As the marketing for Gamera: Rebirth continues, Kadokawa had been giving us teaser posters and 15-20 second previews for the anime. Information on the show has been coming in steady drips and it was not too long ago when we got the second teaser trailer and the second poster unveiling Gyaos's design last month. Our first bit of info was the show's reveal back in November, so I assumed we would get the next bit of info in March during the Anime Japan 2023 convention as announced on Twitter. In a surprise turn of events, we got a little bit more info during Super Bowl Sunday this time revealing the show's Japanese cast.
If you have been watching anime, then there are some voice actors that you may recognize. The cast list reveals:
Hisako Kanemoto as "Boko"
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as "Joe"
Aki Toyosaki as "Junichi"
and Subaru Kimura as "Brody."
Including in this list are staff that the staff working on the anime, which reveals Hiroyuki Seshita credited as director and writer. Last time we have seen Seshita take on a kaiju anime it did not go as well as he originally planned. It's ironic that once a director that is not of fan of Godzilla does a Godzilla movie and fails their names are recognized in infamy.
To give you a summary of what happened, Seshita did a lot of passing the buck and putting the blame for the failures of the Godzilla anime trilogy movies produced by Polygon. He blamed Toho Co. for putting on so many restrictions and then it was the fans fault for because there weren't enough people interested in going to see the movies even though their target demographic audience he was aiming for are the women audience. Then, there was his colleague Shoubun Shizuno who apparently prevented Seshita and screenwriter Gen Urobuchi from watching the old Godzilla movies because he didn't want anybody's creativity to be influenced by the movies. It was a show of shit-flinging and finger pointing.
Now, Hiroyuki Seshita is back to direct Gamera: Rebirth with promises from the posters and teasers of monster fights. With the "GAMERA vs 5 KAIJU" tagline, it is expected there will be plenty of fights since the show is only six episodes long. So Seshita has no excuse this time to not to show monster fights. Perhaps this time he will get it right. Maybe Gamera can be his savior and do what he was neglected by Toho Co. and deliver something spectacular. This is Seshita's second chance at taking on a known monster franchise. All I ask of him is if Gamera: Rebirth fails, then don't blame the fans for not liking the show like he did before. Otherwise, I do hope the anime does well, so we can get more Gamera movies and shows in the future.
Speaking of advertising, a third poster for the anime was revealed alongside the casting announcement. It does not show anything new other than the Gamera and Gyaos we saw in the first two posters now seen together. There is the title card "Gamera" with smaller text below it saying, "Animation Series 6 Episode," and, "Gamera vs 5 Kaiju." According to the Gamera: Rebirth Twitter page, the style of poster is inspired on posters you see from pro-wrestling. They even call this graphic poster a "Kaiju Pro Wrestling Visual." As advertised, there will be four more monsters that have yet been revealed. What would be really cool is when they do get revealed this poster gets updated little by little adding the newly revealed monster. Then after the fifth and final monster is revealed, we will get the full graphic poster perhaps finally showing off the full designs for Gamera, Gyaos, and all the other monsters. So far, this graphic has gotten kaiju fans really excited. I just hope we get the release date for this show soon. Maybe in March during the Anime Japan convention we will get a release date and a new monster revealed.
What are your thoughts on the cast and poster reveal for Gamera: Rebirth? Do they make you excited for the show? What do you hope we see for next month's reveal? Leave a comment in the comments section. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Minds, MeWe, Gab, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.