Legion

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Legion MotherMother (Sub-Adult)SoldierPlant Alternate names Symbiotic Legion Subtitle(s) Legion: Space Monster (宇宙怪獣,   Uchū Kaijū) Legion Plant: Space Plant (宇宙植物,   Uchū Shokubutsu) Diffusing Fear (拡散する恐怖,   Kakusan Suru Kyōhu) Species Silicon-based insectoid aliens Height 100 meters (Plant), 140 meters (Mother) Length 3 meters (Soldier), 39 meters (Sub-Adult), 160 meters (Mother) Weight 300 kilograms (Soldier), 600 metric tons (Mother), 3,000 metric tons (Plant) Width 60 meters (Plant) Other stats Flight speed: Mach 1 Underground movement speed: 50 km/h Forms Soldier Legion, Flying Legion, Sub-Adult Legion, Mother Legion Place(s) of emergence Space Relations Legion Plant (symbiotic propagation device) Allies Other Legion Enemies Gamera Created by Shusuke Kaneko, Kazunori Ito Played by Mizuho Yoshida, Toshinori Sasaki (Mother); Tomohiko Akayama, Yuji Kobayashi, Yoshiyuki Watanabe, Akihiro Nakata (Soldiers) First appearance Gamera 2: Attack of Legion Roar(s) More roars

“	And he asked him, 'What is thy name?' And he answered saying, 'My name is Legion, for we are many.'	„
	— First Lieutenant Hanatani, quoting Mark 5.9, naming the Legion as they swarm over Gamera (Gamera 2: Attack of Legion)

Legion (レギオン,   Region) is a species of extraterrestrial silicon-based kaiju which appeared in the 1996 Gamera film Gamera 2: Attack of Legion.

Gamera's second foe in the Heisei trilogy, the Symbiotic Legion were a race of insectoid aliens that cultivated colossal plants which allowed them to spread from planet to planet. Upon arriving on Earth, the Legion established a flower in downtown Sapporo, but were interrupted by Gamera, who destroyed their flower and killed several of the creatures. The gigantic Mother Legion fled the nest and relocated to Sendai, where she successfully established a second flower and defended it from Gamera. Gamera prevented the flower from firing its seed into space, but was seriously wounded in the process, while the city of Sendai was completely leveled. The Mother Legion and her Soldiers made their way to Tokyo to build a third flower, with the JSDF helpless to stop them. Fortunately, Gamera was revived and flew to Tokyo and resumed his battle against the invaders. Gamera was forced to call upon a dangerous ability that required him to consume the very energy of the Earth itself in order to finally destroy the Mother Legion and end her species' assault upon the planet.

Name

The Legion get their name from a comment a soldier made in the film; quoting the Bible, "And Jesus asked him, 'What is thy name?' He replied, 'My name is Legion, for we are many.' Mark 5:9" The full name of the species is Symbiotic Legion, though this may also be used as a name for specifically the Soldier Legion.

The smaller Legion drones are known as Soldier Legion (兵隊 (ソルジャー)レギオン,   Sorujā Region), Small Legion (小型レギオン,   Kogata Region) or Colony Legion (群体レギオン,   Guntai Region), while the giant Legion queen is known as the Mother Legion (マザーレギオン,   Mazā Region), Giant Legion (巨大レギオン,   Kyodai Region), or Queen (クイーン,   Kuīn). The Soldier Legion that gain the ability to fly are known as Flying Legion (翔レギオン,   Hane Region). When the Mother Legion first appears and possesses wings, she is known as the Sub-Adult Legion (亜成体レギオン,   Aseitai Region), Larval Legion (幼体レギオン,   Yōtai Region), or Legion (Larva) (レギオン（幼体）,   Region Yōtai). The Legion's symbiotic plant counterpart is known as either the Legion Plant (レギオンプラント,   Region Puranto), Legion Flower (レギオンフラワー), or Pod (草体,   Sōtai).

The three Soldier Legion costumes used in Gamera 2: Attack of Legion were each given their own nicknames, and were named after the three members of the 1970s Japanese idol group Candies: Ran (ラン), played by Tomohiko Akayama, Sue (スー,   Sū), played by Yoshiyuki Watanabe, and Miki (ミキ), played by Yuji Kobayashi and Akihiro Nakata.^{[citation needed]}

Development

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Barugon and Guiron were both at some point considered to be the antagonist for the second film of the Heisei Gamera trilogy, and many believed Guiron was one of the inspirations behind Legion's design, as one piece of concept art included Guiron to compare with Legion. However, Mahiro Maeda and Shusuke Kaneko noted that their concepts were influenced by Zigra, Guilala, King Maimai, Mukadender, Biollante, and Gido-Mack from Space Runaway Ideon. Her Microwave Shell was inspired by the proton beams fired by the Giant Warrior in the anime film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984).

