Masaki Sumitani

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A picture of Hard Gay in action, taken from the Japanese television show Bakuten. The purple text reads, "Welcome to the 'Hard Gay' stand." ('Stand' being short for ガソリンスタンド (gasorin sutando), meaning gasoline stand or gasoline station)
A picture of Hard Gay in action, taken from the Japanese television show Bakuten. The purple text reads, "Welcome to the 'Hard Gay' stand." ('Stand' being short for ガソリンスタンド (gasorin sutando), meaning gasoline stand or gasoline station)

Razor Ramon Hard Gay (レイザーラモン HG Reizā Ramon HG?, occasionally HG, Razor Ramon Sumitani or just Hard Gay) is the performing name of Masaki Sumitani (住谷正樹 Sumitani Masaki?), a Japanese comedian, wrestler and tarento ("talent"). His act gained national attention and popularity when featured on the "Bakushō Mondai no Bakuten!" (Daibakuten) Saturday variety show on TBS Television in Japan, in 2005. He should not be confused with American professional wrestler Scott Hall, whose use of the "Razor Ramon" stage name predates Sumitani's. Although WWE has trademarked the name "Razor Ramon" they have not responded against HG using the name Razor Ramon HG.

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[edit] Early career

Masaki Sumitani was born December 18, 1975 in Harima, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. After graduating from Higashi Kakogawa High School, he entered Doshisha University and majored in Commerce. While at college he picked up wrestling as a hobby, and soon joined the Doshisha Professional Wrestling Alliance (DWA). Under his performing name “GiveUp Sumitani,” he won the heavy class Kyoto pro-wrestling championship co-hosted by DWA and the Ritsumeikan Wrestling Alliance (RWA) of nearby Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.

It was through wrestling in their college years, that Sumitani met Makoto Izubuchi, with whom he would later form the comedy duo "Razor Ramon" in 1997. During their college years, Razor Ramon won the "Fukuwarai award" in the Imamiya Kids' Ebisu Manzai Contest, and gained experience on the stage through the audition live performance “SABUKI” at "2chome-gekijo", an Osaka comedy club opened by the Yoshimoto Kogyo comedy troupe at which many comedians from the Kansai area start their career.

After completing his university education, Sumitani got a job at CO-OP KOBE, as a grocery delivery man. His desire to pursue a career as a professional comedian led him to quit his job after four months, when he joined Yoshimoto Kogyo with his partner Makoto Izubuchi. "Razor Ramon" made their TV debut in 1999, and won the "Judges Special Award" in the "ABC Owarai (Comedy) Grand-Prix" in 2000. Both Sumitani and Izubuchi joined the Yoshimoto Kogyo-produced program Yoshimoto Shin-kigeki, one of the most popular comedy stage acts in Japan, in 2001, often playing yakuza, salaryman, udon restaurant owners, construction workers, and others.

Sumitani continued his wrestling aspirations in late 2005, working in the comedically off-beat HUSTLE promotion and defeating Yinling the Erotic Terrorist in his debut match; he has since gone to team with Naoya Ogawa and Yoshihiro Tajiri in leading the HUSTLE Army against Generalissimo Takada's Monster Army.

The most well-known character developed and portrayed by Sumitani is Hard Gay (ハードゲイ Hādo Gei?), introduced in 2002, as whom he finally rose to national prominence in 2005. While the official name is "Razor Ramon HG", he is most frequently known as "Hard Gay", or simply HG. Dressing in a tight black leather outfit reminiscent of the Tom of Finland art, he goes around performing acts of charity (yonaoshi, "social improvement") for unsuspecting bystanders while performing trademark pelvic thrusts and vocalisations, often accompanied by "Livin' La Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin.

According to some accounts the name Hard Gay was the suggestion of Sumitani's senior comedian in the Yoshimoto Kogyo grofp, Kendo Kobayashi, in reference to his "hard" dancing. The name has also been described as a pun on 芸, "gei", which means "skill" or "art". However, to develop his character, Sumitani visited gay bars in Doyama-cho, Osaka’s biggest gay area, and his costume, which consists of hot pants, a small vest, and cap, all in black leather, along with aviator sunglasses, was purchased at a shop called "VFTQ" in Minami-Horie, Osaka, which specializes in gay fashion.

