Kaiju Masterclass II Online Kaiju Convention Coming November

Kaiju Masterclass is back for it's second year with the same great crew behind it, plus Ed Godziszewski, Matt Burkett, Mariko Godziszewski, and Amanda Whalen. Plus many new exciting guests and a few returning as well. Kaiju Masterclass gives you the creators, researchers, and scholars of Japanese sci-fi cinema and television for three days of in-depth conversations and panels. Check out the info on this event and the list of guests to be featured below. 

BRINGING TOGETHER THE CREATORS AND SCHOLARS OF JAPANESE SCI-FI CINEMA AND TV FOR THREE DAYS OF INFORMATIVE, IN-DEPTH CONVERSATIONS.

Press release
KAIJU MASTERCLASS II (November 5-7, 2021) is an online convention featuring some of the biggest names in kaiju eiga, the giant monster genre that began with Godzilla’s first rampage in 1954 and went on to trample pop culture worldwide. It is a sequel to last year’s online convention KAIJU MASTERCLASS (October 2-4, 2020).

Among the featured guests at this year’s convention are writer/director Kazuki Omori (GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE and GODZILLA VS KING GHIDORAH); sculptor and suitmaker Fuyuki Shinada (GODZILLA, MOTHRA, AND KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK); suit actor
Tsutomu Kitagawa (the MILLENNIUM GODZILLA series); award-winning illustrator William Stout (Steve Miner’s unmade film GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS IN 3-D); and many others genre creators, writers, and authorities.

The three-day event features interviews and panel discussions on the history of Japanese sci-fi, the filmmaking process, the art of film scoring, and more. All sessions will be streamed on our YouTube channel and are free and open to the online community.
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KAIJU MASTERCLASS II is created by a dedicated team of genre authorities and enthusiasts, including: Steve Ryfle and Ed Godziszewski (co-authors, ISHIRO HONDA: A LIFE IN FILM, FROM GODZILLA TO KUROSAWA); Erik Homenick (AKIRAIFUKUBE.ORG); John DeSentis (conductor/creator, KAIJU CRESCENDO); Patrick Galvan (writer, SYFY.COM); Matt Parmley and Kyle Byrd (co-hosts, KAIJU TRANSMISSIONS podcast); Kyle Gilmore (filmmaker and artist, VINTAGE REEL PRODUCTIONS); Matt Burkett (video editor, MONSTROSITIES: A VLOG OF TOKUSATSU); and translators Mariko Godziszewski and Amanda Whalen.

The programming schedule is available here.
Follow us on Facebook (@KaijuMasterclass), Twitter (@Kaiju_MC), Instagram (kaiju_masterclass), and visit kaijumasterclass.com for more information.

​Kazuki Omori

Kazuki Omori is a filmmaker best known to genre fans for writing and directing GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE and GODZILLA VS KING GHIDORAH. He also wrote the screenplays for GODZILLA VS MOTHRA and GODZILLA VS DESTOROYAH. In 2005, Omori reunited with Heisei Godzilla special effects director for SUPER FLEET SAZER-X: THE MOVIE. He now teaches film production at Osaka University of Arts.

​Ryuhei Kitamura

Ryuhei Kitamura is a filmmaker who launched to international attention with the release of his 2000 cult action film VERSUS. After finding furhter success with movies such as ALIVE and AZUMI, he was hired by Toho to helm GODZILLA: FINAL WARS, the 50th anniversary film for the King of the Monsters. Since then, Kitamura has continued to work not only in Japan but also in the United States, turning out films such as THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN, NO ONE LIVES, and the 2014 live-action LUPIN THE 3RD.

Tsutomu Kitagawa

​Tsutomu “Tom” Kitagawa is a stuntman best known for playing Godzilla in all but one of his appearances in the Millennium series (1999-2004). Kitagawa has done a considerable amount of suit acting apart from the King of the Monsters, his credits including several Super Sentai TV shows and playing King Ghidorah in REBIRTH OF MOTHRA 3 (1998).

