﻿This "HISTORY" video relays Gamera's role across the Shusuke Kaneko-directed Heisei Gamera trilogy.
For the Guardian of the Universe's abilities and trivia, you can check out the full Kaiju Profile.
While transporting a shipment of plutonium off the coast of the Philippines,
the Japanese transport ship Kairyu-Maru ran aground on a rocky atoll
which inexplicably proceeded to float away.
A deadly nuclear accident was avoided, but a team led by insurance investigator Naoya Kusanagi
and a crewmember from the Kairyu-Maru's escort ship Nojima—Yoshinari Yonemori—
sought to track down the atoll.
After locating it, they discovered several comma-shaped beads, or magatama,
scattered across its rocky surface, as well as a stone obelisk inscribed with rune characters.
Yonemori noticed that the stone structure seemed to be at body temperature and heard a faint heartbeat
just before the obelisk shattered and the atoll began to shake and break apart.
He was plunged into the water, and saw a colossal shape emerge from the atoll.
In Fukuoka, preparations were underway to capture three mysterious man-eating flying monsters.
Ornithologist Mayumi Nagamine, in cooperation with the Nagasaki police and the Japanese government,
planned to lure them inside the Fukuoka Dome using floodlights and a bait of raw meat,
then sedate and trap them inside.
Even with the sea monster approaching the city, the plan was carried out, with two of the creatures
successfully caged and the third escaping.
As the creature flew out toward the water, the sea monster erupted from the waves
and swatted it out of the sky, sending it crashing into a nearby refinery and killing it in an explosion.
The monster came ashore and began making his way toward the Fukuoka Dome,
causing destruction in his wake while the government was unable to approve countermeasures in time.
As the monster reached the Dome, the flying creatures awoke and escaped from their cells,
then flew out of the open roof.
The other monster tucked his limbs into his shell and propelled himself into the air
before soaring away like a flying saucer.
Kusanagi discussed his findings with Yonemori at his home.
He revealed that the rune characters on the obelisk seemed to match those of ancient Japanese peoples,
and that the magatama were composed of an unknown metal.
He believed this metal was orichalcum, mentioned by Plato in his writings on Atlantis.
The runes on the obelisk spoke of "the Last Hope, Gamera"
and expressed hope that he awaken with "the Shadow of Evil, Gyaos."
They determined that the sea monster from the atoll must have been Gamera
while the flying monsters were Gyaos.
Yonemori gave Kusanagi's teenage daughter Asagi one of the magatama, which glowed as she held it.
Gamera next came to the rescue of Nagamine, Yonemori, and a young boy trapped on a bridge
in the Japanese countryside, killing the Gyaos menacing them with a plasma fireball.
The last Gyaos appeared soon after and fired its supersonic scalpel beam at the humans on the bridge,
only for Gamera to block it with his hand.
Gyaos fled with Gamera in pursuit.
This proved to Nagamine, Yonemori, and Kusanagi that Gamera was on their side,
but the Japanese government deemed him to be the greater threat
and was still determined to capture the last Gyaos.
The JSDF mobilized against Gamera, shooting him down over Mt. Fuji while he was pursuing Gyaos.
Asagi felt drawn to Gamera and convinced a cab driver to bring her to the battlefield so she could see him.
As Gamera was bombarded by artillery and missiles, Gyaos returned to the scene.
Asagi begged Gamera to flee, and he obliged.
Just before he flew away, Gyaos's ray slashed into his arm, and Asagi suddenly received the same injury.
While Gamera returned to the ocean, she collapsed.
Yonemori and Nagamine determined that by touching the magatama,
Asagi had been given the role of a priestess to Gamera.
While Asagi slept in her bed, Gamera rested on the ocean floor, his injuries gradually healing.
In the meantime, the last Gyaos continued to feed and grow, finally maturing into Super Gyaos,
and descended on Tokyo.
The JSDF was unable to stop the creature, which fed on the helpless populace
before nesting on the observation deck of the Tokyo Tower.
Kusanagi and his daughter arrived at the JSDF's base of operations in the city
and warned them that Gamera was coming.
True to Asagi's prediction, Gamera erupted from underground and blasted Gyaos' nest with a fireball,
destroying its eggs.
The two ancient enemies battled across the city. After a fierce tooth-and-claw scuffle on the ground,
Gamera took flight with Gyaos in pursuit and Asagi & her allies observing from a helicopter.
Upon reaching the upper atmosphere, Gamera bit down on his enemy's leg
and plummeted back downward.
