Nao Nasagawa: rising star in tokusatsu

Of the bat I'm going to admit I'm becoming more and more a fan of this diverse artist. Not only is she an actress, she mostly does her own stunts (when allowed by the studio), sings, dances and is a bit of a geek.

Guys and gals, she's one of us. Watching Rider and Sentai faithfully for 10 years and collecting some toys on the side. How did I know this? Via a very interesting interview with Diverse Japan.

Read about it here

She's been popping up a lot lately; A new movie coming out, Hurricenger's 10th aniversery, she also appeared in Rider (Double and Fourze) and is slated to appear in Kyuryuger and Garo's 3rd season. She also has a part in the GTO Live Action show (which is pretty good).

I think she's a cool gal, doing her own stunts and doing a bit of geeking on the side. Living the dream being a fan to star in her favorite franchises. I, personally, hope to see more of her in the future.

What are your thoughts on this very diverse artist?

Although I think she's talented, I stand by my view that HurricaneBlue is a dreadful character and the main reason she became popular through that role was her looks, not her acting. She has done better in other roles since Hurricaneger and my favourite tokusatsu performance of hers is in Daimajin Kanon, outside of Toei. I hope she'll branch out to more stuff not directed by Sakamoto and/or where she's playing a character with a bit more depth than her usual "pretty face" roles.

Yeah, you're right on that one. Nanami didn't really stand out and was as 2D as Agri was in Goseiger. Did like her better in Double and Fourze. Daimajin Kanon is on my to watch list, Garo's first!

Garo seems like a good show for her, I don't know why, it just does. I think she'd make a great female Horror, like Oikawa Nao's appearance in series one.

I thought she did fine as Nanami but she was really young and that was I think her first gig. She's gotten better since her rookie days there. I think by the time you get to her role in Kanon you can see the difference.

I also respect that she did many of her own stunts for Hurricanger. I like that she seems always willing to return to the part that put her on the map. Because when you think about how the Hurricangers started out as these lovable losers then it's neat now seeing Nanami having grown up into a sempai hero.

Zetton's Daughter ftw.

It still bothers me that she's just A-OK with taking credit for Yuuki Ono's suit work in Hurricanger...

We know the only time you were in-suit in Hurricanger, Nao, was when the mask was off -- which makes you no more unique than the other two clowns in the show!

Shougo B'Stard said:

It still bothers me that she's just A-OK with taking credit for Yuuki Ono's suit work in Hurricanger...

We know the only time you were in-suit in Hurricanger, Nao, was when the mask was off -- which makes you no more unique than the other two clowns in the show!

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Sounds like an interesting story, Shougo, care to share more?

To be honest, I'm just a casual fan of her recent work, Have't seen all of Hurricanger yet, but Nanami didn't stand out to me in the first 10 eps.

RangerWiki said:

Nanami Nono is portrayed by Nao Nagasawa (長澤 奈央, Nagasawa Nao?). As HurricaneBlue, her suit actor was Yuuki Ono (小野 友紀, Ono Yūki?), Nao Nagasawa also did some of her own stunts as well.

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I know of instances where the production company doesn't allow an actor to do stunts because of insurance issues. That said, it isn't right for her to take credit for ALL the stunts. Yuuki Ono most likely did the dangerous stunts and the more complex fight scenes/wire-fu. She does state in the interview she did the fight scenes herself, that leads me to that conclusion.

Yuuki Ono deserves credit for all her work, she's an amazing suit actor in my opinion.

i kind of dislike her because of that one interview. did she really think she was fooling anyone ?

I'm not a fun of her. I think she's kind of overrated. But I really enjoyed her roles in Daimajin Kanon and, especially, K-tia Sousakan 7.