Emperor Zeba's Possible Intended Backstory VS. God Neros' Actual Backstory?
I've always thought that maybe the original plan was to have Zeba be revealed to be a former friend of Sugata's, one who followed a dark path, and THAT is how Sugata knew about Tube; the show obviously planned to have Sugata do more, but actor Hayato Tani was an in-demand performer and there were scheduling conflicts. Early on, Zeba clouds the world in darkness with a maneuver called the "Dark Holon," which sounds like it could have been the opposite of Sugata's Aura Power. Zeba only used that move once, in episode 2, when Shinkai was still playing the character. Was writer Hirohisa Soda's plans to have had Zeba be secretly human, and a former colleague of Sugata's, and when all that fell through, he came up with the Lethal Dogler storyline?
While there's nothing at all to even confirm Shogo's speculation (or mine) on Emperor Zeba's supposed origins. I have a bizarre assumption with what happened that year. Remember Metalder aired on January 17, Maskman aired on February 28 and Kamen Rider Black aired on October 4. This brings me to one specific character from the Metalder series namely Emperor God Neros.
The philanthropist Gozo Kirihara would cover himself in darkness to transform into his cybernetic form as Emperor God Neros. While he appears to be a philanthropist but he's actually the evil emperor of the Neros Empire. Metalder's emperor of evil has a secret identity that the public doesn't know about. Everyone thinks that Gozo himself is a good person but he's actually stabbing everyone's backs in his alter ego. When Maskman and Metalder aired that year there might have been the fear of overlapping similar plots between Metalder and Maskman. Instead of making a similar plot why not make a new twist for Emperor Zeba's intended origin for something new?
If Hirohisa Soda himself planned to make Zeba a secretly human character and former colleague of Director Sanjoru Sugata then that would be similar to God Neros' true identity as Kunio Muraki. Muraki himself used to work for Dr. Ryuichiro Koga. If Zeba were originally Dr. Sugata's colleague then that would be redundant wouldn't it? I think early on maybe before Flashman ended we had Soda planning that Zeba should be secretly human. Maybe the plan was to make Emperor Zeba more or less like Emperor God Neros. As Shogo had said it might be too redundant to have a scientist vs. scientist conflict for Soda. Sure it was repeated in Megaranger but I didn't think he wanted to do a full season conflict. Bioman had Dr. Shibata vs. Dr. Man and in Megaranger had Dr. Kubota and Dr. Hinelar. God Neros was also an unscrupulous mad scientist and if Soda decided to pursue that with Emperor Zeba then he thought it would be redundant and decided to drop it for good.
What are your thoughts on this speculation?
There is almost very little behind the scenes with most of these Super Sentai series especially Maskman!!!!
ReplyDeleteIn publicity shots of Zeba, he is just a middle age looking man in white makeup and was quickly kept with the s&m mask on. Perhaps it works better with the Doggler monster. But it sounds better as a associate and former friend who rules the Tube Empire. Aura Power vs. Dark Holon sounds like Dairangers of Ki vs.Yo power.
Liveman would have the scientists vs. scientist if Professor Hoshi would have been still alive and was the mentor of the team besides Colon. Hoshi vs. Bias would be grand.
God Neros is a cool villain but makes no visual and logical sense.
He is a 102 year old man transformed with cybernetics to look like a monstrous lord. If they just used the mystical plot of a actual fallen angel or a Greek demigod that lives and is turning the world upside down. That would be much more intriguing.
I think Professor Gills and Hakaider works better!
Speaking of Zeba, I think he could have still worked best in a human guise but he's secretly an underground monster. That could have been a better twist.
DeleteFor God Neros, the show doesn't reveal his actual age either. Somehow, it's amazing how he's able to act young when he's really that old.
Cyber9999 with god neros reveals that I modify his body technologically to live longer and pretend to be younger.
DeleteI create an army of robots, monsters and mutants. it is obvious that he did the same to his own body which makes him a more interesting character. A man with a complex of god.