History YMMV / Gamera

* FriendlyFandoms: With the ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' films. Or really, it's more accurate to say the Gamera fanbase exists mostly, if not entirely, as an extension of the Godzilla fanbase.

* SoBadItsGood: Most of the Showa series (barring the legitimately awful ''Film/GameraSuperMonster''), though the Heisei series is just good, as is the newer film.

** Granted, they were orcas, [[FridgeBrilliance and orcas have killed more people in captivity than they ever have in the wild]].

** The "Boss Viras" decapitating his humanoid henchmen in ''Gamera vs. Viras''.

** Showa Era:

* CompleteMonster: Gamera has been defending the universe from ravenous and malicious monsters for 59 years. Unfortunately, some of the enemies he has faced prove to be absolutely ruthless.
** [[Film/GameraVsBarugon Gamera Vs. Barugon]]: The {{greed}}y [[GoldFever Onodera]] is easily the worst human in the films. As part of a team attempting to retrieve an egg (which they believe to be an opal) for UsefulNotes/WorldWarII veteran Kano Hirata, Onodera and his two teammates [[TheHero Keisuke]] and Kawajiri (the latter of whom is the veteran's brother) go to an island and find the egg in a cave. Onodera decides to kill his two partners and keep the egg for himself, [[UngratefulBastard despite the fact that his teammates had earlier saved him from being swallowed by quicksand]]. Onodera lets Kawajiri get fatally stung by a scorpion, and seals Keisuke in the cave to die. When the egg later hatches into the titular Barugon, which goes on to kill thousands of people, Onodera can only think of [[ItsAllAboutMe how he can retrieve the egg]] (which he still thinks is an opal and believes to have sunk to the bottom of the ocean). When Kano discovers that Onodera killed his brother, Onodera beats the frail old man in a crutch, steals his wallet, and [[KillItWithFire sets the place]] on [[ManOnFire fire]] to [[LeaveNoWitnesses kill him and his wife]]. When Keisuke is revealed to have survived the cave-in and returned with Karen, a girl from the island, Onodera tries to kill him (and likely Karen since she'd be a witness) with a knife. Finally, when he learns that the military is trying to use a diamond to lure Barugon into the water and drown her, Onodera decides to steal the diamond for himself. He shows up with a gun, threatening to shoot anyone who tries to stop him, not caring that the diamond is their best chance at stopping Barugon, or that if he isn't stopped, he will go on to cause even more destruction.
** [[Film/GameraVsZigra Gamera Vs. Zigra]]: While most of the monsters are mindless rampaging beasts, this is not the case with Zigra. Arriving on Earth to [[TakeOverTheWorld conquer it]] and [[ToServeMan use humanity as a food source]], Zigra has his agent [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Lora Lee]] cause a massive earthquake that destroys all of UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}}, just to prove how powerful they are. Zigra also sends Lora Lee to [[WouldHurtAChild kill two children]] who [[HeKnowsTooMuch have seen the inside of their spaceship and know what they look like]]. Zigra also uses his ship's lasers to destroy a ship that could have picked up the children, and some fighter aircraft that attacks his spaceship. After his VillainousBreakdown, Zigra decides to forgo any plans of merely conquering Earth, instead opting to [[OmnicidalManiac eradicate all life on it]]
** [[Anime/GameraRebirth GAMERA -Rebirth-]]: [[SmugSnake Nora Melchiorri]] is a member of the board of the Eustace Foundation, and primary leader of their conspiracy. The daughter of a prominent family descending from the [[AbusivePrecursors Hemueden civilization]], Nora previously secured her position by [[SiblingMurder having her sister killed]]. Seeking to reinstate Hemueden's plans for the world, Nora and the Board engineer the awakening of several kaiju, with thousands of innocent people being slaughtered and devoured; the endgame being the [[KillAllHumans extermination of the human race]], save for those they deem "worthy" to inherit. To control the kaiju, the board [[WouldHurtAChild seeks out a child]] with a specific genetic "code" to sacrifice. When Nora's treacherous niece, Emiko, attempts and fails to usurp her, Nora reveals a new trump card: having previously experimented on an infant Gyaos, Nora further mutates it before setting it loose to finish things off. Failing that, Nora attempts to brainwash Gamera with a virus to carry out their plans. No tears are shed when she and her associates meet their end at the hands of Gamera.

* CompleteMonster:

** [[Film/GameraVsZigra Gamera Vs. Zigra]]: While most of the monsters are mindless rampaging beasts, this is not the case with Zigra. [[TakeOverTheWorld Arriving on Earth to conquer it and use humanity as a food source]], Zigra has his agent Lora Lee cause a massive earthquake that destroys all of Tokyo, just to prove how powerful they are. Zigra also sends Lora Lee to kill two children who have seen the inside of their spaceship and know what they look like. Zigra also uses his ships lasers to destroy a ship that could have picked up the children, and some fighter aircraft that attacks his spaceship. After his VillainousBreakdown, Zigra decides to forgo any plans of merely conquering Earth, instead opting to eradicate all life on it.

