Avant Gamera

Gamera Incarnations
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Avant Gamera Species Giant turtle Height 35 meters Length 55 meters Weight 1,200 metric tons Relations Toto (reincarnation) Enemies Original Gyaos Played by Toshinori Sasaki First appearance Gamera the Brave

Avant Gamera (アヴァンガメラ,   Avan Gamera) is a giant turtle kaiju that 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. Despite seemingly sacrificing his own life, Gamera actually expelled his energy and allowed himself to be reincarnated through an egg 33 years later. When the reincarnation of Gamera hatched, he was raised by a young boy named Toru Aizawa, who named him "Toto."

Name

To distinguish this version of Gamera from his reincarnation, he is designated "Avant Gamera," referring to his status as the "original" Gamera.

Design

Avant Gamera possesses light brown skin, in stark contrast to the greenish-blue skin of previous incarnations of the character. Gamera's head is relatively large, as are his eyes which are green. Gamera's teeth are very small, save for the two gigantic tusks on his lower jaw. These tusks jut out noticeably from Gamera's mouth. His right tusk was broken. Avant Gamera has a noticeable overbite, with his lower jaw not extending forward very far. His arms and legs are covered in spikes, while his hands and feet each possess five digits with long claws. Gamera's shell is composed of ridged plates which extend partially beyond the width of his body.

Personality

Avant Gamera is a benevolent creature, who selflessly intervened to defend citizens of Shima village from a Gyaos attack, even going so far as to sacrifice his own life to stop the monsters.

Origins

Avant Gamera's origins are shrouded in mystery, as he simply appeared in 1973 with no prior sightings and promptly disappeared after self-destructing. He is noted to resemble a gigantic turtle, but the specifics of what kind of creature he is remain a mystery.

History

Gamera the Brave

Avant Gamera in 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 began to glow bright red and generate intense heat. Just as the Gyaos realized what was about to happen, Gamera self-destructed, killing himself and all three Gyaos in a fiery explosion. However, Gamera's sacrifice had saved Shima, 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, it was believed he had saved Shima in more ways than one. The Japanese government formed a task force for the investigation of 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 actually the reincarnation of 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

Fireball Ejection

Avant Gamera can spit fireballs, which are highly incendiary and deadly toward other monsters. This ability, known as Fireball Ejection (火球) or (火球噴射), was utilized to kill one Gyaos during Gamera's 1973 battle against the creatures. Both in the film and the manga, Gamera's aiming is seen to be accurate to hit gyaos especially in the manga where Gamera successfully hit all fireballs without a miss.

Fireball Ejection Suicide

File:Fireball Ejection Suicide.gif

Gamera uses Fireball Ejection Suicide to eliminate the Gyaos.

When overwhelmed in combat and left with no other option, Gamera can call upon an ability known as Fireball Ejection Suicide (自爆). Gamera overloads his internal furnace with fireballs until he begins to glow bright red and finally explodes, destroying everything in close proximity. Gamera used Fireball Ejection Suicide when overwhelmed by a flock of Gyaos, successfully destroying all three of them along with himself.

Reincarnation

Toto, the reincarnation of Gamera, hatches from his egg.

Fireball Ejection Suicide is not the end of Gamera's life however, as in the act of exploding he releases his internal energy which is then collected in numerous red pearls. After 33 years, Gamera was reincarnated through an egg which appeared atop an ornate red stone. This egg hatched into a turtle which was named "Toto" and raised by Toru Aizawa, and quickly grew into Gamera. Toto's growth was not complete until he had reabsorbed all of the energy Avant Gamera had released, which was accomplished by a transfusion of energy extracted from the red pearls followed by Toto consuming the rock on which his egg was found.

Flight

Although Avant Gamera was not seen to flight both in the film and the manga, a webpage which Mai Nishio showed its copy to Toru Aizawa briefly mentions that Gamera is known to fly, indicating that the battle of Shima wasn't the first encounter between Gamera and humanity.

Physical Prowess

In the manga, Avant Gamera is seen to be skilled at close-ranged combat against a pack of five gyaos.

Weakness

Durability

In the manga and the novelization, original gyaos were depicted to be much more powerful than in the film and Avant Gamera was severely damaged in the battle of Shima.

In the manga, gyaos possessed durability to continue a combat after being hit with Gamera's fireball, deadly beaks and jaws to easily penetrate Gamera's hardened skin, and the extremely powerful sonic beam with high burst and attack power to easily penetrate Gamera's shell while Gamera's shell withstands and reflects sonic beams if beams hit from diagonal angles. In the novelization, Gamera's lower jaw was sliced off by a sonic beam thus became unable to shoot fireballs.

Comics

Gamera 2006: Hard Link

Avant Gamera in Gamera 2006: Hard Link

In the tie-in manga for Gamera the Brave, Avant Gamera's battle against the Gyaos in 1973 is gone more into detail within the "Special Link" chapter.

A number of Original Gyaos attacked many urban areas over Japan and caused severe damages to the nation including the JGSDF to lose 17% of its force.

JGSDF initially located something under attack by a pack of gyaos off the coast of Shima then the object stood high, revealed to be Avant Gamera. After arriving to defend the village of Shima, Gamera was attacked by five Gyaos' supersonic scalpels. Gamera killed a first Gyaos with a point-blank fireball and then stomped on its head. The three remaining Gyaos kept firing at Gamera, but Gamera 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 fired another fireball at them. From the smoke, one Gyaos flewtoward Gamera and unleashed a flurry of beams. Gamera punches it to the ground,but the Gyaos continued its onslaught of beams just as the other Gyaos flew toward Gamera. Gamera began spurting blood, and the two Gyaos feasted on Gamera's entrails. Gamera, acknowledging he had been defeated, triggered his Fireball Ejection Suicide, killing himself along with both Gyaos.

After the mass, Japanese government spent 10 years with 100,000 people and vast amount of budget, but failed to find any single cell and skin of Gamera while collecting more than 60,000 samples from gyaos. The government kept the anti-kaiju section (巨大生物対策審議会) for 33 years because Gamera's death wasn't confirmed.

Through the red pearls, humanity, with using a super computer, managed to mimic DNA of Avant Gamera to assist the growth of Toto.

Trivia

• In the manga, Gamera's tail is shown to be much longer than in the film.
• In the manga, apparently five gyaos attacked Shima instead of four in the film.
• Cape Daiozaki (大王崎, cape of great king ) in Shima, the battleground of Gamera and several gyaos, is known for the legend of Daidarabocchi (ダイダラボッチ), the legendary giants or gods well-known over Japan.
• Both Avant Gamera and Toto were portrayed by stuntman Toshinori Sasaki, who played the back half of Mother Legion in Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion. The front half of Legion was played by Mizuho Yoshida, who opposes Sasaki as Zedus in Gamera the Brave.
• Avant Gamera's suit was directory re-made from Toto's suit.

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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