Sadao Iizuka

Sadao Iizuka Born December 26, 1934 Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan Died March 24, 2023 (aged 88) Occupation Optical compositing artist First work Godzilla (1954)

Sadao Iizuka (飯塚 定雄,   Īzuka Sadao), nicknamed Den-san (デンさん), was a Japanese optical artist best remembered for realizing Ultraman's Spacium Beam and the rays of several Toho kaiju. His long career began in 1954, when he joined Toho part-time to work in the special effects art department for Godzilla under Akira Watanabe. Iizuka worked on almost every Toho tokusatsu production until 1972, when he and Minoru Nakano established their own company, Den Film Effects (デン・フィルム・エフェクト,   Den Firumu Efekuto). The company would go on to work on a number of films and television series from Toei, Toho, Tsuburaya Productions, and Daiei. Iizuka continued to be active up until his death, most recently drawing Spacium Beams for the 2022 film Shin Ultraman. He passed away on March 24, 2023 at age 88 due to aspiration pneumonia.

Selected filmography

This article or section needs to be cleaned up to meet the standards of Wikizilla.

• Godzilla (1954) - Special effects artist [uncredited]
• Godzilla Raids Again (1955) [uncredited]
• Half Human (1955) [uncredited]
• Rodan (1956) [uncredited]
• The Mysterians (1957) [uncredited]
• The H-Man (1958) [uncredited]
• Varan (1958) [uncredited]
• Monkey Sun (1959) [uncredited]
• The Three Treasures (1959) [uncredited]
• Battle in Outer Space (1959) [uncredited]
• The Secret of the Telegian (1960) [uncredited]
• The Human Vapor (1960) [uncredited]
• Mothra (1961) [uncredited]
• The Last War (1961) - Special effects artist [uncredited]
• Gorath (1962) - Special effects artist [uncredited]
• King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) - Special effects artist [uncredited]
• Matango (1963) [uncredited]
• Atragon (1963) [uncredited]
• Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) - Optical photographer [uncredited]
• Dogora (1964) [uncredited]
• Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) [uncredited]
• Frankenstein vs. Baragon (1965) [uncredited]
• Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) - Optical photographer [uncredited]
• Ultra Q (TV 1966) [uncredited]
• Ultraman (TV 1966-1967) [uncredited]
• The War of the Gargantuas (1966) - Special effects artist [uncredited]
• Monster Booska (TV 1966-1967) [uncredited]
• Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) - Special effects artist [uncredited]
• King Kong Escapes (1967) [uncredited]
• Ultraseven (TV 1967-1968) [uncredited]
• Son of Godzilla (1967) - Special effects artist [uncredited]
• Destroy All Monsters (1968) - Special effects artist [uncredited]
• Operation: Mystery (TV 1968-1969) [uncredited]
• Latitude Zero (1969) [uncredited]
• Return of Ultraman (TV 1971-1972) - Optical artist
• Mirrorman (TV 1971-1972)
• Triple Fighter (TV 1972) [uncredited]
• Emergency Directive 10-4 10-10 (TV 1972) [uncredited]
• Daigoro vs. Goliath (1972) - Visual effects
• Ultraman Taro (TV 1973-1974) [uncredited]
• Fireman (TV 1973) [uncredited]
• Jumborg Ace (TV 1973) [uncredited]
• Six Ultra Brothers vs. The Monster Army (1974) [uncredited]
• The Last Dinosaur (1977) [uncredited]
• Bye-Bye Jupiter (1984) [uncredited]
• Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider (1993) - Optical supervisor
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) - Animation effects [with Kazuhisa Yoshizawa, Mitsuaki Hashimoto, Akihiro Nishiyama, Takashi Kawabata, Hidefumi Yamamoto, Tomoko Shindo, Yoshiharu Watanabe, Takashi Tanaka, and Manabu Tanba]
• Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon (1994) - Animation effects [with Kazuhisa Yoshizawa, Mitsuaki Hashimoto, Hidefumi Yamamoto, Mitsu Oki, Tomoko Shindo, Hiromasa Yamaguchi, Takashi Tanaka, Yukiyo Ogawa, Takao Kido, and Koji Minewaki]
• Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) - Animation effects [with Kazuhisa Yoshizawa, Mitsuro Oki, Takunori Yamaguchi, Mihoko Iwata, Naoo Yoshioka, Yoshinobu Yanagihara, and Yukiyo Ogawa]
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) - Animation effects [with Kazuhisa Yoshzawa, Hidefumi Yamamoto, Akihiro Nishiyama, Takumasa Yamaguchi, Mitsuru Oki, Shigeru Ueda, and Kentaro Kawashiri]
• Rebirth of Mothra (1996) - Animation effects [with Akihiro Nishiyama, Hidefumi Yamamoto, Takumasa Yamaguchi, Seiya Taguchi, Hidekazu Masuda, Mihoko Iwata, Yoshinobu Yanagihara, Naoki Yoshioka, and Naoyasu Yutaka]
• Rebirth of Mothra 2 (1997) - Animation effects [with Akihiro Nishiyama, Hidekazu Masuda, Fumiko Danbara, Naoyasu Yutaka, Yoshinobu Yanagihara, Naoki Yoshioka, and Hiroshi Ochi]
• Godzilla Final Wars (2004) - Animation effects [with Kazuhisa Yoshizawa, Keiichi Kanai, Hiroshi Koshiba, Ayako Yagasaki, Yuzuru Shijihara, Hiroaki Nishiyama, Taizo Matsuzaki, Naoki Yoshioka, Yoshinobu Yanagihara, Shigeru Ueda, and Naoyasu Yutaka]
• Geharha: The Dark and Long Haired Monster (2009) - Optical artist
• Ultraman X (TV 2015) [uncredited]
• Shin Ultraman (2022) - Optical artist

Den Film Effects

• Gamera Super Monster (1980) - Title
• Tokyo Blackout (1987) - Title
• Princess from the Moon (1987) - Title
• Ultra Q The Movie: Legend of the Stars (1990) - Special thanks

Bibliography

• The Amazing People Whose Compositing We Grew Up With: Extended Revision Edition (2012) - Author
• The People Who Made Ultraman (2014) - Author, illustrator
• The Man Who Continues Drawing Rays: Sadao Iizuka (2016) - Author [with Hajime Matsumoto]

External links

• Sadao Iizuka on the official Toho website (archived)
• Interview by Brett Homenick (published December 12, 2021)
• Interview by Brett Homenick (published February 27, 2022)

References

This is a list of references for Sadao Iizuka. 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

• Iizuka, Sadao; Matsumoto, Hajime (8 January 2016). The Man Who Continues Drawing Rays: Sadao Iizuka. Yosensha. ISBN 978-4-8003-0851-1.
• "YEARBOOK 2022". Spaceship. No. 176. Hobby Japan. April 2022. ISBN 978-4-7986-2796-0.

Comments

Showing 7 comments. When commenting, please remain respectful of other users, stay on topic, and avoid role-playing and excessive punctuation. Comments which violate these guidelines may be removed by administrators.

Loading comments...