Gamera (Showa)

Gamera is a giant turtle-like creature that originally appeared in Gamera, the Giant Monster. In the film, Gamera would be awoken by a nuclear bomb. Gamera would attack the city and kill hundreds except for one child named Kenny. Gamera would eventually be lured to a giant rocket that closed around the turtle, sending him to space. However, Gamera would break out of the rocket once the meteor smashed into the rocket. Gamera flew back to Earth. As Gamera was again destroying the city, he encountered Barugon. Gamera would be frozen but the JSDF unfroze him, allowing Gamera to defeat Barugon. Gamera would appear again to battle against Gyaos. He fought Gyaos for three rounds before eventually defeated the creature by throwing him into a volcano. Gamera would then be mind controlled by the Virasians. Gamera would however break out of this mind control and fight Viras. Though Viras put up a good fight, Gamera would win once again. Gamera would then visit an alien planet, where he would fight Guiron. While he would again be defeated, he would be revived, before fighting and defeating Guiron. Gamera would go over to a volcano to battle it out with a new monster called Jiger. Gamera and Jiger fought again in the city but Gamera was impregnated by Jiger and was taken out. However, he would be freed and fought Jiger again, winning this time. The next year, Gamera would save two children from an alien monster named Zigra. Gamera and Zigra would fight in both the sea and land, with Gamera eventually winning. Gamera finally appeared in 1980, fighting against all the monsters from the past before killing the aliens throwing all of the monsters at him, sacrificing himself in the process.

***Note: This page is only covers the Showa version of Gamera. For the Heisei Trilogy and Avant versions, see here: Gamera (Heisei Trilogy), Gamera (Avant)***

## Powers & Abilities

### Durability

Due to being a turtle, Gamera is quite a durable kaiju. In Gamera's original film, his cellular tissue was stated to be so dense that tanks, jets, etc, were completely useless against him, and this was shown when weapons like tank shells simply just bounced off of him. Gamera's shell increases this durability, having his entire back be completely armoured. Gamera is also quite resilient, as he was able to quite easily walk off being stabbed in the chest by Viras. Gamera's shell has shown insane durability when it was completely unscathed by Gyaos' Sonic Beam, Zigra's Paralyzing Beam and even Barugon's rainbow beam, the latter caused a massive crater and completely disintegrated humans to the bone.

### Energy Absorption and Projection

In the Showa series, Gamera fed on fire and was attracted by other heat sources, such as power plants and Barugon's Rainbow Ray attack, and in his first movie he was lured to a rocket by fire. He could breathe intensely hot streams of flames from his mouth when caught in a dangerous situation.

### Flight

Gamera is able to retract into his shell and gains the ability to fly off in the sky, flying extremely fast. Generally Gamera will pull his arms, legs, head, and tail into his shell, fire flames out of his arm and leg cavities and spin around like a frisbee. This mode of flight had an added advantage in the later films, where he would use the sharp edges of his shell to cut enemies while spinning, similar to a circular saw. He has a second way of flying, where he only pulls his legs and/or tail in, fires flames from the leg cavities, and flies like a jet.

### Healing State

When seriously or gravely injured, Gamera can enter a coma-like state in order to heal. This often fools his opponents into thinking that he is dead. This ability has been used in almost every film.

## Weaknesses

### Cold Temperatures

In some of the original films, Gamera had a weakness to the cold, being frozen by Barugon and even the JSDF. This weakness has not been used that much in the later films.

### Underbelly

Gamera's underbelly is more exposed than his shell, shown when Viras easily impales him.

### Internal Organs

Gamera's organs are easily exposed to parasites.