Gamera (Showa)

Gamera (ガメラ Gamera) is a giant turtle kaiju who first appeared in the 1965 Daiei film, Gamera. A giant ancient turtle, Gamera was awakened from his slumber within an iceberg by a nuclear detonation in the Arctic. Gamera travelled to Japan and ravaged the city of Tokyo, but his rampage was halted when the JSDF lured him into a rocket ship and sent him into space. Gamera returned to Earth after his rocket was destroyed by a meteor, and did battle with Barugon, an even more dangerous monster. Gamera defeated Barugon, and humanity began to see him not as an enemy, but as the lesser of two evils. The following year, Gamera appeared to battle Gyaos, a huge man-eating bat-like creature. Gamera went out of his way to rescue a young child from Gyaos' clutches, and humanity came to realize that Gamera was firmly on their side. Over the following years, Gamera defended the human race from various evil monsters, be they from Earth or the depths of outer space. Gamera became a friend to the children of the world, travelling across the globe and even to alien planets in order to rescue them from monsters and alien invaders. Gamera seemingly perished in 1980, when he flew into the spaceship of the evil space criminal Zanon, sacrificing his life to save Earth from Zanon's villainy.