Every year sees a new team of masked action heroes on the TV Asahi network. Well now two of them are forming a team of their own. It was announced yesterday that actress Kikuchi Mika (25) and actor Kishi Yuji (39) are engaged to be married. Kishi was the Red Racer in the 1996-97 series Gekisou Sentai CarRanger, while the diminutive Kikuchi played the role of Deka Pink in the 2004-05 Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger series. They plan to hold their wedding and reception in December at the Tokyo Dome Hotel, next to the venue where both often appeared in action events. The couple met in 2007 when they were both appearing in the stage production “Les Miserables.” Kishi proposed in October of last year, after he finished a run of the musical “Miss Saigon.”
• Some happy news also for actress Sakai Miki, who it was revealed yesterday is expecting her first child next spring. Sakai (31) married a university hospital doctor (35) last October and her pregnancy was confirmed at the same hospital at the end of June. The baby is expected at the end of March. Sakai will appear as planned in the Osaka stage production “Hangyakuji” with kabuki star Nakamura Shido in November. She plans to take maternity leave from December and her management agency say she will combine her acting career with motherhood. Sakai and her husband met in New York in 2004 while she was volunteering in a campaign to support organ transplant patients.