SEMPER FIDELIS TYRANOSAURUS!!!

The Den HAS to be one of my favorite princesses, like I was literally on the edge of my seat playing her route and I don't think any other game has gotten me to do that.

Absolute pain to draw though why does she have eight limbs.

Ranked from Least to Most favorite:

Gamera vs. Jiger - The first time I watched this one I was REALLY annoyed at how often the final fight between Gamera and Jiger would cut away to the children watching for long periods of time. It just felt very poorly paced. Now, granted, I was watching the Sandy Frank dubbed cut, so it may have just been edited poorly for American consumption. But every time I've watched the Japanese version I've found it struggles to capture my attention, and to this day it's the Gamera film I'm least enthused to revisit. It's still got some good moments, though - I think the baby Jiger killing Gamera from within is a really fun plot point.

Gamera vs. Viras - I had trouble determining which ranked higher, this or Gamera vs. Zigra, because they're very similar in their strengths and weaknesses for my money. They both have really great villains, but also have some very plodding pacing. They both feature really good fights with STELLAR crazy moments. But...

Gamera vs. Zigra - Gamera vs. Zigra has both an evil space babe (who's actually a nice Earth lady being mind controlled) and Gamera playing his theme song on his defeated opponent's back before lighting the fish's ass on fire, and that makes it the winner in my book.

Gamera Super Monster - I feel like I'm the only person in the world who doesn't hate this movie, and definitely the only person who wouldn't rank it dead last. Everyone complains about how its kaiju scenes are almost 100% stock footage, but, like, I dunno, it's kind of like a greatest hits CD to me? I like being able to just watch ALL of the big Showa Gamera fights one after another, and I like that it's tied together by three beautiful space babes fighting one evil beautiful space babe. If you ignore the idea that "stock footage is cheap and therefore always bad to use and rely on," it's a pretty fun romp. Is it kind of a mess? Yeah, in the same way a Greatest Hit CD isn't as coherent as a normal album, but again, sometimes you just want the greatest hits with a side of space babes. Or at least I do.

Gamera - the original Gamera is a very solid solo kaiju flick, and a great introduction to the giant turtle. But it's a lot more fun when he has another kaiju to fight.

Gamera vs. Barugon - I think this movie is very much an oddball, because it feels less like a Gamera movie and more like a Godzilla movie in tone. There's no kids and the human plotline is actually surprisingly grim, and those are kind of points against it - I actually love the kid friendly tone of most Gamera films, it makes them feel distinct. BUT! That oddness does make it fascinating, and it pulls off what it aims for pretty damn well. Plus Barugon is just a very endearing and lovable monster while still being a credible threat, and easily lands the number three spot among my favorite Gamera kaiju.

Gamera 3: Revenge of Irys - the Kaneko trilogy are rightly lauded as some of the most objectively well-crafted kaiju films of all time, and I do mostly agree with that assessment. They have great performances from the actors, beautiful tokusatsu all around, excellent camera work and pacing, and very ambitious and well-written scripts. I do not, however, agree with the notion that they are perfect, or that each one is better than the last - I actually think they get a bit messier as the trilogy goes along, aiming for loftier and loftier themes while getting sloppier with the actual storylines. Revenge of Irys is, to me, the one where the seams of this approach are most obvious, with a lot of scenes and even one whole character that don't really seem to have a point to them. Like, to this day I still don't know who that turtleneck-wearing guy is supposed to be, why he keeps showing up in scenes, and what the hell the point of him being in the story even was. What was with turtleneck guy? What was the point of him? He ate up so much screentime and I don't understand why. Irys is a really well-written kaiju character but has a design that kind of baffles me, especially when they claim she's a variant of Gyaos. And I really don't like seeing Gamera act so brutally - I understand the thematic and story reasons for him doing so, but it's just not a writing choice I would have made. Still, it's very well-directed and performed, and a very entertaining romp from start to finish, even if turtleneck guy remains a baffling narrative dead end.

Gamera 2: Advent of Legion - Again, rightly lauded as a classic, even if the plot is a bit messier than I think most people recognize. But holy shit, the Mana Blaster finishing move is such a stunning showstopper moment.

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe - The most solid of the Kaneko Gamera movies for my money, because it just tries to be a damn solid introduction for Gamera and Gyaos and succeeds in spades.

Gamera vs. Gaos - Speaking of Gyaos, her original debut is so damn good. I think it's where the Gamera series really figured itself out for the first time, developing its unique approach and tone after two films of imitating Godzilla. It captures the logic of a childhood fantasy, complete with the startlingly grim yet extremely unrealistic hyperviolence, and Gyaos quickly earns her spot as Gamera's most recognizable foe with her Dracula-pterosaur schtick.

Gamera vs. Guiron - If Gamera vs. Gaos is where the Gamera series figured out its identity, I kind of feel like this one is the movie where they lived up to that approach as fully as they could. This movie is so damn imaginative and wacky in such a perfect childhood fantasy way. I honestly think there are few children's films out there that understand the imagination of their target audience as well as it does. The scene where Guiron cuts Space Gyaos into sushi, for example, is entirely the kind of scene a child would draw if allowed to go nuts during art class, complete with the purple blood and complete lack if internal organs. Guiron is such a fun kaiju in both concept and design, you've got two evil space babes in it, AND Gamera does Olympic gymnastics during the big fight. Perfection, my favorite Showa Gamera film of all time.

But your mention of Gamera vs Barugon feeling more like a Godzilla movie leads me to the idea of an hypothetical Godzilla vs Gamera movie starting with a scene of each one fighting one of each others enemies, or a minor Kaiju from the other franchise.

More specifically, originally for me it was a Godzilla vs Barugon fight and a Gamera vs Baragon fight, both happening at the same time at the beginning of this hypothetical movie.

But of course, this has....a lot of problems, and kind of puts them as uneven. Like...Baragon may have fought Godzilla in GMK, but he was never shown as even close to being in the same weight class, where Barugon was, on the other hand, in the same weight class as Gamera, so this crossover part does feel uneven, even if they would basically exist mainly to hype out our to main stars.

Which asks the question of who else should fight Gamera while Godzilla fights Barugon? Anguirus kind of makes sense, thanks to being Godzillas first enemy, but he is not the same type of predatory, harmful anthropophage that most of Gameras enemies are, and he is not the type to cause problems to convince Gamera to take him down.

One of my other ideas was Megalon(thanks to his weirdness and combo of powers, and his nature as the guardian of an ancient civilization contrasting Gamera), but it kind of feels bad to bring him back just to be taken down in the first 10 minutes of this non-existent movie.

Unlike Earth, where sunsets are red and orange due to the scattering of shorter blue wavelengths by our atmosphere, Mars has an extremely fine dust that scatters blue light more efficiently near the Sun.

So during sunset on Mars, the sky turns reddish-brown while the area around the Sun glows a soft blue. It’s the opposite of what we experience on Earth.

NASA’s rovers have captured this eerie sight