It’s the summer of 1989 and three friends are looking
forward to their last summer together before school begins. Little do they know, theyre about to have the
greatest summer vacation of all time.
When a collection of giant monsters straight out of myth appear and
begin wrecking havoc across the country, these three kids find themselves right
at the center of the chaos. Soon they
become key to helping prevent the ultimate apocalypse and also find themselves
inexplicably tied to a giant turtle who has come to aid them and Humanity, a
Giant Turtle known as Gamera.
Much like his Kaiju cousin, Godzilla, Gamera is a legend
who has been long deserving of his own Anime adaptation.
While I’m not as well versed in Gamera as
Godzilla, I have seen a few of his films, including the critically acclaimed
Gamera Hesei Trilogy.
Which brings us to
our First Impression of the day, Gamera Rebirth, the first appearance to the
giant turtle Kaiju since 2006’s Gamera the Brave.
At first glance, it’s got all the things I
usually gripe/hate about an Anime produced by Netflix.
The question, as always, is, can I look past
those pesky flaws Netflix still thinks can work and find some solid Kaiju
action that’s at least better than Godzilla: Singular Point?
The bulk of the first episode of this six episode ONA
focuses on our trio of main protagonists and their bully tormentors and…yeah
how irritating they get will depend on the viewer.
Personally, Boco, Junihi and Joe are fine but
its clear that this Anime is really trying to lean into one of Netflix’s
flagship megahits, Stranger Things, with their dialogue and circumstance.
When the trio are forced to throw down with
one time nemesis Brody, they’re cursing like sailors and developing make shift
defensive weapons like the Stranger Things crew going to fight
Demigorgons.
And yeah, I’ll just get
this out of the way, I still hate this 3D character animation that permeates
most of Netflix’s “Original Anime” collection.
The kids all just look too wooden, stiff and unnatural.
Heck, there’s one character in one of the
military scenes who just sits at the top of a tank with cat eyes looking at her
commander without even blinking or emoting…it’s just creepy and I hate it, hate
it, hate it.
I should also mention that each of these 6 OVA episodes
clock in at 45mins each, so I’m guessing theyre all meant to be seen as six
mini movie events.
Like I said, the
opening with the kids and their bullies takes up most of the first
episode.
It’s not until a little over
the halfway mark where the show does deliver on the promise of Kaiju carnage
and, more importantly, Gamera himself in action.
Like some mecha, Kaiju are better serviced by
CG than human characters.
The Gaos are a
terrifying bunch who aren’t afraid to chomp down on anything that looks human
and tasty (this show is freaking gory btw).
As for Gamera, unlike Godzilla in Singular Point or his Anime film
trilogy, he actually does things and he does them well.
His throwdown with the head Gaos (one of his
first foes from the old movie days) is easily the highlight of the premiere and
if its this good, I can only imagine how the other five fights he’ll find
himself in will turn out.
Eh, I’m a bit split on this one.
On the one hand, if I want an Anime Stranger
Things…well I’ll just go rewatch Stranger Things and wait for Season 5.
On the other, Gamera is able to move and kick
ass like never before and it looks really good when he’s in action.
Six episode, 45mins each…maybe it’s worth an
afternoon binge.
At least it’s treating
Gamera with more respect than Godzilla and the big guys living up to his old
theme song namesake of being “friend to all the children”.
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