I got such a headache! Quick Priprican bring me an Aspirin!!!!!
Bandora herself for me is one of the more unique villains in Super Sentai. Unlike your standard Sentai villains even if they are notable for high degrees of cruelty (ex. Radiguet, Shadam, Grandienne) and have their basic aim of taking over the Earth for some reason like converting Earth into a world of darkness, a wasteland, etc. for domination purposes, she is pretty different. What makes her unique is that she actually has her hatred for children for some reason which wasn't revealed until later in the series. So I am compelled to speculate on Bandora herself!
Prior to the late Soga Machiko's role as Bandora in Zyuranger, she played two major villains namely Queen Hedrian (Denziman then Sun Vulcan) in 1980 and as Queen Pandora in Spielban in 1986. Zyuranger would be 1992. No doubt her performance was amazing in every character she played. Now these characters were more different than the last. Hedrian wants to pollute the Earth as she despises beauty making it her new suitable home. Pandora is your bitch of an evil empress of Waller Empire. I haven't seen much of both series so I appreciate anyone who can share their insights. I hope to see more of Denizman and Spielban then I will probably update this later!
Toei and Ishinomori Productions had its own show called Machine Man which was for me, something I can easily dispose of because it's too stupid. Moving on, it was shown in 1984 and didn't last for a year, it only had 35 actual episodes. What's the connection in this for my speculation on Bandora? I was thinking that maybe, just maybe Takeyuki Suzuki as a producer wanted to create a child-hating villain similar to Professor K and Lady M in Machine Man. So I guess while Machine Man may be not worth watching for me (but some may like it), but still maybe they wanted another child-hating villain in Bandora. Plus, Zyuranger was always known for its kid-of-the-week so what better way if the villain herself hates human children more than anything?
Then again we do know in fairy tales, a lot of witches HATE children don't they? If you know Hansel and Gretel, the witch herself eats children that come along her way and Bandora in one episode wanted to eat children turned into apples. Others just simply hate children like the Baba Yaga who hates her sister's stepdaughter. Others are just mean and cruel. I guess they wanted to make Bandora a tribute to some great witches in fairy tales or movies. So I guess that's another reason why they made Bandora a child-hating witch and later, told us why she became that kind of an unique villain who while wanting to conquer Earth, primarily focused her attack on children for her petty vendettas.
Then again we do know in fairy tales, a lot of witches HATE children don't they? If you know Hansel and Gretel, the witch herself eats children that come along her way and Bandora in one episode wanted to eat children turned into apples. Others just simply hate children like the Baba Yaga who hates her sister's stepdaughter. Others are just mean and cruel. I guess they wanted to make Bandora a tribute to some great witches in fairy tales or movies. So I guess that's another reason why they made Bandora a child-hating witch and later, told us why she became that kind of an unique villain who while wanting to conquer Earth, primarily focused her attack on children for her petty vendettas.
Machiko Soga was borne to play the part of Bandra!!! She is no stranger to Toei as she played 3 type of those villainess in 4 shows.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking about the short lived series. Soga lent her voice as Machineman's side kick Ball Boy a baseball like probe that has eyes and report to Machineman of the villain's actions.
The early 80s was Shotaro Ishimori's attempt in developing kid friendly series that was outside of Kamen Rider or Sentai. Yet both Byclossers and Nebula Mask Machineman bit the dust. But it would have been cool to see the Byclosser brothers team up with Bioman and Machineman with any one of the Space Sheriff!!!
Zyuranger is the 1992 Sentai, not 1991.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction! I wrote this while feeling tired.
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