Netflix’s Gamera: Rebirth series features its giant turtle protagonist duking it out with five opponents, and one of these foes is Zigra, a kaiju cross between a manta ray and a shark.
The Gamera: Rebirth Twitter account posted a photo of Zigra’s silhouette alongside a description explaining the aquatic kaiju as a monster who moves underwater at super high speeds. Zigra looks much larger in the artwork than he ever appeared in the past, hinting at the massive scale of the impending fights in Netflix’s series.
Who Is Zigra?
Zigra first appeared in the 1971 film Gamera vs. Zigra, the seventh installment in Daiei Film’s Gamera franchise. The movie established Zigra as an alien fish who traveled to Earth and attempted to enslave its populace. Zigra possessed a variety of powers, including both land and sea forms, multicolored beams that blasted from his head and caused explosions and earthquakes, and ultra-sharp dorsal fins. Despite these impressive abilities, Gamera stopped Zigra’s plans, freed his human hostages and defeated his enemy with a bust of fiery breath.
In the 1980 film Gamera Super Monster, Zigra reappeared in stock footage. The fish kaiju never returned for subsequent Gamera films, but Zigra did appear in Issues #3 and 4 of Dark Horse Comics’ Gamera: The Guardian of the Universe comic series.
Aside from Zigra, Gyaos and Jiger have also been revealed as foes in Gamera Rebirth. Gyaos is a winged kaiju widely regarded as Gamera’s archenemy due to his many appearances throughout the Gamera franchise. Jiger, meanwhile, is a horned reptile kaiju who is equally as scarce as Zigra, and only appeared in 1970’s Gamera vs. Jiger and in the stock footage of Gamera Super Monster.
Gamera: Rebirth marks the triumphant return of Gamera after nearly two decades, following the 2006 release of Gamera the Brave, and promises to restore Daiei’s most famous kaiju creation to prominence alongside his more well-known rival, Godzilla. The six-episode series — the first fully animated Gamera production — streams globally on Netflix later this year and is directed by Hiroyuki Seshita, who co-directed three Godzilla anime films for Netflix: 2017’s Planet of the Monsters and 2018’s City on the Edge of Battle and The Planet Eater. Gamera: Rebirth released its first trailer earlier this year, in January.
Source: Twitter
