Koichi Kawakita

Koichi Kawakita Born December 5, 1942 Nihonbashi, Chuo, Tokyo, Japan Died December 5, 2014 (aged 72) Occupation Director of special effects First work Gorath (1962) Notable work Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)

Koichi Kawakita (川北 紘一,   Kawakita Kōichi) was a Japanese special effects director best known for his work on most of the Heisei era Godzilla films and the first two Rebirth of Mothra films. He also occasionally appeared in cameos in some of Toho's tokusatsu productions. Kawakita got his start at Toho as an assistant cameraman before progressing to optical photography, then director's assistance. He made his debut as a special effects director not with Toho, however, but on episode 21 of Tsuburaya Productions' Ultraman Ace. Kawakita passed away on December 5, 2014, his 72nd birthday.

Selected filmography

Director of special effects Ultraman Ace (TV 1972-1973) [episodes 21-22, 25-27, 30-31, 36-37, 40-41] Zone Fighter (TV 1973) [episodes 3-4, 8, 10, 14-16, 25] Ultraman Taro (TV 1973-1974) [episodes 6-7] Submersion of Japan: Television Series (TV 1974-1975) [episodes 4-5, 10, 14-15, 19-20] The War in Space (1977) [2nd unit] Megaloman (TV 1979) [episode 7] Ultraman 80 (TV 1980-1981) [episodes 10, 13-14] Tokyo Earthquake Magnitude 8.1 (1980) Bye-Bye Jupiter (1984) Nineteen (1987) Don Matsugoro's Big Adventure (1987) Gunhed (1989) Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon (1994) Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) Rebirth of Mothra (1996) Rebirth of Mothra 2 (1997) The Gransazers (TV 2003-2004) The Justirisers (TV 2004-2005) Super Fleet Sazer-X (TV 2005-2006) Super Fleet Sazer-X the Movie (2005) Fuhito (2006) [pilot] Director Making of Bye-Bye Jupiter (1985) Making of The Return of Godzilla (1985) Toho Unused Special Effects Complete Collection (1986) Monster Planet of Godzilla (1994) CR Godzilla 3S-T Battle (pachinko 2006) [cutscenes] Kawaii! JeNny (TV 2007) Gunhed 2025 (2013) Actor Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) as bar patron [uncredited] Submersion of Japan: Television Series (TV 1974-1975) as man listening to prime minister's speech [episode 23; uncredited] Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) as underground shopping center patron [uncredited] Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) as Rodan [hand puppet; uncredited] Miraculous Survivals! Narrow Escapes from Death Special (TV 1996-2003) as himself ["Celebrity Special Edition: Godzilla"] Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) as JSDF officer The Gransazers (TV 2003-2004) as secretary of defense [episode 49; uncredited] The Justirisers (TV 2004-2005) as office worker [episode 1; uncredited] The Dawn of Kaiju Eiga (2019) as himself, interviewee

Assistant special effects cinematographer Gorath (1962) [uncredited] The Great Story of Shim Jeong (1962) [uncredited] King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) [uncredited] Matango (1963) [uncredited] Samurai Pirate (1963) [uncredited] Atragon (1963) [uncredited] Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) [uncredited] Dogora (1964) [uncredited] Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) [uncredited] Optical photographer Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) [uncredited] Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) [uncredited] The War of the Gargantuas (1966) [uncredited] Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) [uncredited] King Kong Escapes (1967) [uncredited] Son of Godzilla (1967) [uncredited] Destroy All Monsters (1968) [uncredited] Latitude Zero (1969) [uncredited] All Monsters Attack (1969) [uncredited] Space Amoeba (1970) [uncredited] Compositor Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) [uncredited] Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) [uncredited] Ultra Q (TV 1966) [episode 12; uncredited] The War of the Gargantuas (1966) [uncredited] Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) [uncredited] Ultraman (TV 1966-1967) [title sequence; uncredited] First assistant director of special effects Ultraman Ace (TV 1972-1973) [episodes 1-4, 7-8, 11-14, 17-18] Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) [uncredited] Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974) The Mighty Peking Man (1977) [uncredited] The War in Space (1977) Miscellaneous Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) - Assistant director [uncredited] Return of Ultraman (TV 1971-1972) - Assistant director [unknown number of episodes; uncredited] Submersion of Japan (1973) - Assistant director of special effects [uncredited] Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) - Compositing advisor [uncredited] Making of Bye-Bye Jupiter (1985) - Writer Toho Unused Special Effects Complete Collection (1986) - Writer Kawaii! JeNny (TV 2007) - Planner [with Masamichi Fujiwara, Keita Sato] The God of Clay (2011) - Supervisor

Selected bibliography

• Encyclopedia of Godzilla (1990) - Editor-in-chief
• The Spirit of Tokusatsu: Toho Special Effects Battle Chronicle (2010) - Author

Gallery

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  Kawakita with the suits and props for Fire Rodan, Mothra, BabyGodzilla, Super Mechagodzilla, Godzilla and King Ghidorah

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  Kawakita using the Rodan hand puppet

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  Kawakita, Roland Emmerich and Patrick Tatopoulos with the DesuGoji

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  Kawakita's cameo in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

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Videos

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.
• 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.

External links

• Interview by David Milner (December 1994)
• Interview by David Milner (December 1995)

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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