Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Creator / Koichi Sakamoto

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/koichi_sakamoto_webp.jpg
There is no such thing as too many explosions.
Koichi Sakamoto note  (born September 29th, 1970) is a Japanese stuntman, director, and producer best known for his work in tokusatsu productions, including Power Rangers, Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, and the Ultra Series.

A fan of Super Sentai and Jackie Chan movies, Sakamoto got his start as a suit actor for Blue Mask in stage shows for Hikari Sentai Maskman before doing stunts for Sakai in Guyver: Dark Hero. After forming Alpha Stunts Production, he became a unit director for Saban Entertainment’s VR Troopers. From there, he and his team would move on to stunt coordinating for the Power Rangers franchise starting with the third season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, with Sakamoto himself soon becoming a producer for the franchise and even completing the storyboards for both parts of "Countdown to Destruction", the finale of Power Rangers in Space and the Zordon Era. Sakamoto was one of the few original crew members of MMPR Productions to stick with the series when it was acquired by Disney and filming moved to New Zealand, though primarily as an executive producer without any directing or fight choreography responsibilities, remaining up until the end of Power Rangers RPM.

The Signature Style of his work has some well known thumbprints, including heavy use of pyrotechnics, Wire Fu, fast action that takes inspiration from Jackie Chan films and other Hong Kong martial arts movies, and training the actors to do their own fight scenes out of suit. Another Author Appeal of his is giving prominent Leg Focus to any Kick Chick he gets to film.

    open/close all folders 

    Works Sakamoto has been involved with include the following: 
Note: Names in bold indicate works as the main director.

Tropes & trivia associated with his work include:

  • Car Fu: Stunts involving bikes and cars are a staple of his work.
  • Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Power Rangers was already a big proponent of this before he joined, and it seems he took the concept with him to his other works. Often, characters who aren’t normally fighters or whose backgrounds give them no reason to be accomplished martial artists will inexplicably demonstrate sudden athleticism and acrobatic movement during fight scenes without even needing to transform first.
  • Jitter Cam: Shaky camera angles pop up with varying degrees of frequency in his direction. Some examples do it more extensively than others, such as the Kamen Rider W Returns: Kamen Rider Accel V-Cinema.
  • Leg Focus: If an Action Girl gets a fight scene, you know the camera is going to give us a good look at her legs.
  • Male Gaze: The man is quite eager to film at angles that put emphasis on women’s chests and legs, and often has the actresses coated in oil to give them an erotic shine. That’s not to say that the well built men don’t get their fair share of Shirtless Scenes too though.
  • No Stunt Double: Allegedly, Sakamoto is rumored to have a boot camp that he puts the actors he directs into for a week or so of his personal stunt training in order to pull off the frequent out-of-suit action scenes. Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting is in full effect when he is at the helm, and characters you don’t normally see in combat will suddenly Take a Level in Badass to make it happen.
  • Romance on the Set: He met his first wife while working on Guyver: Dark Hero (she was the unit production manager), and then his second wife is a stuntwoman he worked with on Wicked Game and Power Rangers.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Explosions are a staple of tokusatsu, and Sakamoto is especially fond of making them big, frequent, and extravagant. Fans Mis-blamed then-showrunner Bruce Kalish, calling them "Kalishplosions," though he said Sakamoto constructed them. Sakamoto said at a convention that he used the pyrotechnics first to convey violent hits without running afoul of ABC's standards and practices, and second because the permits to use them were understandably way easier to get in Auckland than in Los Angeles.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: A trope Sakamoto seems particularly fond of, the most climactic scenes (especially big battle scenes) tend to have the opening theme song of the season play as an insert theme. This is especially prominent in crossover movies where you get to hear the theme songs of multiple seasons play in close proximity to each other when the characters of those seasons are fighting, sometimes even in consecutive fight scenes.
  • Wire Fu: Sakamoto’s love of Wuxia has heavily influenced his style, and the abundance of Hong Kong-style fights where at least one person is suspended in the air with wires is one example of this in his directorial credits.

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top