Tony Christian Halme was a Finnish politician, athlete, author, actor, and singer. He was a member of the Finnish Parliament from 2003 to 2007, representing the True Finns party as an independent politician. Halme was also known by the pseudonym Viikinki, which he used while appearing in Gladiaattorit, a Finnish version of the TV game show Gladiators, in the 1990s.
Shinya Tsukamoto is a Japanese filmmaker and actor. With a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad, Tsukamoto is best known for his body horror/cyberpunk film Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), which is considered the defining film of the Japanese Cyberpunk movement, as well as for its companion pieces Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) and Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009).
Keiji Muto is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling executive. He is known for his work as The Great Muta in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) during the 1980s and 1990s, and from his runs in other Japanese, American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican promotions. He was the president of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) from 2002 to 2013 and representative director of Wrestle-1 (W-1) from 2013 to 2020.
Kōji Morimoto is a Japanese anime director. Some of his works include being an animator in the Akira film; shorts in Robot Carnival, Short Peace, and The Animatrix; and key animation in anime such as Kiki's Delivery Service, City Hunter, and Fist of the North Star. He is the co-founder of Studio 4°C. He has hosted the independent creative team 'phy' since 2009.
Tetsuo: The Iron Man is a 1989 Japanese science fiction horror film directed, written, produced, and edited by Shinya Tsukamoto. The film centers around an unnamed Japanese salaryman who wakes up to find pieces of metal sprouting from various parts of his body and becomes haunted by visions of metal-oriented sexual fantasies. As the man steadily becomes a hybrid of man and machine, he develops a connection with a victim from a hit-and-run accident, who is undergoing a similar transformation.
Genichiro Shimada, better known as Genichiro Tenryu is a retired Japanese professional wrestler and professional wrestling promoter. At age 13, he entered sumo wrestling and stayed there for 13 years, after which he turned to Western-style professional wrestling. "Tenryu" was his shikona. He had two stints with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he spent the majority of his career while also promoting Super World of Sports (SWS), Wrestle Association R (WAR) and Tenryu Project. At the time of his retirement, professional wrestling journalist and historian Dave Meltzer wrote that "one could make a strong case [that Tenryu was] between the fourth and sixth biggest native star" in the history of Japanese professional wrestling.
Chu Ishikawa was a Japanese composer and musician, best known for creating the soundtracks of many films by Shinya Tsukamoto and Takashi Miike. He also founded industrial music groups Der Eisenrost and Zeitlich Vergelter.
Bullet Ballet (バレット・バレエ) is a 1998 Japanese film directed by and starring Shinya Tsukamoto, and co-starring Hisashi Igawa, Sujin Kim, Kirina Mano, Takahiro Murase, Tatsuya Nakamura and Kyōka Suzuki. After his girlfriend commits suicide, a man becomes embroiled in gang warfare attempting to obtain a gun in hopes to kill himself.
Yoshiharu Habu is a professional shogi player and a chess FIDE Master. He is a former holder of the Ryūō, Meijin, Ōi, Ōza, Kiō, Ōshō and Kisei major titles. He was the first person to simultaneously hold seven major professional shogi titles at the same time and is the only person to qualify as a lifetime title holder for seven major titles. In January 2018, Habu became the first professional shogi player to be awarded Japan's People's Honour Award. In June 2023, he was elected to the board of directors of the Japan Shogi Association (JSA), and chosen by the board to be the JSA president.
Haze is a 2005 Japanese mystery horror film written and directed by Shinya Tsukamoto who also stars in the movie. After appearances at several international festivals in 2005, the film debuted theatrically in Japan on March 4, 2006. Two versions of the film exist: the original release, a short 25-minute version; and what Director Tsukamoto titled the "Long Version", which runs 49 minutes.
Gemini is a 1999 horror film by Shinya Tsukamoto, loosely based on an Edogawa Ranpo story, which pursues his theme of the brutally physical and animalistic side of human beings rearing its ugly head underneath a civilized veneer, present in previous films like Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989) and Tokyo Fist (1995), in what is a new territory for Tsukamoto—a story set in the late Meiji era (1868–1912) with no stop-motion photography and no industrial setting.
Masaaki Mochizuki is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for Dragon Gate and Pro Wrestling Noah. Mochizuki is a former FIP World Champion and three-time Open the Dream Gate Champion.
Seiji Sakaguchi is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and judoka, Sakaguchi holds a 7th dan red and white belt in Judo. Sakaguchi was a mainstay of New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and also competed for the World Wide Wrestling Federation and the National Wrestling Alliance. His sons are professional wrestler and mixed martial arts fighter Yukio Sakaguchi and television actor Kenji Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi currently works for New Japan as an advisor.
Kisei (棋聖) is one of the eight major titles in Japanese professional shogi. The word Kisei means an excellent player of shogi or go and has been translated as "shogi saint".
Japanese cyberpunk refers to cyberpunk fiction produced in Japan. There are two distinct subgenres of Japanese cyberpunk: live-action Japanese cyberpunk films, and cyberpunk manga and anime works.
Tokyo ESP is a Japanese manga series by Hajime Segawa. It began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace magazine on February 26, 2010, and finished on July 26, 2016. It follows a high school girl named Rinka Urushiba who lives with her father in poor conditions. This leads her to work part-time as a waitress. Her life changes when she gains the ability to use extrasensory perception (ESP). An anime television series adaptation aired from July to September 2014.
Psychic School Wars, known as Nerawareta Gakuen (ねらわれた学園) in Japan, is a 1973 science fiction novel by Taku Mayumura. It has been adapted into four television dramas – in 1977, 1982, 1987, and 1997. Two live-action films were produced in 1981 and 1997. A 2012 anime film directed by Ryosuke Nakamura was produced by Sunrise and received comparisons to the works of Makoto Shinkai.
Japan Organized Crime Boss is a 1969 Japanese yakuza film directed by Kinji Fukasaku.
Do Judge!! was a major professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on October 9, 2000, at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It marked the first major cross promotional matches between New Japan Pro-Wrestling and All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) after the two had entered into a working relationship in August.
Final Dome was a major professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It took place on October 12, 1999 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan and was televised live on TV Asahi.
