Zedus is the main antagonist of the 2006 film Gamera the Brave, the final Gamera film made in the Heisei era.
He is a mutated aquatic lizard kaiju and the archenemy of Toto/Gamera.
He was portrayed by the suit actor Mizuho Yoshida, who also portrayed Mother Legion in Gamera 2: Attack of Legion, Desghidorah in Rebirth of Mothra, Dagahra in Rebirth of Mothra II, and Godzilla in GMK: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
Appearance[]
Zedus is a large reptilian creature resembling that of a theropod dinosaur. He is covered in fin-like protrusions that cover him from head to tail. He also features a neck frill and a long tongue. His blood is colored purple.
Personality[]
Zedus showed a lot of personality as he is an utterly ruthless, highly intelligent, cruel, sadistic, vicious, bloodthirsty, powerful brute, and a relentless, ravenous predator. He takes great pleasure in toying with, bullying, and tormenting his prey as well as his enemies, as evidenced when he enjoyed attacking, abusing, and kicking Toto around, even constantly trying to kill him with his prehensile spear like tip of his tongue, in an act of both intimidation and for his own wicked amusement. He also showed signs of sheer anger, annoyance, and irritation whenever Toto showed up constantly getting in his way. In his final moments before his death, Zedus did scream and roar in extreme pain and agony before finally being blown to bits.
Biography[]
Zedus was once a regular aquatic lizard, having been mutated when he scavenged on Gyaos corpses killed in 1973 by Gamera's self-destruction. Not only did he grow in proportion, but also developed a taste of human flesh and a malicious streak not unlike Gyaos' own.
During the film, Zedus causes multiple marine disasters involving ships that are found destroyed with nobody on board. Also, there are multiple sightings of people in the water being dragged to the bottom of the ocean, with only their blood coming to the surface (as evidenced with a crewman of a destroyed ship, the No. 9 Kaiyo Maru, who was literally dragged underwater, killed, and eaten by Zedus, leaving nothing but a bloody trail of the victim's blood behind as well as his torn up life preserver in the aftermath.). No one can theorize who or what could be behind the attacks.
Eventually, Zedus finally makes landfall and causes all sorts of damage, while eating as many people as possible that stand in his way. He then turns his attention to Toru and Kousuke Aizawa; before Zedus can eat the boy and his father, he is stopped by Toto, a reborn Gamera that was raised by Toru. Despite Toto's efforts, Zedus gains the upper hand and kicks Toto across the city to a bridge. Zedus attempts to finish Toto by impaling him with his spear-like tongue, scabbing Toto's neck. After dodging a few strikes, Toto grabs the tongue as it is pulled back to blast a fireball in Zedus' face, knocking him off the bridge into the sea below.
Later, as Toto is being experimented on by scientists, Zedus returns for vengeance and smashes the laboratory, killing the scientists inside. Believing Toto to be dead in the rubble, Zedus continues his destructive assault on the city, spreading mass panic. Just before he can eat another group of cornered people, Toto bursts through the debris to face Zedus. But once again, Zedus quickly gains the upper hand by using his stronger abilities and tongue to wound Toto. When Toto attempts to bite Zedus' tail, the evil monster tosses Toto straight into a tall building. Just as Zedus climbs the building to push the lodged Toto over the edge, Toru tosses a red stone that Toto's egg rested on into his mouth, granting him the power of flight. Toto tackles Zedus, knocking him off the building to the ground below.
However, Zedus was not done yet and attacks Toto as he approaches the impact zone. Zedus then bites into Toto's shoulder, impaling him with his tongue. But with Toto's new Gamera powers that the stone granted him, he manages to brutally rip off Zedus's own tongue. Zedus roars a final time at Toto, before Toto himself charges the fire within his body to shoot a massive fireball down Zedus' throat, engulfing the evil man-eating monster as he howls in agony before exploding into smithereens, ending his reign of terror on the people of Japan for good this time.
Other Appearances[]
CR Gamera[]
Zedus appears in the pachinko game as one of the monsters featured on the slots. Unlike the other monsters, Zedus has no interactive battle against Gamera.
Gamera 2006: Hard Link[]
Zedus makes a brief appearance in the opening of the manga reflecting the ending to Gamera: The Brave. He is later mentioned by the main characters when they discuss Gamera's former foes.
Powers and Skills[]
- Intelligence: Despite being a towering brute, Zedus, himself is not a mindless creature at all, as he does display a great deal of high intelligence and is an expert strategist, an example of this is when Toto attempts to bite Zedus' tail, only for the evil monster to turn the tables against the heroic guardian kaiju by deliberately sending Toto flying straight into a tall building.
- Prehensile Tongue: Zedus' most powerful weapon is his elongated harpoon tongue. It can reach up to 100 meters in length, and can be launched in an extremely deadly effective spear-like attack, which is powerful enough to easily penetrate the edge of Toto's shell, or even 50 centimeter wide steel plates. The tip of his tongue can emit a strong biological acid.
- Leg Muscles: Zedus has powerful muscles on its legs, allowing him to leap up to 200 meters. He can also perform a powerful kick called Brawl Kick.
- Tail: His tail functions as both a balancer and a rudder to support his movements. It is also a powerful weapon, able to collapse skyscrapers with a blow.
- Agility: Zedus can leap up to 200 meters by using his powerful legs. He is also agile enough to climb buildings and other structures. He can swim at 70 knots.
- Amphibiousness: Being a mutated aquatic lizard, Zedus is capable of swimming underwater as well as moving on land. Zedus possesses multiple gills on its fins and is able to respirate underwater.
- Durability: Zedus survived a fireball Toto fired down his throat, although it did cause him to retreat. The warts covering his scales and skins possess rubber-like characteristics, enabling Zedus to repel military weapons such as missiles, although this was never demonstrated in the film.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Originally, the villain of the film was going to be a kaiju covered with tentacles and a barrier made up of anti-radioactive bacteria. This was changed for it would have been too similar to Viras.
- To make Zedus stand out from the other reptilian monsters faced by Gamera like Barugon and Jiger, he was made to walk bipedally instead of quadrupedally.
- Zedus' design was inspired by monsters from the Godzilla series, such as a tyrannosaur-like body seen with Godzilla and Gorosaurus, and the spikes on his back were based on Varan.
- The Zedus suit no longer exists as it was intentionally blown up and destroyed during production.
- Zedus' origin was explained in Gamera the Brave Super Complete Works instead of in the film proper, likely due to time constraints.
- Zedus is best remembered as being one of the most violent and vicious monsters in the entire franchise, bloodily devouring large crowds of innocent people (which is rarely seen in most kaiju films) and relentlessly brutalizing Toto during their battles, which is what made Zedus one of the most memorable kaiju main antagonists in the entire Gamera franchise.
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