‘Superheroes’ relive their ’70s exploits
Festival for Japanese ‘suit actors’ brings out breathtaking stories
TOKYO A great number of tokusatsu superhero dramas — sci-fi dramas with special effects — were produced in Japan in the early 1970s. Such programs require more time and labour compared to regular dramas, even though one episode only lasts about 30 minutes. This is because they involve more action, explosions and a lot of character transformations. In 1973, their peak year, an amazing 15 tokusatsu superhero dramas were aired every week.
Producing that many shows week in, week out, would have been impossible without the help of socalled suit actors — those who don costumes to transform themselves into superheroes.
With that in mind, I organized an event called Kanreki Matsuri (festival for 60-year-olds), to feature former suit actors who have turned 60. As the first one held last autumn turned out to be quite successful, I produced another one, Kanreki Matsuri + 1, in April. At the events, I asked the four participants, Kazuo Niibori, Kenji Ohba, Junichi Haruta and Toshimichi Takahashi, to talk about the good old days when they were superheroes.
Niibori played the leader of the superhero teams in the Super Sentai series. Many of his characters had the word “Red” in their names. Ohba and Haruta both played heroes, before and after their transformations — the former in Gavan and Denshi Sentai Denziman and the latter in Dai Sentai GoggleV and Kagaku Sentai Dynaman. Takahashi played the lead character in Akumaizer 3 and several villain leaders.
The highlights of the events were the breathtaking stories told by the participants.
Ohba, Haruta and Takahashi, who used to be members of the Japan Action Club (now Japan Action Enterprise), have done numerous stunts for films and TV dramas.
Takahashi recalled jumping off a cliff, dozens of metres high, for a film.
“I did a good stunt on my first attempt, with onlookers applauding me. Then, for whatever reason, the assistant director asked me to do it over again. I went, ‘Seriously? You’re making it sound so easy!’ ” he said.
Haruta said he once jumped from the top of a six-storey building. While air mattresses are commonly used in the 21st century to help support action stunts like this, there was no such thing in the Showa era (1926-1989). Instead, Haruta jumped onto a pile of cardboard boxes. “We didn’t have air mattresses back then, so there you are,” Haruta said.
As Red in the Super Sentai series, Niibori has jumped from cliffs numerous times. “Of course I was scared. I’m a human being,” he said. “But at the end of the day, all you need is a lot of guts. We take pride (in our jobs). Besides, it feels great after doing a dangerous stunt.”
Ohba also had to work on tough action scenes even before transforming into the superhero in Gavan and many other shows.
“You feel relieved for a minute after jumping from a high place,” he said. “But within three minutes, you’re tempted to jump from another place a metre higher.”