Megumi Odaka Turned 50 Yesterday

Above, Megumi Odaka (center) arrives at LAX for G-FEST 2000
with her sister Rina and Robert Scott Field. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

1972. This was the year I graduated high school. It is also the year that actress Megumi Odaka was born.

This coming September, several classes (including mine) of Hawthorne High School will be celebrating their 50-year reunion. I plan on attending. Since I experienced the years since graduation, I can believe it has been 50 years.

What is hard to believe is that Megumi Odaka had reached 50 years of age yesterday. When she was acting in the Heisei Godzilla series of movies, she was in her 20s. When she made her first Godzilla movie appearance in Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989), she was 17.

From IMDb:

Megumi Odaka was born on May 9, 1972 in Kanagawa, Japan. When she was 12 years-old, she jump-started her film career as a voice actress for children's TV shows in Japan. In addition, with also being a singer, she released several singles and albums throughout the late 1980s. After participating in the "Toho Cinderella Contest" in 1989 with actress Yasuko Sawaguchi, she was cast as psychic girl Miki Saegusa in the Godzilla film Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989). Impressed with her portrayal of Miki Saegusa, Toho studios had her return in the remaining 5 Godzilla sequels, thus becoming the first actor to portray the same character in a Godzilla film for more than 2 times. To this date, she is the one actor with the most reoccurring role in the Godzilla film trilogy.

After the Godzilla "Heisei" series ended in 1995, Megumi has pretty much retired from films. However, she has made appearances on stage, including "Peter Pan," "Anne's Love," and "Fiddler on the Roof," and occasionally can be seen participating at Godzilla conventions.

She appeared as a guest at G-FEST 2000 in Hollywood. She was 28 then. It is even hard to believe that G-FEST 2000 was held 22 years ago this coming summer.

This only goes to show how time flies.