The story of kaijuu that appear in Tokyo begins in the land of Elsitania, 100,000 years ago, with an endless war that consumes the parents of two children, Sica and Lucius. Left scarred after saving his sister from a kaijuu, Lucius dedicates his life to destroying the nobility that created the war and made them orphans. Kaijuu will be the tool he uses to achieve that end.

Gamera -Rebirth- code thyrsos is created by Kadokawa, with story by Hiroyuki Seshita and art by Cambria Bakuhatsu Taro. The manga was translated and lettered by lapin, Inc. and published by Titan Manga (November 25, 2025).

Erica Friedman
Rating:

Anyone familiar with the extended Godzilla universe knows the name Gamera. Gamera, the flying, spinning turtle, is remarkable for being positioned as a “friend to all children.” So when I saw Gamera -Rebirth- code thyrsos I was like, sure! Let's end as I began this review season, with kaijuu!

We are set in a bog-standard fantasy city, with extreme income inequality, and our two protagonists are children who have lost everything. Lucius bears the scars of the lies he has been told, and Sica has been unable to learn to survive on her own. Lucius is moved up to continue his research into the nobles' labs. He must work with their tools to create a kaijuu to destroy them. Sica begins to study, unwilling to be left behind, not understanding anything.

It's hard to understand the motivations behind the nobles' attempts to create violent, rampaging monsters, to denigrate a genius who might help them, and then to also allow the meat of these failed experiments to the people. Individually and collectively, the story here is muddled and inexplicable.

And, even so, this story might have made sense if it hadn't been positioned as part of the extended Godzilla multiverse. As we, in 2025, face an epoch of renewed devastation through war and natural disasters, it makes sense that fiction might once again lean towards depictions of these horrific events as “monsters” that create havoc and destruction. That all makes perfect sense. Had this just been a monster's destroy city opening, it would have been adequate, if not fun.

I cannot imagine the kind of person who writes a story about a giant monster who is “friend to all children” who chooses to center a story on children being destroyed physically, psychologically, and emotionally. The creative team sure is not a friend to any children.

Jean-Karlo Lemus
Rating:

The big draw—and flaw—of Code Thyrsos is that this isn't really a manga about kaiju. For a manga named after one of the most famous kaiju around, that also ties into his recent ONA series, the titular turtle doesn't really factor into this story. Code Thyrsos is instead a prequel telling the story of a pair of children who live in the prehistoric advanced society that creates the kaiju. Here, the kaiju are used for proxy wars between nobles of various nations; protagonist Lucius starts a years-long quest to destroy the nobles after he learns that his father died fighting what was basically a genetically modified monster.

I'd be interested in the nuts and bolts of theses scientists working together to build a better kaiju through the power of science, but it's all “multimodal reflection sorting”-tier technobabble. The actual nuts and bolts of kaiju-making (factoring in biology, developing intelligence, finding ways to make certain abilities like flight or fire-breathing feasible) aren't really explained and are just hand-waved—disappointingly. The volume hints at some politicking behind the scenes that Lucius has to navigate, but we don't get much of that either; it mostly manifests as Lucius getting bullied by nobles for his low birth. That just leaves the kaiju fights, and... well, they're not terrible, at least? It takes a bit for interesting kaiju to show up, let alone demonstrate any particularly novel abilities (to wit, kaiju flying or having “the intelligence of a whale” is seen as a groundbreaking development). And once again, if you're here for Gamera... you'll be left waiting a bit.

Considering Gamera is known as “the friend to all children,” it's fitting that the protagonists for Code Thyrsos are themselves children (granted, Lucius' accident is pretty gnarly). It's a shame that other than that, the only other link to Gamera that I can truly see here is that the kids' day job is working at a meat processing plant (“He is full of turtle meat!”). There's an interesting story to be told here, and I'd definitely hope that Code Thyrsos can pick up in later volumes. But in the meantime, it gets a mild recommendation. Content warning for children getting maimed.