Shinichi Wakasa

From Wikizilla, the kaiju encyclopedia
Revision as of 17:13, 11 October 2017 by The King of the Monsters (talk | contribs) (Created page with "{{Infobox Person |type1 =Ground |type2 =Dark |name =Shinichi Wakasa |image =Shinichi Wakasa.jpg |caption =Shinichi Wakasa...")
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigationJump to search
Shinichi Wakasa
Shinichi Wakasa holding the S.H. MonsterArts Gamera figure
Born March 2, 1960
Tokyo, Japan
Occupation Special Effects Technician, Makeup Artist, Model Maker
First work Ultraman 80 (TV 1980-1981)
Notable work Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II
Imdb.pngWp.png

Shinichi Wakasa (若狭新一,   Wakasa Shin'ichi) is a Japanese model maker and special effects makeup artist. Wakasa worked as a special effects technician and suit sculptor for every Toho-produced Godzilla film from 1993 to 2004, along with several other kaiju films produced by Toho and Daiei. Wakasa is the founder of MONSTERS Inc., a sculpting company that created the kaiju suits for the majority of the films on which Wakasa worked.

Career

In 1980, at the age of 20, Wakasa founded MONSTERS Inc., his own professional special effects sculpting company. That same year, Wakasa worked on Tsuburaya Productions' series Ultraman 80, where he was in charge of sculpting the monster suits. Wakasa's first major film work came in 1991, where he served as the chief makeup artist for Toho's horror film My Soul is Slashed, directed by Shusuke Kaneko. Wakasa would go on to serve as the chief suit maker for Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, which arguably launched his career as one of Japan's premiere tokusatsu artists. Wakasa performed the same role for the remaining two Godzilla films of the Heisei series, and reunited with Kaneko for Gamera 2: Attack of Legion in 1996. Wakasa continued to work as the chief suit maker for the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy from 1996 to 1998.

Starting with Rebirth of Mothra III, Wakasa began being credited as a "model producer" on his films, the first ever individual credited with this position. Wakasa worked as the model producer for every film in the Millennium series, with the exception of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. While Wakasa has not worked on a kaiju film since 2004, he has occasionally worked as a makeup technician on other films since then. Wakasa has also made appearances at G-Fest, and in 2017 published his book Godzilla - King of Monstermaker.

Kaiju Filmography

Books

Modeled Monsters

External Links

Real World