Wishful Thinking: Liveman's Two Additional Warriors As Initial Antagonists Turned Protagonists

After I've been reading through Them's Fightin' Words, I decided to make my own wishful thinking. I'm also doing some Hurricanger rewatching right now for my planned top ten favorite Hurricanger posts (which might be canceled anytime soon because of real life issues) which has affected what I wanted to happen. On the other hand, I keep in mind that 2002 and 1988 are 13 years apart so this may not make any sense.


Image taken from Thems Fightin' Words

So I read of Shogo's blog posts and he thinks that Liveman's weaknesses are the two additional warriors. Here's what he said and I'd present my side of the story:

When I picture in my head what Takuji and Mari's siblings as new heroes could have meant for the show, I get so mad, man. It certainly should have caused a bigger splash than it did. It's just no big deal to the characters, to the show, to the fandom. The big scene when the five transform and fight for the first time -- besides creating a meme out of Kemp's "There's five Liveman members!" line -- is handled in such an underwhelming fashion. It's like...Toei demanded the addition of two more heroes, to get to the status quo and to be able to have more merchandising. Someone -- most likely Soda -- had the brilliant idea to make the two new heroes the siblings, but they didn't think beyond that. Other than Tetsuya having a shit-fit for a minute, neither seems all that angry at Kemp here, and Kemp has zero reaction to facing the family members of people he killed. So, there's no real drama or tension there.

And to top it all off, this three-parter about the Giga Plan, which is...just Volt getting an ugly mecha. Bias watched some Bioman reruns and decided Volt needed a mecha, so he builds the Giga Volt, which was doomed from the start because it couldn't move because he gave it platform boots like some glam rock star, which ensured that Giga Volt couldn't move beyond the shitty dirt mountain where the entire three-parter was inexplicably filmed.

And what really pisses me off about this three-parter? We take an instant hatred to Tetsuya and Jun'ichi, their bad acting, their bad attitudes. When the two dumb-dumbs continue to ignore the Liveman's advice, they blow out the Live Boxer, and they need to endanger Koron in order to get it to function again. We've spent most of the show with Koron. She's a weird Moonwalking robot, but she's proven herself. She's awesome. We like her. Yuusuke just learned to like her. And she's awesome again, offering to harm herself to help these two new assholes we hate. And they're completely ungrateful, like they deserve Koron's sacrifice. There's a moment where she's exploding and crying out and Jun'ichi whines for her to keep going and it's just like...shut up, Jun'ichi. I think the wrong Aikawa died.

Look. I know I've bitched about these two a lot. And it would be one thing if they were just bland or not used to their full potential. But between the casting and the way they're written in their introductory episodes, you just immediately hate them. They're aggressively unlikable. And to top it all off, they throw off the chemistry of the main three, which was one of the show's strongest elements. (Daisuke Shima's even hinted at the main three not liking that two new cast members were brought on and screwed with their dynamic.)


So what's my thought? I looked at Hurricangers and felt that the Gouraigers were far more developed than the additional two Liveman warriors. Let me get it straight: I do like Liveman better than Hurricanger while I like both shows. It's just like I still like Black better than Black RX but I like both shows. So what's my proposal and what idea could have been done? Simple: I would make Great Professor Bias play the role of Tao Zanto and let both Junichi and Tetsuya be his newest dupes. I'd probably still keep the whole sibling plot but I'd actually do a more sinister twist.

If I were to actually write it, I'd actually have Great Professor Bias deceive both Junichi and Tatsuya into believing that the Livemen were responsible for the death of their siblings. I would probably have the two members of Academia use the Liveman mecha against the the Liveman Robo. That thought came into my head while watching Hurricanger. If Gouraijin fought against Senpuujin then I felt like it should have happened in Liveman. I think that Junichi and Tetsuya could have served that role for the three plus two formula.

This would result to a story arc that would feature the redemption of the two warriors. The two warriors eventually discover that Great Professor Bias had deceived them. He only intends to use them as disposables during the Giga Volt. The two will eventually discover that Volt and not the Livemen killed their siblings. This would result to another argument as the principles from each side clash. I wouldn't let them easily blend in either but I'd let them be distant at first. They eventually grow closer as the series progresses.

What do you think of this idea? What do you suggest should have been done for both Liveman's two additional warriors?