Not available

"...especially with Koichi's mastery of special effects."

Eh... That's debatable. I will say I enjoyed his exclusive Pachinko Machine footage. While it's not groundbreaking some of it is honestly his best material...

I'd love to play that game.

///

Godzilla: King of the Monsters,
I felt like Kawakita showed a great deal of promise with Godzilla vs. Biollante, but he went backwards after that. He was given budgets 5-7x that of Tsuburaya, Arikawa and Nakano (sans '84), but never excelled.

I've made the comparison before, but I simply do not understand how Shinji Higuchi was able to make Gamera: Guardian of the Universe as good and detailed as it was on a budget of $4.5 million, but Kawakita decided to use Bandai Destoroyahs in very obvious shots of Godzilla vs. Destoroyah on a budget of $10 million.

Many have blamed Kawakita's supposed drinking problems on his lack of evolution. (Considering he died of liver failure, there may be some merit to that.) Others think he just didn't have a lot more creativity in him after Biollante. Whatever the case is I usually consider him one of least resourceful effects directors of the genre--He just seemed like he was phoning his work in, especially after 1991.

@Gman,

You're perfectly entitled to your preferences and opinions, but I wish I could have you talk with Robert Scott Field as we did regarding his memories and conversations with Kawakita, especially shortly before his death.  Scott tells of a man who was extremely passionate about the kaiju genre, and was thrilled of the coming of Shin because it meant his beloved Gojira was continuing to be cherished and given new life.  He passed the torch to others in the hope that they would keep the kaiju world alive and well, and could speak for hours of his passion for the tradition of it.  That's the picture Scott Field gave us, so you may not think the Heisei series was particularly masterful, but don't discredit the man otherwise, by all accounts he gave his heart and soul to these movies.

A lot of the Tokusatsu effects directors poured their hearts and souls into making these films. If the rumor of Kawakita-San is true with his drinking problem, then I partially blame Toho for it considering Godzilla vs. Biollante is by far his best effects work. But because Toho deemed it a less successful movie at the box office, that could be a reason to say Kawakita picked up a drinking habit. 

I'm normally not the kind of guy to discredit any of these tokusatsu masters but, I felt like Kawakita could have done so much more and better effects as a whole. I mean, all the flying monsters did lack wing movement in the 90's heisei films and that was a major let down. Compared to Eiji Tsuburaya and Shinji Higuchi, they incorporated the wing movement to near perfection. Kawakita-San did do the one thing great though. He created some of the best Godzilla designs, my preferable ones Ghidogoji and BioGoji. 

He did use a little too much spark effects and glitter though. While that is nice in its own perspective, I felt like it was a little overboard.

It's a shame Kawakita passed away though. He deserves the credit for at least stepping up to take on Godzilla, but like I said I feel like Toho may have had a bigger impact on his effects works more than anything. All in all, I do thank Kawakita for doing what he did. 

YukisSpecial,
I'm glad Mr. Field has such positive memories of him and that Kawakita was passionate. There's no disputing that his work made an impact during the early 1990s as the Heisei series was quite popular at the box office. Even today the designs from that era resonate the most for Japanese fans.But that doesn't necessarily mean Kawakita was a brilliant special effects director.

The late Guy Tucker also met the man and noted the Kawakita became disappointed after the mediocre box office returns for Gun-hed and Godzilla vs. Biollante. (He may have learned to love the Godzilla series, but he was certainly more interested in mecha at the time.) According to Tucker this led to an escalation in drinking--Though he's the only one to write about it. Though it's beleivable considering the downturn in quality.

Drinking or not, the fact of the matter is in 1964 Eiji Tsuburaya had a mere fraction of the budget and time Kawakita had in 1991 - Yet Tsuburaya was still able to create a King Ghidorah where every wing, tail and head was flapping and flailing wildly. Meanwhile, Kawakita phoned in a stiff prop for shots during the aerial dogfight - It was incapable of moving any of its heads or tails.

He was given an even bigger budget for Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla. Yet almost every outer space scene Tsuburaya did in the 1950s and 1960s looks better than the SpaceGodzilla/MOGUERA battle. Even merely looking as good as Tsuburaya's sequences would have been a failure. It was 1994 after all. There were other techniques to try, more time to do it and more money to spend on it. It's pretty inexcusable considering these were some of Japan's most expensive movies in the early 1990s.

Now is that a dig at Kawakita's passion? Not at all. I'm glad he was passionate about it. Tezuka is passionate about Godzilla as well--But said passion doesn't always equate great filmmaking. Kawakita created a successful style, but there were more interesting and genre pushing visuals happening over at Tsuburaya Productions and Daiei during his tenure.