Zanon

The Zanon are a war-like race of aliens, who appear in the movie ''Gamera: Super Monster. ''They are described as been like pirates - ravaging various worlds using their ships and monsters and/or outwardly destroying planets they fail to conquer.

The Zanon are not seen throughout the film, so their appearance remains a mystery. The ships they fly around in are enormous vessels - armed with powerful lasers. The Zanon themselves are technologically advanced - presumably from a combination of their own species' technology and stolen technology from the worlds they conquer/destroy.

The Zanon appear as the main antagonists in the Showa era Gamera movie, Gamera: Super Monster.

Information
One of the Zanon ships heads towards the Earth - intending to conquer it and enslave humanity. Discovering the presence of a trio of extraterrestrials known as the Spacewomen - who are disguised as human females and are trying to protect the Earth after their own world was destroyed by the Zanon - the women are warned by the Zanon that they will soon take over planet Earth. In order to try and stop the Spacewomen on Earth from interfering with their plans, the Zanon send Giruge - an evil spacewoman who has aligned with the Zanon race - to stop them. Meanwhile, the Zanon display their power by reviving Gyaos from Mount Fuji and sending him to attack Japan.

However, the Zanon soon discover Earth has a defender of its own, as (thanks to learning about Gamera from a young boy), the Spacewomen summon the giant turtle. Gamera resumes his battle with Gyaos and destroys his old enemy - with the Zanon deciding their next attack will be from the sea as they send the revived monsters Zigra and Viras to attack. Gamera first battles Zigra and defeats him before once again destroying Viras - much to the anger of the Zanon, who then revive the monster Jiger and send her to attack.

As the Zanon watch, Gamera again clashes with Jiger and kills her once again. Acting upon the idea of Giruge, however, the Zanon manage to attach a 'mind control' disk to Gamera's neck. With Gamera now under their control, the Zanon send him on a rampage across Japan. Risking her life, the leader of the spacewomen - Kilara - lands on the top of the disk after dodging a hailfire of laser fire from the Zanon's ship (which can't detect the women in their human forms but can in their spacewomen forms). Using this to her advantage, Kilara remains on top of the disc and jumps clear just as Zanon's ship fires at her. The shot destroys the control disc - freeing Gamera of his unwilling servitude.

Luring Gamera away from Earth by reviving the alien monster Guiron on the planet Terra, the Zanon then revive the monster Barugon on Earth and send him on a rampage. Unfortunately for the Zanon, Gamera heads to Terra and, after a heated battle on the planet's surface, kills Guiron before returning to Earth to recommence battle with Barugon. Meanwhile, Giruge battles Kilara and loses her fight (as well as her leg), but is convinced by Kilara to not take her own life as a result of her failure. After a short battle with Barugon, Gamera finally defeats the last of his previous enemies by drowing Barugon once again. Following this defeat, the Zanon decide that since their attempt to conquer Earth has failed, they will resort to the next plan of action - annihilate Earth and all its inhabitants!

After a sacrifice by Giruge to save the other Spacewomen, Gamera flew out into space to attack the Zanon's ship (after its commander informed Giruge of their plans to attack Earth). Charging at the vessel head on, Gamera kamikazes it - resulting in an almighty explosion that destroys the ship, but also results in Gamera's death. As the Spacewomen and Kenny (the boy who helped them) watch from below, they are able to see the explosion as the sky lights up in a blue flash. Although Kenny is upset that Gamera is now gone for good, Kilara reminds him that while Gamera is gone, his heroric sacrifice means that Earth is now safe once again.

Additional Information

 * In a confusing twist, Zanon is given to three different things in the movie. It is first used to refer to the species invading Earth, before then been used to refer to the ship. Finally, Giruge refers to the kaiju Viras as Zanon - possibly indicating the species inside the ship are the same species as Viras. However, since they are not seen outside the ship, the point is debatable.
 * Gamera was intially meant to survive the kamikaze attack with the Zanon ship. However, due to the director Noriyaki Yuasa seeing the cost-cutting measures Tokuma Publishing were taking on the film, he decided to instead kill off Gamera in a respectable fashion.
 * The majority of the film - in particular the monster fights between gamera and his previous foes - is stock footage from the previous Gamera movies, with only a small portion of new footage.

Appearances
Gamera: Super Monster - Movie