The Reality of Disaster Destruction Depicted in Tokusatsu: The Conflict of the Art Director Who Worked on "Gamera," His Resolve After 31 Years, and a Warning
Tokusatsu art director Toshio Miike, who created a realistic Great Hanshin Earthquake destruction video, resolved to preserve the memory and issue a warning about modern urban fragility.Summary
Toshio Miike (64), a leading figure in special effects art known for the Heisei "Gamera" series, created the realistic reenactment footage "5:46 no Shogeki" for the Disaster Prevention and Human Futures Center in Kobe, which commemorates the Great Hanshin Earthquake. Since CG technology was underdeveloped at the time, the seven-minute film relied on miniature special effects. Miike struggled with the moral conflict of vividly recreating the tragic destruction of people's lives and homes, feeling a sense of guilt about potentially reviving painful memories for survivors. He focused intensely on physical realism, using balsa wood for wooden houses to capture their unique collapse characteristics and meticulously recreating the twisted rebar in scale models of the collapsed Hanshin Expressway bridge piers, deliberately avoiding flashy pyrotechnics associated with monster films. Although he took pride in the technical achievement, he rarely spoke about the work due to the sensitive nature of depicting such real-life tragedy. However, after being approached by the Center for an exhibition marking the 30th anniversary of the earthquake, Miike decided to break his silence. He now warns that modern, densely packed cities face risks beyond current seismic engineering assumptions, stating that disasters often involve the "unthinkable," and that the footage serves as a continuing warning about the fragility of contemporary urban structures.
(Source：産経ニュース)