A SCIFI JAPAN EXCLUSIVE
For this episode of SciFi JAPAN TV, we had the great pleasure to speak with Toshio Miike, one of the most important figures active in the tokusatsu film industry today.
As an art director, it has been Mr. Miike's responsibility to design and create the miniature sets and practical effects which bring these movies to life. In this capacity, Mr. Miike has worked on almost every major tokusatsu franchise, including Godzilla, Gamera, Ultraman and Kamen Rider. The role of the art director is certainly not to be ignored; indeed, there is no one the FX director relies on more.
This year also marked Mr. Miike's debut as FX director for Tsuburaya Productions' latest Ultraman feature, ULTRAMAN SAGA (ウルトラマンサーガ, Urutoraman Saaga).
We sat down with Mr. Miike in a small Ultraman-themed cafe called Cafe Melody in Soshigaya-Okura, the former home of Tsuburaya Productions, to discuss his views on traditional effects, the advent of CG, and of course his latest film ULTRAMAN SAGA.
About SCIFI JAPAN TV
A regular video program focusing exclusively on Japanese scifi and monsters is something we've always wanted to see, but nothing like it has ever been available, neither in Japan nor overseas. So we decided to make it ourselves!
SciFi JAPAN TV is shot on location in Japan exclusively for SciFi Japan by the Gaijin Channel production team. The show will delve into the world of Japanese monsters and scifi, featuring the latest and hottest tokusatsu events in Japan, as well as simple yet in-depth discussions with the people who bring all of our favorite films and shows to life!
The show's future relies on its popularity, so if you enjoyed it and would like to see more, we do urge you to like, comment, subscribe and share this video with all your friends! We're eager to hear your comments and suggestions: please send the production team your comments via YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or Google+, or send us an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.!
About Gaijin Channel
Filmmaker JR Lipartito and SciFi Japan writer Jim M. Ballard make up creative duo behind Gajin Channel. Both have worked on television and corporate/client works but found that to be quite uninspiring nor even much challenge. So they left that world and joined a young multimedia company called ACTV, with high hopes of making a living doing nothing but creating cool web videos and mobile apps!