I'm going to make a quick review on Gamera: Rebirth because it's almost the end of 2023 and the series is still kinda new, and I'm a bit of a Gamera fan, so here are my small thoughts on it!

For those who don't know about Gamera himself: Gamera is a giant turtle Kaiju that got quite the fame before the 2000' in Japan for being a Godzilla's contrasting rival when it comes to Japanese monster movies. But the big guy went silent for quite a long period, his last movie being Gamera the Brave from 2006 and no other projects have been taken since. But finally the turtle has made a comeback with an Netflix animated series called Gamera: Rebirth, it draws the attention of not only our protagonist, but also 5 other Kaijus that Gamera has already faced before during the Showa period: Gyaos, Jiger, Zigra, Guiron and Viras. The series is mainly focused on our protagonist fighting other monsters to save the Earth and the population in danger, but there's also a side story about four kids going into an adventure trying to escape and getting safe from the Kaijus.

The plot is as simple as you can get: monsters fly around and hit each other while the human characters are trying to give us a reason of why we should care about the monster action. If we have to compare for a moment this series to other show with giant monsters like Godzilla Singular Point, the Godzilla anime trilogy or even Attack on Titan, Rebirth doesn't try to give a complex story or a deep meaning message behind the Kaiju fights, which in my opinion is a good choice because it will let the fans enjoy what they came here for: mindless monster action. The action itself was quite the spectacle, the way the monsters can fly or jump around while still having some sort of weight and impact on every hit they get is satisfying + the GCI on the Kaijus doesn't look that bad, I've seen better CGI in other action oriented series but the monsters aesthetic, along with their creative design, are charming to look. Gamera was also a very likable character, he's intimidating whenever countering another Kaiju but also protective and badass with the main cast around, maybe one of my favorite interpretation of the big turtle so far, his design is very sick and awesome as well.

So the story and action scenes are decent enough to recommend Gamera: Rebirth to a certain type of audience who wants to get at the edge of their seat. The show knows what it is and it's not afraid to be a mindless destruction fest with giant freaks, so I can give Rebirth a small respect for what is trying to be, but at the same time I can't call myself satisfied with Rebirth for probably insignificant reasons for other people. While the fights are well made and the protagonists are always set in dangerous situations I didn't felt much excitement, mainly for the issue of the generic soundtrack playing in the background that kinda killed the tension it was getting. The human characters aren't anything to write a book about, I've seen worse squad of kids in different stories (even in Gamera movies) but I can't find a lot to relate to them and I won't call their friendship unique or strong at all, and it makes me think of them as a generic group to follow. By the last two episodes when the main cast were getting in life risking events and the plot was getting a lot more serious I simply couldn't care. Also while I complimented the CGI for the monsters and how nice it looked, it was a deal breaker for me seeing how terrible it look on the human characters, on top of having bland design they also have stiff and rigid movements which makes them look very unnatural. It's one aspect I can compliment Godzilla Singular Point for, creating characters with generally unique design while being 2D animated, but Rebirth does the very opposite. It was a very noticeable problem after seeing the first trailer and sadly it has been the same from start to end. They also revealed a twist villain at the end, a character that seemed genuine and friendly for most of the adventure except not really when the plot needed at finale, it felt to cliché in my opinion.

So... this is what I generally think of Rebirth. Despite the overall nice attempt to bring the big turtle guy back in game, I can't help but feeling they could have made his return a little more epic and fascinating. Am I being to harsh on this small and inoffensive anime? Yeah maybe, but at same time I can't recommend it to a general audience who wants to look at something more memorable and there are other Gamera entries that can offer you a much better experience: like the Gamera Heisei trilogy or Gamera the Brave that I mentioned before. For being a return of an iconic monster, I just wasn't very interested. But then again this is just a dumb animated series made by f**king Netflix so, what could I expect. I'll might have an all new appreciation for the Gridman Universe.