Most of the emerging tokusatsu actors of today are not really that known in the drama or movie world at first because they started acting in theaters into which these theater plays are not very much well-known in other countries. One of them is the Prince of Tennis Musicals.

Musical Prince of Tennis or TeniMyu is an on-going musical series directed by Ueshima Yukio which is adapted from the popular manga under the same name, The Prince of Tennis by Konomi Takeshi. It is one of the most popular manga-adapted all male musical series not only in Japan but also in other parts of the world.


In connection with tokusatsu, the trend was started by Konishi Hiroki (known more by the name of Konishi Ryosei during his TeniMyu days) with GARO way back in 2005, followed by Kawai Ryunosuke and Kotani Yoshikazu in ZanSaber in 2006 then, Suzuki Hiroki and Araki Hirofumi in Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger in 2007. Many TeniMyu fans came to love toku after that.

In line with the actors mentioned above, Takigawa Eiji (KR Kiva), Seto Koji (Kiva), Aiba Hiroki (Shinkenger), Inoue Masahiro (KR Decade), Murai Ryouta (KR Decade), Kiriyama Renn (KR W), Gong Teyu (KR W), Hashimoto Taito (KR OOO), Hosogai Kei (Gokaiger), Shindo Gaku (Sazer X, Gokaiger) and Takahashi Ryuki (KR Fouze).


Yasuka Saito (Boukenger) and Watanabe Daisuke (Ultraman Mebius) on the other hand, appeared in toku even before taking their respective roles in TeniMyu. Miyano Mamoru (Ultraman Zero) is already a voice actor back then.

However, we could consider Takagi Shinpei (Gekiranger) and Okuchi Kengo (KR OOO) as special cases for they appeared as guests. Shinpei is the twin brother of Takagi Manpei who played Retsu in Gekiranger who appeared as Retsu's evil mirror side. Meanwhile, Okuchi appeared in Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Movie War Core as Nobunaga.

Now, let us consider their transformations. First stop, Seigaku!

Cast 1:

Cast 2:





Cast 3:



Cast 4:




Cast 5:

Let's move on to the rival teams.

Fudomine, Cast 1:



Hyoutei Gakuen, Cast 1/A:


Hyoutei Gakuen, Cast B:




Rokkaku:


RikkaiDai:


And last but not the least,

Higa:


With this, we could conclude that because of the help of tokusatsu, not only TeniMyu but also other musical plays, adapted or not, started to shout their names around the world.

Thanks to most popular form of entertainment in Japan, the theater, that there are more aspiring and amazing actors sprouted in the industry!