Koichi Kawakita
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Koichi Kawakita (川北 紘一 was a Kawakita Kōichi)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.[1]
Selected filmography
Director of special effects
Director
Actor
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Assistant special effects cinematographer
Optical photographer
Compositor
1st assistant director of special effects
Miscellaneous
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Selected bibliography
- Encyclopedia of Godzilla (1990) - Editor-in-chief
- The Spirit of Tokusatsu: Toho Special Effects Battle Chronicle (2010) - Author
Gallery
Kawakita with the suits and props for Fire Rodan, Mothra, BabyGodzilla, Super Mechagodzilla, Godzilla and King Ghidorah
Kawakita using the Rodan hand puppet
Kawakita, Roland Emmerich and Patrick Tatopoulos with the DesuGoji
Kawakita's cameo in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
Videos
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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.
- Just before his death, Kawakita gave an interview for Famitsu in which he was shown the PlayStation 3 Godzilla video game prior to its release.[4]
- 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.[5]
External links
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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