There's Akamatsuri in summer, and there's Hangyaku Matsuri in autumn -- these are part of the events I organize, inviting performers and creators of tokusatsu VFX action TV shows and films.
Akamatsuri, or Red Festival, is a talk event in summer featuring actors who played the leader of the superhero team in the Super Sentai Series tokusatsu shows, whose superhero costume is of course red.
Hangyaku Matsuri, or Rebellion Festival, has started to rival Akamatsuri and features active and former actors and actresses who played superheroes other than the characters in red in those shows. The biennial event in autumn is designed for those performers to send out a signal to rebel against the red, with these cries at heart: "Why are they always standing in the center?" and "They always take the most delicious part!"
The event is led by Ei Hamura, who played Tenmaranger, a fighter in a blue outfit, in "Gosei Sentai Dairanger."
The performers who responded to Hamura's call and agreed to join the event this year are: Keisuke Tsuchiya, who played Kirinranger, the superhero in yellow, in "Dairanger"; Keiya Asakura, Blue Turbo in "Kosoku Sentai Turboranger"; Takeru Shibaki, Gao Blue in "Hyakuju Sentai Gao Ranger"; Miho Kojima, Deka Pink's suit actress in "Tokuso Sentai Deka Ranger"; Motokuni Nakagawa, who was the suit actor for Pink Racer in "Gekiso Sentai Carranger" and other works; and Toshihiro Ogura, Ryutaros in "Kamen Rider Den-O." Director Noboru Takemoto represented the crew.
Ryoko Gomi, an active suit actress for tokusatsu heroines, also hastily came to the event after finishing a shoot for a TV show. Yuka Uchiyae, famous for singing the theme song for TV anime "Futari wa Pre-Cure Splash Star" (Pretty Cure Splash Star) appeared as a singing guest.
The motto for this year's Hangyaku Matsuri was "Gone are the days of rebelling against the red."
"[This event] started as a rebellion against the red, but our current rival is beyond 'Super Sentai Series.' He is the hero among heroes, Kamen Rider!" Hamura declared.
Following his words, all the participants came onstage in costumes related to Kamen Rider in one way or another. The audience erupted with joy at seeing their elaborate cosplaying. The talk became most animated when they discussed the red: "The red got me screwed," and so on.
Meanwhile, a mysterious man wearing a surgical mask appeared in the venue. He turned out to be Keiichi Wada, who played Ryuranger, a superhero in red in "Dairanger." Then came a chaotic scene with Wada in a fight with others, including Asakura, who appeared in swim pants as he did in "Turbo Ranger," in which his character was a high school student good at swimming.
The event was like a jack-in-the-box with a song contest and dancing to the recent hit tune "U.S.A." As the emcee, I was a little bit concerned, but the free-form atmosphere delighted the audience.
Presumably, the performers in non-red roles were allowed more freedom in playing their characters than the performers playing the red ones, because the non-red characters had fewer restrictions in the stories than the red ones, who were leaders.
Watching them move around freely and spiritedly, I felt as if I was watching the everyday lives of superheroes from the bygone era with fresh eyes, and found it immensely fascinating. Together with the audience, I look forward to the return of the ever-evolving Hangyaku Matsuri in two years.
Suzuki is a Yomiuri Shimbun senior specialist and an expert on tokusatsu superhero films and dramas.
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