Gamera is a giant prehistoric tortoise that can fly. He was kind of like Japan's B-team of movie monsters, because he had a pretty solid career but never made it up to Godzilla-status.
Oh look, here he is now.
In Gamera's first movie, he was pretty hard-core, destroying lots of stuff. He did, however, save this one kid from falling out of a tower, and this revealed that his true nature was the Friend of All Children. So mot of the rest of his movies, he's all buddy-buddy with a kid or a group of kids and is fighting other monsters to save the kids. Eventually, he went from terror of the arctic to the fun-loving interplanetary turtle with a catchy theme song:
If you still think Gamera is "just another Japanese movie monster," take a closer look. I guarantee you've never seen anything quite like this.
So there you have it. Should it come up in conversation, you'll at least know what you're talking about.
