Koichi Kawakita
- ️Sun Feb 16 2025
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Koichi Kawakita (川北 紘一 Kawakita Kōichi) was a Japanese special effects director best known for creating the effects for every Godzilla film from 1989 to 1995, as well as the first two Rebirth of Mothra films. He also occasionally appeared in cameos in some of Toho's tokusatsu productions. Kawakita was Toho's fourth-ever special effects director, the last of them to have worked under tokusatsu pioneer Eiji Tsuburaya, and the last person to receive the title "director of special effects" on a Godzilla film for over 20 years until Shinji Higuchi on 2016's Shin Godzilla.
Kawakita joined Toho in 1962, getting his start as an assistant cameraman on that year's Gorath. He eventually took up compositing and optical photography before graduating to assistant director. He made his debut as a special effects director not with Toho, however, but on episode 21 of Tsuburaya Productions' 1972 series Ultraman Ace. He directed Godzilla for the first time the following year on Zone Fighter's fourth episode, and received his first directorial assignments for film in 1976: uncredited on Geiensha's The Barren Zone and credited on Toho Pictures' Zero Pilot.
By 1989, Kawakita was chosen to replace Teruyoshi Nakano as special effects director of the Godzilla series, doing so on that year's Godzilla vs. Biollante and five subsequent movies. The first follow-up, 1991's Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, earned he and his staff a Special Technology Award at the 1992 Japanese Academy Awards. Kawakita departed from Toho in 2002, and the next year established his own special effects company, Dream Planet Japan, through which he took contract work for the remainder of his career. This notably included all three shows in the Ultra Star God franchise from 2003 to 2006, their 2005 feature film, and the 2007 puppet/suitmation hybrid series Kawaii! JeNny. Kawakita passed away on December 5, 2014, his 72nd birthday.[1]
Selected filmography
Director of special effects
Director
Supervisor
Actor
Interviewee
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Assistant special effects cinematographerOptical photographer
Compositor
First assistant director of special effects
Miscellaneous
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Selected video games
- Super Godzilla (1993) - Special thanks
- Godzilla Generations (1998) - Supervisor
- Godzilla: Trading Battle (1998) - Supervisor of original monster design
- CR Godzilla 3S-T Battle (2006) - Cutscene director
Selected bibliography
- Encyclopedia of Godzilla (1990) - Editor-in-chief
- Godzilla Magazine #1 (1992) - Interviewee
- Cinema Monstology (1993) - Special thanks
- Special Graphix Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) - Interviewee
- Godzilla Movie Chronicle 1954-1998: Godzilla Days (1998) - Section author
- Godzilla 1954-1999 Super Complete Works (2000) - Interviewee
- Heisei Godzilla Chronicle (2009) - Planner / supervisor
- The Spirit of Tokusatsu: Toho Special Effects Battle Chronicle (2010) - Author
- "Mr. GODZILLA" Haruo Nakajima (2010) - Special thanks
- Heisei Godzilla Perfection (2012) - Interviewee
- First Godzilla Research Book (2014) - Interviewee
- All Toho Mechanic Pictorial Book (2018) - Interviewee [posthumous]
Gallery
Kawakita using the Rodan hand puppet
Videos
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| Kawakita playing his younger self in the Godzilla-themed episode of Narrow Escapes from Death Special |
Trivia
- Koichi Kawakita's final credit was on the tokusatsu television miniseries Gunbot, which he wrote and directed the effects for. Its fourth and final episode aired on the day of Kawakita's passing.
- Shortly before his death, Kawakita gave an interview for Famitsu in which he was shown the PlayStation 3 Godzilla video game prior to its release.[4]
- On November 28, 2015, the Shin-Bungeiza in Tokyo screened Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, and Godzilla vs. Destoroyah in honor of Kawakita.[5]
External links
- Interview by David Milner (December 1994; archived)
- Interview by David Milner (December 1995; archived)
References
This is a list of references for Koichi Kawakita. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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