Gyaos severed its foot with its beam to free itself from Gamera's grip,
while he plunged right into a factory and was consumed by an explosion.
Gyaos landed nearby and seemed victorious,
but Asagi placed her hand upon the magatama and clasped hands with her father.
As the magatama glowed, Gamera absorbed the surrounding flames and faced down Gyaos once again.
Gyaos charged its supersonic scalpel while Gamera spat a High Plasma Fireball at the beast's head,
blasting it clean off.
As Gamera waded back into the ocean, Asagi found she could no longer read his mind.
Nagamine remarked that more Gyaos eggs were likely still hidden around the world, and that if they hatched,
Gamera might not be there to stop them next time.
Asagi replied that she was sure Gamera would return.
A year after defeating Gyaos, Gamera appeared from the ocean and flew to Sapporo,
where the Symbiotic Legion had placed their enormous plant.
Gamera destroyed the plant with his high plasma fireballs before it could seed and obliterate the city,
but was set upon by the Legion swarm.
The creatures crawled all over Gamera's body and tore into his flesh, bringing him to the ground.
Several Legion were drawn to a nearby electrical transformer,
allowing Gamera to take flight and escape back to the ocean, killing the Legion still clinging to him.
Japan would soon face bigger problems as a second plant appeared in Sendai and prepared to seed.
Civilians were evacuated from the city via 2 helicopters, with Asagi and her friend boarding one of them.
Midori Honami, the curator of the Sapporo Science Center who was assisting the JSDF
in combating the Legion, helped them into one of the choppers as Gamera flew overhead,
trying to stop the plant from seeding.
Suddenly, the gigantic spear-tipped legs of the Mother Legion erupted from the ground
and knocked him out of the sky.
Gamera held Legion back just long enough for the final chopper to take off safely,
but she impaled him with her legs and blasted off the corner of his shell with her Microwave Shell.
She burrowed away just as the plant prepared to launch its seed.
Gamera limped toward the plant and attempted to uproot it, but knew he was too late to stop it.
He then threw himself in front of the plant and took the full force of the explosion,
which also leveled Sendai.
Gamera stopped the Legion from launching a seed into space, but seemingly at the cost of his life.
The JSDF set up a defense line to try to stop Mother Legion from reaching Tokyo.
Asagi insisted to Honami that Gamera wasn't dead, and the two of them traveled to the ruins of Sendai
where onlookers had gathered around his motionless body.
As Asagi held her magatama in her hand,
the sparks given off by nearby fires began to swirl above Gamera,
taking the shape of a giant magatama before flowing into him.
As he rose up, fully healed, the magatama shattered in Asagi's hand.
Gamera wasted no time and flew to the outskirts of Tokyo to confront Mother Legion,
who had wiped out the majority of the defense line.
Gamera struggled to hold his ground against his foe,
while her swarm threatened to turn the battle permanently in her favor.
Honami's colleague Obitsu was able to convince a nearby power substation to switch on,
attracting the Legion swarm to its power lines.
His ally Colonel Watarase then ordered JSDF copters to open fire on the stationary Soldier Legion,
eliminating them all.
Supported by the JSDF, Gamera turned the tide of battle against Mother Legion and tore off her horn.
However, this only served to enrage her as she began firing searing red whips of energy from her forehead
which tore into Gamera's body.
Left with no other option, he summoned a huge amount of energy from around the world.
The plastron on his shell opened and from it,
he fired a massive beam of energy which obliterated Mother Legion.
As the JSDF looked on at the victorious Gamera, he took flight and soared high into the sky above.
The victory had come at a cost though, as Gamera had been forced to sever his connection to Asagi
and therefore all of humanity to rise from the dead.
Humanity was left to wonder if Gamera would still be their ally if they proved to be a danger to the planet.
Three years after Gamera's victory over Legion,
a graveyard of what appeared to be Gamera skeletons was discovered on the ocean floor.
In addition, newly evolved Hyper Gyaos began to appear in force around the world.
Gamera pursued two of the creatures in the skies over Shibuya, shooting one down with a fireball.
He landed to finish it off at point-blank range, setting much of the surrounding area ablaze.
The second Gyaos attacked him, and he caused even more carnage in his desperation to destroy it.
He finally managed to blast it to pieces, sending burning flesh raining onto terrified civilians nearby.
Gamera promptly took flight and continued hunting down the Gyaos around the world,
leaving a ward of Tokyo in ruins.
Mayumi Nagamine, attempting to understand the sudden surge in Gyaos activity,
met with Asagi, who had returned to Japan after looking abroad for answers about Gamera.
