Koichi Kawakita Has Passed Away

[Legion]

It's been confirmed by several sources in the know that Koichi Kawakita, director of special effects for the Heisei Godzilla series and several other films, passed away on Friday. The news was kept a secret until this evening, when several people whose information I trust broke the story on Facebook. He did a lot for Godzilla and will be missed a great deal. RIP

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

RIP indeed. I liked a lot of his earlier work. And my favorite film of his were Zero Fighter and Zero Fighter Burns.

He was always involved in the fandom, and for that I appreciate that.

[Benjamin Haines]

Terrible news. R.I.P. Koichi Kawakita.

[Moonlight SY-3]

Very shocking, terrible news. I just talked to him at the Tokyo Hobby Show in September. He seemed fine then.

I loved all his work, and am very glad I got the chance to tell him so.

Very sad news indeed.

RIP and thanks for all the cool stuff, Kawakita Kantoku.

[Gwangi]

I will admit that I was critical of some of his later work, but "Godzilla vs. Biollante" for me, will always be his crowning achievement. And I was fortunate enough to meet him at G-Fest 2000 in L.A. Very, very nice guy!

[Rody]

This is certainly startling news. I'll be honest; Kawakita's work on the 90's Godzilla films is one of the reasons I consider the Heisei era to be the worst. However, 'Godzilla vs. Biollante' remains one of my all-time favorite G-films, and Kawakita's effects work is a big reason for it. Mr. Kawakita left a big imprint on the franchise, and I am sorry to hear so suddenly that he's gone. I hope he continues to inspire future FX directors with his best films.

[lhb412]

Biollante is a masterpiece of traditional Tokusatsu techniques. If Godzilla '14 hadn't been released I'd say it has unequivocally the best effects in the series since Tsuburaya's day. It crushes all the Heisei films that follow it, all the Millennium films, it even outclasses the many millions lavished on GINO in terms of style and power.

He was generous with fans, and (of course) was a huge fan himself.

Farewell, good sir!

[walshiam]

He didn't seem to be that old. What did he pass from?

[Jim Ballard]

[H-Man]

I think in some ways he was nearly as much an innovator to Japanese SFX as Eiji Tsuburaya. He honored tokusatsu traditions while bringing the industry up to date with some of the revolutionary work going on in Hollywood. His films, especially those produced in the late-'80s, utilize advanced techniques that were either rarely used or untested by his predecessors. His use of animatronics brought a new sense of realism to the Godzilla character and he introduced CGI to the Godzilla series. His crews built enormous models for Bye-Bye Jupiter and GUNHED. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe he was the first Japanese director to use motion control photography (also for Jupiter).

Even after 25 years and all the advances in special effects, his work on Godzilla vs. Biollante still impresses.

RIP

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

To this day, despite Bye-Bye Jupiter and GUNHEAD being pretty lame films, I find their technical sophistication top notch and on par with what Hollywood was doing within the same period.

And I absolutely loved his work in his Zero films.

and until I saw Godzilla 2014 this year, I felt the last really good Godzilla movie was in 1989. I'm still impressed by it. I wonder what happened in those years after it.

That being said, I actually really liked his work on the Godzilla pachinko game fight scenes.

[ebirahsmeg1]

This is being covered on the evening news over here quite a bit today.

Very sad to hear this news. While it's no secret that I've been quite critical of some of his behavior related to the genre over the last few years, there’s no doubt that he left mark on the series (in a positive way), and overall, I enjoyed his films and work, warts and all. His films brought a lot of smiles to my face when I was hunting the heisei films down back in the early 90s (before they were officially released in the US years later), and I have very fond memories of this time period as a Godzilla fan. He truly seemed to be very proud of his contribution to the G series.

RIP

[Mexigojira]

He did pretty much all of Godzilla´s heisei movies. R.I.P.

[MekaGojira3k]

Rest in Peace and man he did a great job on vs. Biollante and Gunhed. I've never seen Sayonara Jupiter. I think this evening I may pop in vs. Biollante.
:/

[jellydonut25]

I'll always remain critical of the 90s Godzilla films but I do understand how and why many of those films' issues arose.

Kawakita proved he was capable of true greatness, and I've never once doubted that he loved the genre that we all hold so dear. His impact on the world of Godzilla is undeniable and it is sad that he's no longer with us.

RIP.

[TerranigmaFreak]

RIP. Love Biollante, but I think Godzilla Vs King Ghidroah's special effects were very underrated. I love the shots of the interior where you see Godzilla crash through.

[The Great MM]

Very sad news. Had to reflect on this for a little bit. I grew up with the Heisei era and remember fondly reading about GvKG-GvD when we got our first computer. The design of Destoroyah was unlike anything I had ever seen as a kid.

RIP, Kawakita.

[Kailem]

I just saw this news earlier tonight, very sad. Kawakita was responsible for some truly great effects work, and has already been said, clearly had a lot of love for Godzilla and the genre throughout the years.

I was just reading a translation of an interview in Famitsu with one of the developers of the PS3 Godzilla game where he talked about how they had Kawakita coming in to advise them on how to make everything as authentic to the films and the original special effects used in them as possible, and how that ended up being his final Godzilla-related work. The full passage reads "The last time he played, he managed to reach Destoroyah. Before he played, we wanted to disable the "Micro Oxygen Chest Cannon" so make it an easier fight.

But to our surprise, he wanted us to leave it active, saying if 'Godzilla could face this monstrous end without fear, I cannot offer anything less when doing the same in his shoes'. And even though he died many times, on his last attempt, he finally won! He felt like he was the king of the monsters!"

RIP Koichi Kawakita"

Somehow, that just seems rather fitting.

RIP.

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

Holy "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" Destoroyah's chest cannon is going to be in the game!?

さすがKawakita-san.

[klen7]

A nice tribute sculpture