| One of Toho's more
prolific special effects directors, Koichi Kawakita's
first job at Toho was in their matte photography
department in 1962, working on films such as Gorath.
In 1972, Kawakita found himself helming the special
effects on Tsuburaya Productions' Ultraman
show. A year later, he returned to Toho and took
the reigns of the special effects for their own
show, Zone
Fighter, before moving on to be Teruyoshi
Nakano's assistant from 1974 to 1977. Between
those years, Kawakita's first shot at directing
the special effects on a major motion picture
were realized in 1976 on the film Zero
Pilot. In the mid 1980s, Kawakita was
given the opportunity to direct the special effects
for the big budgeted Bye-Bye
Jupiter (1984). Five years later, Kawakita
headed the special effects on the 1989 film Gunhed,
before receiving his calling that same year with
Godzilla
vs. Biollante. His work on the Godzilla
series continued two years later with the next
entry: Godzilla
vs. King Ghidorah, which netted Kawakita
a Japanese Academy Award for his efforts. He continued
working on the Godzilla films up until the closure
of the Heisei series in 1995, at which point his
efforts were then directed to the Rebirth of Mothra
series. However, he departed in 1997 after working
on the film Rebirth of Mothra II. Kawakita's love for special
effects films, particularly his interest toward
the science fiction based mechanics featured,
kept the director from ever truly leaving the
genre, though, as in 2003 he directed the special
effects for Toho's successful The
Gransazers TV show and also wrote the
Toho
SFX Mechanic Chronicle 1954-2003 book that
year.
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