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Bob Johnson & August Ragone, Henshin! Online, July 27, 2001
Source: THE PASSING OF A HERO
Hiroshi Tsuburaya

Date of birth (location)

8 March 1964

Date of death (details)

24 July 2001

Hiroshi Tsuburaya, grandson of Eiji Tsuburaya and the Space Sheriff who saved the world in the 1980s, passed away at the age of 37 at 9:27am Tokyo time, on July 24, 2001 from liver disease. He is survived by his wife of eleven years, Fumiko and three children. The wake was held on July 25 and the funeral on July 26, both at the Siejo Catholic Church in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo.

The funeral was well attended by family and friends. Brothers Masahiro Tsuburaya (a producer at TPC) and Hideaki Tsuburaya (who runs Tsuburaya Communications) were there, along with many production staff members from Tsuburaya Productions. Actors in attendance included Takeshi Yoshioka, who played Gamu Takayama in ULTRAMAN GAIA and long-time suit actor Haruo Nakajima.

Hiroshi began his acting career by auditioning for a motion picture in the early 1980s. After not getting the role, he felt very worried about his acting career, but was saved by someone connected with the film, who gave him a small part in another movie. Following that, he landed his most famous role as the lead actor in Toei Company’s SPACE SHERIFF SHAIDER (1984).

Following the leads of Kenji Ohba and Hiroshi Watari, Hiroshi Tsuburaya starred in the third of Toei’s popular Space Sheriff series as Shaider’s alter ego, Dai Sawamura. The series was action packed and as the main character, Hiroshi was involved in many stunt and action sequences, as well as his fair share of martial arts battles with monsters, aliens and henchmen who were trying to take over the World.

After the 52-episode run of SPACE SHERIFF SHAIDER, he went on to appear in numerous television dramas and movies, including ARARENBO SHOGUN and MITO KOMON.

In 1996, he appeared in episode 49 of ULTRAMAN TIGA. The episode involved the hero, Daigo, traveling back in time to Tsuburaya Productions in the mid-1960s, when the original ULTRAMAN series was first being developed. In this, he played the role of his father, Hajime Tsuburaya. Hajime was a director on the original ULTRAMAN and went on to take over Tsuburaya Productions after the death of his father, Eiji.

The following year, he accepted a regular role in ULTRAMAN DYNA as Colonel Seiji Miyata, the commander of TPC (The Terrestrial Peaceable Consortium). He would return for his final acting part as KCB Director, Kenji Tabata in ULTRAMAN GAIA.

Hiroshi was told a few years ago by doctors that he only had about five years to live. He was determined to outlive his father, Hajime, who died at the age of 41. At that time, he was instructed to take it easy. Wishing to help young actors get into the business, he temporarily quit his acting career and became manager of Tsuburaya Productions’ talent division. This was the position he held until his passing.

The last known interview with Hiroshi was in The Space Sheriff’s Compendium, a book written by Mikio Ando and released in July of 2000. We hope to bring you this interview soon.

All his fans will miss Hiroshi and his passing at such a young age is very tragic. Our hearts go out to his family and friends.

taken from: Monster Zero

SPACE SHERIFFSHAIDER
a.k.

Uscuu Keiji Shaidaa 

~1984 Toei TV series~

Metal Heroes is another sub-genre of Tokusatsu that's working its magic to drill a hole in my heart with its intrinsic insanity. Starting with Space Sheriff Gavan in 1982 Toei had a new hero in the form of steel-clad galactic detectives that would drop kick their way through multiple spinoff series through the 80s and some of the 90s. After Kenji Ohba tore through the the evil Makuu and their leader Don Horror in Gavan, Space Sheriff Sharivan took over to dish out justice upon Madou and Demon King Psycho. The series in question, Space Sheriff Shaider 'blue-flashed' onto the airwaves the following year, and upholds the same obligation to be as bizarre and action-packed as possible.

