Word: eiji
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...Behind this successful movie monster there is a formidable special-effects man. His name: Eiji Tsuburaya. He created not only Godzilla, but also Rodan, Mothra, Ultraman and a pantheon of fire-breathing reptiles and aliens. He also inspired a generation of imitators and ushered in the golden age of monster movies, or kaiju eiga, of the 1950s and '60s. If you were young and Japanese back then, you would know Tsuburaya's handiwork, perhaps even his name. He has been the subject of three or four biographies in his home country, and such contemporary movie giants as Steven Spielberg...
...That anonymity may soon mutate. In Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters, San Francisco?based writer August Ragone has produced a fond, generously illustrated biography of the tokusatsu (special effects) genius, who died in 1970. It is the first biography to appear in English. With help from Tsuburaya's family and co-workers, as well as stills supplied by his various studios, Ragone provides a monster maven's feast of detail about Japanese moviemaking in the innocent, pre-digital age. "His seemingly simple approach to special visual effects is in fact the result of a master craftsmanship like that seen...
...that image hides a tougher, Hollywood-mogul side--especially in recent years, since Miyamoto, 51, has become more manager than creator. Eiji Aonuma, director of Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, tells of Miyamoto's habit of coming in at the end of a game's gestation to "upend the tea table"--a phrase that harks back to what Japanese fathers used to do when they didn't like what was for dinner. The boy who never grew up is not afraid to make a mess if he doesn't get what he wants...
...Eiji Miyake is searching for a father he's never met, whose name he doesn't know. To track Dad down, he considers using lies, truths, computers and guns; in the end his most effective weapon is a pizza. In Number9Dream (Random House; 400 pages), David Mitchell returns to a setting from his widely acclaimed 1999 debut, Ghostwritten: a dystopian and dysfunctional Japan, one-part William Gibson, two-parts Murakami-Ryu and Haruki. Like a cyberage Holden Caulfield, 19-year-old, fresh-from-the-countryside Miyake plods his way through Tokyo's cityscape, rubbing elbows with Uber-hackers, war veterans...
...Like pretty-boy Eiji, Hiroaki Shioya roams the streets looking for runaways, but for very different reasons: he's an officer in Tokyo's police youth-crimes unit. With his slicked-back hair and dark suit, Shioya blends in with the businessmen out for the night. But as he turns a corner, a clutch of men in garish jogging suits standing around a black Benz start murmuring. One of them begins to tail Shioya, mumbling into a cell phone. Shioya sighs. "All the Mob guys know my face around here," he says...