Concerning Gamera's Mana Cannon did people hate it?

[daveblackeye15]

I think at most I've heard a little grumbling about but this was over a period of years and didn't really join in online discussion until making an account here.
Only reason I'm making this topic is I was looking at the BigBadToys had the following for their sold out Gamera 2 SHMA figure.
"From the classic 1996 Gamera 2 movie, this articulated Gamera figure features his infamous plasma fireball effect with a support stand so fans can recreate scenes from the movie!"
I mean infamous is negative as opposed to famous. I thought it was freaking cool when I first saw it and still think it's really cool as I type this with the ending credits for Gamera 2 playing.
The attack, along with something like the plasma fist from Iris are certainly attacks I wouldn't mind seeing again if Gamera ever gets revived.

[LSD Jellyfish]

I think at most I've heard a little grumbling about but this was over a period of years and didn't really join in online discussion until making an account here.
Only reason I'm making this topic is I was looking at the BigBadToys had the following for their sold out Gamera 2 SHMA figure.
"From the classic 1996 Gamera 2 movie, this articulated Gamera figure features his infamous plasma fireball effect with a support stand so fans can recreate scenes from the movie!"
I mean infamous is negative as opposed to famous. I thought it was freaking cool when I first saw it and still think it's really cool as I type this with the ending credits for Gamera 2 playing.
The attack, along with something like the plasma fist from Iris are certainly attacks I wouldn't mind seeing again if Gamera ever gets revived.

People in general seem to dislike random OP weapons/or skills, leading to the downfall of otherwise powerful adversaries.

[BlankAccount]

I feel they handled it well, G2 leaves question about the canon and the strange energy Gamera summoned as well as the destruction of the magtamas, G3 answered those questions. Where as most other kaiju things Ultraman or Godzilla pull off a new trick and it's never explored in the sequels, it's just accepted as that's a thing they can do now.

[daveblackeye15]

Yeah. I do wonder if the director had always planned on three films or if it's like 'okay if we do a second movie and it does well do we do a third?' Or if planned it out pretty well or what. I mean for three years they didn't have a Gamera 3.

[GodzillavsRayquaza]

I have never heard anyone complain about the Mana Beam. Maybe it’s just my experience, and i’ve missed the negativity, but i’ve seen nothing but praise for the Mana Beam, both in terms of the actual attack being amazing and how it actually ties into the third movie. Nor have I seen anyone complain about the plasma fist, again, only praise. Again, just what i’ve seen, I could be missing a whole (very, very wrong) section of the fandom that thinks the Mana Beam and Plasma Fist were garbage.

The toy description just says plasma fireball, nothing relating to Mana Beam. And why would a toy description use infamous as a selling point? Either the company doesn’t know what that word means, or it’s some weird thing of it being infamous in-universe. Like if a toy described Godzilla’s atomic breath as infamous. That doesn’t make much sense, but it makes more sense than the selling point of “you can recreate something everyone hated!”

[daveblackeye15]

Huh...well that's embarassing. I swear it said like Plama Beam earlier which sure sounded like the Mana Beam in my head. Alright alright so I screwed up but yeah if you told me one of his attacks, the fireball or mana beam was unpopular/infamous I would have guessed the latter since it wasn't really hinted at before.
But he's shown unbelievable things before. In the first movie he seemingly comes back to life/severely hurt from fire when Gyaos dropped him into the refinery. He comes back to life without fire in Gamera 2. The plasma fist wasn't so deus ex to me since hey he seems to have a mastery of fire.
Mana Beam is a bit sudden but I didn't have to wait three years for Gamera 3 but I do like that there are consequences for it. Plus I've heard Gamera could only use it once. So I'm like 'okay do they mean like there isn't enough mana now?' Like what if he gets hurt again like in Guardian of the Universe and he seemingly reforms from fire? Is his torso re-birthed so he can do it again?

[JAGzilla]

It might have nothing to do with fan opinions, which are notoriously variable and fluid, anyway. Maybe they just mean 'infamous' in a 'so powerful it's feared' sort of way.

[eabaker]

It might have nothing to do with fan opinions, which are notoriously variable and fluid, anyway. Maybe they just mean 'infamous' in a 'so powerful it's feared' sort of way.

Pretty sure that's exactly what they meant.

[daveblackeye15]

I guess but now it humorously makes me think of the Gyaos being in chat rooms online or writing into magazines complaining about Gamera's plasma fireballs.
'Did you see how many times he fired in Shibuya? Spammer! You can't even fly in peace anymore!'

[Stump Feet]

This thread was born out of the OPs lack of knowledge of the term "infamous", no one hates this move- case solved

Can we lock this please lol

[GojiDog]

It was a great visual and a cool killshot, but didn't make much sense in the movie.

I mean, come on Gamera. Why didn't you lead with that? I kind of forgave it though because the movie as a whole is really good, and like I said, it did look cool.

However, I completely forgave it after seeing Gamera 3 where they came up with an explanation where Gamera has to use that type of stuff as a last resort and can't do it often or else something awful will happen. They may have written that in to retroactively explain why he didn't lead with that movie in Gamera 2 (or even Gamera 1 for that matter) and didn't intend for that to be the case initially, but hey, I'll take it.

[Terasawa]

I don’t know, I think it’s subtly alluded to in the film that it’s a last resort weapon. He only uses it when everything else fails, and also only after his link with Asagi is broken (symbolized by the shattering of her pendant).

[daveblackeye15]

This thread was born out of the OPs lack of knowledge of the term "infamous"

Can we lock this please lol

I kind of also wanted to hear people's opinion of it since I thought it was really cool but wondered if maybe it had a mixed reception when it came out.

Also a part of me does wonder why Gamera couldn't finish Legion off with fireballs. I mean her shield was weakened when several of her arms were blown off...but Gamera is a flying turtle remember? He could have manuevered around and hit her costing a lot less mana I'd think.

But hey I do love mana cannon and the fallout from it.

And if I should be mocked for anything I think it's for confusing plasma fireball with mana cannon.

[LSD Jellyfish]

Doesn’t Gamera in Gamera the Brave use something similar in the flashback and just straight up die?

[Godzillian]

I've never seen anyone straight up say they hate the Mana Cannon.

Added in 48 seconds:

Doesn’t Gamera in Gamera the Brave use something similar in the flashback and just straight up die?

Gamera in that canon can self destruct but it looks similar to Godzilla Earth heating itself up than the mana cannon

[eabaker]

Well, we all know what Blaine and Antoine thought...

[Arbok]

It feels like a deus ex machina in the movie for sure... that said, the effect is just so damn impressive and the sequence so cool that I think it's escaped criticsm for that reason.

Personally, Gamera 2 remains my favorite of the series and I've always enjoyed this scene.

This thread was born out of the OPs lack of knowledge of the term "infamous"

Can we lock this please lol

The topic is fine as a thread to discuss the scene and the power.

[Stump Feet]

This scene was a Guyver ripoff and you know it

[daveblackeye15]

I love Guyver as well. It's weird how Gamera can take such a power so well but I think we'd be weirded out if Godzilla's chest was to open up and he shot an even bigger blue fire attack. It's also neat I found some sketches of the Gamera 3 design and apparently they weren't sure if Gamera was going to use the Mana Cannon again so there is some concept art of his chest open again. Kind of glad they didn't repeat it and he got the plasma fist.

[Omegazilla]

I never saw a problem with such a power. Especially given that the sequel shows the consequence of its use. If anything it makes Legion even more menacing because Gamera almost certainly had to be aware of what would happen but Legion was likely deemed to be even worse if it wasn't annihilated.