Ultraman Jack Warms Up a Cold January Evening in Style!

With Atsushi Hagiwara.

Tonight, Friday, January 20, I attended a special event featuring two special guests -- Return of Ultraman (1971-72) suit actor Eiichi Kikuchi and Toho modelmaker Atsushi Hagiwara. Due to my work schedule, I arrived later than almost everyone else (as usual), but that certainly didn't stop me from enjoying myself.

Eiichi Kikuchi. Photo by Brett Homenick.

As luck would have it, I was seated in between Hagiwara-san and Kikuchi-san. Hagiwara-san brought several photo albums featuring his modeling work (as well as that of his colleagues) on the Toho sci-fi epic Sayonara Jupiter (1984). There were some doubles among one of the photo albums, so Hagiwara-san surprisingly gave me the extras as a gift. I certainly wasn't expecting that, but it was nice to receive!

He also told me an interesting story about his younger brother, Akira, who also worked as a modelmaker on various Toho movies. Akira used Atsushi's home phone number (at the time) to put on the number plate of one of the High-Power Laser Beam Vehicles seen in Godzilla 1985 (1984). Now there's an in-joke I don't think any of us knew about!

Eiichi Kikuchi. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Also on hand was suit actor Eiichi Kikuchi, who showed attendees several collages with various photos from his suit-acting career, as well as more recent photos with other suit actors and assorted luminaries from the world of tokusatsu. Kikuchi-san was in great spirits, and I was happy to share a couple of fist bumps with him. He also seemed happy to try out a bit of English, which of course I'd always encourage him to try.

After posing for the above photo, I asked Kikuchi-san to sign a shikishi board for a friend of mine, which he gladly did. Kikuchi-san went above and beyond to give my friend an elaborate autograph, which I'm sure will please my buddy. 

I expected to have a lot of fun, but this exceeded my expectations. Can't wait to do it again!