Toei's Tokusatsu Alumni: Starring As Someone Else VS. Resuming Their Old Roles

I remembered writing an exhaustive and now outdated list of same celebrity, different characters. Now I feel like ranting the difference between an alumni appearing as a guest character after one's done vs. resuming one's role (or iconic role).

Resuming one's role in later series to come


It's already 2018 and it's not easy for me to forget the number of guest stars Gokaiger had from the past years. They would even reunite and have a crossover with the Zyuohgers during the 28th to 29th episode of said show after five years. It's the biggest crossover ever and it'll be very hard to replicate.

There's that nice feeling when certain people resume their roles after many years. I couldn't forget the feeling of excitement I had with Kamen Rider Decade when Tetsuo Kurata resumed his role as Kotaro Minami even if he played as two Alternate Reality versions. I could also think of how Gokaiger's number of guest stars really fills in the anniversary.


Most of the alumni that showed up were mostly from 2000-2010. It was nice to see them but I felt I could relate more to the 90s alumni due to my age. These were like when Toshihide Wakamatsu resumed his role as Gai Yuki's ghost, Keiichi Wada resumed his role as Ryou from Dairanger, Hayato Oshiba as Kenta Date, Kenji Ohba resumed his role as the original Gavan in the crossover movie and guest starred in the Christmas episode and the Hero 199 movie had cameos from both old and new alike.

Overall, it can be a fun experience to relive one's childhood when one's childhood heroes resume their roles. However, it can get pretty old quickly so there's the second alternative.

Playing an entirely different character after one's main series is over

Then, you can have Super Sentai alumni guest starring as another character AFTER their show is done. Either you're a guest or a major character.

One could talk about how Kyoryuger actually gave us not one but two Super Sentai alumni. We had both Junichi Haruta and Sayoko Hagiwara. Both of them played major roles after their first iconic role. Junichi went to play as Kanpei Kuroda in Dynaman and Mad Gallant in Juspion. Sayoko Hagiwara became Ley Nefel in Flashman. Should we mention Ayumi Kinoshita played as Nobuharu's widowed sister?

We also had Keiko Hayase playing as Flower Ninja Sakura in Kakuranger, Kihachiro Uemara went to play as First Captain Chevalier in Fiveman after he played as Dai/Green Flash in Flashman, Shiro Izumi played as Burai after he was Yuuma Oozora in Changeman, Masashi Ishibashi's various villain roles and Yutaka Hirose's various villain roles to name a few. Should we mention Hoshi Minato's actor Hiroya Matsumoto was also Tsubasa Ozu from Magiranger (and he guested in Ninnninger as said character) and Jin Masato in Go-Busters which were all major plot points.


Not to mention, Hiroshi Miyauchi played four major roles and a Big One at most (pun intended). Who can remember him also playing as the mentors of Winspector, Solbrain and Ohranger? Funny how Winspector and Ohranger also take place in the year 1999. You could think about how he's probably that big legend who played different characters through the years before stepping away from the limelight. He did resume his role as Big One twice for Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai and Gokaiger Hero 199.

Then we have the guest star syndrome where a character may only appear for one to two episodes. Some of my favorite mentions would involve Nao Nagasawa's guest starring as Haruka Utsugi in Kamen Rider Fourze, Mika Kikuchi guesting as a ninja in the Go-Onger movie and Kazunori Inaba's one shot guest roles. They would occasionally drop by and show their support for the latest show.

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What do you think of these two scenarios?

Comments

  1. You also forget actor Takayuki Gokai who portrayed Vul Eagle 2 was a regular guest star as Haken Maru in Kakuranger. Also included Taruaki Ogawa who also star in Kakuranger as Ninja Red appeared in Gingaman as 6th Member Kurokishi Hyuuga. And the two also reprise their Sentai Role on Gokaigers!

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