17 years later and Gamera is finally back on our screens! It's about damn time!
Hiroyuki Seshita has more than made up for the Godzilla anime trilogy with this. Granted the frankly awful 3D character models don't blend at all with the 2D backgrounds nor more stylistic kaiju designs but for what it's worth, the writing is actually rather decent despite the confused tone which can't decide if it wants to be for kids or adults. It constantly vibes like one of those 80s "band of kids go on an adventure" movies, e.g. The Goonies which is probably why I liked it so much, it also pays homage to every Gamera movie and iteration although much more from the Showa era than the superior Heisei trilogy. Helps that the episodes are 45 minutes long which makes it feel like linked mini-movies as opposed to an actual series. The music by Shuji Katayama is awesome, every time Gamera appears he is accompanied by a rocking guitar riff and the songs by WANIMA are pretty fabulous as well. The voice acting is all pretty good but no one really stood out to me in either language. Overall, Rebirth is a particularly fine return to the screen for our loveable giant turtle. It's not perfect but I would gladly take more if they could iron out the animation issues.
