01.09.2018: Becoming Ultraman with Bin Furuya

Kyle sits down with the Man of Ultra! Veteran tokusatsu actor Bin Furuya talks about his career and being one of Japan’s biggest unseen pop-culture icons, the original Ultraman. This episode is ULTRA awesome because we have the actor who played the original Ultraman on the podcast to talk about his acting career. Satoshi “Bin” Furuya not only played the original hero from a distant planet land in Ultraman (1966), he played both Ragon and Kemur-seijin in Ultra Q (1966), the Ultra Garrison’s Amagi in Ultraseven (1967) and a number of smaller roles in Toho’s tokusatsu films! Thinking about the first time I was able to meet Furuya-san, it’s kind of crazy to imagine seeing this man so many times in the United States. I believe my first sighting was at G-Fest in 2012, then again at Monsterpalooza in 2013, San Francisco’s Fear FestEvil and Big Wow Comic Fest in San Jose, both in 2014 — the point is that I’ve seen a lot of this living legend and now I’m ecstatic that I was able to spend so much time learning about his life during his appearance at Japan World Heroes last year. I hope you enjoy it as well! COLOR TIMER TUNES: 1. Theme Song by Kuniyo Miyauchi from Ultraman (1966) 2. Ultraman’s Theme by Kuniyo Miyauchi from Ultraman (1966) SUGGESTED VIEWING: Katakutai Band’s Ultraman No Uta Music Video with Bin Furuya DAIKAIJU DISCUSSION REMINDER: Our Daikaiju Re-Discussion will take another look at one of my favorite films, Godzilla vs. Gigan from 1972! If you’d like to take this opportunity to get your homework turned in for the film, please make sure you send that in before January 25th to have your thoughts, questions and reviews for the discussion episode.