** [[Film/GameraVsZigra Gamera Vs. Zigra]]: The [[AntagonistTitle titular]] [[AliensAreBastards alien]] [[ThreateningShark shark monster]] Zigra [[VileVillainSaccharineShow is far more evil than most of the monsters Gamera faces, who are mindless rampaging beasts]]. Arriving on Earth to [[TakeOverTheWorld conquer it]] and [[ToServeMan use humanity as a food source]], Zigra has his agent [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Lora Lee]] cause a massive earthquake that destroys all of UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}}, just to prove how powerful they are. Zigra also sends Lora Lee to [[WouldHurtAChild kill two children]] who [[HeKnowsTooMuch have seen the inside of their spaceship and know what they look like]]. Zigra also uses his ship's lasers to destroy a ship that could have picked up the children, and some fighter aircraft that attacks his spaceship. After his VillainousBreakdown, Zigra decides to forgo any plans of merely conquering Earth, instead opting to [[OmnicidalManiac eradicate all life on it]], making him come out on top as Gamera's most vile opponent in the entire series.

!!Tropes that apply to the franchise as a whole:

* FanNickname: "Kenny/Kendra/Kennys" for all the child characters whose actual names the audience don't bother to remember. In two cases they literally were named "Kenny" though.

** [[Film/GameraVsGyaos Gamera Vs. Gyaos]]: Gyaos nearly slices off Gamera right arm. [[Film/Gamera3AwakeningOfIrys Thirty two years later]], Gamera would lose his right arm, albeit self inflicted, during his fight with Irys.

** [[Film/GameraVsZigra Gamera Vs. Zigra]]: The [[TitleCharacter titular]] [[AliensAreBastards alien]] [[ThreateningShark shark monster]] Zigra [[VileVillainSaccharineShow is far more evil than most of the monsters Gamera faces, who are mindless rampaging beasts]]. Arriving on Earth to [[TakeOverTheWorld conquer it]] and [[ToServeMan use humanity as a food source]], Zigra has his agent [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Lora Lee]] cause a massive earthquake that destroys all of UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}}, just to prove how powerful they are. Zigra also sends Lora Lee to [[WouldHurtAChild kill two children]] who [[HeKnowsTooMuch have seen the inside of their spaceship and know what they look like]]. Zigra also uses his ship's lasers to destroy a ship that could have picked up the children, and some fighter aircraft that attacks his spaceship. After his VillainousBreakdown, Zigra decides to forgo any plans of merely conquering Earth, instead opting to [[OmnicidalManiac eradicate all life on it]], making him come out on top as Gamera's most vile opponent in the entire series.

** [[Film/GameraVsZigra Gamera Vs. Zigra]]: The [[TitleCharacter titular]] [[AliensAreBastards alien]] [[ThreateningShark shark monster]] [[VileVillainSaccharineShow Zigra]] is far more evil than most of the monsters Gamera faces, who are mindless rampaging beasts. Arriving on Earth to [[TakeOverTheWorld conquer it]] and [[ToServeMan use humanity as a food source]], Zigra has his agent [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Lora Lee]] cause a massive earthquake that destroys all of UsefulNotes/{{Tokyo}}, just to prove how powerful they are. Zigra also sends Lora Lee to [[WouldHurtAChild kill two children]] who [[HeKnowsTooMuch have seen the inside of their spaceship and know what they look like]]. Zigra also uses his ship's lasers to destroy a ship that could have picked up the children, and some fighter aircraft that attacks his spaceship. After his VillainousBreakdown, Zigra decides to forgo any plans of merely conquering Earth, instead opting to [[OmnicidalManiac eradicate all life on it]], making him come out on top as Gamera's most vile opponent in the entire series.

* {{Wangst}}: Gamera accidentally killed Ayana's parents, so now she wants him dead. Fair enough right? What did he do, walk through her house? Throw Gyaos into it? Obliterate it with a stray fireball? No, actually, he landed on top of it while plummeting miles to the ground after possibly suffering brain damage from a head-shot from Gyaos' main weapon. BASTARD!
** If her dreams are accurate, he walked through her apartment building after plummeting to the ground. Whatever the case, her not holding a grudge against him would be very odd!
*** He landed on top of it, and the action of getting up and taking off caused further damage. There was really nothing he could've done.

* AngstWhatAngst: Even though the use of StockFootage clearly shows every film in the franchise happened, the human characters in each subsequent movie always seem to forget that giant monsters and real and repeatedly destroyed Tokyo and other cities in Japan. In particular, everyone seems to forget that Gamera with an almost mindlessly aggressive monster who killed thousands of people in the first two movies.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Some members of the fandom tend to believe that Iris was supposed to be a guardian along side of Gamera but Ayana's rage and hate drove him to kill those she didn't like and ultimately go after Gamera. Others believe he was evil all along and was only using Ayana to get more powerful. Still others believe he was a 'failsafe' made to take out Gamera should he turn on mankind like the Gyaos did and Gamera's disreguard for mankind awakened him. Given how little of his origin is actually revealed, any of the three could be right.
** Or all three, for that matter.
** Also, was his showing Ayana the stuff he did taunting her out of evil intent? Or was he just showing his "mother" what he'd done for her?

* [[SurprisinglyImprovedSequel Surprisingly Improved New Series]]: Almost unanimously regarded as superior to the the Showa series, and made Gamera his own distinct character with more to separate him from Godzilla.

* SacredCow: The trilogy as a whole is widely regarded by kaiju fans as three of the greatest kaiju films ever made. Even those who highly prefer Godzilla to Gamera will traditionally acknowledge their consistent and high quality. It's generally not the best idea to badmouth them in a discussion on kaiju works. This is especially true of the [[Film/Gamera3AwakeningOfIrys third and final film]], which many compare to the original ''[[Film/Godzilla1954 Godzilla]]'' as possibly ''the'' best kaiju movie of all time.