Hard Gay makes regular use of a number of catch phrases in his act; he usually makes his entrance in front of the camera shouting "Dōmō Hādogei dēsu" (Hello, this is Hard Gay), with arms thrust out and a spin afterwards. His self-introduction is then followed by his famous “dance” moves. He often shouts "Fuuuuuu" (フゥ～!) or "Foohhhh!" (フォー！), a running joke in his performances. He often stops people saying unfavourable things to him by shouting “sei sei sei sei sei” with his palm in front of the person’s face. Whether this means anything is debatable, although Sumitani has commented that “sei sei” is something that comes out from his mouth when he is not happy, and that he does not mean "say" as in to speak something, although one might compare this action to the popular "Talk to the hand". A possible interpretation might be that the origin lies in the word "urusai" (lit. noisy, meaning "be quiet!"), which is often pronounced urusē うるせー in Kansai dialect, shortened to "sei". Another theory is the word "sei" written by kanji 静, meaning "quiet".　Also, "sei" 性, means "sex" or "gender" in Japanese.

In early 2006, he started working with "Razor Ramon" manzai partner Makoto Izubuchi again, with Izubuchi taking the name Razor Ramon RG (RG meaning "Real Gay"). He was brought in on the gimmick after it gained immense popularity. Izubuchi's character wasn't nearly as well received as Sumitani's, and has since faded into obscurity.

It is now common knowledge that Hard Gay is not in fact homosexual nor particularly outrageous, but a rather ordinary male comedian portraying a character. Television programs in which he has appeared have increasingly made reference to this, and he himself has significantly reduced his "comic" gay mannerisms in live appearances on variety and other types of programs.

[edit] Criticisms

Sumitani's supposed homosexuality was exposed as a gimmick when he was caught in the midst of a date, with Japanese actress and swimsuit model Anna Suzuki, whom he has since married. He has been criticised for his stereotypical depiction of gay men and for building a career on parodying a social minority with "bizarre and extreme" antics.

A spokesperson for the Hokkaido Sexual Minority Association Sapporo Meeting, a support group for gay, lesbian and transgender people, has said: "Hard Gay's acceptance by the Japanese public shows me that there is a strong tendency here to see homosexuality as something to be laughed at. That is sad."

Openly lesbian Osaka Prefectural Assembly woman Kanako Otsuji has been quoted as saying:

[The way the media treats sexual minorities] makes me angry. This morning I saw [comedian] Razor Ramon for the first time. I never watch TV. I'd only heard about him. He's not homosexual. He just uses gayness for his act, to make people laugh. I'm afraid that people will get the idea that gay people are all like that, yelling and pumping their hips.[1]

[edit] Retirement

Daily Sports in Japan reports that Razor Ramon HG is retiring from pro wrestling after Hustle Mania, which took place 11/23/2006 at Yokohama Arena. His retirement match was against The Esperanza.[citation needed]

[edit] Notes of interest

  • The famous Japanese soccer player Hidetoshi Nakata was famously genuinely mistaken for Razor Ramon HG as he got off a plane in Japan. Nakata was wearing dark sunglasses at the time.
  • Mixed martial artist Kazushi Sakuraba dressed up as Hard Gay as part of his ring entrance at the PRIDE Shockwave 2005 event.
  • Sumitani released his first single entitled "Young Man" on February 8, 2006, which is a Japanese rendition of the Village People's song "YMCA".
  • Razor Ramon HG made a small cameo in the May 2006 chapter of Gantz (chapter 233), shown on a television in Kurono Kei's apartment.
  • He also made a small cameo in Episode 12 of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu, at 2:29, with Akihiro Miwa.
  • HG (as himself) portrayed a gym teacher in the high school episode of the batsu game series from the Japanese variety show Gaki no Tsukai.
  • Some of the characters in the Japanese drama series '1 Litre of Tears' imitate Razor Ramon HG's signature pose and exclamations in episode 6.
  • HG claims that he has gay friends.
  • He is a regular performer with the HUSTLE Pro Wrestling group
  • The registration of his marriage to Anna Suzuki was announced on Thursday, August 10, 2006. Suzuki has stated she will end her modelling career after her commitments are finished and concentrate on starting a family.
  • In the anime Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan, the main character tells his love interest Dokuro in the final episode, "I'll become gay for you, Dokuro! Hard Gay!"
  • The finalists of the second season of Singapore Idol have been known to follow the exploits of Hard Gay in their off time - 4th-placed finalist Paul Twohill even mimicked Hard Gay's signature pose and catch phrase on the show, after host Gurmit Singh explained it to be an 'injoke'.
  • Razor Ramon HG has been named Japanese wrestling's Rookie of the Year by The Tokyo Sports Awards.

[edit] Name variants

Due to the lack of an L phoneme in Japanese ('R' and 'L' are equivalent in transliteration from English) and similarity between 'er' and 'or' in English, Hard Gay has a number of commonly used variants on official and fan sites. Even official Hard Gay merchandise has been known to use less common variants. The following have wide usage on the internet or appear on official merchandise and are listed in approximate order by popularity. Since Hard Gay also is commonly used for homosexual pornography, it is difficult to assess popularity of this name.

  • Laser Ramon
  • Harudo Gay

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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