Iris

Real Name: Iris

Identity/Class: Unknown - probably mystical beast

Occupation: Doomsday beast

Affiliations: Ayana

Enemies: Gamera

Known Relatives: It has a genetic similarity to the Gyaosu

Aliases: Irys, Ryu-Sei-Cho

Base of Operations: Japan

First Appearance: Gamera 3: Iris kakusei

Powers/Abilities: Iris possesses many long and vicious tentacles which can grip, strangle and crush opponents. Its four fore-tentacles end in odd appendages that shoot sonic beams and can even bat away Gamera's fireballs. Its spur-like arms impale foes and drain out their life-force; on Gamera, this gave Iris the ability to shoot plasma fireballs which led to its defeat. Using membranes between its tentacles, Iris can create makeshift wings and fly at great speed.

Through a bead much like the Gamera ones, Iris can develop a psychic link with humans. Unlike Gamera, this leads to Iris attempting to assimilate its partner into itself for greater power.

History: No-one knows how the monster's egg ended up in a cave near a remote Japanese village, but it entered myth and legend as the phoenix creature Ryu-Sei-Cho, with a local family vowing to keep it imprisoned. By 1999, the current guardian of the cave was a youth named Moribe, attracted to a bitter and withdrawn girl named Ayana, whose parents had been killed by the Gamera/Gyaosu battle of 1995. Her hatred of Gamera, combined with the declined mana levels, caused the egg to activate and hatch. Naming the newborn creature Iris after her old cat, Ayana gained a frightening psychic link with it, courtesy of a bead somewhat like the ones used for linking humans to Gamera.

Iris went around draining the life-force of woodland creatures and instinctively knew it had to assimilate Ayana within itself to fully develop. Ayana went along, driven by her desire to kill Gamera; Moribe was able to rescue her from Iris' cocoon and two mysterious government figures (Kurata and Asukura) whisked her off to Kyoto for study. Asukura, it turned out, seemed to be a knowing descendant of Atlantis and wanted to bond with Iris herself, viewing it as a saviour against the demon Gamera.

Professor Nagamine and Asagi intervened, taking Ayana and heading for a proper hospital for her. Unfortunately, Iris had reached its adult form after draining everyone in Ayana's village; it headed for Kyoto, wanting to assimilate her and achieve its full potential. The JSDF failed to stop it and when Gamera intervened, he was viciously beaten and lost a hand.

Moribe tried to stop the assimilation and seemingly managed to snap Ayana out of her trance around Iris, but the monster absorbed her. Gamera tore her free and was viciously thrashed for it. Iris tried to drain Gamera's energy- a fatal mistake, as when it used Gamera's attacks against him, Gamera was able to absorb them to form a "plasma fist" and finally kill Iris.

Comments: Thanks to Charles Ellis for this profile and images. He notes "Iris is a strange and mysterious being. Nobody knows its origin, though the bizarre Kurata theorised it was a creature made to ensure Gamera could not stop the Gyaosu from wiping out current civilisation. The fact that Asukura, who appears to be of Atlantean descent, worshipped Iris as the true hero over the 'demon' Gamera and the existence of Iris' own Gamera-like bead suggest it was a deliberate creation by Atlantis. All we have are theories as to what's going on. (A personal theory is that some figures in Atlantis wanted Gyaosu to destroy their civilisation and created Iris to ensure this happened)."

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

• Iris, U.K. character

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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