A Straight Face Inside the Suit: Kiita Komagine and His Strange Hero
Being a Super Sentai hero is harder than it looks. On weekend mornings, you have to deliver an honest dream to a room full of children sitting in front of the television. No posing, no self-consciousness allowed. You simply have to stand up for justice, head-on. Not many young actors can actually do that.
Kiita Komagine took on that demanding job without flinching. Born in 2000, he played the lead, Kaito Goshikida / Zenkaizer, in Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger in 2021 and returned in the same role in the next series, Avataro Sentai Donbrothers, burning the image of a hero into the minds of kids on the other side of the screen.
Born in 2000, at the Turn of the Century
Kiita Komagine was born in Ibaraki Prefecture in 2000. While at Mito Agricultural High School he drew attention on Instagram and was scouted by Horipro; he had trained in Kyokushin karate for twelve years, from age five through high school. As an actor of the generation born at the turn of the century, he would reach a major turning point in his early twenties.
He is an actor spoken of through his work and his roles, not his private life. How he stands inside the frame, rather than what he does outside it, is the axis on which he is measured.
Playing Zenkaizer with a Straight Face
What made his name was the lead role of Kaito Goshikida / Zenkaizer in the Super Sentai series Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger. The lead in a Sentai show is a serious trial for a young actor, and at the same time a serious opportunity.
The next year he joined Avataro Sentai Donbrothers in the same role. Holding a straight face inside such an idiosyncratic show, without ever winking at the camera, takes real nerve.
The Resolve Not to Be Just a Handsome Face
Good looks can invite the easy label of "just another handsome face." But the way he committed to a strange, hard-to-handle role with a perfectly straight face hints at a determination not to be confined to that box.
His upright, composed stance certainly suits a hero. Rather than leaning on his looks, he met the very difficulty of the role head-on, and that attitude may be closer to who he really is.
I have always had a soft spot for actors who emerge through the gateway of a Sentai hero. The nerve tested inside the suit, and the responsibility of delivering a dream across the screen, Kiita Komagine took on both while still young.
Still in his early twenties, he stands at the foot of the climb. The best version of him surely hasn't shown up yet. I'm genuinely curious to see what face he reveals next.