Just like most other Tokusatsu shows, the Space Sheriff series has an overall successful formula that is slightly tweaked from series to series if anything. More is deemed better, as popular mainstays will roll over to new shows, while more and more insanity is piled upon what was already established. To give a general idea, any given series will typically feature the sheriff, under command of his superiors who have sent along a hot female to help him out and/or serve to be captured. All sheriffs have a flying base that transmits their combat suit from above, and also dispatches other vehicles such as the requisite bike with sidecar (ala Syberian in Gavan) or other possible tools like Drill tanks and such. The antagonist is typically a diabolically devil organization overflowing with drug-induced creature creations and run by your everyday "Demon so big he's immobile" leader.

Shaider adheres to many of the 'rules' set by it's predecessors, but is such an intensely surreal experience it's really hard to describe a single episode without sounding like an exasperated preschooler choking on cocoa puffs. More stuff happens in the first five minutes of this show than I've seen in whole seasons of others. In the first episode, Dai is chosen to be the next Space Sheriff, a true defender of the universe. While he's not nearly as manly as Kenji Ohba in Gavan, his slick parted hair is likely a hit with the ladies. He drives a vehicle almost identical aside from color to Gavan's classic red Suzuki Samurai. His suit is full of all the expected bells and whistles, and it looks like he shines that badboy on a regular basis. Usually fighting alongside or rescuing his pseudo-sidekick Annie, Dai takes all enemies out with quick and engaging fights that are so off the wall you have to give 'em the respect they deserve.

The series really belongs to the demons within, lead by the Great Emperor Kubilai, who is essentially a giant face in the wall with three eyes. Served by a bevy of cantina rejects and a transvestite grandson named God Officer Poe, Kubilai gives Shaider hell by birthing aliens and sending them to Earth to wreak havoc. The most insane moments are when they perform the birthing ritual. Hypnotic music is cued as the monsters and servants of the Emperor begin a trancelike dance, and Kubilai's vagina-like third eye peels open in a disturbingly sexual sequence that ends with Poe taking a pulsating orb out of Kubilai's mouth. The ball falls into a blood-filled birdbath and becomes a giant egg that houses the Double Monster of the week. It's hard to believe what your watching 90% of the time that Shaider is playing.

Fighting Monsters in Shaider follows the same formula as previous Sheriff shows. Just when it looks like the enemy is down and out, Dai and his opponent are sent by Kubilai to Strange World Fuuma (which is identical in appearance to Gavan's Makuu Space). The scenery changes more in this world than I have to change my pants while watching it. Once the enemy is taken out by Shaider's 'Blue Flash!!' attack, he ends up fighting the enemy base itself via his transforming base Babylos. Babylos triple times as a flying Mothership, an enormous mech (with a Macross look to it) and a giant gun that can magnify his image to hold and blast away with. The design of everything in the show is unforgettable and a stretch of the imagination to say the least.

I really need to catch all of the Space Sheriff shows, as each one seems to get better and better. While Kenji Ohba reigns supreme in Gavan, Shaider takes everything up a level. Hopefully someone will give these shows a deserving release like the one Kikaida is currently enjoying. The way that these shows take their situations so seriously in the face of how ridiculous everything appears to be is one of the chief attractions, making every episode fast paced and intense. The madness continues in following series such as Megabeast Special Investigation Juspion, Dimensional Warrior Spielban and Super Man Machine Metalder, many of which were all chopped together to be imported to the US in the form of VR Troopers. Later series added more heroes to the mix, like '95s Heavy Armor B-Fighter, which partially came to Western shores under the moniker of Beetleborgs. All we can do right now is hope that someday we'll get some great subtitled releases of shows like this so I can stop sounding like I'm out of breath on the playground flapping my lips about Saturday morning cartoons (which I may as well be).
More information about these series can be found at www.japanhero.com and http://www.grnrngr.com/documents/METAL.TXT (which is a great resource for character and episode names).