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Shinichi Wakasa

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Shinichi Wakasa
Shinichi Wakasa holding the S.H. MonsterArts Gamera figure
Born March 2, 1960
Tokyo, Japan[1]
Occupation Sculptor, modeler, makeup artist
First work Ultraman 80 (TV 1980-1981)
Notable work Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
Imdb.pngWp JA.pngTwitter.png
“
If Godzilla is king of the monsters, then my friend Shinichi Wakasa is the king's hand.
„ 

— Rick Baker[2]

Shinichi Wakasa (若狭 新一,   Wakasa Shin'ichi) is a Japanese model maker and special effects makeup artist. He 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 he 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, for which he sculpted select monster suits. Wakasa's first major film work came in 1991, when 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 era, and reunited with Kaneko for Gamera 2: Attack of 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 3, Wakasa was credited as a "model producer," the first ever individual credited with this position. Wakasa continued to work as chief modeler for every film in the Millennium series, with the exception of GMK. Wakasa had not worked on a kaiju film in nearly two decades until What to Do with the Dead Kaiju?, released by Toei and Shochiku in 2022, though he occasionally worked as a makeup technician on other films. In 2022 and 2023, he helmed the production of crowdfunded replicas of the Showa Gigan and Jet Jaguar suits, which were used in the short films Fest Godzilla 3: Gigan Attacks and Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar, respectively.

Wakasa has made multiple appearances at G-Fest and Godzilla Fest. In 2017, his book Godzilla - King of Monstermaker was published by Yosensha.

Selected filmography

Interviewee

Bibliography

Modeled monsters

Monsters designed

External links

Notes

  1. ↑ Though Wakasa is credited as the short's modeler, he was not present during its filming.[3]

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]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Wakasa 2017, p. 279
  2. ↑ Wakasa 2017, cover
    Godzilla - King of Monstermaker.jpg
  3. ↑ Wakasa, Shinichi (24 October 2022). "撮影に立ち会っていないので、わかりません。". Twitter. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023.
  4. ↑ "巨大怪獣の死体を前に立ち尽くす2人、ティザービジュアル＆超特報解禁！". What to Do with the Dead Kaiju?. 2 July 2021.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "ゴジラ・フェス 2023" [Godzilla Fest 2023]. Godzilla Store. Retrieved 29 October 2023.

Bibliography

Staff members
 
Directors
Drama directors
Adam Wingard • Daisuke Sato • Ernest Schoedsack • Eugène Lourié • Gareth Edwards • Grant Sputore • Hideaki Anno • Hirochika Muraishi • Hiroto Yokokawa • Hiroyuki Seshita • Ishiro Honda • John Guillermin • Jordan Vogt-Roberts • Jun Fukuda • Kazuhiro Nakagawa • Kazuki Omori • Kensho Yamashita • Kimiyoshi Yasuda • Kiyotaka Taguchi‎‎ • Kobun Shizuno • Koji Hashimoto • Kunio Miyoshi • Masaaki Hisamatsu • Masaaki Tezuka • Masaji Nonagase • Merian C. Cooper • Michael Dougherty • Minoru Kawasaki • Motoyoshi Oda • Noriaki Yuasa • Okihiro Yoneda • Peter Jackson • Roland Emmerich • Ryuhei Kitamura • Ryuichi Ichino • Shinji Higuchi • Shinpei Hayashiya • Shizuo Nakajima • Shusuke Kaneko • Takao Okawara • Takashi Miike • Takashi Yamazaki • Takeshi Yagi • Takuya Uenishi • Tomoo Haraguchi • Tokuzo Tanaka • Willis O'Brien • Yoshikazu Ishii • Yoshimitsu Banno • Yusuke Ishida
Effects directors
Assistant directors
 
Artists
Production designers
Illustrators
Propmakers

 
 
V • T • E

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