Criticism of the Heisei era SFX

[eabaker]

^I'm guessing in the 90's, Toho was in a "We need to sell merchandise!"-type of mentality more so than in the Showa era?

Yeah, which is probably heavily attributable to the decline in Japanese theater attendance which began in the mid-60s.

[LegendZilla]

^I'm guessing in the 90's, Toho was in a "We need to sell merchandise!"-type of mentality more so than in the Showa era?

Yeah, which is probably heavily attributable to the decline in Japanese theater attendance which began in the mid-60s.

If the Showa films were made in the 90's, toy sales would've propped them up and they would not have declined in box office.

[PuzzledAmphibian]

*A lot more great info*

Wow thank you for so much information! I do in fact own Steve Ryfle's book, but I must admit it has been years and years since I have read through it. However, I had no idea about this commentary track with him and Shinji Higuchi. Thank you for tipping me off on that, I will be getting a hold of it ASAP!

Did a quick skim off the top of my G-Fan pile to see if there was anything like what I said there, but I found nothing of the sort. I'm sure at this point I either exaggerated some of the difficulties he talked about with the production schedule or conflated it with another crew member interview. I did find two other issues for sure that have interviews with him #107 and #108 (#108 was dedicated to him after his death). So while I didn't find what I was looking for I had fun skimming through them and here were a couple fun and interesting things of note to some of the conversation in this thread:

He talks about how a lot of his family was involved in the film industry in some way and especially credits an older sister for getting him information on the process of making movies when he was a youngster.

Makes a joke about a Godzilla shaped sake cup he owns that spills if you set it down, so you have to use it with a "bottoms up" attitude! (I would wager this means he was aware of the stories regarding his drinking and was having a little fun with it himself )

And lastly he says he would love to work on another Godzilla project if Toho gives him the chance. Hits a bit harder after his death.

I'm sure there was more but as I said I was going through it a bit quickly to see if I could find my possibly made up quote

[LegendZilla]

^Imagine if Tohombrought him on to work on the remainder of the Heisei era.