#Masaya Kikawada

[thatslimyfem]

I'll never say it's perfect, but I will say that every toku fan should give Kamen Rider The First a fair shot just because you get:

-Veteran toku director Takao Nagaishi trying to pay homage to the original show that he served as 1st AD through most of, while being saddled with a script that was...

-written by Toshiki Inoue, trying to pay homage to the original scripts written by his father while also indulging in his own fixations as a writer

-character designs by Yutaka Izubuchi

-deranged performances by Hassei Takano (Kamen Rider Ryuki, Ultraman Gaia) and Kanji Tsuda (also from Ryuki, Shin Godzilla and Gamera the Brave)

-banger end credits song by Issa

-the most unhinged opinions on water crystals you will ever hear

[haveyouseenthistoku]

[redsamuraiii]

One Pound Gospel / One Pound no Fukuin (Ep 4)

When you've been single for too long. 😂

[real-life-senshi]

10 (Mostly) Spoiler-Free Reasons to Watch Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon 2003 Live Action

A countdown to the 20th anniversary of Act 1 air date!

Reason 3: The side characters!

The love the screenwriter put into building the PGSM main cast - Senshi, Shitennou and Endymion is something to always celebrate as a fan of the series. Still, they are not the only ones who benefited from the live-action writing.

Many recurring side characters in the manga/anime had their characters further fleshed out / altered to have their personalities shine in the show. And even better, instead of being a background character most times, most of them actually have significant contributions to the brilliant storytelling PGSM gives us!

Tsukino Ikuko

Speaking of PGSM humour in part 2 of this series of blog posts, it is impossible for one to not discuss one of the most iconic changes and side characters in the live-action series - Usagi's mom!

In the manga and anime, Tsukino Ikuko is a sweet, caring, and typical mother in a Japanese household, except she has questionable lavender hair...

In the live-action, with the exception that Ikuko is a brunette which is quite a normal hair colour, everything else about her is... well, anything but normal. For lack of a better word, she is... eccentric, and is actually the person responsible for many of the shenanigans that occur in the Tsukino family. After watching PGSM, you can definitely tell from where Usagi inherited some of her traits...

Tsukino Ikuko, the yoga practitioner and creator of questionable omelette sauce, is great fun to watch. Her time on screen is not long, but whenever she appears, she SHINES and steals the show with hilarious antics and an amazing grasp of comedic cues worthy of a professional comedian! Not a minute of her screen time is ever wasted!

Tsukino Shingo

In the manga and anime, Tsukino Shingo is basically a smartass brat who loves butt-heading and teasing his older sister Usagi.

In the live-action, Shingo retains the smartass personality, but not much of a misbehaving brat. Instead, his character is further fleshed out that he is actually intelligent, sarcastic, sassy and... perpetually so done with Usagi and Ikuko.

Seriously, this kid is the responsible AND sensible one in the Tsukino household and the holder of all Tsukino brain cells. It is absolutely glorious and a wonder to see how all the sass could fit into his tiny body!

With Shingo and Ikuko together, any scenes of Usagi's home life is bound to leave you in stitches watching the chaos that goes on within its walls!

For a taste of live-action Tsukino family dynamics, please enjoy the following two scenes:

Present day the actor of little Shingo - Takeshi Naoki is (of course) all grown up, and an acclaimed and prominent stage actor in many musicals and stageplays, especially in the 2.5D world. (Manga/Anime adapted stage productions.)

Some examples are:

Hyper Projection Play “Haikyuu!!” - Nobuyushi Kai

My Hero Academia The “Ultra” Stage - Iida Tenya

Black Clover the Stage - Yuno (main)

Furuhata Motoki

Motoki in the live-action takes in both roles from the manga and the 90's anime, where not only does he work in the location that doubles as the Senshi's secret base (manga), but he is also Mamoru's best friend from school (90's anime). But otherwise his involvement in the story kinda just ends there.

