Gamera is a towering mutant turtle. His origin is quite differnt depending on the continuity. In the movies from the 60's, 70's, 80's, Gamera was a giant per-historic awaken by nuclear bomb tests (sounds familiar, no?). In the movies from the 90's, Gamera was created by the people of the Lost City of Atlantis to protect the world from their first creation, the Gyaos, who were the ones that destroyed Atlantis, when they woke again. Gamera has been called "Guardian of the Universe" and "Friend to All Children". He first appeared in 1965 to try to get the same success as another popular mutant reptile Godzilla. Gamera started out as the bad guy, but soon became the hero. He had a nice run of movies with the last realeased in 1980. His films were liked by children, but were thought to "goofy" for older audiences. Then in 1995, to coinside with the 30th anniversary, Gamera: Guardian of the Universe was released. Sure, it was still a guy in a rubber suit, but it was done to it's finest. It was a turning point in the series. It started anew, forgetting the first series of movies. GOTU had Gamera awaken and fight off the Gyaos. It was successfull and spawned two sequels. In 1996, Gamer fought the insect horde, the Leigion. In 1999, Gamera fought Iryis, a cyrstal-like monster. In the film Iryis pins Gamera's hand in the wall and the only way to remove it is Gamera severing his own hand with a plasma ball. Gamera has changed in appearance through the years, as can be seen in this picture gallery. So, in summary, Gamera is the original mutant turtle.