GAMERA RETURNS TO THE BIG SCREEN IN 2015 Titanic Terrapin's 50th Anniversary Production

ガメラ生誕50周年である2015年に「何かがある」!


Gamera prepares to blast back onto motion picture screens next year!

SCOOP: Over the last week, there has been some English-language rumors spread about a new production, featuring Daiei Studio's answer to Godzilla, to hit cinema screens in 2015, based solely on a listing appearing on Japanese retail sites for the May 5th issue of Newtype the Live magazine. The listing mentions details on the production will be revealed as well as "image boards" (presentation art). While the listings are legitimate (the magazine in question is published by Kadokawa Shoten, which owns Kadokawa Pictures and Gamera), promising content on the upcoming film — that's only a fraction of what the Japanese already know.


This book first spilled the proverbial turtle soup on the new film.

The initial news was broken on February 8th in a completely different publication, "Heisei Gamera: Perfection," a 304-page book chronicling the post-1980s Gamera films, published by Kadokawa and Ascii Media Works. The major points dropped, which will be expanded upon in the upcoming May issue of Newtype the Live, include:

• The pre-production tagline is "Something is out there..." (Dareka-ga aru).
• Gamera in this production will come to life in a "(new) surprising form."
• Producer Shigenori Takatera, is the central person at the helm. Taketera also served as a producer on KAMEN RIDER KUUGA (2000) and DAIMAJIN KANNON (2010).
• The CEO of Kadokawa said the foundation of this production is, "What does today's audience want to see?"
• BONUS POINT: The narrative is set in modern day and preproduction is well underway.

Stay tuned to this blog for more information as it develops!

(Special thanks to Hiroshi Ban and Makoto Kobayashi.)

DAIMAJIN KANNON REVEALED: Sneak peek at the all-new character!

「大魔神カノン』登場!


From "Newtype: The Live", July 2009. © Kadokawa Publishing


A blow-up focusing on the face. ©Kadokawa Publishing

Even though I received my copy of the magazine about three weeks ago, I didn't have time to post these photos before leaving for G-Fest in Chicago. But still, after being home for a week, and working on other projects, I finally got around to it — so, here you go!

According to the article in the July 2009 issue of Newtype: The Live, this new Daimajin character will stand 20 meters tall (approximately 66 feet), which is significantly taller than the character featured in the original 1966 trilogy.

Click here for my previous blog entry: Giant Majin Strikes Again! about the upcoming television series, DAIMAJIN KANNON, currently shooting in Japan. The miniature effects are being shot in Studio No. 1 at Kadokawa Studios (formerly Daiei).

Kadokawa has announced that the series will premiere this October. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months!


The 289-foot Great Kannon in Kita-no-Miyato Park, Hokkaido. Any resemblance is strictly coincidental.

GIANT MAJIN STRIKES AGAIN! New Teleseries to Premiere in Japan this Fall

新番組「大魔神カノン』秋に登場!


Returning to life this October... but will we recognize him?

Over the last two decades, there have been numerous revivals and re-inventions of popular Japanese characters and remakes of beloved film franchises. Numerous attempts have been made to resurrect the avenging stone deity, Daimajin, first stirred to life in Kimiyoshi Yasuda's unforgettable 1966 Daiei production of the same name (and quickly spawned a pair of also memorable and iconic sequels), but all have failed to see the light of day. Until now...

In 1991, there were rumblings in the pages of Kinema Junpo, Japan's most respected cinema magazine, that high on the international success of Steve Barron's TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (1990), Golden Harvest had entered a deal with Daiei to produce a new DAIMAJIN film, starring Kevin Costner, who had just swept the Oscars with DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990). After the award-winning accolades garnered by GAMERA: THE GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE (1995), Daiei announced that they would like to revive the hideous stone idol. There was nothing.

When Daiei changed hands and was sold to the giant Kadokawa Publishing empire in 2002, they also had future plans for Gamera and Daimajin. In 2005, eclectic fringe director, Takashi Miike, scored a hit with a re-imagining of Daiei's 1968 film, THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, and was summarily attached to a DAIMAJIN remake. Unfortunately, after the miserable box office receipts from Ryuta Tasaki's GAMERA: THE BRAVE (2006), Miike's DAIMAJIN project was cancelled by Kadokawa Pictures. Again nothing.

Then, on April 1, 2009*, the new issue of Kadokawa Publishing's Newtype: The Live, made an exclusive announcement—Daimajin would return in a new television series produced by Kadokawa Pictures: DAIMAJIN KANNON. Shigenori Takatera, a fan who became an Assistant Producer at Toei in 1986, is slated to produce. Takatera started his career with KAMEN RIDER BLACK (1987-88), worked his way up as the Chief Producer on RACING TASK FORCE: CARRANGER (1996-97) through STAR BEAST TASK FORCE: GINGAMAN (1998-99), and he then moved over to KAMEN RIDER KUUGA (2000-01) and KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI (2005-06).

While the Newtype: The Live article was very coy at divulging details, it does state that DAIMAJIN KANNON will be contemporary, instead of the feudal period-setting of the feature films, and will be aimed squarely at adult viewers, most likely guaranteeing a late-night broadcast (a network has not been announced). The article features an "image sketch" by To-ru Watanabe (Master of Epic), of a young girl, most likely the titular "Kannon" (or "Goddess of Mercy"), an avatar for Daimajin—following the template of the first film. Kadokawa describes the production as a "VFX Fantasy" remake of the original film.

Stay tuned to this blog for more details as they develop on this long-awaited return of Daimajin!

*April 1, known in the west as "April Fool's Day" is not observed in Japan. Therefore, this story is not a "prank," neither from here nor the source.