Author: Daisuke Ishizuka The 23rd World Characters Convention was held at Tokyo Big Sight on July 20- 21. SciFi Japan correspondent Daisuke Ishizuka has sent a report and photos of this past weekend’s events…
I rarely attend conventions because I am not much interested in purchasing expensive toys. However, I attended the World Characters Convention on July 20 even though most of the convention floor was taken up by dealers. I had two purposes; first, this was chance to see in person the Guilala suit from the new movie MONSTER X STRIKES BACK/ ATTACK THE G8 SUMMIT!. Another was to get Mr. Koji Moritsugu’s new CD. The convention featured some onstage programming. The programs for July 20th were: 1. Guilala Festival: A talk with Mr. Minoru Kawasaki, director of the new Guilala film, and a “battle attraction show” between Guilala and his opponent Take-Majin. The battle at the stage show was a draw; we can see whether Guilala or Take-Majin wins when the movie opens at theaters this weekend. The Guilala suit, which was created by Mr. Fuyuki Shinada, was excellent. Suit actor Mr. Hariken Ryu (a.k.a. Hurricane Ryu) who played the monster in the new movie, was in the Guilala suit at the World Characters Convention. He played in the attraction show and walked in the convention hall as promotion of MONSTER X STRIKES BACK. He really did good job.
Luckily for me, I also met Mr. Bin Furuya in the convention hall. Mr. Furuya was the Ultraman suit actor in the first ULTRAMAN TV series and he played the role of General Takamine in the new Guilala movie. Of course I took his picture and shook hands with him. 2. Live stage performance by Mr. Akira Kushida: Mr. Kushida is a singer of TV hero songs whose credits include theme songs for SUN VULCAN, SPACE SHERIFF SHARIVAN and the Kamen Rider TV special NO. 10 IS BORN! ALL MASKED RIDERS UNITE!! 3. Mini live stage performance by Mr. Koji Moritsugu and talk with Yuriko Hishimi: Needles to say, Mr. Koji Moritsugu was the actor who played Dan Moroboshi in the ULTRA SEVEN TV series. Moreover, now he is a chanson (cabaret) singer. He sang two of his chanson songs from his new CD, JOLI CHAPEAU – TOKI – , one of which was his chanson arrangement of the ULTRA SEVEN theme song.
After that, Ms. Yuriko Hishimi (Ultra Garrison member Anne Yuri in ULTRA SEVEN) joined him onstage and talked about inside stories of the new Ultraman movie DECISIVE BATTLE! THE SUPER 8 ULTRA BROTHERS which will be released in September. Of course, our hero Ultra Seven also came to the stage with Dan and Anne. After the stage show, I was able to get Mr. Moritsugu’s autograph on the cover of his new CD and had my photo taken with him. Ultra Seven also allowed to have his photo with me. Summer has just started in Japan, but the day will be my happiest of this season. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ For more photos and information on MONSTER X STRIKES BACK/ ATTACK THE G8 SUMMIT! please see the earlier coverage here on SciFi Japan:
