‘Kikaida’ star has role in ‘Go For Broke’ film

Since the 1974 Hawaii debut of “Jinzo Ningen Kikaida,” a Japanese tokusatsu (live-action) TV series, the eponymous superhero and the actor who played him, Ban Daisuke, have stayed popular with several generations of local fans.

Ban, who lives in Koganei City, Japan, came to Honolulu this month for two appearances, one for his former robot role and another for a new film in which he plays a very human — and humane — character.

At a free “Kikaida and Friends” event Sunday at Sanki Hawaii, he’ll sign autographs and sing “Haru Kureba,” a number from the last episode of “Kikaida,” Ban said in an email interview.

“I made my TV debut in that role, so it means a lot to me,” he wrote. Although “Kikaida was a robot, I wanted to play him like a human being with human emotions.”

That may help explain the enduring loyalty to a show that aired for only three years. “I am so grateful that Hawaii fans still remember, and amazed that their children watch ‘Kikaida,’” Ban said.

Still, he feels relatively anonymous when he visits. “Most of the time, I just blend into the crowd,” he said.

That may change after Hawaii audiences see his moving performance in his new role, that of fisherman Matsujiro Otani, the issei (first-generation) father of Akira Otani, a veteran of the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, in “Go for Broke: An Origin Story,” a film that will have its world premiere at the Hawaii International Film Festival on Nov. 12.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the elder Otani, who spoke only Japanese, was shipped to an internment camp in Wyoming. In the film, Otani befriends an ostracized fellow inmate, a young Japanese sailor who was captured in Hawaii and who, Otani says, reminds him of his son.

“I was very moved and shed tears at the end,” Ban said after watching an Oct. 8 preview of “Go For Broke.” For more information on the film, go to goforbrokemovie.com.

Meet Ban Daisuke from 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday at Sanki Hawaii in the Pearl City Shopping Center. Fans are encouraged to come in “Kikaida” costumes and participate in games.