​Fuyuki Shinada

Fuyuki Shinada is a sculptor whose tokusatsu credits include building monster costumes for GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE, GODZILLA VS KING GHIDORAH, GAMERA 2: ATTACK OF LEGION, GAMERA 3: REVENGE OF IRIS, and numerous tokusatsu TV shows. In 2001, he was hired by director Shusuke Kaneko as the suitmaker for GODZILLA, MOTHRA, KING GHIDORAH: GIANT MONSTERS ALL-OUT ATTACK.

​Reijiro Koroku

Reijiro Koroku is a composer best known to kaiju fans to scoring THE RETURN OF GODZILLA (1984). He has written extensively for film, television, theater, anime, and video games and in 1991 was nominated by the Japanese Academy Film Prizes for scoring THE WHITE WOLF (1990) and 1750 DAYS OF WRATH (1990). He is currently a visiting professor at the Tokyo College of Music.

William Stout

​William Stout is an award-winning illustrator specializing in paleontological art. He’s worked on a number of films, contributing posters, storyboards, production design, and presentation art to titles such as RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, FIRST BLOOD, INVADERS FROM MARS, and MEN IN BLACK. Stout created presentation art and storyboards for Steve Miner’s unmade film GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS IN 3-D.

​Linda Haynes

Linda Haynes is an actress whose credits include COFFY, THE NICKEL RIDE, ROLLING THUNDER, and THE DROWNING POOL. In 1969, she co-starred in Ishiro Honda’s science fiction extravaganza LATITUDE ZERO, as part of an international cast that included Cesar Romero, Joseph Cotten, Richard Jaeckel, and Akira Takarada.

​Tiffany Grant

​Tiffany Grant is a voice actress, best known as Asuka from NEON GENESIS EVANGELION, with 1700+ credits including Shusuke Kaneko’s GAMERA trilogy, BLUE SEED, INFINITE STRATOS, FULL METAL ALCHEMIST, AKAME GA KILL & GIRLS UND PANZER. Video games include WARFRAME, NEVERSONG, BRAWL STARS, PALADINS, SMITE and DEUS EX II: INVISIBLE WAR. She’s written ADR script adaptations, including INFINITE STRATOS, PARASYTE-THE-MAXIM and subtitled projects like the live-action TOKYO- THE LAST MEGALOPOLIS. She’s also worked many years in theatre, commercials and film.

​Craig Allen

​Craig Allen is a semi-retired copywriter, editor, radio programmer, and voice talent. He lived in Hong Kong for nine years, where he worked at CNN International, Omni Productions, as a freelance copywriter, and as an English polisher for faculty at The University of Hong Kong. He currently lives in Atlanta with his wife, his two younger daughters (the oldest daughter is out on her own now), and two cats.

​Makoto Inoue

Makoto Inoue is a composer and instrumentalist who has been involved in a number of kaiju music albums and concerts. In the early 1980s, he produced and performed on the albums Godzilla Legend and Godzilla Legend II: Voyage to Dream Quest, featuring original electronic arrangements of kaiju/tokusatsu music by Akira Ifukube, Masaru Sato, and Yuji Koseki. In 1986, he co-produced the popular Ostinato album, featuring modern re-recordings of cues from Akira Ifukube’s iconic monster and sci-fi scores. In 2017, Inoue and Hikashu performed the Godzilla Legend: Music of Akira Ifukube concert in New York City.

