Tokusatsu legend has passed away today at 59 due to cancer 😔
Veteran Japan Action Enterprise performer Riichi Seike has passed away at 59. JAE confirmed his passing, closing a decades-long career built almost entirely on physical performance: suit acting, action acting, stunt coordination, swordplay, motion work, and action direction.
He also carried that skill into anime and CG animation. In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005), Seike was credited as a Battle Motion Actor, physically performing complex martial arts and sword-combat movement so animators could translate real-world stunt physics into the film’s high-flying CG battles involving characters such as Cloud Strife and Sephiroth.
Selected known works include:
Space Sheriff Sharivan — Super Hero Taisen Z
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children — Battle Motion Actor
Samurai Champloo — Battle Motion Actor
Kamen Rider BLACK — Shadow Moon
Kamen Rider BLACK RX — Kamen Rider 2
GoGo Sentai Boukenger — Zubaan / Gai
Juken Sentai Gekiranger — Geki Violet / Geki Fire / Suugu
Engine Sentai Go-Onger — Yogostein / Go-On Black
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger — Juzo Fuwa / Akumaro Sujigarano
Tensou Sentai Goseiger — Brajira / Buredoran
Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger — Warz Gill
Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters — Beet Buster
Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger — Dogold
Ressha Sentai ToQger — Baron Nero
Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger — Mobile Commander Barashitara
Avataro Sentai Donbrothers — Sonoza monster form
Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger — Deznarak VIII / Dagded Dujardin
Bakuage Sentai Boonboomger — Madrex / Waruido Spindo
Suit acting is a craft where the face disappears, but the performance still has to speak. Seike made movement feel emotional, dangerous, funny, tragic, and unforgettable.
Rest in peace, Riichi Seike 🕊️
Happy Juneteenth! ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿
Always proud to be black because black is beautiful! Black freedom will live on!
None of us are free until all of us are free!
Barack: You told me all those years ago that you couldn’t promise me the world, but you could promise me an interesting life. Of course, you outdid yourself and managed to give me both.
Eight years in the crucible, and not once did you melt from the heat. Not once did you let it harden you. Instead, you used it to reveal your truest essence: your stubborn optimism and unflinching courage, your dazzling brilliance and unpretentious decency, your ferocious work ethic and absolutely unshakable moral fiber.
It was great reconnecting with our alumni tonight!
Michelle and I will always be grateful for the chance to work side-by-side with so many brilliant, selfless people who believed in something bigger than themselves.
More than 40 years ago, I arrived in Chicago in search of an idea. I was a young man looking for purpose, who believed deeply in America, was inspired by the Civil Rights Movement, and wanted to be a part of something larger. The America I believed in was one where everyone has opportunity, everyone is seen, everyone belongs—because that was an America that had a place for me, too.
To everyone who helped bring the Obama Presidential Center to life, thank you. Michelle and I are so grateful for all your dedication and hard work over the years.
I got a little teary-eyed tonight thinking about my mother-in-law, Marian Robinson.