to the common kaiju trope of overzealous American military men pushing weapon-based solutions to every problem they come across. The boys’ summer long arc has real 80s adventure movie vibes – the kind where Corey Feldman and company traipse around learning life lessons while looking for pirate treasure/dead bodies/vampires.

Over the decades, Gamera has collected a number of interesting origin stories. In Rebirth, an ancient civilization needed him to bring about the purification of the world, which is a fancy way of saying most people would die. While that plan fails, 100,000 years later, the shady Eustace Foundation gets the genocide party started again, which elicits the return of Gamera to protect humanity. The Foundation’s plan to restart the world through mass death has heavy Human Instrumentality Project vibes, but there’s nothing wrong with reusing a plan if it’s a good one.

The design of each of the kaiju is excellent, with extra attention to detail on Gamera. He is a truly massive slab of monster, and the texture of his shell and emotive eyes make him an aesthetically pleasing beast to observe as he throws down. Gamera’s spinning shell, foot-blasting fighting style is inherently pretty silly, but Rebirth manages to balance that absurdity with enough competent action to make the kaiju battles engaging and fun to watch. The dialogue and 3-D animation can be a bit choppy and unnatural at times, but it works a bit with the 80s setting and isn’t too distracting.

GAMERA – Rebirth isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but it’s a great intro to this iconic monster for the uninitiated, and a nice start to the animated side of the franchise. Check it out if you like to watch buildings go smash and boys become friends.