In her travels, she learned of the concept of Mana,
the supposed life energy of everything on Earth.
Gamera seemed to consume and draw power from Mana,
while Gyaos thrived in environments when Mana was low.
To rise again and defeat Legion, Gamera had consumed a tremendous amount of Mana and depleted it,
allowing Gyaos to re-emerge and evolve at an unprecedented scale.
With his connection to humanity gone and his enemies overrunning the world,
Gamera had become desperate and reckless in his crusade.
But even with her mental link with Gamera gone,
Asagi still believed that he was on their side.
The JSDF felt differently, however, and designated Gamera as its biggest enemy.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Ayana Hirasaka awakened a strange demonic creature
within a shrine in the village of Asuka, Nara.
Ayana, who blamed Gamera for killing her parents during his 1995 battle with Super Gyaos in Tokyo,
named the creature Iris and vowed to raise him to take revenge against Gamera.
Iris grew quickly and attempted to fuse himself with Ayana, only for Tatsunari Moribe,
a classmate of Ayana's whose family guarded over the shrine holding the monster,
to cut her free from the creature.
Ayana was taken to a hospital, while the enraged Iris went on a rampage through the village,
killing its inhabitants and growing into a gigantic monster.
Mito Asakura, an occultist member of the Japanese Cabinet Secretariat
and supposed descendant of the Atlanteans,
and game programmer Shinya Kurata, who both believed Gamera needed to die
so that Gyaos could reduce the human population and "save" the world,
took interest in Ayana's bond with Iris and attempted to exploit it by bringing her to a shrine in Kyoto.
Nagamine analyzed tissue samples Iris left behind, determining that he was a Gyaos mutation
that could fuse with a human and evolve himself further.
She traveled to Kyoto with Asagi and confronted Shinya,
who crowed that Gamera's defense of humanity made him weak.
He also believed the Gamera skeletons discovered on the ocean floor were "beta versions"
discarded once the Atlanteans successfully created the finished Gamera;
a vessel they infused with Mana.
Nagamine and Asagi tried to leave Kyoto with Ayana, but as they reached Kyoto Station,
the entire city was struck by a typhoon, halting all travel.
In the meantime, the JSDF had unsuccessfully assaulted the adult form of Iris,
which wiped out the attacking troops and began flying toward Kyoto.
Fighter jets pursued the monster but were interrupted by the arrival of Gamera,
who engaged in a dogfight with Iris.
The JSDF was ordered to shift its target from Iris
to Gamera, and shot him down.
Iris landed in Kyoto unopposed and began making his way to Ayana.
Gamera flew overhead and spat fireballs at Iris,
who swatted them away with his tentacles,
setting Kyoto ablaze.
Gamera landed and the two monsters stared each other down before beginning to fight.
As the monsters' battle drew closer to Kyoto Station,
Iris impaled Gamera on his arm blade, seriously wounding him.
Asagi realized that Ayana was linked to Iris much like she was once linked to Gamera,
and begged her to stop.
Asakura grabbed Ayana's magatama and attempted to command Iris herself.
Gamera and Iris barreled into the station, killing Asakura and crushing Shinya under debris soon after.
With Gamera unconscious, Moribe tried to attack Iris with the dagger he had saved Ayana with,
but the creature threw him aside.
Iris then attempted to fuse with Ayana once more, this time against her will.
Gamera got back to his feet and plunged his fist into Iris' chest, enveloping Ayana.
Iris bellowed in rage and pinned Gamera's hand to the wall with his arm blade.
As Iris drained Gamera's blood and his tentacles formed plasma fireballs of their own,
Gamera was forced to make a quick decision.
Just before Iris unleashed his attack, he severed his trapped hand with a fireball,
pulling Ayana free at the same time.
Gamera absorbed the plasma on his stump arm, forming a fiery fist
which he drove directly into Iris' chest wound.
Iris roared in agony and finally exploded.
Gamera walked over Iris' shattered corpse before setting Ayana down next to Asagi and Nagamine.
Nagamine tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate her,
but she awakened after Gamera let out a loud roar.
Ayana begged for forgiveness as the wounded Gamera walked out into the burning cityscape.
As thousands of Hyper Gyaos descended on the city,
the JSDF officially changed its target from Gamera to Gyaos.
Asagi declared that Gamera would keep fighting, even alone.
Nagamine responded that Gamera wasn't alone.
That wraps up Gamera's role across his Heisei trilogy.
If you've not done so already, go ahead and check out the Kaiju Profile now.
Seeya!