Even after the TV series ended, Eiji/OOO has appeared in several "Kamen Rider" movies, but every time I appear in one, I never thought, "There will be another one." Even when I appeared in "Kamen Rider Heisei Generations FINAL Build & Ex-Aid with Legend Riders" in 2017 with Ryo-kun (Ank's voice actor, Ryosuke Miura), I never imagined that another "OOO" movie would be made four years later. I guess I'm lucky to have been asked to appear at a time when there are people who think that "OOO" is necessary in line with the times.

Of course I'm happy. When I was a kid, I loved Kamen Rider toys. Now that I'm an adult, I feel that I've gone from being the one who received dreams to being the one who provides dreams. I'm very grateful and pleased that the OOO Driver has such enduring popularity, with fans who have been saying they want it for a long time.

The theme of "OOO" was "desire." There are many types of desire, but the desire for money is easy to understand. I think medals are item is easily directly linked to money, and I think that this was well entwined with the story created by the main writer, Yasuko Kobayashi, and stirred up people's desires and lust. The synergistic effect of the appeal of Bandai's products and the appeal of the story that evokes desire (laughs). In fact, when you look at the medals, you want to collect them. They're easy to get and not too big. They're item that tickles the collecting spirit, and even now when I think back on it, it was groundbreaking.

I have the released product, but before filming, I was given a "practice" belt by Bandai and used it to practice transformation at home. It was a one-of-a-kind item before it went into factory production, and it wasn't painted yet. I practiced hard until I got used to loading the medals and holding the Auscanner. When I transformed in the first episode, it was Eiji's first transformation, so it was fine even if I wasn't used to it, but as I did it more and more, I was able to transform more naturally. For example, at first I couldn't load the medals without looking at my hands, but as I continued, I was able to insert the medals without looking. By the time we were filming the latter episodes, the size of the belt and medals had become familiar to me.

That's right. I also had a photo taken of me posing with the Taja Spinner on. This is a pretty rare image, isn't it? Eiji basically only touches the belt (OOO Driver) and medals.

This time, I was always on set during the filming period, even on days when I didn't have a turn. I simply wanted to see it. As for Ancient OOO, I've been watching since the suit fitting. I wasn't going to say anything, I just wanted to see it (laughs). My impression from that time was that, even though it was an arrangement of OOO, I thought it was very simple and good. I felt that the slight arrangement, such as wearing a cloak and changing the color of his eyes to red, matched well as a character that symbolizes this work. Although the word "King 800 years ago" was mentioned in the TV series, he had never actually appeared in a tangible form. I was impressed that they were bringing out a being that I had been curious about for a long time!