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 role of Momotaro in 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 Japan in 2000. Much of his private profile, including his hometown, agency, and education, has not been made public. The clues are few, but as an actor of the generation born at the turn of the century, he would reach a major turning point in his early twenties.
The scarcity of personal detail says something in itself: 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 Momotaro with a Straight Face
What made his name was the lead role of Momotaro in the Super Sentai series Avataro Sentai Donbrothers. The lead in a Sentai show is a serious trial for a young actor, and at the same time a serious opportunity.
Donbrothers, moreover, is known as one of the most offbeat and idiosyncratic entries in the franchise. To play an elusive, peculiar Momotaro without ever winking at the camera takes real nerve. He carried that difficult role from start to finish without letting the mask slip.
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.