Born in 1960, Shinichi Wakasa's career path was chosen when he saw his first Godzilla suit at a children's publicity event for “Mothra vs. Godzilla” at the age of four. One of his early jobs was on director Kinji Fukasaku's “Message From Space”, for which he created the makeup designs for the evil Gavanas invaders. While he would later create makeup effects of burn victims for Shusuke Kaneko's “Crossfire” and supervise effects on the cult hit “Evil Dead Trap”, Wakasa is best known as a maker of monsters.
In the early 1980s he established the company Monsters Inc., with Tomoo Haraguchi and Chieko Tsuneoka. Monsters Inc. has created monster suits, props, and animatronics for a number of film and TV projects, including Tsuburaya Productions' “Ultraman Tiga” and “Ultraman Cosmos” television series, and the film “Ultraman Cosmos 2: The Blue Planet”. Wakasa also created the Soldier Legion for Daiei’s “Gamera 2: Advent of Legion”. His first Toho creation was Fire Rodan for the 1993’s “Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II”, followed by the Sea God Muba in “Orochi: The Eight-Headed Dragon”. He also made SpaceGodzilla and Little Godzilla for “Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla and the final stage Destroyah in “Godzilla vs. Destroyah”. Then, when Toho decided to end the Godzilla series for the time being and focus on Mothra, they decided to have Mr. Wakasa create suits for that series as well. He created Death Ghidorah, Dagarah, both Grand King Ghidorah, and Rainbow Mothra for “The Rebirth of Mothra” trilogy.
Then, in 1999 when Toho decided to bring back the Godzilla series, Shinichi Wakasa was offered the chance to create Godzilla himself. Wakasa jumped at the chance and created a new, very different Godzilla design, which has become the Godzilla of the new millennium. Wakasa also built suits for Oruga and Megaguirus in “Godzilla 2000 Millennium” and “Godzilla X Megaguirus”. His Godzilla design was reused in GXM and again in both 2002’s “Godzilla X MechaGodzilla” and 2003’s “Godzilla X Mothra X MechaGodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.”, although it was heavily modified for the last two films. Most recently, Wakasa has been working on GMM: Tokyo S.O.S., building the monster suits for Godzilla, MechaGodzilla, Mothra Larva, and the Mothra adult.
Thanks to Henshin! Online for a lot of this information!
Filmography
Message From Space (1978)
Evil Dead Trap (1988)
Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II (1993)
Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
Orochi: The Eight-Headed Dragon (1994)
Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1995)
Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (1996)
The Rebirth of Mothra (1996)
The Rebirth of Mothra II (1997)
The Rebirth of Mothra III (1998)
Godzilla 2000 Millennium (1999)
Godzilla X Megaguirus (2000)
Godzilla X MechaGodzilla (2002)
Godzilla X Mothra X MechaGodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
PLUS MANY MORE!!!