In PGSM, Motoki's character is more fleshed out in that besides being a pretty face (because let's be honest, Kikawada Masaya is good-looking!), but he also provides some ongoing comic relief for being a huge turtle fanatic.

BUT! He is so much more than just comic relief! His easy-going, kind and caring nature also helps him become a buffer/translator and insight-provider on certain aspects of Mamoru's character for Usagi when it comes to his best friend. He helps Usagi see past Mamoru's tsundere tendencies, getting past the prickly exterior and seeing the caring side of her eventual fated lover.

... And that's not even the main involvement when it comes to our Senshi team. He has a much more significant role late series. But I shall not say more to keep this spoiler-free!

For long-time Tokusatus fans, Motoki's actor Kikawada Masaya has also continued his tenure in Tokusatsu in other well-known franchises:

Kamen Rider The First (film) - Hongo Takeshi (main)

Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger - Master Red

Ultraman Decker - Captain Murahoshi Taiji

Osaka Naru

Across the manga-verse and anime-verse, Osaka Naru is well-known to be a Youma-magnet, rumourmonger extraordinaire, and Usagi's best friend outside of the Senshi team.

In the live-action, Naru continues to play both roles! But her character is a lot more three-dimensional, where she is both sweet and empathetic, but also territorial when it comes to holding her position as Usagi's best friend. So much so, she got bitchy and possessive and caused some teenage drama when she felt her position as Usagi's friend got threatened as Usagi becomes more and more embroiled in the Senshi business. Personally, that was one of my favourite storylines, where it just feels so much more personable and relatable regarding highschool drama and friendship issues. It is one that's close to my heart!

On the other hand, when Usagi encounters adversaries in her school life or love life, Naru is always here as a protector or to cheer Usagi up!

For those who don't now, another fun fact is Naru is played by Sailor Mercury/Mizuno Ami in one of the original Sailor Moon musicals!

The original side characters & villains

There are 2 other original side characters that have recurring appearances and an original villain character that is exclusive to the live-action that I'd love to introduce. (Well, technically there are 2 original villains, but one I'll actually introduce later). But since I said I'll make this mostly spoiler-free, I'll leave them out for now. haha

In my humble opinion, all of them are very well written. They are either there to cause drama - which the live-action has done well to amp up on the angst in the storyline, or there to cause chaos, which frankly is absolutely entertaining and a joy to watch!

And for the record, I especially ADORE the character with the sparkles in the middle. :P

You can watch the subbed versions of the series at:

Miss Dream Fansubs

Sea of Serenity Fansubs

The series is also on other online streaming sites, but be cautious to only visit them with good adware and firewall installed.

8 days till the 20th anniversary of Act 1 air date!

Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

[pleuvoire]

oh right i never finished the daichi has a gay thing with kikawada masaya two-parter. let's dive back in

[byneddiedingo]

Battle Royale II: Requiem (Kenta Fukasaku, Kinji Fukasaku, 2003)

Cast: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ai Maeda, Shugo Oshinari, Ayana Sakai, Haruka Suenaga, Yuma Ishigaki, Miyuki Kanbe, Nana Yanagisawa, Masaya Kikawada, Yōko Maki, Yuki Ito, Natsuki Kato, Aki Maeda. Riki Takeuchi, Sonny Chiba. Screenplay: Kenta Fukasaku, Norio Kida. Cinematography: Toshihiro Isomi. Production design: Emiko Tsuyuki. Film editing: Hirohide Abe. Music: Masamichi Amano. 

