# Today is Eiji Tsuburaya's 114th birthday!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [July 7, 2015, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468 "2015-07-07T13:43:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2015, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/1 "2015-07-07T13:43:33Z")
The guy responsible for the Godzilla suit, Rodan, Anguirus, and those other Toho _kaiju_ effects, not to mention Ultraman (who seems to be featured on the initial Google homepage doodle today)
I just read his biography, _Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters_ last January. But, of course, I’ve been familiar with him (through frequent mentions in _Famous Monsters of Filmland_) since the 1960s.
[http://www.amazon.com/Eiji-Tsuburaya-Monsters-Defending-Ultraman/dp/1452135398](http://www.amazon.com/Eiji-Tsuburaya-Monsters-Defending-Ultraman/dp/1452135398)
He died back in 1970, but the current Godzilla design still harks back to his original.
The Google Doodle lets you direct your own _kaiju_ film.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/2 "2015-07-07T14:05:19Z")
A loving tribute to the man who created my boy Godzilla!
Way to go Google!
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2015, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/3 "2015-07-07T14:21:40Z")
He should be given an Oscar for Best Costume Design. Godzilla would have won Best Actor if he had some decent scripts.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/4 "2015-07-07T14:26:57Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> He should be given an Oscar for Best Costume Design. Godzilla would have won Best Actor if he had some decent scripts.
Sadly, they almost never provided subtitled translations of Godzilla’s lines.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/5 "2015-07-07T17:46:17Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#):
>
> A loving tribute to the man who created my boy Godzilla!
>
> Way to go Google!
Indeed. The Ultraman-esque costume of the feature character in Google’s mini-game was a complete and enjoyable visceral shock.
I grew up in Japan watching Ultraman, so it’s embedded in my geek psyche. Although Google’s focus is on the production process (appropriately, since that’s what Tsuburaya pioneered), the idea of putting an Ultraman-like superhero into action was what I enjoyed.
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### Author:  [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/6 "2015-07-08T01:13:28Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Sadly, they almost never provided subtitled translations of Godzilla’s lines.
But they did dub his lines in _Godzilla vs. Gigan_ 🙂
(Seriously, he talked to Anguirus in one scene, which was a huge WTF moment, even for a Godzilla movie)
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### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/7 "2015-07-08T01:17:57Z")
On reading the title line my first thought was “How can this guy live forever and forever and NOT be on my Death Pool list?” Now on reading it I’m a little sad. I’m still more a fan of the Ray Harryhausen style of special effects but even I have to admit all the Godzilla and related stuff really was fantastic for its day.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/8 "2015-07-08T01:54:12Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#):
>
> But they did dub his lines in _Godzilla vs. Gigan_ 🙂
>
> (Seriously, he talked to Anguirus in one scene, which was a huge WTF moment, even for a Godzilla movie)
This is why I said _almost_ never.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/9 "2015-07-08T01:57:20Z")
> [@kopek](#):
>
> On reading the title line my first thought was “How can this guy live forever and forever and NOT be on my Death Pool list?” Now on reading it I’m a little sad. I’m still more a fan of the Ray Harryhausen style of special effects but even I have to admit all the Godzilla and related stuff really was fantastic for its day.
Tsuburaya and director Inoshiro Honda _wanted_ to do Harryhausen-style stop motion animation. They didn’t have the time or money (It’s the same reason that _Gorgo_, directed by the same guy who did Harryhausen’s _Beast from 20,000 Fathoms_, used a Man in a Suit).
Godzilla wasn’t only done with a Man in a Suit. There are stills showing the effects team holding the top half of a Godzilla “puppet”. I suspect they used it for the scene where you first see Godzilla, with his lower half hidden by the mountain.
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### Author:  [@GythaOgg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GythaOgg)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/10 "2015-07-08T03:16:37Z")
I have been a huge Ultraman fan ever since I was a kid in the 1970s. It aired on a UHF channel here, right after school. Great stuff, even with the barely-passable English dubbing. The Godzilla suit (with an added neck frill) actually made it into an episode of the original Ultraman series; that was a lot of fun. I’ve since enjoyed other Ultra series (‘Max’ and ‘Mebius’ are two of my favorites, but the first one holds a special place in my heart.
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### Author:  [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/11 "2015-07-08T16:01:48Z")
Coincidentally, I was wearing my Ultraman tee shirt yesterday. It felt extra good.
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### Author:  [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-is-eiji-tsuburayas-114th-birthday/724468/12 "2015-07-08T20:44:57Z")
I grew up watching the original Ultraman on UHF also, but they stopped shipping the show to the U.S. after that so I never got into the later versions. In a fit of nostalgia, I rented the Ultraman show on DVD a few years ago and re-watched it. It holds up surprisingly well, as dated as it was. It’s just amazingly charming with the 1960’s model cars painted in 1960’s colors with the mirrors on the fender, and the “mod” building designs. It got hubby and I yelling “SCHWAA!” at random times for a few months again. 😃