Young Kenichi and Helen stow away with their fathers, who are Sea World employees conducting field research.  The childrens’ scolding is interrupted by a spaceship landing in the ocean!  As the foursome row out to investigate, Gamera appears in the skies overhead.  A strange ray from beneath the waves transports the entire boat inside the submerged spaceship.  There they meet a woman who claims to be from the planet Zigra.  If the Earth doesn’t surrender to her, she threatens to destroy the major cities of the world with powerful earthquakes.

While the adults are rendered unconscious, the children figure out how to reverse the ray and escape.  The shark-like alien Zigra (is he named after the planet, or vice versa?) orders the woman to kill them.  While she follows them back to Sea World, Gamera destroys the Zigran craft.  Zigra himself quickly grows to daikaiju proportions.  Gamera manages to bring the hostile alien ashore, but is knocked out by Zigra’s ray.  While Ken and Helen evade the spacewoman, scientists and the military hunker down in their Sea World HQ to figure out how to revive Gamera and deal with Zigra.

Gamera vs. Zigra is one of the weaker entries in the series.  It takes a while for the monster action to get started (almost 50 minutes), and the two lead children are annoying.  On the plus side, the underwater action looks good, and Zigra is a well-designed monster.  The music is also improved over the previous few entries, which tended to re-use the simplistic and annoying musical cues introduced in Gamera Vs. Viras .  (The “chase theme” for the woman pursing the kids around Sea World is particularly groovy.)  All in all, Gamera vs. Zigra has its problems, but remains enjoyable for Gamera fans.

In Widescreen with Dolby mono sound.

In Japanese language with English subtitles.

Great quality with menus & trailers for other Gamera movies.

Sealed in commercial packaging.