Sunday, October 1, 2017

ULTRA SEVEN TURNS 50! Celebrating the Big 5-0 with Bin Furuya!

Bin Furuya addresses the audience on the occasion of Ultra Seven's 50th anniversary. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Earlier tonight (Sunday, October 1), I went to a restaurant called Pepperland in Kawasaki to attend a 50th anniversary celebration dedicated to Ultra Seven (1967-68), the seminal superhero program from Tsuburaya Productions.

Toho SFX crew member and Tsuburaya Productions researcher Masahiko Shiraishi. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Among the attendees was Masahiko Shiraishi, who specialized in wire SFX under Koichi Kawakita during the Heisei Godzilla series. These days, Shiraishi-san writes books documenting the history of the Ultra-series. His examination of Ultra Seven is due out in November (in Japan, of course).   

With Masahiko Shiraishi.

I spent most of the evening speaking with Shiraishi-san, who is extremely knowledgeable about all things kaiju. I'm certainly glad I had a chance to pick his brain at length about SFX.

Bin Furuya shows off the 50th anniversary cake. Photo by Brett Homenick.

The date October 1 is particularly significant in this case because it was the exact date on which the first episode of Ultra Seven was broadcast in 1967. So our celebration fell on the actual 50th anniversary of the series. What better way to celebrate than with Ultra Garrison member Amagi?


As you can tell from the above photo, it was a blast. I truly had a great evening, and the fine folks who organized it should be commended for a job well done.

Here's to 50 years of Ultra Seven!

2 comments:

  1. Mr...I dont know your name..but I am so glad that you successfully got to know Amagi AKA ( Mr Furuya ). You are lucky guy. I wish I would meet him one day. Mr Furuya is coming to Brazil next week to attend to Comic Con XPerience in Sao Paulo. I bought the tickets and I some I may be able to shake hands with him and take tons of photos. Like I said earlier..u are very lucky guy. uhave met many of them. Have you ever met Moroboshi Dan? I am cosplayer here is Sao Paulo. My favorite Character is ULTRA SEVEN . On facebook you can find me at ULTRASEVEN.RENATO
    I would like to keep in touch with you. Its my dream to have the honour to get to know all of them one day
    Take care man.
    Renato Sousa

    ReplyDelete
  2. One more thing. On October 1st i was celebrating UltraSeven[s 50th Anniversary in SAo Paulo.Photos are avaliable on my facebook page. IT WAS SO NICE !!

    ReplyDelete