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I should do some intro threads on some of the metal hero actor greats maybe
I am doing that thing!
#1: Kenji Ohba
The man, the myth, the legend. Plenty of you already know this one at least! No-one flips and bounces like him, and his tokusatsu roles are too numerous to comprehend
#1: Kenji Ohba
The man, the myth, the legend. Plenty of you already know this one at least! No-one flips and bounces like him, and his tokusatsu roles are too numerous to comprehend
Not long after playing two Sentai rangers in a row he got his most memorable role as Gavan, a role he's happily reprised anytime Toei remembers Metal Hero exists. Man's all over (cameo in Kill Bill??). Wikipedia even claims he's Kikaider's suit actor but I can't find a source
#2: Hiroshi Watari
Here's someone maybe you know but you don't realise you know! (Pictured with some people we'll talk about later) A Metal Hero fixture for several years, first as Gavan's successor Sharivan, then as Juspion's ally, er, Boomerang (try and guess what he does)--
Here's someone maybe you know but you don't realise you know! (Pictured with some people we'll talk about later) A Metal Hero fixture for several years, first as Gavan's successor Sharivan, then as Juspion's ally, er, Boomerang (try and guess what he does)--
--before getting another lead role in Spielban and my god, his chin got so much thicker in just three years
ofc all these people will have smaller, 1/2-ep appearances I can't cover--including some really fun ones like Ohba as "annoying jackass who steals the Jiraiya suit"
ofc all these people will have smaller, 1/2-ep appearances I can't cover--including some really fun ones like Ohba as "annoying jackass who steals the Jiraiya suit"
(And, indeed, Watari as "the guy in Ricardo Cruz's music videos")
#3: Naomi Morinaga
All three Space Sheriff shows had a breakout, but Shaider's wasn't its main lead but its heroine, and after an action-heavy role as Annie, Morinaga got a lot more story to chew on as Helen in Spielban, getting to be both an evil cyborg and a transforming hero
All three Space Sheriff shows had a breakout, but Shaider's wasn't its main lead but its heroine, and after an action-heavy role as Annie, Morinaga got a lot more story to chew on as Helen in Spielban, getting to be both an evil cyborg and a transforming hero
She also gets top billing even over Ohba and his moustache in the Metal Hero actor mini-reunion that is the dojo section of Kamen Rider ZO!
Update on Ohba's suit-acting days, also: https://twitter.com/Cross_Ultimate/status/1346198334130839554
Anyway, after mentioning that Morinaga also reprised Annie in 2014 (and yet they brought back Hellvira without her?? where's the justice), we'll move on to someone who managed to steal the show despite sharing the screen with both her and Watari!
#4: Makoto Sumikawa
Diana in Spielban wasn't her acting debut but it was her tokusatsu debut, and as a character devised as a direct response to Annie's action focus in Shaider leading to demand for transforming heroines in the series, at that (cont'd)
Diana in Spielban wasn't her acting debut but it was her tokusatsu debut, and as a character devised as a direct response to Annie's action focus in Shaider leading to demand for transforming heroines in the series, at that (cont'd)
This lead to a pretty varied career--she's Reiko in Kamen Rider Black RX, the voice of Miki in the Devilman OVAs, and appears to menace Winspector in a gang of absolutely incredible getups in the last picture there (in an episode I admittedly haven't seen yet)
She also features in a self-celebratory two-parter in Metalder (25 & 26) featuring a lot of these people, as it brought together members of the JAC--the stunt-actors' organisation many of Toei's more active stars belonged to (it goes by JAE nowadays)
Caps of it don't seem to be floating around on the internet, but it featured Ohba, Watari, Sumikawa, and the next person I'm about to talk about--
