Greetings kaiju fans, I'm Kyodai Kino,
here to welcome you all to Wikizilla's Creating Kaiju on the Heisei (trilogy) Gamera.
Let's fly right in!
For "Guardian of the Universe," Mahiro Maeda of the animation studio GONZO
was employed to redesign Gamera and Gyaos.
Shinji Higuchi was also hired to help design the monsters,
and went on to serve as the special effects director for the entire trilogy.
The pair initially wanted Gamera to resemble a "flying sea turtle,"
with the idea that both of his arms would flatten into fin-like wings during flight.
Daiei, however, rejected the concept and forced Maeda and Higuchi to base Gamera's appearance
more on land turtles.
They also turned down Higuchi's suggestion to give Gamera elbow claws to accentuate his elbows,
but he snuck them in anyway by making them retractable and saving them for the very end of the film.
Some of Maeda's designs hewed closer to Gamera's appearance in the Showa series,
but he made Gamera's shell and chest more rounded, basing their shape on those of real turtles.
He felt a smoother, circular shell would appear more aerodynamic.
Considering the original Gamera was linked to Inuit mythology in his debut film,
Maeda attempted to design the new Gamera to look like he came from ancient Chinese mythology,
which he said had a similar motif.
Maeda's "decided design" for Gamera ended up differing from the appearance of the finished suits...
specifically, the shapes of his arms and abdomen,
as well as the balance between the sizes of his head and body.
During the modeling process, Tomo Haraguchi and his team likely made these modifications
due to the physical limitations of an actor in a costume.
The basis for the suits was a 3-shaku (Japanese foot) concept model,
rather than any single piece of concept art.
Gamera was portrayed by suit actors Takateru Manabe and Jun Suzuki for his Heisei debut.
According to Higuchi, shorter actors served several purposes:
A team of modelers led by Tomo Haraguchi constructed three suits for Gamera,
one apiece for action, close-up, and water scenes.
The close-up suit's head was fitted with a remote control mechanism to open and close its mouth,
outsourced to the Japanese company up.art.
One of the suits also featured orange lights in its eyes, although they were only used
in the special report trailer due to opposition from Higuchi and special effects cinematographer
Hiroshi Kidokoro.
The water suit was often cut apart and repurposed during filming;
[i.e.] one of its arms was removed and modified to depict his hidden elbow claw.
An upper body "muppet" made from the same mold as the Gamera suits was used to create
movements and facial expressions which would have been impossible otherwise.
Its internal mechanism was operated by wires.
A variety of scale models were used to portray Gamera flying, including at least two 3-shaku models
and four 1-shaku models for distant shots.
An additional model of Gamera's shell was created as reference for a CG model,
which was used for his body's rotation during flight.
For Gamera's regeneration underwater, a stationary 3-shaku miniature was used.
This was later modified to feature a moving head and arms for certain shots
during the JSDF's assault on Gamera at the foot of Mount Fuji.
Animation studio GONZO was employed once again to design the monsters for "Gamera 2."
They adopted rejected design elements from "G1," such as a smaller head with sharper features
and a high mobility flight mode where Gamera's arms transform into wings, for his new look.
The elbow claws which Daiei had rejected for the previous film
were also made permanently visible in the new design.
Maeda said he was satisfied with the suit design from the previous film and was at first
hesitant to redesign Gamera too heavily, but he felt he could make several adjustments
to make Gamera appear more aerodynamic.
A clay maquette of Gamera's finalized design for "G2" served as the basis for the suits.
As in the previous film, separate suits were created for "action" and "close-ups."
Tomo Haraguchi was initially in charge of modeling the suits,
but after a certain point of development, modeling assistant Miki Takahama took over.
Despite the changes to Gamera's head, the body was mostly unchanged from "G1,"
though its dimensions were altered to better fit new suit actor Akira Ohashi.
Tatsuya Abe of up.art designed an internal mechanism for Gamera's eyes
which allowed them to move.
To depict Gamera covered in Soldier Legion, miniature models of the Legion
with built-on hooks were attached onto the Gamera suit.
A new muppet similar to the one from the previous film was also created,
now with a wider range of motion in its neck.
