Kenji Suzuki

Godzilla effects directors
← Koichi Kawakita	Kenji Suzuki	Makoto Kamiya →

Kenji Suzuki Born July 9, 1957 Ibaraki, Japan Occupation Special effects director, director First work Monkey (TV 1979) Notable work Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)

Kenji Suzuki (鈴木 健二,   Suzuki Kenji) is a Japanese tokusatsu director. Getting his start as a freelance assistant director, his earliest-known job was as first AD in Shinichi Kamisawa's special effects unit on two 1979 episodes of Monkey. He was hired at Toho Eizo (later Toho Eizo Bijutsu) in the early 1980s, and by Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) had become solidified as special effects director Koichi Kawakita's first AD. He served in this position for the remainder of the Heisei Godzilla series (1992-1996), as well as Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon (1994) and the first two Rebirth of Mothra films (1996-1997).

Upon Kawakita's retirement from Toho in 1998, Suzuki was selected as his successor, making his directorial debut on that year's Rebirth of Mothra 3. He was subsequently hired to direct the special effects for the first two Godzilla films of the Millennium era, Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999) and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000), but was not retained for further entries. The remainder of his career has consisted primarily of work for television, including a handful of Tsuburaya Productions' Ultraman shows (2002-2007) and the first two shows in the Toho-co-produced Ultra Star God Series (2003-2005). During this time, his duties have fluctuated between shooting special effects and human drama, having directed his first non-stuntman actors on The Gransazers (2003-2004).

Suzuki's most recent assignment was the 2019 short film Dream Challenge: Godzilla Appears in Sukagawa, which consisted entirely of special effects footage.

Selected filmography

First assistant director of special effects

• Monkey (TV 1978-1980) [episodes 21-22]
• Don Matsugoro's Big Adventure (1987)
• Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
• Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992)
• Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
• Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon (1994)
• Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994)
• Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
• Rebirth of Mothra (1996)
• Rebirth of Mothra 2 (1997)

Second assistant director of special effects

• Ultraman 80 (TV 1980-1981) [credited for episode 26]
• Bye-Bye Jupiter (1984)

First assistant director

• Making of Godzilla (1985)
• Toho Unused Special Effects Complete Collection (1986)
• Monster Planet of Godzilla (1994)

Director of special effects

• Rebirth of Mothra 3 (1998)
• Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999)
• Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)
• Ultraman Cosmos (TV 2001-2002) [episodes 37-38, 49-50, 61-62]
• Ultraman Max (TV 2005-2006) [episodes 1-2, 5, 13-14, 21, 23, 25-26, 35-37]
• Ultraman Mebius (TV 2006-2007) [episodes 11-12, 19-20, 29-30, 41-42]

Director

• The Gransazers (TV 2003-2004) [episodes 3-4, 7-8, 11-12, 17-18, 26-27, 31-32, 38-39, 44-45]
• The Justirisers (TV 2004-2005) [episodes 41-42]
• Ultraseven X (TV 2007) [episodes 3-5]
• Ultraman Mebius (TV 2006-2007) [episodes 11-12]
• Ultraman Mebius Side Story: Armored Darkness (2008) [stock footage]
• Dream Challenge: Godzilla Appears in Sukagawa (2019)

Actor

• Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) as Maser Cannon pilot

Gallery

• 

  Kenji Suzuki with Godzilla

• 

  Kenji Suzuki with Masaaki Tezuka, Godzilla, and Megaguirus on the Shibuya set of Godzilla vs. Megaguirus

Trivia

• Suzuki was the first Godzilla special effects director to never be acknowledged as a director in any of his films' credits. He is credited on Godzilla 2000: Millennium, Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, and even Rebirth of Mothra 3 with the title of simply "special effects" (特殊技術,   tokushu gijutsu), as opposed to his predecessor Koichi Kawakita's title "director of special effects" (特技監督,   tokugi kantoku), which was used as late as Rebirth of Mothra 2. This tokushu gijutsu credit would continue through the rest of the Millennium era with Makoto Kamiya, Yuichi Kikuchi, and Eiichi Asada, while tokugi kantoku would not appear in a Godzilla film again until it was revived for VFX director Shinji Higuchi on 2016's Shin Godzilla.
  • Despite this, Suzuki has often been styled as the films' tokugi kantoku in Japanese sources, and was credited as "Director of Special Effects" in the English-language versions of all three films, as well as on the packaging for some of the two Godzilla films' video releases (namely Toho Video's Japanese VHSes and TriStar/Sony's American DVDs and Blu-rays).

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