Best Actor to Play a Heisei KR

We often have discussions about what was the best/worst KR season. So I thought we should have a thread about who was the best to play a Kamen Rider. So pick who you think was best and give a reason why. You can also pick the worst one to play one.

Best: Joe Odagiri. Just because Kuuga was a better series overall than Kabuto or Den-O. Every episode of Kuuga, you could really feel like Odagiri was giving his all. Odagiri's Godai felt like an actual person and seeing Murai Ryota play Kuuga, it really shows that it was Odagiri that made Godai and Kuuga special.

Worst: Kento Handa. He was just so stale. Especially after Odagiri Joe, Kashuu Toshiki and Takamasa Suga did quite well in their individual roles, seeing Handa as Takumi in such a melodramatic series like Faiz was a bit disappointing. Faiz had brought up so many questions about an individual's humanity and the main character himself is so stale like a robot. It was just ugh.

Please... Den-O didn't even meet the standards to be really accepted as a KR series.

Best has got to be Jo Odagiri.

Worst has got to be Keisuke Kato because of all those badass then turn insane then turn stupid role. It was probably the fault of the directors, but he just made me go... "WTF happened to this guy?!"... Meh~

I have to say that Joe Odagiri is the best actor. I can really feel the emotion with him (If that makes sense).

It's a credit to his acting skills. He certainly dazzeled all of Japan with his performance as Godai.

I'll go for Sato Takeru... Not only that Den-O is the very first Kamen Rider Series I got serious watching first, I've seen him in other dramas before... He's so great as he deals with different personalities in just one series... I've also seen him did such acts in a live and show video... I really admired him because of his great talents and unique personality... Added to that, I LOVE HIM~!!! ^_^"~

I'm rooting for Joe Odagiri as well, for the same reasons others had stated. I don' think Onedera's a bad replacement honestly, I don't know his real name though. The worst one...hm. I have no idea. I'm not one to always pay attention to acting skills i guess.

Joe Odagiri aka Godai "Kuuga" Yuusuke is the king of Heisei Rider. Nuff' said.

The man of two thousand skills is just too much to be beaten. The actor did it perfectly despite that he had hard time portraying Godai.

Smilodon said:

It's a credit to his acting skills. He certainly dazzeled all of Japan with his performance as Godai.

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He ratherr dazzled all (woman) of Japan with his performance as bisexual enemy in Azumi, that was his actual big break. And I think still his best performance, right next to Tokyo Tower Mom & Me and Sometimes Dad.

The best actors are for me definitively Seto Koji and Odagiri Joe, also the only ones who never made me cringe. They played their parts to the fullest and made them vivid, simply the reason I could empathize with Wataru and Godai. Especially Wataru, because it was interesting watching him blossoming.

Looking at them as Kamen Rider and their other works, I have to say that Seto Koji still stands on top for me. He is a stunning actor on screen and stage, able to act out a wide range of really different personalities (from autistic over serious to rebellious) and can effectuate all possible emotions within each of his characters, even in different ways. Also, you can give him extra tasks and he is able to perform them like he never did something else, like singing, dancing, acrobatics, sword fights, drawing, violin or guitar play. Most actors leave me cold, are not able to move me or don´t reach me with their play, but he does, always. Simply great!


As for bad actors, there are several but the worst are for me Inoue Masahiro, Nakamura Yuichi, Kato Keisuke and Hiro Mizushima. They are plainly boring. No talent to construct a character, not able to express emotions or even just different facial expressions, no comedy timing, just monotone and flat.

Most of the other actors never left an impression on me that I could say they are really memorable or I want to see them play this or that part. One exception might be Yamamoto Yusuke, who started to improve in his acting since he worked with Seto Koji. But funnily, he still tends to be a little insufficient when they are not working together. Sato Takeru never struck me as a good actor, but as one who is staged by the directors. When I compare him to Seto Koji, I never see an actual passion or interest from Sato Takeru in his parts, as confirmed in his interviews. He doesn´t conduct character studies or works on small details that would make his character more alive or interesting. And this is something good actors just do and need doing. Sato Takerus expression of emotions is missing to minimal, and even when he tries to play an outburst or crying scene, it seems contrived, love scenes are totally out of place for him. Yes, he is a good break-dancer (a whole lot better than his acting) and needed to take a few (still not enough) sword fighting lessons for Ryomaden, but only because he had to. He doesn´t needed to sing live for Beck just once, because everything is going to be mixed in the studio for him. There is actually a lot of working around of all his weak spots from the filming crew and directors, more than his fans (want to) see. Something you don´t have to do, when you have a really good actor. Sato is far away from being a big name actor, he is just an Idol that producers will hire and take advantage of as long as he has a lot of fans, the same goes for Hiro Mizushima.

The best Heisei KR actor IMHO is Shigeki Hosokawa. At 31 (during the Kamen Rider Hibiki run), he's just the right age to play a badass Rocky Balboa-esque fighter.