Gyaos

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Gyaos

Gyaos, (pronounced Gao-ss or Guy-os in the UK special edition DVD) is the name of several daikaiju from Daiei's Gamera film series, introduced in their 1967 production Gamera vs. Gyaos and one of Gamera's most famous opponents. It is the only Gamera foe to appear in the Showa, Heisei, and Millennium Gamera films.

Gyaos resembles a giant Pterosaur/Bat creature, with a flattened, arrow shaped head, leathery wings with three claws on each, taloned feet and a flat tail. It is reddish brown in both incarnations. The Gyaos in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe had a more streamlined appearance, with larger wings and a longer neck, as well as red eyes.

1 Appearances
2 Powers and abilities
3 Trivia
4 Filmography
5 Sources/Links

[edit] Appearances

In Gamera vs. Gyaos, Gyaos appeared in Japan from a large cavern, and feasted on blood - principally that of livestock and human beings. Soon, Gamera confronted Gyaos, and after a battle, Gyaos was forced to flee and Gamera was forced into the ocean to recover. It is soon learned that light causes Gyaos' skin to shrink, so the light of the city stadium of Nagoya kept Gyaos at bay. Gamera soon returned to finish Gyaos off and, after a battle in the air, Gyaos cut off his own foot to escape from the sun.

The protagonists developed a plan to place artificial blood on a rooftop in Nagoya. The plan was to keep Gyaos drinking the blood for so long that the sun would come up and kill him. But Gyaos proved more cunning than originally thought and used a strange fog attack to protect himself from the sun. The next plan was to lure Gamera to Gyaos' lair in the forest by setting the forest alight. Gyaos used his fog attack to put out the flames, but Gamera arrived and eventually defeated Gyaos by throwing the beast into a volcano.

Space Gyaos, as seen in "Gamera vs. Guiron.

A silver Space Gyaos ( in reality the repainted suit from Gamera vs Gyaos) appeared briefly in Gamera vs. Guiron, a victim of Gamera's titular opponent. A swarm of Space Gyaos had attacked the planet Terra, an undiscovered planet in our solar system, being kept at bay only by the Terrans' guardian monster Guiron. After Gamera had killed Guiron, the planet was seemingly abandoned to the Gyaos. Stock footage of Gyaos was later featured in the Shōwa series recap Gamera: Super Monster among others.

In 1995 Gyaos was revived with Gamera for the first Heisei era Gamera film, Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, which follows a story similar to the one above. In this the Gyaos were reimagined as creations of an ancient Atlantis-like civilisation designed as weapons. However, the asexual Gyaos (referred to as the Shadow of Evil) reproduced out of control and destroyed their creators. As a last ditch defense, they created Gamera, who eliminated the Gyaos, although not in time to save his creators. However, clutches of Gyaos eggs survived and one clutch hatched in the modern world. After killing and eating all the inhabitants of Himigami Island and attacking the mainland, the Gyaos were lured to a domed stadium in Tokyo. Gamera, sensing his ancient foe, awoke as well and made his way to Tokyo. Gamera attempted to stop the Gyaos, killing two, but was hindered by the misguided military, who considered him to be the greater threat. Eventually Gamera killed the last Gyaos, which had nested in Tokyo and grown to a height of 85 meters, after a long and vicious battle. This Gamera size Gyaos is often referred to as the Super Gyaos. The Super Gyaos would also appear in flashback scenes in Gamera 3, and would eventually be revealed as the real killer of Ayana's parents.

The Gyaos returned in a new, evolved form known as the Hyper Gyaos in Gamera 3: Awakening of Irys, after Gamera's Mana blast, used to destroy Legion in Gamera 2: Attack of Legion, drained the earth's energy, creating the right conditions for more Gyaos to hatch. Early in the film, Gamera battles a pair of Hyper Gyaos in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, killing them but also killing and injuring as many as fifteen to twenty thousand civilians. After Gamera defeated Irys (itself theorised to be a Gyaos mutation or evolution) in Kyoto, thousands of Gyaos swarmed towards Japan, intent on killing Gamera once and for all. The unofficial resolution to this battle can be seen in the fan film Gamera 4: Truth.

The Gyaos are also mentioned in the new Gamera film Tiniest Heroes: Gamera, as the original Gamera in this film dies while fighting several Gyaos in Iseshima. This makes them the only monster in the Gamera series apart from Gamera himself to have appeared in the Showa, Heisei and Millennium series of kaiju films in some shape or form.

[edit] Powers and abilities

In both incarnations the Gyaos have been shown to be astonishingly capable flyers, able to fly incredibly fast and perform agile aerial maneuvers with ease. Also, both Showa and Heisei versions have been able to spit an amazingly precise beam from its mouth, which is actually created by the Gyaos' supersonic scream, apparently able to resonate at 3 million hertz. Although they are nocturnal the Gyaos can overcome the sun - emitting a fog-like gas to obscure the sun and douse flames, while the Heisei version simply hyper-evolved itself to gain protective lenses over its eyes. Interestingly, the Space Gyaos in Gamera vs. Guiron seems to have no such aversion to sunlight: logical, given that it would be impossible for a space creature to avoid sun and star light. The Showa version also has a regenerative ability, as it was able to regrow its severed foot after only an hour. The Heisei version showed several evolutions: it was asexual and could reproduce on its own. While not shown to be regenerative, the Super Gyaos is immensely physically tough, able to easily shrug off missile attacks, and even survive orbital re-entry.

[edit] Trivia

The Super Gyaos in Gamera: Guardian of the Universe is actually the first suitmation monster in a kaiju eiga film to be played by a woman, Yumi Kanayama.
The production team of the Heisei Gamera trilogy decided on Gyaos as an opponent as they believed that Gyaos was Gamera's most famous foe, having appeared in at least four of the Showa Gamera films.