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Gōzō Kuroshio is the chairman of the Ōtomo Concern and the secondary antagonist of the 2007 anime Skull Man.
He is effectively the shadow ruler of Otomo City, controlling both its mayor and police chief and serving as the financial backer of its largest religious organization, the White Bell Association (which is run by his wife Sara Kuroshio). Gozo is also the one responsible for the incident at the Kagura residence many years prior, having sent Gisuke Haniwa to burn down the mansion and kill Tatsuyuki Kagura after Kagura became too obsessed with the Skull Man suit they uncovered. He is also the mastermind behind the "Gagou Project", a plan to create a new humanity by evolving everyone in Otomo City into G.R.O. mutants created from the research into the Skull Man suit.
He was voiced by Osamu Saka.
Biography[]
While building Otomo City, the Otomo Concern discovered the Skull Man helmet in an old house. Intrigued by the vast power within it, Gozo funded the research of Tatsuyuki Kagura to study the suit. Tatsuyuki quickly became embroiled in his studies of the suit, to the point where he started to see it as a religious idol and used it to start a religion, which would later form the basis for the White Bell Association. Believing that Tatsuyuki had become too obsessed with his research, Gozo sent Gisuke Haniwa and his men to kill and take back the suit. After Haniwa personally murdered Tatsuyuki and burned down the Kagura residence it was believed that Tatsuyuki Kagura and his son Tatsuo had perished in the fire. The daughter of the Kagura family, Maya Kagura, was adopted by Gozo into the Kuroshio family and became known as his daughter. Rumors later spread that Tatsuo had escaped the fire and was now seeking revenge against the ones who had burned down the mansion.
In the years following the mansion incident, the Otomo Concern continued to study the Skull Man suit and used it to create mutant monsters known as G.R.O. They at some point sealed it and two G.R.O. "Lost Number" test subjects away in a bunker, where they were discovered by Yoshio Kanzaki during one of his military campaigns. Gozo and his associates later began work on the Gagou Plan, a project to create a "new humanity" by transforming everyone in Otomo City into G.R.O. This was done through distributing silver membership pendants to the followers of White Bell, which would slowly mutate their wearers into G.R.O.
Later on, the mysterious Skull Man surfaced and began hunting humans who were in the process of being mutated into G.R.O. The Otomo Concern covered up the Skull Man incidents at first to prevent any possibility of their dealings being discovered but were unable to stop the rumors of him, that he was Tatsuo Kagura come back for revenge, from spreading. When Hayato Mikogami traveled to Otomo City to investigate the rumors of the Skull Man, Gozo met with Hayato while he was visiting the grave of his father, whom Gozo was also acquainted with. Gozo was pleased to see Hayato had returned to Otomo City and wished him luck on his reporting.
Word of the Skull Man eventually spread to the point where the Otomo Concern could not cover it up any longer, Gozo plotted to use the situation as a cover to eliminate the unruly elements within Otomo which stood in the way of his plan. He had Jin Koichi, an assassin for Otomo whom he had taken in two years prior, dress up as the Skull Man and commit murders for him under the guise of the real Skull Man. His first target was actress Yui Onizuka after she witnessed the Skull Man battling a G.R.O. and he later went on to murder Otomo researcher Akira Usami after he leaked information to Hayato.
During a meeting with the Otomo board, Gozo and his associates discussed the strings of incidents related to the Skull Man and the possibility that he may be Tatsuo Kagura come for revenge, as well as the fact that the multinational conglomerate Brain Gear was interested in them. While many of the Otomo Concern members were worried that the rumors were true and that the Skull Man would soon come for them. Gozo remained unperturbed, believing that Tatsuo was still dead and was not worried about Brain Gear as they were partners with Otomo. When the mayor of Otomo, Takumi Kusaka, expressed guilt over his role in the Kagura mansion incident and showed signs that he was planning to release the Otomo Concern's secrets, Gozo had Jin assassinate him after the meeting. The murder was witnessed by Hayato and Kiriko, but Jin could not bring himself to kill either of them after recognizing Kiriko as his close friend from two years ago and simply left.
While Hayato was initially a suspect in the mayor's murder, Gozo pulled strings to have Hayato and Kiriko downgraded to witness status. While content to let them go, Gozo found it odd that Jin had chosen to spare witnesses and threatened to have Kiriko arrested by the military and tortured if Jin failed to do so again. He later sent Jin after Masaki Kumashiro, a secretary of Otomo and Gozo's illegitimate son, as he was worried about the deals he was making with Major Kanji Isurugi of the military and theorized he may be plotting something behind his back. To assist him in the task, Gozo gave him two G.R.O. and a remote to control them with. While on the mission however, Jin found no sign of Masaki and was instead attacked by the real Skull Man, who killed both his G.R.O. before knocking his mask off and wounding him before leaving. Gozo later had his goons finish Jin off and dispose of his body to prevent Otomo's secrets from coming out.
When the Brain Gear executive Alucard Van Vogt arrived in Otomo, Gozo had a meeting with him. In it, Van Vogt revealed that he was aware of the G.R.O. and Otomo's Gagou Plan, but did not intend to interfere with it and simply wanted to study the Skull Man suit. Later on, Gozo was confronted by the Skull Man while riding in his limo. Rather than murder Gozo however, the Skull Man simply warned Gozo to cancel the Gagou Plan before disappearing. Already having doubts about the project because of the role Maya played as the catalyst for the Cocoon of Chaos, Gozo called his assistant and ordered that the project be shelved. However, Masaki and Sara secretly progressed with the project behind his back and attempted to pull strings to get him to step down as Chairman of Otomo.
When the night of December 24th rolled around and Masaki and White Bell had Maya enter the Cocoon of Chaos, Gozo traveled to the White Bell church to stop them. There, he found the Skull Man had already arrived and was facing Masaki, who had used the Cocoon of Chaos to transform into a powerful G.R.O. Gozo shot at Masaki's tentacles to free Skull Man, before being killed by Masaki when he impaled Gozo with one of his tentacles.
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 Villains
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Skull Man and Associates Ōtomo Concern White Bell Association Brain Gear Other | ||