Teruyoshi Nakano

Teruyoshi Nakano Born October 9, 1935 Andong, Andong, Manchukuo Died June 27, 2022 (aged 86) First work Night School (1956) Notable work The Return of Godzilla (1984)

“	Japan was the first country to suffer damage from an atomic bomb. We have to deal with the monster in a special way when the Japanese make a Godzilla movie, so we don't forget the bomb.	„
	— Teruyoshi Nakano (The Dawn of Kaiju Eiga)

Teruyoshi Nakano (中野 昭 (てる)慶 (よし),   Nakano Teruyoshi), also known as Shokei Nakano (中野 昭 (しょう)慶 (けい),   Nakano Shōkei), was a Japanese special effects director who worked on numerous Toho-produced tokusatsu films, including many entries in the Godzilla series.

Biography

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 from his role as special effects director at the age of 52 after directing the special effects for Princess from the Moon in 1987, and subsequently worked on numerous projects related to theme parks and exhibitions.

Since his retirement, Nakano 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

• The Three Treasures (1959) [with Masahisa Takase, Kentaro Nakaya, Yoichi Matsue]
• The Human Vapor (1960)
• Mothra (1961) [with Ken Sano, Hiroyasu Sunahara, Hiroshi Haryu]

Assistant director of special effects

• Gorath (1962) [uncredited]
• King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) [uncredited]

1st assistant director of special effects

• Matango (1963)
• Atragon (1963)
• Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
• Dogora (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

• The Vampire Doll (1970) [uncredited]
• Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
• Lake of Dracula (1971) [uncredited]
• Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
• Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
• Zone Fighter (TV 1973) [episodes 1-2, 5-7, 9, 11, 17, 20- 21]
• Submersion of Japan (1973)
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
• Evil of Dracula (1974) [uncredited]
• Prophecies of Nostradamus (1974)
• ESPY (1974)
• Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
• Conflagration (1975)
• The War in Space (1977)
• Magnitude 7.9 (1980)
• The Return of Godzilla (1984)
• Pulgasari (1985) [uncredited]
• Tokyo Blackout (1987)
• Princess from the Moon (1987)

Interviewee

• Toho Unused Special Effects Complete Collection (1986)
• Bringing Godzilla Down to Size (2008)
• SciFi Japan TV (web 2012-2014) [episodes 6-7, 36]
• The Dawn of Kaiju Eiga (2019)

Gallery

• 

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

• 

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

• 

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

• 

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

• 

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

Videos

SciFi Japan TV episode 6, "1970's Godzilla FX Director - PART I" SciFi Japan TV episode 7, "1970's Godzilla FX Director - PART II" SciFi Japan TV episode 36, "The Return of Godzilla 30th" Nakano talks about Toho's soundstage No. 8 in 2015

External links

• Teruyoshi Nakano on the Japanese Wikipedia
• Teruyoshi Nakano on Eiga.com
• Interview by David Milner (1994)
• Interview by Brett Homenick and J.D. Lees (2004)
• Interview by Brett Homenick and Mark Rainey (2004)

References

This is a list of references for Teruyoshi Nakano. 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]

Bibliography

• Nakano, Teruyoshi; Katsuki, Someya (2014). Director of Special Effects: Teruyoshi Nakano (Movie Bunko ed.). Wides Publishing. ISBN 978-4898302804.
• Iwabatake, Toshiaki (1 September 1994). TV Magazine Special Edition 40th Anniversary of the Birth of Godzilla Complete Works. Kodansha. ISBN 4-06-178417-X.

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