The Anatomy Of Japanese Monsters
The following cartoon anatomy drawings were taken from a volume of the Kaijū-Kaijin Daizenshū movie monster book series published by Keibunsha in 1972. They feature Gamera’s anatomical structure and that of his foes; I’m reposting them here simply because they look cool. Nothing more, nothing less…
I’ve also included pictures of the characters as they appeared in films because they look pretty rad in the flesh too:
Gamera
Gamera is a monstrous turtle-esque Japanese character from the 60’s. He was created to rival the great success of Godzilla during a time when a film with no monster, was no film at all. Gamera has a misslie proof shell and eats petroleum based food which allows him to not only breath fire but also fly using his shell as a rocket pack. He is also reputed to be able to dead lift 50,000 tons.
He goes under a number of aliases: The Invincible Super Monster, The Guardian of the Universe, The Brave and The Friend of All Children.
Anatomical features of note: electrical spikes on his shell, poison filled claws, sack-like organs for storing coal, lava, oil and uranium, balloon-like organs that blast jets of air out through the feet, and a tail of elastic cartilage that could easily destroy an entire building.
Guiron
Anatomical features of note: his knife like head is made of a substance that is 100 times stronger than diamond, within this weapon he stores ninja stars that can be fired from slits above his eyes. Gamera also boasts 60 times more teeth than a piranha, lungs adapted for long-distance space travel, webbed feet for swimming and magnetic suction cups on his hands.
More on next page…
