Sunday, August 3, 2014

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Tobozu

Pachimon is the collective shorthand used for various Japanese bromide trading and playing cards from late 1960's and early 1970's featuring original Kaiju (giant monsters), created through both drawn illustrations and photo manipulations from more famous creatures from Japanese films and television.

Despite the wealth of fully original characters from these bromide cards, it was the 'rip-off photos' that gave Pachimon (Japanese for 'stolen monsters') its more infamous reputation; terrible shame of inaccuracy and people's misconceptions, really, and I'm no better either, by continuing my series of Pachimon Kaiju articles with said infamy.

Today, we have Tobozu (sometimes called Tohboze), who seems to be some type of sea monster who's invading a ship filled harbor. Many of you will immediately notice that Tobozu is a thinly disguised Gamera, lacking his original turtle shell, given a brown / orange-ish colored skin in place of the original dark green, uneven looking head spikes, and an extended under-bite.




But what really gets my interest is the small group of vacationers by Tobozu's hands / feet who haven't noticed or simply just doesn't care about their approaching doom. If you think that tidbit with the oblivious causalities is hilarious, I'll introduce you all to the London-based Danopura next time!

Before I leave you, I'd like to share my own artistic interpretation of Tobozu which is less of an educated guess on the monster's off-camera body shape than I just simply copying Japanese fan art of Tobozu, notably the Mugen video game versions.




Further Reading and Viewing Online:

Wikipedia Article on Gamera
Trailer for Gamera's 1965 Debut
More Pachimon Kaiju Images

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