Akira Tsuburaya

Akira Tsuburaya (円谷 粲（あきら）, Tsuburaya Akira, born February 12, 1944) is a former Japanese film and television producer. The third son of special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, he began his career at his father's company Tsuburaya Productions while at Tamagawa University in 1966. Tsuburaya had an extremely prolific five-decade career in film and television, during which he worked on over 80 productions.

Akira Tsuburaya was born on February 12, 1944 in Tokyo. He was the third son of special effects pioneer Eiji Tsuburaya and his wife Masano Araki as well as their first child to be baptized. While at Tamagawa University, Tsuburaya began his career working in film at his father's company Tsuburaya Productions on the domestically popular Ultra Q episode, "Kanegon's Cocoon" as an assistant director in 1965. He subsequently returned to work as an assistant director on the Ultra Q episode "Challenge From the Year 2020" and the following year worked in the same position on Ultraman (TV 1966-1967). He later served as the chief assistant director of special effects on Ultraseven (TV 1967) and was also an assistant director on Operation: Mystery! (1968).

Tsuburaya began working as a producer in 1970, receiving his first credit in that position on Chibira-kun in the same year. He continued working at Tsuburaya Productions on productions such as Triple Fighter (1972), Fireman (1973) Army of the Apes, Pro-Wrestling Star Aztecaser Ultraman Leo (both 1974), Dinosaur War Izenborg (1977), and Star Wolf (1978) until leaving the company in June 1989.

In July 1989, a month after leaving, he established Tsuburaya Eizo. He would serve as executive producer for many television shows by his company, including Babel II: Beyond Infinity (2001) and Genma Wars: Eve of Mythology (2002). In February 2002, he rejoined Tsuburaya Productions and became the head of the production department as vice president. In May 2005, however, he left Tsuburaya Productions once again and was appointed director of Tsuburaya Dream Factory that June.