I suspect that anyone watching Battle Royale II: Requiem after the Hamas attack on Israel will have a different reaction to it than those who watched it before. It's a movie in which the heroes are terrorists: We even get a repeated shot in which they blow up two identical tall buildings. The first Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000) was an easy movie to get caught up in because it was fast and often funny, and the premise of a government of an overpopulated Japan selecting teenagers to kill off one another in a televised game show format was ridiculous enough that you could easily distance yourself from the movie. But the sequel, begun by Kinji Fukasaku but completed after his death by his son, Kenta, isn't so inventive, and the heroic terrorist premise is hard to swallow. It reunites some of the survivors of the earlier film's massacre who are part of a worldwide crusade against adults in general. This time, they're holed up on the island where they fought in the earlier film, and a class of ninth graders from a Japanese middle school for troubled kids is forced to storm the island and defeat the terrorists. But once they land on the island, after a sequence obviously designed to remind the viewer of the D-Day landing in Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998), the would-be attackers join forces with the terrorists and turn against the government. The rest is a series of war movie scenes as the government returns fire. The borrowing from other movies is pervasive: The film's climax, for example, is a direct lift from the end of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill, 1969). The teacher of the students chosen for the assault is wildly overplayed by Riki Takeuchi, who delivers a blistering anti-American speech before sending the kids off to fight. In general, it's a muddled film, not only politically but also in its failure to present clearly delineated characters in whom we can invest some emotional commitment and in the overall lack of suspense about their fates. 

[landofanimes]

Miyuu, Jouji and Masaya taking some amazing (and silly) photos in garb for Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger: The Legacy of The Master’s Soul

Our live-action Usagi, Mamoru and Motoki reunite again! They did a few episodes in the series as the masters of the Ryusoulgers but now there’s gonna be a prequel movie focusing on them!!! They’re gonna transform and everything! Jouji shared these pics and they’re so nice I had to bring them here ^^

I remember when @real-life-senshi found out about their roles in here: [x]! 

[mateushonrado]

The original Kamen Rider

Status Post #10269: Takeshi Hongo as played by Hiroshi Fujioka (main continuity), Masaya Kikawada (The First continuity) and Sosuke Ikematsu (Shin continuity).

[pgsm-gal]

🌙PGSM Sunday🌙

Keiko Kitagawa has become one of the top actresses in Japan over the years, so needless to say she's been in many films and shows. Others from the PGSM cast have even joined her on some of these films and shows.

Rika Izumi (Ami) made an appearance in "Paradise Kiss" with her.

Ayaka Komatsu (Minako) had a role in the series "Buzzer Beat" with her.

Masaya Kikawada (Motoki) joined her in the movie "Dear Friends."

Mariko Tsutsui (Saeko Mizuno) played her characters mother in "Roommate"

And recently both Jouji Shibue (Mamoru) and Sawai Miyuu (Usagi) made appearances on her show "The House Selling Woman Strikes Back"

[justfilms]

Tomie: Re-birth - Takashi Shimizu 2001

[haveyouseenthistoku]

[redsamuraiii]

Ultraman Decker (Ep 21) - Dyna Scene with Dyna Theme Song

My inner child got excited seeing Ultraman Dyna returning that I add in the song that comes to mind seeing him in action again! 

[everyfilmisaw]

ディアフレンズ (Dear Friends) by Kazuyuki Morosawa, 2007

[real-life-senshi]

PGSM References in Kishiryu Sentai Ryusoulger!

Beyond casting Miyuu (Usagi/Moon), Jouji (Mamoru/Tux), Masaya (Motoki) and Ayaka (Minako/Venus) in the series, even the content itself included some subtle (well, maybe not THAT subtle) references to the cast’s PGSM background! 

I’ve been meaning to compile them for awhile now. Sadly I didn’t notice any turtles around Masaya (Motoki). lol Master Red was more similar to his character Hongo Takeshi/Kamen Rider #1 in Kamen Rider The First, which he is much more known for.

[pleuvoire]

omg that IS masaya kikawada the dilf captain from decker and hongo from kr the next and the dilfy guy from ryusoulger also. i thout he looked familiar

[wikimoon]

Random Sailor Moon Trivia:

Masaya Kikawada, who played Motoki Furuhata in Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, played the role of Yousuke opposite Keiko Kitagawa's Rina in the film Dear Friends. He also played a supporting role in the film Last Operations Under the Orion, in which Keiko played the two female lead roles.