A scrapped Ultra Q project, which became the basis for the 1990 film Ultra Q The Movie: Legend of the Stars, involved Kazunori Ito and Shusuke Kaneko, and this unmade film influenced Gamera 2: Attack of Legion. Garamon's association with meteorites was redeveloped as Legion's arrival on the Earth. Mammoth Flower, which made its debut in the 1966 series Ultra Q, largely influenced general concepts of the Legion Plants; staff including Shusuke Kaneko and Shinji Higuchi actually called the Legion Plants "Mammoth Flower" during the production. Cacti and table coral were additional influences.

Later drafts of the film depict additional abilities of Legion, such as Mother Legion performing melee attacks with Interference Wave Claws and possessing bioluminescence, an electricity blast, and an electromagnetic pulse; the Legion Plants were able to launch Soldier Legions with a catapult-like mechanism. Initially, the Mother Legion's Microwave Shell was designed to be a half-moon shaped energy wave instead of a beam-like projectile as well. Scrapped scenes included Mother Legion fighting with multiple waves of JASDF jets during her flight, in which she neutralized their instruments and shot them down with her electromagnetic pulse over Tsugaru Strait. Her wings were later discovered within the Ōu Mountains, replaced by Tsugaru Strait in the film. Additional ideas included Gamera destroying the Mother Legion's Egg Chamber with his Elbow Claw, Gamera covering the Legion Plant in Sendai with his body to minimize the explosion, and the JSDF waging an intense underground battle against Soldier Legions in Sapporo.

Mother Legion was not always intended to be the species' ultimate form, with one version of the story pitting Gamera against her and the Super Large Legion (超大型レギオン,   Chō Oogata Region) at the same time. Mother Legion would have sacrificed herself defending the Super Large Legion from Gamera's Homing Plasma. This final antagonist was defeated by the early version of Ultimate Plasma, a powered-up Plasma Fireball.

Design

The Plant that the Symbiotic Legion cultivate to launch into space and seed other worlds resembles a flower. It has orange roots that stretch far into the ground and suport it, with a thick, green stem, many tendrils, and pink petal-like structures that encase a tall pod with a pointed tip. As the Plant gets closer to the time of launching the pod, the petal-like structures slowly spread out.

Legion's exterior greatly resembles that of an insect, especially that of a Rhinoceros Beetle. The Soldier Legion are around human-sized, grayish-blue in color, and crawl on six legs. They have a massive, cyclopsian eye with a black pupil and a yellow iris that takes up the majority of the front of their face. They have two serrated mandibles at the bottom of their head and a single horn on top. Their armor is segmented, whilst their main body is a single structure. Their armor segments curve forward in a singular spike, and at least some Soldiers are shown to have insectiod wings.

The Mother Legion has a crustecean esque, segmented body that appears similar to the Soldier Legion's. Her posture at the front of her body has an upright posture with her head sticking straight out, and the continuation of her body abrubtly transitions into a horizontal posture. The front of her body narrows into a large spike on her back that extends above her head, and her back protrudes out on both sides with five, short claws. She has two mandibles and her head is rounded, with a large nasal horn protruding straight out that splits into two parts when firing the Microwave Shell (マイクロ波シェル,   Maikuroha Sheru). The Mother Legion sports multiple egg-cases in her abdominal region which house flying Soldier Legion which she can dispatch at will. She has two large, segmented claws at the front of her body that support her, and two backwards-facing, segmented legs at the back of her body. One segment of each of these claws and legs extends in a spike to around the height of her head, with two more of these spikes adorning the Mother Legion near the end of her body. The Mother's eyes turn red when she is angry or injured.

The Mother Legion's Sub Adult form mainly resembles the upper-part of her full body, with the only exception being that she possesses insectoid wings, similar to some of the Soldier Legion, that are roughly the size of her Sub Adult body.

