Rina Aizawa’s “trajectory” from a sentai hero to a “nosebleed girl” – including a “nearly naked” cut in her photo book

She says, “Because I was on the side of justice, I didn’t want children to see me doing the wrong thing. So it was important for me to obey traffic signals and such. No matter how hurried I was, I always obeyed traffic signals. Even now. It’s already ingrained in my body (laughs).

The actress Rina Aizawa (32), who released her first photo book in 12 years, “Monthly Rina Aizawa,” on June 12, talks about her “habit” from her days as a sentai hero. She is active in a wide range of fields, including gravure and modeling, but her “starting point” is her debut in 2008 as Go-on Yellow, Saki Royama, in “Flame Gods Squadron Go-ongers. He first attracted attention with his cute and fresh looks, and his most recent drama in the April season, “Hey, Handsome! 2,” in which he played the role of Shoko, the “nosebleed girl” who caused a stir on social media whenever she appeared.

According to Aizawa, she was “just an ordinary first-year high school student” until she auditioned for “Go-onger. As she said at the beginning of the interview, becoming a Sentai Hero and appearing on TV was an event that changed her world 180 degrees.

I was taking acting lessons at the time, but after I was selected to appear on the show, I was allowed to participate in what were called action lessons. I played ballet in junior high school, so I had the physical strength, but I had never done that before, so it was really tough. I had to rotate, pose, and do sword fighting-like actions with the suit actors. I remember it was really hard work.

Moreover, all the other members had already made their debut in the entertainment industry. From my point of view, they looked so sparkling as older brothers and sisters who had already perfected their craft. I had to struggle to keep up with the other members.

Balancing schoolwork was also a challenge. After going to school in the morning, she would go straight to the Toei film studio. The Sentai Hero body language that he acquired through such hard work seems to be useful even today.

In “Hey Handsome! 2, there was a scene in which I jumped from the railing and took a short cut down the stairs. 2, the director complimented me on my posing and form, saying that I had a very beautiful form.

Aizawa has appeared in numerous dramas. Last year, she appeared in three serial dramas, and in “Subscu-Kanojo” (Asahi Broadcasting Corporation), she played a tough, love-struck, career-minded woman who had a daring scene in which she got wet. In the April season of this year, her role in “Hey Handsome! 2”, which was the talk of the town on social networking sites.

Shoko is an office worker at a big company and a fan of Yuji (Ren Sudo), the boyfriend of Mika (Reina Takeda), the third daughter of the Ito family. She is a mysterious woman who appears in front of Yuji and tries to take him to a hotel, saying that he might get better if he rests somewhere quiet, as if he can make his nose bleed at will. When she witnesses not only Yuji but also Omori (Kenta Hamano), the ex-boyfriend of Mika’s sister Yuka (Haruka Kiminami), getting along with her colleague Watanabe (Rina Ota), she in turn tries to press him. Therefore, whenever she appeared in the drama, various discussions about her mysterious behavior were made on SNS. What kind of offers did Aizawa receive?

I had the idea of being a “woman who can manipulate nosebleeds at will” in the initial materials I received. I had never done much comedy before, so I was a bit apprehensive. But I loved the worldview of the previous work, so I was more than happy to be able to perform in it. There were so many unique characters, and as one of them, I was hoping that my performance would have some impact on the audience.

In the end, why Shoko targeted Yuji and Omori one after the other remains a mystery in the drama. I wonder what Aizawa, who played the role of Shoko, thinks about that.

‘I guess she’s the type of person who cares about other people’s things. It’s a small detail, but Mika often wears mini-skirts, and I think Shoko is copying that a bit. When she was approaching Yuji, Shoko often appeared in mini-skirts.

When she was showing interest in Mr. Omori, she also tied her hair in a tight knot, a bit like Mr. Watanabe’s hairstyle. There was a setting in which Shoko was wearing the clothes and hair style of a woman who was close to a man she was interested in. But why she is so interested in other people’s men is still a mystery to me (laughs).

The director instructed me to speak my lines naturally. Everyone speaks quite naturally. I had an image of comedies being very exaggerated, but it was totally different. I learned that this kind of relaxed attitude is part of the charm of the work.

Although her role this time was a particularly quirky one, Aizawa says that she has actually played more bad girls in the past. At first glance, she seems to have the looks of a legitimate heroine, but perhaps she was offered the role because of the gap between her appearance and that of the heroine. We asked her what kind of roles she would like to play in the future.

She replied, “Yes, I would like to play a role as a bad girl. Up until now, I’ve played a lot of bad girls (laughs). So I would like to play a role that is not like that. Since I was cast in “New Peony and Rose” (’15, Fuji TV), I have been playing more roles as bad girls. I actually enjoy playing such roles, so I would like to play them as well. But I also like to play roles as fresh and nice women…isn’t that nice?

In her photo book “Monthly Rina Aizawa,” she shows a bold figure that is neither “bad girl” nor “fresh,” and is inspired by the world of the movie “Mistress/Laman. Her new look is also worth watching.

Rina Aizawa Monthly” (ND CHOW/Kodansha)