Shinichi Wakasa

Shinichi Wakasa Born March 2, 1960 Tokyo, Japan Occupation Sculptor, modeler, makeup artist First work Ultraman 80 (TV 1980-1981) Notable work Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)

“	If Godzilla is king of the monsters, then my friend Shinichi Wakasa is the king's hand.	„
	— Rick Baker

Shinichi Wakasa (若狭 新一,   Wakasa Shinichi) is a Japanese model maker and special effects makeup artist.

Wakasa worked as a special effects technician and suit sculptor for nearly 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 modeling company which 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 the Legion in 1996. Wakasa continued to work as the chief suit maker for the Rebirth of Mothra trilogy from 1996 to 1998.

For Rebirth of Mothra III, Wakasa was credited as a "model producer," the first ever individual credited with this position. Wakasa continued to work as chief modeler for nearly 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.

Selected filmography

• Ultraman 80 (TV 1980-1981) - Modeler [uncredited]
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) - Mechagodzilla, Rodan modeler [with Rikuo Mikami, Yukihiro Kanetsuna, Takuji Yokoyama, Shigeaki Ito, Masayuki Kurahashi]
• Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) - SpaceGodzilla, LittleGodzilla modeler [with Shigeaki Ito, Takuji Yokoyama, Akira Yamada, Fumihiko Yagi, Nobuhiro Ekubo]
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) - Destoroyah modeler [with Shigeaki Ito, Akira Yamada, Masakatsu Yagi, Takuji Yokoyama, Fumihiko Yagi, Nobuhiro Ekubo]
• Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion (1996) - Soldier Legion modeler
• Rebirth of Mothra (1996) - Modeler [with Tomoki Kobayashi]
• Rebirth of Mothra II (1997) - Modeler [with Tomoki Kobayashi]
• Rebirth of Mothra III (1998) - Model producer
• Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999) - Modeler
• Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000) - Modeler
• Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) - Modeler
• Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) - Modeler
• Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) - Modeler

Books

• Monster Maker: Keizo Murase - Treasured KAIJU Photobook (2015) - Supervisor [with Yuji Nishimura]
• Godzilla - King of Monstermaker (2017) - Author

Modeled monsters

• Rodan, Mechagodzilla (Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II)
• SpaceGodzilla, LittleGodzilla (Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla)
• Destoroyah (Godzilla vs. Destoroyah)
• Soldier Legion (Gamera 2: Attack of the Legion)
• Desghidorah (Rebirth of Mothra)
• Dagahra (Rebirth of Mothra II)
• Mothra Leo, King Ghidorah (Rebirth of Mothra III)
• Godzilla, Orga (Godzilla 2000: Millennium)
• Godzilla, Megaguirus (Godzilla vs. Megaguirus)
• Godzilla, Kiryu (Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla)
• Godzilla, Kiryu, Mothra (Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.)
• Godzilla, Minilla, Mothra, Anguirus, Rodan, Ebirah, Kamacuras, Kumonga, Hedorah, King Caesar, Gigan, Monster X / Keizer Ghidorah (Godzilla: Final Wars)

External links

• Twitter account
• Instagram account

References

This is a list of references for Shinichi Wakasa. 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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