Kadokawa Daiei Studio and the Netflix streaming service have teamed up to bring us the kaiju anime series Gamera: Rebirth, which is set to begin streaming on September 7th. With that date just a month and a half away, a new trailer for the show has arrived online, and you can check it out in the embed above!
A “giant, fire-breathing, prehistoric turtle monster”, Gamera was first introduced to audiences in the 1965 film Gamera, the Giant Monster, which begins with an atomic bomb waking him from a long slumber in the Arctic. Over the next six years, Gamera returned in Gamera vs. Barugon, Gamera vs. Gyaos, Gamera vs. Viras, Gamera vs. Guiron, Gamera vs. Jiger, and Gamera vs. Zigra. When the studio was struggling with financial issues in 1980, they cut together a bunch of stock footage Gamera: Super Monster. Gamera then took a fifteen year break before being brought back in a trilogy of films directed by Shusuke Kaneko. Those were Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, Gamera 2: Attack of Legion, and Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris. The most recent film was 2006’s Gamera the Brave.
Kaneko was hoping to make a new Gamera movie himself, but Gamera: Rebirth was already in the works by the time he made his pitch. He provided the following statement (with thanks to ComicBook.com for the translation): “When I came up with the idea for a Reiwa era Gamera and made a proposal, Kadokawa was already working on a new project. From my standpoint, I’m like a baseball commentator with experience as a Gamera team manager. I would like to support the team until they win the championship and pitch again.”
Gamera will be battling five kaiju over the course of the anime series, and these are going to be rematches with creatures previously featured in the live-action films. If you liked watching Gamera share the screen with Gyaos, Jiger, Zigra, Guiron, and Viras before, well, this show is going to give you the chance to watch these kaiju share the screen all over again.
What did you think of the new trailer for Gamera: Rebirth? Will you be watching this anime series when it reaches Netflix? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