Miki Takahama created clay prototypes of Gamera's wing-shaped fins to scale with those of the suit.
Three flying Gamera props were created: a 1-shaku, a 3-shaku,
and a larger one in scale with the suits.
The water suit from "G1" was repurposed and modified to portray Gamera's "carbonized" state
following the explosion of the Legion Plant in Sendai,
in addition to a 3-shaku prop for long shots.
Consisting only of Gamera's upper body and with no actor inside,
the suit was propped up by its arms.
Another, 1/3 scale prop of Gamera was created for long shots, its arms operated with wires.
Gamera was also portrayed through computer graphics in some shots which were difficult
to accomplish with practical effects, such as his rotating disc flight mode
and shots of the Soldier Legion swarming over him.
Mahiro Maeda was once again in charge of designing the monsters for "Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris,"
with Shinji Higuchi providing a great deal of ideas and input to the design process.
At the design stage, Gamera's final attack against Iris was not yet decided,
and so the filmmakers considered having him reuse his Ultimate Plasma attack from the previous film.
For this reason, some concept art showed the port on Gamera's plastron
from which he fired the attack permanently open.
Maeda said he felt that the more extreme, stylized designs Higuchi created for "G1"
were more or less brought back for the third film.
For Gamera's standard flight mode, Maeda reinstated a concept that Daiei rejected for the first film:
fin-like parts extending from Gamera's shell which act as air brakes.
Maeda took advantage of new advancements in CGI when designing Gamera's spinning disc
flight mode, making his shell compress and flatten as a result of centrifugal force when spinning.
A clay concept maquette of Gamera's final design was made to estimate the suit's volume
and ensure that it would be balanced given the likely weight of its massive shell.
The individual plates on the shell of the "G3" Gamera suit were designed to move individually,
giving them the appearance of armor, a goal of lead modeler Tomo Haraguchi since "G1."
While the previous suits weighed 30 to 40 kilograms,
the new suit weighed 70 as a result of new materials being used to construct his shell.
Gamera's head was reduced in size relative to his body, and his feature became far more ferocious and vicious.
up.art's Tatsuya Abe once again designed an internal mechanism for the suit,
this one allowing for Gamera's head to have a full range of motion,
controlled by the neck movements of suit actor Hirofumi Fukazawa.
An individual large model of Gamera's arm, roughly the same size as a person, was utilized
for close-up shots, while a model of Gamera's leg suspended from a crane was dropped onto
the set below to depict him touching down in Shibuya and crushing a bus.
A guignol, or hand-operated puppet, of Gamera's upper body was also utilized for some shots
during the final battle with Iris in Kyoto Station.
As in the previous film, CGI was employed frequently to depict Gamera in flight,
especially his aerial duel with Iris.
A CG Gamera model showing him from the ankles up, created from photographs of the suit,
also appeared in a single shot.
The demonic Gamera seen in Ayana Hirasaka's nightmares, called Trauma Gamera,
was portrayed using a modified "G2" suit with a newly-modeled head.
Because of this, Akira Ohashi, who also played Iris, reprised his role as Gamera for these scenes.
The skeletal "beta versions" of Gamera which appear just before the title sequence
were also designed by Maeda, who aimed for them to appear slightly mechanical
in order to emphasize their biotechnological roots.
They were portrayed primarily using shells from Gamera model kits by M1 and Kaiyodo,
though a miniature skull made from styrofoam and a larger model were also used.
Lastly — Shusuke Kaneko explained in a 2003 interview that "turtles do not exist" in the universe of the trilogy,
and as such Gamera isn't referred to as one...
the implication being that humanity instead perceives him as a strange, mythical beast.
Still, a couple of oversights find their way into "G3":
the words "turtle's shell" are used in a report about the graveyard, and a turtle figure is seen on Saito's desk.
The scene where Ayana learns about Genbu— the Black Tortoise with Snake—
might superficially appear as another oversight, but it is never referred to as a turtle or tortoise
by the characters; it's viewed as a creature of legend like Gamera himself...
implying that the Guardian of the Universe
may have been the in-universe inspiration for the Guardian of the North.
And with that, we close the book on the Guardian of the Universe.
I'm Kyodai Kino, signing off.