Fun Times in LA.
Since my friend OKI was going, I decided to tag along to Monsterpalooza, where I ran into a lot of old acquaintances. The biggest surprise of all was seeing Akihito Ikeda, a designer and special effects makeup artist based in LA—and an old friend of mine.We’d actually run into each other by chance two years ago at the Kyoto Museum of Culture—though on that occasion, we were both there as instructors—but this was only the second time we’d met in the past 20 years.
So, why do we know each other? It’s because we worked together on *Ultraman Cosmos*—AKIHITO as the monster designer and me as the director and special effects director.
Since we’re comrades who originally created the same project together, we instantly fell back into our old dynamic. I was really happy to see him.
Oki Miyano, who’s been helping me out in LA, also knew AKIHITO, so the three of us went out to dinner. We talked about all sorts of things. It was surprising to realize there were things I was only just figuring out 20 years later!!
Ribeye steak. It was delicious. American steak is delicious.
LAで楽しかったこと。
友人のOKIさんが行くので、一緒にモンスターパルーザに行ってみたらたくさん旧知の人にお会いしました。そして中でも最もびっくりだったのが、LAを拠点に活躍しているデザイナーで特殊メイクアーティストの、そして旧知のAKIHITOさんです。2年前にも、やっぱり偶然、京都文化博物館でお会いしたのですが、このといいは二人とも講師でしたけど、この20年間でお会いしたのはこれで2回目です。
さて、なぜ我々が知り合いかというと、我々は『ウルトラマンコスモス』でAKIHITOさんが怪獣デザイナー、僕が監督特技監督という関係で仕事していたからです。
だから、もともと同じ作品を一緒に作った同志ですから、一瞬で昔の関係に戻ります。会えて本当に嬉しかったです。