​Reiko Yamada

Reiko Yamada is a Japanese pianist who attended four years of Akira Ifukube’s seminars at the Tokyo College of Music. As an instrumentalist, she takes an active interest in performing Ifukube’s works in concert and has performed the composer’s Ritmica Ostinata for Piano and Orchestra to acclaim with the Tochigi-ken Symphony Orchestra in 2006, 2010 and 2016, with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra in 2008, and with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 2014 and 2016. Ms. Yamada has recorded several critically praised CDs of Ifukube’s music and served as the principal keyboard of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra since 1995. She has also appeared as a supplemental keyboardist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

​Norman England

​Norman England is a filmmaker, journalist, and photographer who moved to Japan from New York City in 1992. He began covering Japanese movie sets with GAMERA 3 in 1998, writing for publications such as Fangoria, Starlog, The Japan Times, etc. He directed the documentary BRINGING GODZILLA DOWN TO SIZE, and his first film, THE iDOL, is now available from SRS Cinema. Today, Norman lives in Tokyo where he subtitles feature films, shoots production stills on Japanese movie sets, and writes a monthly column for Eiga Hiho, Japan’s biggest selling cinema magazine. His new book, BEHIND THE KAIJU CURTAIN, will be published by Awai Books in fall 2021.

​Mark Schilling

Mark Schilling has been reviewing Japanese films for The Japan Times since 1989 and reporting on the Japanese film industry since 1990, presently for Variety. Since 2000, he has also been a program advisor for the Udine Far East Film Festival, curating retrospectives on Nikkatsu Action films (2005), the Shintoho studio (2010) and Japanese SF/fantasy films (2016). His books include THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAPANESE POP CULTURE (1997), THE YAKUZA MOVIE BOOK – A GUIDE TO JAPANESE GANGSTER FILMS (2003), NO BORDERS, NO LIMITS: NIKKATSU ACTION CINEMA (2007) and ART, CULT AND COMMERCE: JAPANESE CINEMA SINCE 2000 (2019).

​Jasper Sharp

​Jasper Sharp is a disc producer for Arrow Films, an author, filmmaker, curator and independent scholar known for his work on Asian cinema and co-founder of the Japanese film website Midnight Eye. His books include THE MIDNIGHT EYE GUIDE TO NEW JAPANESE FILM (2004), joint-written with Tom Mes, and THE HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF JAPANESE CINEMA (2011). He also has written for Sight & Sound, The Guardian, Variety, The Japan Times, Kateigaho, and Film International, contributed to numerous home video releases, and co-directed with Tom Grabham the documentary THE CREEPING GARDEN.

Chris Mowry

Chris Mowry is the writer of the longest-running Godzilla comic book series GODZILLA: RULERS OF EARTH. Formerly with IDW Publishing, Chris got his start in the video game industry working for both Midway Games and Sega of America. During his time with IDW, Chris served as the company’s Creative Consultant on all Godzilla titles, providing insight and assistance to the Editorial team in the production of over 85 titles during his time there. A veteran of the United States Navy, Chris lived in Japan and that relocation rekindled a love for Godzilla that he had since he was five. He now lives in Los Angeles and serves as Toho International’s Creative Manager.

​Kevin Derendorf

Kevin Derendorf is a lifelong fan of Japanese genre fiction, resulting in the creation of the Maser Patrol blog (maserpatrol.wordpress.com), the book Kaiju for Hipsters: 101 “Alternative” Giant Monster Movies, and a guest essay in the recent DAIMAJIN Blu-ray set released by Arrow Video. You can find him at anime conventions talking about tokusatsu, at tokusatsu conventions talking about anime, as a guest on various podcasts, and generally being a nuisance on social media.

John LeMay

John LeMay is the author of more than 20 published books, many of them on film history. He is also the editor and publisher of The Lost Films Fanzine and has been published in magazines like Cinema Retro, G-Fan, and Mad Scientist.

​Mike Bogue

​Mike Bogue is a writer whose articles have appeared in Mad Scientist, Wonder, The Lost Films Fanzine, and G-Fan. His column “Kaiju Korner” (a Rondo runner-up for Best 2020 column) regularly appears in Scary Monsters Magazine. In addition, he wrote the well-reviewed book APOCALYPSE THEN: AMERICAN AND JAPANESE ATOMIC CINEMA, 1951-1967 (McFarland, 2017), which received an endorsement from NPR.