Gamera 2: Attack of Legion

Lore & Background

The film begins one year after Gamera's battle with the Gyaos, as a large meteor crashes in Hokkaido. The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, led by Colonel Yusuke Watarase, investigates the crash site, unaware that insect-like extraterrestrial creatures have emerged. A series of telecommunication failures leads NTT engineer Obitsu to discover that underground cables have been removed, forming a straight path south from the crash site. The creatures create a hive in the Sapporo Municipal Subway tunnels, and a pod-like structure emerges that dramatically increases oxygen levels, intended as a biological launch pad to shoot a seed into space.

Reader's Guide

Gamera 2: Attack of Legion was the first daikaiju film to win the Nihon SF Taisho Award (the Japanese Nebula Award) in 1996, a decision that sparked fierce debate in the Japanese science fiction community, with critics arguing it signaled the decline of Japanese SF literature. The film was released theatrically in Japan on July 13, 1996, and later on DVD in the United States in 2003 by ADV Films. It was followed by Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris in 1999. The variety series How Do You Like Wednesday? is largely inspired by the trilogy, reusing music, telops, and formats from the films. The film features Hokkaido and includes Yō Ōizumi, Takayuki Suzui, and Ken Yasuda as extras, marking Ōizumi's first film career appearance.

Did You Know?

• The explosion of the Sapporo Municipal Subway by JSDF was inspired by the depiction of an elevator shaft in the 1988 film Die Hard.
• The film features Mizuho Yoshida as Legion Queen, the leader of the insectoid silicon-based extraterrestrials.
• Yō Ōizumi appeared as an extra in the film, making it his first film career appearance.
• The film did not win the Nihon SF Taisho Award in 1996; that award went to the novel 'The Lord of the Sands of Time' by Issui Ogawa, and Gamera: Guardian of the Universe won in 1995.