Teruyoshi Nakano

Teruyoshi Nakano Born October 1, 1935 Andong, Manchukuo First work The Three Treasures (1959) Notable work The Return of Godzilla (1984)

Teruyoshi Nakano (中野昭慶,   Nakano Teruyoshi) is a former Japanese special effects director who has worked on several Toho-produced tokusatsu films, including many entries in the Godzilla series.

Career

Nakano worked under his mentor Eiji Tsuburaya for much of the Showa series, before taking the reigns as head director of special effects for the Godzilla series following Tsuburaya's passing. Following the end of the Showa series, Nakano continued serving as director of special effects for other Toho films in the 1970's and 80's, such as The War in Space. Nakano's last work on a Godzilla film was as director of special effects for the 1984 revival of the series, The Return of Godzilla, in which Nakano created an expansive miniature cityscape and a giant "Cybot Godzilla" with the larger budget he was given. One of the special effects staff members working under Nakano for this film was Shinji Higuchi, who would go on to become a well-known special effects director in kaiju films such as the Heisei Gamera trilogy, and eventually a full-fledged director for films such as Attack on Titan the Movie: Part 1 and Part 2 and Shin Godzilla. Nakano finally retired at the age of 42 after directing the special effects for Princess from the Moon in 1987.

Since his retirement, Nakano has continued to be a prominent and active figure in the Godzilla franchise, performing interviews about his work on the series and making public appearances at events like G-Fest.

Selected Filmography

Assistant Director of Special Effects

• The Three Treasures (1959)
• The Secret of the Telegian (1960)
• Gorath (1962)
• King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)
• Matango (1963)
• Atragon (1963)
• Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
• Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965)
• Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965)
• The War of the Gargantuas (1966)
• Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)
• King Kong Escapes (1967)
• Son of Godzilla (1967)
• Destroy All Monsters (1968)
• Latitude Zero (1969)
• All Monsters Attack (1969)
• Space Amoeba (1970)

Director of Special Effects

• Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
• Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
• Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
• Zone Fighter (TV 1973) [episodes 1, 2, 5-7, 9, 11, 17, 20, and 21]
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
• Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974)
• Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
• The War in Space (1977)
• The Return of Godzilla (1984)
• Princess from the Moon (1987)

Gallery

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  Teruyoshi Nakano and Yoshimitsu Banno with the SoshingekiGoji on the set of Godzilla vs. Hedorah

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  Teruyoshi Nakano with the MegaroGoji and Mechagodzilla suits on the set of Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

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  Teruyoshi Nakano with Mechagodzilla 2 on the set of Terror of Mechagodzilla

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  Teruyoshi Nakano with the 84Goji suit on the set of The Return of Godzilla

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  Teruyoshi Nakano, Shinji Higuchi, and Takashi Naganuma pose with the Godzilla statue in front of Toho Studios

External Links

• Interview by David Milner (July 1994)