YMMV / Gamera vs. Barugon

• Awesome Music: Chuji Kinoshita's score.
• Complete Monster: The greedy Onodera is easily the worst human in the films. As part of a team attempting to retrieve an egg (which they believe to be an opal) for World War II veteran Kano Hirata, Onodera and his two teammates Keisuke and Kawajiri (the latter of whom is the veteran's brother) go to an island and find the egg in a cave. Onodera decides to kill his two partners and keep the egg for himself, despite the fact that his teammates had earlier saved him from being swallowed by quicksand. Onodera lets Kawajiri get fatally stung by a scorpion, and seals Keisuke in the cave to die. When the egg later hatches into the titular Barugon, which goes on to kill thousands of people, Onodera can only think of how he can retrieve the egg (which he still thinks is an opal and believes to have sunk to the bottom of the ocean). When Kano discovers that Onodera killed his brother, Onodera beats the frail old man in a crutch, steals his wallet, and sets the place on fire to kill him and his wife. When Keisuke is revealed to have survived the cave-in and returned with Karen, a girl from the island, Onodera tries to kill him (and likely Karen since she'd be a witness) with a knife. Finally, when he learns that the military is trying to use a diamond to lure Barugon into the water and drown him, Onodera decides to steal the diamond for himself. He shows up with a gun, threatening to shoot anyone who tries to stop him, not caring that the diamond is their best chance at stopping Barugon, or that if he isn't stopped, he will go on to cause even more destruction.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Kawajiri's death, despite being a little narmy, is pretty horrific. We know that it's coming for a good long time leading up to it, and all the time he's celebrating and talking about how happy he is. Then when he's stung, he dies screaming in pain and begging his friends to save him.
  • Onodera‘s death is also horrific. Sure, he was an Asshole Victim who 100% deserved his fate but being caught in Barugon’s tongue and dragged back to the monster’s mouth to be eaten alive is scary. The special effects here are also top notch here, making it quite horrific.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: It's generally regarded as substantially better than the original black & white movie, and by some considered the best of the original Showa era of Gamera films. Though Gamera vs. Gyaos is also a strong contender for that title as well.
• Tear Jerker: It's hard not to feel bad for Barugon when Gamera finally drowns it. After everything it did, Barugon was still more or less just an animal, already in misery from the artificial rain bombardments and the self-inflicted wounds from its rainbow.
  • Keisuke's reaction to the death of his friend Kawajiri.
• Ugly Cute: Barugon. Just look at that lizard, he's adorable!
• Vindicated by History: Due to its connection to the Showa-era films, and also partially thanks to its inclusion on Mystery Science Theater 3000, the film has been seen as another run-of-the-mill kaiju film. In recent years, however, it’s received a much warmer reception amongst kaiju fans who applaud it for not following the same traits of the latter Showa Gamera movies (such as the child protagonists and goofy, nonsensical tone), and for trying to tell a more mature story with an interesting and intimidating kaiju in the form of Barugon and having great effects for the time. Nowadays it’s seen as one of the best of the Showa-era Gamera films next to Gamera vs. Gyaos and one of the better kaiju films of the era.

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