Greetings kaiju fans, I'm Koopa, and the focus of today's Kaiju Profile is on Gezora!
CHTCHEEER!
The mutant cuttlefish Gezora debuted alongside Ganimes and Kamoebas in "Space Amoeba" (1970),
and like his co-stars, he is a pawn of the alien Yog.
Although never featured in a Godzilla film aside from stock footage in the beginning
of "Godzilla: Final Wars," the tentacled monster became the most popular of the "Space Amoeba" trio,
subsequently appearing in a variety of Toho-licensed "Godzilla" media,
ranging from official fantasy matchup artwork in books,
to video games (2 of which didn't even feature Ganimes or Kamoebas),
to American comics,
and even the novel "GODZILLA: Monster Apocalypse,"
where he emerged from the Mediterranean Sea in the later 2010's
and hindered refugee movement out of Europe.
Gezora's design was based after real-life cephalopods, and, according to assistant director
Teruyoshi Nakano, the principle that "by making things people know huge, they'd be scary."
Veteran Toho modelers Teizo Toshimitsu and Yasuei Yagi were in charge of modeling Gezora.
Gezora's eyeballs were originally intended to move, but the mechanism broke during filming
and was never repaired.
Producer Fumio Tanaka later commented on this, and went on to link the oversight to the passing
of special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, saying...
Additionally, for scenes such as the one where Gezora's tentacles burst into the house that
Yokoyama and Rico are in, at least two full-size tentacle props were constructed and operated by piano wires.
A kisslip cuttlefish mutated by the ever-transient space amoeba Yog off the coast of Sergio Island,
Gezora was regarded as a mythical beast by the island's natives.
Emerging from the waters, the monster attacked a pair of men attempting to fish
and took his first victim in the form of a man named Sakura.
Although the other, an engineer by the name of Yokoyama, would escape with his life,
he was left traumatically scarred by the incident.
Yokoyama would later agree to join a small group of Japanese visitors to the island
in surveying a cave connected to the ocean's waters, only to be startled by the appearance
of Gezora's trademark bioluminescent glow and flee the scene with an islander named Rico.
Gezora emerged from the ocean and decimated the camp which Yokoyama had fled to, killing him,
and attempted to do the same to Rico but was fortunately repelled by the ultrasonic waves
emitted from a nearby colony of native bats, leaving the man in a near-unresponsive state
and with a number of frostbitten wounds.
Gezora was later discovered by Taro Kudo and Dr. Kyoichi Mida dwelling on the seafloor,
entrapping both in his tentacles, but letting the men go after being distracted
by a family of dolphins swimming nearby.
Gezora then emerged from the ocean once more and attacked another native outpost.
After some conspiring, Gezora was killed by drenching a field in gasoline and luring the
monster to him with gunshots before setting him ablaze with torches, exploiting his aversion
for fire and other high-temperature substances.
Gezora retreated to the ocean floor where he finally died from his wounds,
however Yog escaped his host and sought out new creatures to mutate.
Gezora possesses ten long, suction-cup-laden tentacles which are effective for pinning and constricting.
Within the film, Gezora uses his tentacles to strike objects from a distance
and knock them over or to toss and drown people.
Ink: Gezora possesses a tube that allows him to secrete large amounts of ink underwater.
This attack is described as follows:
Much like real-world cephalopods, this ability is used to hamper visibility, demonstrated
as Taro Kudo and Dr. Kyoichi Mida attempt to flee from the monster after diving to search
for the crashed Helios-7.
Freezing Temperature: Due to his low body temperature, Gezora is able to cool the water
and air around him to freezing temperatures and is even said to be able to instantaneously
freeze opponents.
Although Gezora does not come in contact with any other kaiju in his sole film appearance,
the latter ability is still partially displayed when he leaves the Sergio islander Rico
with a number of frostbitten wounds.
When underwater, Gezora emits bands of bright blue light, which ultimately came to be recognized
as a sign of the monster's presence.
This may be, in part, due to the space amoeba Yog possessing Gezora's body, who himself
is an amorphous bright blue creature.
In a similar manner, when on land, Gezora's eyes continuously blink a yellow light,
and his body also seems to periodically glow a dim blue, such as when he is being shot at
by Taro and Dr. Mida.
Gezora was shown to have a moderate resistance to some conventional human weaponry,
shrugging off a number of rifle shots and having his skin unable to be punctured by a knife or harpoon.
Weaknesses: Gezora is weakened by high temperatures as a result of his low body temperature.
He is also weakened by ultrasonic waves, demonstrated when he is deterred by the waves
emitted from a colony of native bats, not unlike Kamoebas and Ganimes.
Gezora, along with Ganimes, were the last non-Godzilla monsters played by suit actor
Haruo Nakajima, who played the original Godzilla throughout most of the Showa series along
with other Toho monsters.
Gezora's name comes from the Japanese word 'geso' (下足), referring to squid legs.
The -ra at the end is an extremely common suffix for kaiju names.
Originally, however, the squid monster's name was "Zogera."
Despite not appearing in a Godzilla film (not counting the stock footage used in "Final Wars")
Gezora has had a prominent role in Godzilla media outside of the films.
Perhaps the most noteworthy appearance of Gezora in a video game is in the NES game
"Godzilla: Monster of Monsters!," in which he and Moguera are the first two monsters
to be fought by the player.
Notably, Gezora’s A.I. in the game has a glitch which allows him to to trap the player’s monster
and repeatedly hit them until the battle timer runs out
and returns the player to the board.
Gezora also appeared in "Godzilla: Rulers of Earth."
His origins here are never directly stated, however he is implied to be an ancient creature
belonging to the Earth's natural order, as he's depicted on a mural located on Infant
Island aligning him with the element of water.
While under the control of the Devonian aliens, he attacked the survivors of the U.S.S. Goldstein
after the ship had been sunk by Manda.
In issue #9, he assaulted a naval fleet alongside Manda and Titanosaurus,
assembled near where Godzilla fought Biollante.
The Monster King soon drove the three monsters off.
Later on, Destoroyah joined the three monsters to defend the Devonian capital against Godzilla,
but they were defeated.
Although Gezora presumably survived, as a Trilopod which had absorbed his DNA appeared
in Los Angeles four years later, he was never seen afterward,
nor did he take part in the final battle between the Earth monsters and the Trilopods.
And that's all for Gezora.
Thank you for watching!