The remaking of tokusatsu monsters

Abstract

Since the arrival of Godzilla (1954), the science-fiction genre of tokusatsu started booming its monsters by adapting different DIY techniques. The post-war period defined a collaborative effort between artists who worked within limited creative conditions due to economic restraints. They experimented with unusual materials for making monsters and image techniques to create visual effects on the filmed screen. Sculptors, art students, freelance workers and animators started collaborating to discover ways to produce suitmation and strategies to make the monster seem alive. Specifically, in Toho Studios, the Special Effects Department, directed by Tsuburaya Eiji, helped create a generation of monster-making specialists that spread to other studios. Along with Iizuka Sadao, they produced special effects using the animation stand and animation-related techniques, such as optical composition, to create the monster zigzag gleaming rays that became the staple of tokusatsu monsters. The analogue era of monster-making only starts to change from the Heisei Gamera series (1995–2006), where analogue and digital intertwine and culminate in Shin Godzilla (2016). This article investigates the possibilities of monster creation and adaptation and how this challenge created a space for hybrid images in the contemporary Japanese media landscape.