History

• Gamera 2: Attack of Legion (1996)
• Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris (1999) [stock footage]

Heisei era

Gamera 2: Attack of Legion

A Soldier Legion in Gamera 2: Attack of Legion

The Symbiotic Legion arrived on Earth in a meteorite that crashed near Sapporo. The meteorite caused strange lights to appear in the sky, and also drastically elevated the oxygen levels in the surrounding air. Two Soldier Legion raided a nearby brewery, where they disintegrated the glass on the beer bottles to absorb the silicon. Eventually, the Legion congregated in the subway under Sapporo, where they attacked a train and brutally killed several passengers. In the tunnel, the Legion planted a giant flower, which grew rapidly and eventually broke up through the street and became prominently visible. The JSDF formulated a plan to place C-4 charges on the plant's roots, hoping the explosion will ignite the oxygen-rich air and destroy the plant in a fiery explosion. However, the explosion failed to destroy the plant. Suddenly, Gamera arrived in the city and destroyed the plant with his plasma fireballs. In response, a swarm of Soldier Legion climbed onto Gamera, biting through his shell and drawing blood. Before the Legion could kill Gamera, they were attracted to a nearby electrical transformer, which electrocuted them all to death. Gamera flew away to recover, but the gigantic Mother Legion suddenly emerged from underground and flew away with the JSDF in hot pursuit. The Mother Legion was apparently shot down by the air force over the ocean, but no body was ever found, only a wing.

The Mother Legion in Gamera 2: Attack of Legion

Suddenly, the Symbiotic Legion and their queen appeared in Sendai, where a new Legion Plant had been cultivated. Anticipating the flower to seed and destroy the city in a catastrophic explosion, the citizens of Sendai attempted to evacuate in helicopters from the city's airport. As the last helicopter, on which Asagi Kusanagi was present, prepared to leave, the Mother Legion erupted from the ground and tried to destroy it. Thankfully, Gamera arrived once again and distracted Legion long enough for the helicopter to escape. The Mother Legion proceeded to brutally injure Gamera, impaling his chest with her horn and blasting off his shoulder with a plasma beam. Aware the flower was about to seed, the Mother Legion retreated, leaving the wounded Gamera in the blast radius. With no time to lose, Gamera approached the flower and threw his body in front of it just as it seeded, preventing its pod from being launched into space, but annihilating Sendai and apparently killing himself in the process.

The Mother Legion and her swarm later arrived in the Kanto region with the intent to invade Tokyo, then plant another flower. The J.S.D.F desperately tried to halt the Legion's approach, but their weapons had no effect. Gamera, miraculously revived by the Earth's Mana, flew to Mother Legion’s location in Ashikaga to battle the Mother Legion. Meanwhile, the Soldier Legion were lured to an electrical plant, where they climbed onto the power lines. The JSDF wasted no time in blasting the stationary Legion with missiles, eradicating them all. Gamera managed to tear off the Mother Legion's horn, seemingly defeating her, but the battle was not yet over. Rising from the ground with bright red eyes, the now-enraged Mother Legion proceeded to bombard Gamera with the Red Rod, deadly red energy strands fired from her head that raked Gamera's skin, slicing through it and burning the flesh below. Out of options, Gamera absorbed a huge amount of the Earth's Mana and opened a cavity on his chest, out of which he fired the Ultimate Plasma. The powerful beam collided with Legion, pushing her back as she tried to withstand it. Finally, the blast overpowered Mother Legion’s shell, and blew straight through her body, which then violently exploded, leaving nothing behind and ending her species' attempted conquest of Earth.

Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris

Although the Legion do not make a physical appearance in Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris, the Mother Legion's demise at the hands of Gamera's Ultimate Plasma is revealed to be responsible for draining Earth's Mana, allowing the film's secondary antagonists, the Hyper Gyaos, to emerge in vast numbers all over the world. It is also theorized by Asagi and Mayumi Nagamine that the Legion were drawn to Earth, more specifically Japan, because they could sense large amounts of Mana. It is unknown if they saw Mana as a threat, power source, or merely a sign of a planet capable of sustaining life including their large colony.

Abilities

Pneumatic locomotion

The Legion do not actually have muscles. Instead, they are able to move through pressurized gas that passes through their seemingly hollow exoskeleton, essentially utilising pneumatics for locomotion.

High Band Electronic Eyes

The Legion are drawn to electromagnetic waves and can emit electromagnetic waves of their own for various uses in combat. The Legion are able to detect electromagnetic waves of all wavelengths thanks to their High Band Electronic Eyes (ハイバンド電子眼,   Hai Bando Denshi Me). Mother Legion's eyes usually emit a blue glow, but become red when she is agitated.

