A star-studded reunion was held this year during a special event at the Tokyo International Film Festival with the four lead actors from tokusatsu sci-fi drama "Hyakuju Sentai Gaoranger."
TIIF was held from late October to early November. The special event on Nov. 8 featured Kazuyoshi Sakai, who played Gao Black in the TV drama, one of the Super Sentai Series shows. Sakai had rallied Noboru Kaneko (Gao Red), Kei Horie (Gao Yellow) and Takeru Shibaki (Gao Blue) to get the team back together for the event, which was part of the film festival's Japanese animation section, and they shared some of their special memories from the drama. These days Sakai is also known as the leader of vocal group Junretsu.
Gaoranger's 20th anniversary is coming up next year, but their conversation was so lively that it felt like it was just yesterday they were playing their roles in the series. During the talk, which was streamed online, they revealed some hitherto unknown behind-the-scenes episodes. For instance, as part of a publicity stunt, they had plotted to "videobomb" a variety show on another TV channel to promote the drama's popularity. In another rather juicy bit of gossip, Tetsuji Tamayama, who played Gao Silver, was once so pumped up that he posed in the nude while doing a post-recording in the studio. Mio Takeuchi, who played Gao White as a teenager and was the youngest member of the team, was unable to attend but she sent them a sincere video message instead. The four actors were unanimously impressed that she was now mature enough to say something nice.
In a bombshell revelation, Kaneko announced that he once turned down an offer from the Super Sentai Series to play a character other than Gao Red.
"I've got to go on living as Gao Red," he said. "Now that 20 years have passed, I feel myself fortunate that I still get jobs connected with Gaoranger. I'd like to continue working hard, believing in this miracle for 30 years, 40 years to come."
It was shortly before the broadcast of Gaoranger that I started reporting on tokusatsu shows. Therefore, their time in this drama overlaps the early years of my history as a tokusatsu reporter and I would very much like to celebrate the 20th anniversary together with them next year.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
