Google released its new doodle in honour of the Godzilla co-creator and special effects icon Eiji Tsuburya on his 114th birthday. The interactive doodle has users helping in creating a monster movie which Tsuburya was a specialist in through 10 stages to complete several tasks and achieve the final result.
Tsuburya started his magnificent career as a cameraman; using innovative techniques with the camera, he created a film illusion by super-imposition. This work of his led to being called – special visual effects.
The special effects that Tsuburaya created in the early Japanese science fiction films were ground breaking and are still being used as an inspiration in films even today.
Ultraman series, which was one of the most popular television series in Japan, was also a notable work of Tsuburaya, under his own special effects laboratory Tsuburaya Productions.
One of the believers in Japanese propaganda during the Second World War, he created a number of war movies, which were promoted by the Japanese government. In a film that depicted the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour, he used his special effects skills to replicate the attacks with models – the footage was so realistic that it was passed off as real in American propaganda films.
His propaganda led to him losing work after World War II and he found work hard to come by due to his association with the imperial war effort. This changed in 1950 as he started working as the head of Toho Studio’s special effects department, where he had over 60 people under him. During his extensive 50-year career, Tsuburaya worked on around 250 films, including the original Godzilla film in 1954, along with its multiple sequels.