Mother Legion

Microwave Shell

Mother Legion charges her Microwave Shell.

Mother Legion can split her nasal horn and fire a blue beam of focused microwaves from the opening called the Microwave Shell (マイクロ波シェル,   Maikuroha Sheru). This attack possesses major destructive powers thanks to its splash damage, being able to destroy a manufacturing facility with a few blasts, annihilate a fleet of tanks with one shot, and leave massive craters in the ground. The Microwave Shell also demonstrates penetrating properties, shown when a shot from it managed to destroy a corner of Gamera's shell. These attacks cause the Mother's horn to burn with an intense heat hot enough to burn Gamera's hand when he attempted to tear off the horn, impressive given Gamera's resistance to high temperatures such as when his body was unaffected by the massive amount of heat given off by his Ultimate Plasma attack. In CR Gamera Battle Pachinko, the attack was depicted as a more conventional energy beam.

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  Legion firing a Microwave Shell in CR Gamera Battle Pachinko

Red Rod

Mother Legion attacks Gamera with the Red Rod.

After Gamera tore off Mother Legion's nasal horn, her Microwave Shell was replaced with another attack called the Red Rod (レッドロッド,   Reddo Roddo) or Legion Butte (レギオン・ビュート,   Region Byūto). This attack takes the form of crimson tendrils of high-temperature energy that extend from the opening on Mother Legion's forehead which she can guide to a target. The Red Rod is able to easily penetrate Gamera's flesh and burn it, causing him intense pain. Unable to stand against the Red Rod, Gamera was forced to call upon his Ultimate Plasma attack to finally defeat Mother Legion.

Egg Chamber

Mother Legion releases a swarm of Soldier Legion from her Egg Chamber.

Mother Legion possesses an Egg Chamber (エッグチャンバー,   Eggu Chanbā) in her abdomen from which she can produce Soldier Legion at a rate of 100 individuals per hour. The Mother guides these Soldier Legion with electromagnetic waves, allowing them to seek out threats to their colony and their mother as well as be given attack commands. These Soldier Legion are able to swarm the Mother's foes, clinging onto them while delivering painful stabs into the opponent's flesh. The Soldiers can discharge electrical energy through their limbs into their victims to further damage them. While not much of a threat individually. the Soldier Legion are shown to be quite dangerous in vast numbers such as when a swarm of them was able to bring Gamera to the ground and keep him down for a prolonged period. Despite their small size, the Soldier Legion demonstrate great resistance to blunt force trauma when Gamera attempts to shake off the swarm by ramming himself into several buildings without the Soldiers being affected.

Sledge Arms

Mother Legion stabs Gamera with her Sledge Arm.

Mother Legion's front legs, known as Sledge Arms (スレッジアーム,   Surejji Āmu), have incredibly sharp tips which are capable of cutting through many different materials, and are able to injure Gamera by easily piercing through his shell. In addition to serving as weapons, Mother Legion can use her Sledge Arms to burrow underground at a speed of 500 kilometers per hour.

Size Legs

The Mother Legion has two rear legs with sickles attached to them, which are known as Size Legs (サイズレッグ,   Saizu Reggu). These legs can be utilized to attack the enemy from underground by bursting out from underneath an opponent and impaling them, which is facilitated by their wide range of motion.

Shell

The Mother Legion is covered in a highly durable shell (甲羅,   Kōra), composed of insulating material similar to rigid silicon resin that repels virtually any attack. Her shell shows extreme heat resistance, to the point that it withstood Gamera's Ultimate Plasma attack for several seconds.

Interference Wave Claws

Mother Legion uses her Interference Wave Claws to generate a barrier.

The Mother Legion possess ten clawed limbs that form a crown around her head called Interference Wave Claws (干渉波クロー,   Kanshō-ha Kurō) which can produce different types of electromagnetic waves. While primarily used to communicate with Soldier Legion, the Interference Wave Claws, true to their name, can interfere with the communication of electronic devices. Additionally, they can generate an electromagnetic barrier which defends the Mother against projectiles by either deflection or chemical breakdown depending on the type of projectile. This allowed the Mother Legion to deflect missiles and neutralize Gamera's Plasma Fireballs by chemically breaking down the fireball's ions. However, the claws are comparatively weaker than the rest of Mother Legion's body and can be destroyed by a direct strike from anti-tank missiles, drastically weakening her ability to generate the electromagnetic shield and block projectiles in this way. The loss of four of Mother Legion’s ten claws was enough to prevent her from blocking Gamera’s attack, injuring her and giving Gamera the chance to close in and tear off her nasal horn.

