"There is so much writing in English on Japanese cinema that can't be accepted at face value — not because the writers are careless, but because the differences in culture and language are just too intricate. When I see August Ragone's name on a piece of writing, it gives me permission to place my faith in it completely. Among Japanese fantasy film historians, he's the best working in English." —Tim Lucas, Video Watchdog

Monday, July 4, 2016

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SATOSHI "ULTRAMAN" FURUYA!
JULY 5, 1943

お誕生日おめでとう、古谷敏!ウルトラマンとアマギ隊員よ永遠に!


At a fit 73, Satoshi "Bin" Furuya still has the right "Ultra Stuff"!

On the eve of the 50th Anniversary of the seminal ULTRAMAN series, read more about the man who played the red and silver hero from the stars, here! This July 15th-17th, Mr. Furuya will be appearing at G-Fest XXIII in Chicago, along with his co-star Hiroko Sakurai, who played Akiko Fuji. If you're a fan, its your duty to come by and wish Mr. Ultraman a very happy ultra birthday!

Read about my thoughts on Mr. Furuya, here.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Completely unrelated, but Mr. Ragone have you ever considered doing short video "debriefings" of toku, kaiju and Japanese super hero facts? Your work with shoutfactory has been very informative and entertaining, and I'll be my last cent I'm not the only one who would love to see a similar format be uploaded more frequently.

August Ragone said...

Atticus,
The thought has occurred to myself and other parties. There is a definite possibility since this genre is highly visual, and an while audio podcast is great, it just can't convey the visual pleasures of both Japanese live action and anime productions. Perhaps I should rethink this. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Cheers,
August

Unknown said...

To give an example of what I was picturing, please take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu8nIGwZu50

Naturally paleontology is only tenuously related, but I feel the format of the learned scholar dispensing information via bite-sized videos hosted in a simple set (with FM covers and movie posters in the background of course) would be the most efficient way to go about the process. The Q&A segment would take a bit of time to get rolling, but the typical filler questions could be substituted until then (who are you, what was the main inspiration for Blank, why is Chaiyo still allowed to legally exist, etc).

It's all your decision of course, and you've got enough clout to figure what works best for yourself and what would be the most entertaining/informative for fans. If you need reassurance though, just remember that Dinosaur George racked up 4000+ fans just by talking about a field he's passionate over, and that there are countless twenty-somethings that have done the same just by blabbering over footage of old video games. There's more than enough room in cyberspace for any show you decide to bring forth.

tsnamm said...

I'd subscribe...