When we talk about #Tokusatsu FX directors, the first name that come to mind is, understandably Eiji Tsuburaya (FX director for the first Gojira, Ultraman’s father). However, one less-known person is Nobuo Yajima, who passed away two years ago, in November 2019. A THREAD

Born in 1928, Yajima left studies in engineering to join Shochiku in 1949, where he studied everything about movies (even collecting tickets in cinemas !). After watching John Ford’s The Hurricane, he grows an interest in FX, and joins the dedicated team at Shochiku.

His interest for editing came after he met a French editor while working as assistant director, cameraman and editor on the French-Japanese movie Typhon sur Nagasaki. An experience that shaped his vision of FX.

At the time, Tsuburaya was an advisor for Shochiku (since he was forced to leave Tôhô during the purge of occupied Japan). That's when he asked Yajima him to join the team for Gojira when he went back there.

Yajima refused, since he was working at Shochiku at the time, but you can see that he drew interest from the greatest FX director at the time. Fun fact, he created the first color logo of Shochiku !