Flight

Mother Legion in flight

Mother Legion is capable of flight at speeds of up to Mach 1 and can launch herself into flight from underground.

Soldier Legion

Mandibles

The Soldier Legion are armed with mandibles.

Oxygen production

Soldier Legions can create oxygen via breaking down silicon.

Flight

Like the Mother Legion, Soldier Legions can fly.

Plant Legion

Oxidation

Plant Legion can raise the oxygen levels in their vicinity, to the point of making the air toxic to humans.

Self-destruction

A Plant Legion detonates when launching a seed into space, causing an explosion comparable to a nuclear weapon strike. The sole Plant Legion which exploded on Earth wiped out the city of Sendai and left Gamera in a comatose state.

Weaknesses

The Mother Legion's Interference Wave Claws are considerably more fragile than the rest of her sturdy armored body, and are able to be blasted off by sustained fire from conventional anti-tank missiles. While the Mother Legion's armor is highly resilient, she can still be damaged if sufficient force is applied, such as when Gamera successfully tore off her horn. The Soldier Legion can become distracted by other electromagnetic sources, causing their focus to shift from the Mother Legion's target. The JSDF exploited this by luring the Soldier Legion to an electrical substation where they were promptly eradicated by the JSDF. Despite their impressive resistance to blunt force trauma, the Soldier Legion were defenseless against the JSDF's barrage of missiles. Soldier Legion, while somewhat resistant to small arms fire, aren’t immune to it, as one was brought down by several shots from a handgun.

Video games

• CR Gamera: The Battle Pachinko (2009) - Pachinko
• Gamera: Battle (2012) - GREE, Mobage
• City Shrouded in Shadow (2017) - Sony PlayStation 4
• Symphogear XD UNLIMITED (2017; added in 2020) - Android and iOS

City Shrouded in Shadow

Soldier Legion and the Legion Plant appear in the survival RPG City Shrouded in Shadow developed by Granzella and Bandai Namco for the PlayStation 4. In the second stage of the game, Soldier Legion swarm a subway station before riot officers arrive at the scene and help the protagonists escape and Gamera appears to challenge the infestation. In stage sixteen, the main character revisits the area near the subway station, only to find the Legion Plant is close to seeding, prompting them to leave by horse or motorcycle while pursued by Soldier Legion. Gamera then flies in before uprooting the pod, causing a massive explosion.

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  Mother Legion in Gamera: Battle

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  Soldier Legion in Gamera: Battle

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  Legion Plant in Gamera: Battle

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  Soldier Legion in City Shrouded in Shadow

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  Legion Plant in City Shrouded in Shadow

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  Mother Legion in Symphogear XD UNLIMITED

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  Legion Soldier in Symphogear XD UNLIMITED

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  Legion Plant in Symphogear XD UNLIMITED

Comics

• Gamera 2: Attack of Legion (1996)
• Gamera vs. Barugon: Comic Version (2003)

Gamera 2: Attack of Legion

In this adaptation, the Hokkaido University professor of veterinary medicine (played by Takeshi Yoro in the film) names Legion. He also invents an anti-Legion weapon called the Diffusional Ion Cannon (拡散イオン砲,   Kakusan Ion Hō), one of the few super-weapons in the Gamera franchise.

Gallery

Main article: Legion/Gallery.

Roar

Legion's roars

Trivia

• The Mother Legion is the third female monster in the Gamera series, after Jiger and the Heisei Gyaos, which are all initially born female.
• The Mother Legion is by far the tallest monster Gamera has ever fought, at 140 meters in height. At 600 metric tons, she is also among the heaviest, after Zedus and the version of Zigra in GAMERA -Rebirth- (2,000 metric tons) and the Legion Plant (3,000 metric tons).
• The Mother Legion and her soldiers are the only kaiju in the Heisei Gamera series to be extraterrestrial in origin. The others, Gamera, Gyaos, Iris, and Zedus, are all terrestrial in origin.
• One piece of concept art for Orga from Godzilla 2000: Millennium bears a suspicious resemblance to the Mother Legion.

References

This is a list of references for Legion. 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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