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Logo-supersentaiThis article is about a fight coordinator and director in the Super Sentai and Power Rangers franchises.PR2020 logo

Koichi Sakamoto (坂本 浩一 Sakamoto Kōichi) is a Japanese stunt-actor, producer, and director. He is best known for having worked on both Super Sentai and Power Rangers, as well as Kamen Rider and occasionally, the Ultraman Series.

Personal Life[]

  • Sakamoto has been married to stuntwoman Motoko Nagino since 2002.

Biography[]

A fan of Jackie Chan and Super Sentai, Sakamoto worked to become a stunt performer for Blue Mask on Hikari Sentai Maskman at live stunt shows, performing at Kōrakuen Stadium and Tokyo Dome. He came to the United States in 1989 as a foreign student to learn English and became a stunt actor. His first major stunt role was in 1994 with Guyver: Dark Hero as "Sakai." Sakamoto had also formed Alpha Stunts Production and was enlisted as 2nd Unit Director for the "battle grid" scenes from VR Troopers. This led him to eventually replace Jeff Pruitt as stunt director for the third season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

He would elaborate on his hiring in 2010. “Jeff was a tremendous stunt coordinator, and did a great job given the limited budget he had for those first two seasons. However, the limitations had the actors performing a lot of their own stunts and there wasn’t a big enough team for him to reduce the work they were doing. While they did cast actors with the skill to perform those things, doing so many stunts runs a higher risk of injury. Since my team was already doing work for Saban, it was natural to do Power Rangers as well. We had enough people to take the load off the actors and make the production a bit smoother.”

Sakamoto would then go on to become the 2nd Unit Director for the remainder of the first Saban-era of Power Rangers, eventually filling the roles of Producer, Executive Producer, even completing the final storyboard for Countdown to Destruction, the two-part series finale episode of Power Rangers In Space (originally drafted to be three episodes). He also made an uncredited appearance as Tritor in the 2-part Power Rangers Zeo episode, "King for a Day" (although an uncredited Paul St. Peter did the voice).

Sakamoto eventually married Guyver's film unit production manager, Tamara Noland. They had one daughter, Matilda, before separating. He would later marry stuntwoman and suit actor, Motoko Nagino (Pink A-Squad Ranger of Power Rangers SPD) in 2002. Sakamoto became one of the few original crew members from MMPR Productions to remain with the production following its move to New Zealand in 2003. He stayed all the way through RPM's last day.

Prior to Disney's acquisition of the Power Rangers franchise, Sakamoto frequently directed episodes and was the action and fight coordinator before being replaced by fellow Power Rangers stunt director Makoto Yokoyama beginning with Ninja Storm. He stayed on as executive producer, but no longer choreographed or directed. Despite having no involvement in the Disney-era choreography, he is often mis-credited as responsible for the extravagant explosions throughout Disney-era Power Ranger seasons the fandom has named "Kalishplosions" (they were the work of Yokoyama's own successor, Mark Harris). Disney dropped the franchise after season 17, selling it back to Saban. In 2011, Sakamoto returned as an action director for Power Rangers Samurai. Sakamoto also returned for Power Rangers Super Megaforce’s Legendary Battle, directing the quarry scene with the legendary rangers.[1]

Other Works[]

In 2006, Sakamoto served as action unit director and choreographer in Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior[2] and trained the Jonas Brothers for a week and a half, in preparation for filming of J.O.N.A.S.

In 2008, Sakamoto and the Alpha Stunts team provided stunt training for Captain Tankboy and the Tankboy Crew for the reality TV series Tankboy TV. Sakamoto also directed fight scenes in "Operation Stuntman" for Tankboy TV.

Sakamoto would go to do tokusatsu TV shows and films for Toei and Tsuburaya, including Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate, Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy, and Kamen Rider FourzeIcon-crosswiki along with movies such as Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega MaxIcon-crosswiki and Travelers: Jigen Keisatsu. He also directed Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger. Sakamoto is known for adding elements of Hong Kong-style martial arts and stunts into traditional tokusatsu weapons battles and effects.

In 2023, he was chosen to direct Ninja vs. Shark, a movie that capitalized on the shark B movies in America, which featured various tokusatsu actors as part of the cast.

Directing credits[]

Power Rangers[]

Super Sentai[]

References[]

Sources[]

External links[]

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