While doing a Kamen Rider Agito rewatch, I thought that some cast members weren't all that good. So I'd submit this wishful thinking post with Hojo's casting. So what's my beef?
While I'm talking about the G3 side of the show, I'd like to say that there's really only one thing that I think can be tedious upon Agito rewatches: Houjou's antics. It's really depressing to find out that Inoue considered Houjou his favorite character in the series, but I guess not all that surprising since he does favor asshole characters like Kusaka and Kiriya. (Some would say Gai, but those people should shut up.) Houjou has his moments, and he's a necessary source of conflict for the police side, a source of conflict completely missing from Kuuga, but he's mainly just a pain in the ass, and I think the character is beyond actor Jun Yamasaki's abilities.
Yamasaki's mostly just stiff, and you can never get a real bead on what the character's really after. The worst is his moronic "Protect the Unknown" scheme from the final episodes. If you were meant to take into account the way Aki and Gills attacked him, and Houjou's concerns were genuine, then Yamasaki never lets you know it, with his monotonous line-reading and plastered on shit-eating grin. I mean, I do think Houjou is meant to be unreadable, to a certain extent, but I think a better actor would have made his intentions SOMEWHAT more visible.
Sorry Yamasaki, you just aren't cut for Hojo...
Considering that Hojo's meant to be the show's conflict, I thought Jun Yamasaki wasn't really ALL THAT good in carrying that part. Sure, he's meant to heckle or to add conflict to the show but the actor isn't all that good. Here's what Shogo B'Stard has to say about the actor himself:
While I'm talking about the G3 side of the show, I'd like to say that there's really only one thing that I think can be tedious upon Agito rewatches: Houjou's antics. It's really depressing to find out that Inoue considered Houjou his favorite character in the series, but I guess not all that surprising since he does favor asshole characters like Kusaka and Kiriya. (Some would say Gai, but those people should shut up.) Houjou has his moments, and he's a necessary source of conflict for the police side, a source of conflict completely missing from Kuuga, but he's mainly just a pain in the ass, and I think the character is beyond actor Jun Yamasaki's abilities.
Yamasaki's mostly just stiff, and you can never get a real bead on what the character's really after. The worst is his moronic "Protect the Unknown" scheme from the final episodes. If you were meant to take into account the way Aki and Gills attacked him, and Houjou's concerns were genuine, then Yamasaki never lets you know it, with his monotonous line-reading and plastered on shit-eating grin. I mean, I do think Houjou is meant to be unreadable, to a certain extent, but I think a better actor would have made his intentions SOMEWHAT more visible.
Yup I agree with that one way or another. That's the whole problem with Yamasaki. So I ended up thinking of another actor that would be better than who was made to play Hojo.
Instead, Shinji Kasahara should've been assigned to play Hojo in Timeranger. He played the "necessary conflict" in Timeranger. His character Naoto is pretty much a Hojo-type character no questions asked. You can see how Naoto's the anti-hero of Timeranger where he's a jerk but there's still a good guy underneath. Even if he wants to seize power but it's because he started out as dirt. He's distrustful towards the others because of his rivalry with Tatsuya. I feel like that Hojo was based on this guy. Kasahara has better acting abilities than Yamasaki.
After Timeranger, I thought that Kasahara should've played Hojo for Agito the year after. He did a good job with his role as Naoto. I don't see any reason why the actor couldn't play a better Hojo than Yamasaki. I felt like that if he were Hojo then we would have a more convincing weasel and adept police officer. His ability to play as sixth ranger Naoto should've had him land the role of Hojo next year. So Toei, what went wrong that time?! Plus, I thought Hojo should've been G3-X's user with that unit as Agito's version of the City Guardians since I felt like the conflict should've been more of Hojo vs. Agito not Hojo vs. Hikawa.
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