Encore! Encore! Encore!

Transcribed by Aoi Kurenai

[Transcribed from this article…]

When he was young, Kiriyama Renn admired Kamen Rider Black and had always yearned to play the role of a Kamen Rider. Now his wish has finally come true and he has become Kamen Rider W. He speaks to us of his feelings about Kamen Rider, and about the character of Hidari Shoutarou.

“When I think of Kamen Rider, I’ve always thought of Minami Kotarou, played by Kurata Tetsuo, in Kamen Rider Black. I never got to watch Black as it aired, obviously, but my parents had it on video and I remember becoming quite addicted to it as a kid… I’m not sure if it was down to the conflict between Shadow Moon and Black, but I always enjoyed the dynamic between the characters. That’s why I really envied the cast of Decade! I mean, they got to work with the guy and everything! I think everyone has their own heroes, and to me, Kurata-san is my hero, so being able to work with him was…just wow. (laughs)

Out of all the Heisei Riders, the one I liked the most was Ryuki. Actually, I’d never really watched any, but a friend of mine recommended Ryuki to me and I started watching it. He told me it was a “Battle Royale between Riders”, and to me, who’d always loved that kind of concept, it seemed interesting. When first saw it, I remember being amazed that this kind of Rider-verse as were could exist. I especially liked Kamen Rider Ouja. I know he’s not exactly the model image of a hero of justice, but it kind of conveys that there’s other things in this world people fight for than just justice. That, and, you know, I thought his movements were damn cool. Yeah, I like Oujia! (laughs)

As for the character I play, Hidari Shoutarou, he’s kind of a buffoon who thinks of himself as being hard-boiled, but really just ends up being the butt of a lot of jokes. At first, I really did think of him as being a very hard-boiled person, so I ended watching a lot of things like The Long Goodbye and the Maltese Falcon to get ready for the role. So imagine my surprise when Tsukada Hideaki, our Producer, said to me that “Put simply, Shoutarou is Sakuragi Hanamichi from Slam Dunk.” But when I read the scripts, I remember going “Ah, so that’s what he meant.” Phillip is someone who’s past is shrouded in mystery, so to the viewers, I think Shoutarou might almost be seen as a parental character to him in a way.

But much like Double itself, I think Shoutarou has two sides to him, and I think we’ll see the other side to his character emerge and develop over time. I think if someone like Shoutarou actually existed, they’d really just be the butt of a lot of jokes and ribbing. “What on earth is with that outfit?” would be a good place to start. I think he’s misunderstood in many ways. (laughs)

But playing that kind of comical role has been a lot of fun. I think out of all the characters, his interactions with Akiko are the most funny. Hikaru-chan, who plays Akiko, has just got this amazing sense for getting laughs and can really nail the tempo of the scene to get it just right. Though in my case, I enjoy the dramatic scenes a lot more. But don’t tell anyone. (laughs) It’d be nice if how much we enjoy making it comes through in the show itself, anyway. In my case, especially whenever I get a script, I always flick through it to find the sections I think are gonna bring the most laughs.

On the flip side, I was really worried about all the choreography, as were, that comes with a tokusatsu drama like this. It’s not quite the theater level of theatrics, but there are parts where you need to ham it up a little. There’s also the problem of making sure your movements work with the CG and editing. Especially the CG timing, after you put in a Gaia Memory, you have to wait for about 2 seconds before taking your next action, or that messes everything up. At the start of filming, I always used to forget and just keep going and they had to keep saying, “Shoutarou, keep you pants on, okay?” I heard that a lot. (laughs)

When it come to the henshin pose, we’d decided on a certain way of doing it, but I added a few personal touches like the spinning of the memories and a few little movements I came up with myself, Shoutarou’;s movements in those situations are something that we came up with together with W’s suit actor, Takaiwa-san, as he has to act them out too. But personally, I feel that a henshin sequence is something the kids and fans have to admire. It has to be cool, it has to be easy to remember, but most importantly – you have to want to do it yourself. I remember being quite adamant about that one, because that’s exactly what I did as a kid when I admired all those Kamen Riders. (laughs)

As for what the future holds for Shoutarou… well I’d like to do more action scenes! Before filming started, I attended one of Japan Action Enterprises’ action workshops to try and build up my skills. After it was over, though, they told me, “You’ve pretty much got the just of this whole action thing, so I don’t think there’s much more we can teach you.” I was pretty disappointed, as I wanted to go to more of them… (laughs) I mean, there’s been plenty of close calls and dangerous scenes for Shoutarou thus far, but he always just transforms into W. I feel so neglected in the action scene department…(laughs) I finally get a role playing a detective, handling a little action was something forward to.

Actually, I think it could be kinda interesting if Shoutarou and Phillip fought each other. Phillip is very mysterious, so it’s not unbelievable he might be connected to the Dopants. So maybe some kind of future development could allow Shoutarou and Phillip to come into conflict…although thinking about it, maybe too similar to Black? (laughs) Though, knowing my luck, Shoutarou would still just transform…but because it’s him alone, I guess he’d become Kamen Rider Single? (laughs)