04.05.2018: Conversing with Keita Amemiya

Kyle speaks with the visionary artist and director from Japan, Keita Amemiya! Let’s get this out of the way now: if you are unfamiliar with Keita Amemiya’s film and television archives, make sure you listen to our first episode covering his work (episode #229). In that episode, we primarily cover Moon Over Tao (1997) and the tv mini-series from the year 2000, Tekkouki Mikazuki (but only just touched on Mirai Ninja, the Zeiram series, Mechanical Violator Hakkaider and Garo). I would also suggest listening to the cross-over episode I recorded with Kyle and Matt from the Kaiju Transmissions Podcast in their latest episode. It was a ton of fun and I would absolutely consider it part of the same essential listening as the our own look at this visionary’s work. But back to this interview, I was thrilled when I discovered that Keita Amemiya was going to be a guest at Monsterpalooza’s spring show in 2017. I’ve been a fan since I saw the original film back in college and it wasn’t until I moved to Portland that I discovered more of his films and eventually television series – many of them are available in English and liked to below. Please do seek out his work! KYLE FINALLY GETS TO USE HIS ZEIRAM CD: 1. Z-WALK #1 by Koichi Ohta from Zeiram (1991) 2. ENDING THEME (94EDIT) by Koichi Ohta from Zeiram 2 (1994) SUGGESTED VIEWING: Links to Keita Amemiya’s films via Amazon (all linked to should have English language options) Cyber Ninja / Mirai Ninja (1988) Zeiram (1991) Zeiram 2 (1994) Mechanical Violator Hakkaider (1995) Moon Over Tao: Makaraga (1997) Tekkouki Mikazuki (2000 – TV miniseries) Garo (2005 – TV series) Keita Amemiya on Twitter Keita Amemiya on Instagram CROWD (Keita Amemiya’s company) And if you really want to go the extra mile in your Amemiya exposure, suit actor Mizuho Yoshida (suit actor for Zeiram, Mikazuki and Godzilla from GMK) hand worked with Amemiya on many films… And he has been on the podcast a couple of times (episode 193 and episode 199). KAIJUCAST LISTENER PARTY 4/12 – Don’t miss our listener party Friday night of MONSTERPALOOZA if you’re planning on being there! DAIKAIJU DISCUSSION REMINDER: Don’t forget that our Daikaiju Re-Discussion for Gamera 2: Advent of Legion (1997) is happening later this month. If you’d like to send in your thoughts, questions and reviews, please do so before April 25th.