
This is definitely Darth Maul/Green Goblin in a nutshell.
Since i'm very interested on Guyferd and wanted to watch it. I'm decided to propose the series' Big Bad itself Zodiac. While i do, i'm also gonna make a PG proposal of Gou Kazama on Heroes Wiki.
You know the other than reminding me of Kamen Rider, the series really reminds me of Spider-Man as there were both protagonists of their respective series who were mutated into a superhero who uses power for greater good. And here we have, the Big Bad of the series Zodiac really reminds me of that Osborn guy, the Big Bad of the Spider-Man comics. Unlike Osborn himself, Zodiac's true identity were never known.
What's the work?[]
Seven Star Fighting God Guyferd (七星闘神ガイファード Shichisei Tōshin Gaifādo) is a Japanese sci-fi action Tokusatsu series made by Toho and Capcom which was aired on TV Tokyo from April 8 to September 30, 1996. While it may be inspired from Kamen Rider and Guyferd, the show does reminds me of Spider-Man from Marvel Comics.
The show tells a story of a young martial artist named Gou Kazama, who studied the arts of Ken'nou-ryu alongside his older brother Masato. After return to Japan from his journey to Peru, he was discovered that his brother Masato was kidnapped by Crown and is converted into Guyferd in order to create an "ultimate fighter". With him being exposed by Fallah and is converted into Guyborg after getting kidnapped by Crown, he transforms into his superhero alter-ego called Guyferd, who used that kind of power to defeat the Crown and also rescue his brother.
Who is he?[]
Zodiac (ゾディアック Zodiakku) is a main antagonist of Seven Star Fighting God Guyferd. He used to be a scientist who first discovered Fallah in Peru which turned him into a power hungry megalomaniac who forms an evil organization named the Crown and plans to forcibly mutates the entire humanity with Fallah in order to rule it over as god, even if it means using a final gambit called using Gaia Net to spread the Fallah all around the world and wipe out the entire humanity.
What he has done?[]
While Zodiac's early life were not known, but it is explained that he used to be a scientist who led a research team and they discovered Fallah during their expedition of Peru. However, his obsession of the effects of Fallah turns him into a power hungry megalomaniac who murdered the rest of his fellow researchers by mutating them with it and founded an evil organization called the Crown in order to evolve humanity so he could rule it over as a god.
While he was remained hidden in the shadows, Mister Bicross served as the head figure who leads the organization. After Mister Bicross is defeated, he began to introduce himself as a true leader of Crown and ordered Shion to destroy the Mutian Lab and esccape with a collected research data, which they would use to create Metalferds, a Guyborg infused with Fallah.
After Metal Shion luring Gou into a building, Zodiac introduced himself to Gou and attempt to convince him to join his side, but Gou refused and fought Dragos instead. Even though he retreated and agreed to leave him alone, he only does this to allow Gou to reconsider his decision of whether he should join the Crown or not. However, Zodiac continued leading the organization and giving orders to his subordinates, like using the sun stone Avan to brainwashed many academic students into becoming their soldiers, forcing Professor Kurokawa to build the Bio-Cyborg High Speed System, sending Guyborg GX-9 to assassinate three people who has information about their organization, and stole a sample of Fallah from Dr. Ayako Murakami.
To complete their weapons to spread Fallah all around the world, he ordered Metal Master and Shion to obtained Astronium while allowing her to murder the pharmacist Ryosuke Shiozawa to avenger her mother, but only for him to set up her death so he could use her brain to empowering the device to quickly spread Fallah all around the world and rule it over as god. Despite mocking Gou and their allies for their futile attempt, the device is later destroyed with Shion's help through change of heart, thwarted his plans as result.
However, this does not change Zodiac's devilish mind as he began his grand plan in motion, Operation Gaia. With a Daruga Tablet on his hand, he is able to use it to set up a Gaia Net and convert the Metalferds into Gaia Soldiers. He and his right-hand scientist Kuzan are planning to use Gaia Net in order to wipe out the entire humanity repopulate it with a new superior creatures in order for him to rule over. He sent out the Gaia Soldiers to retrieve three artifacts for him to activate the Gaia Net, though it succeeds with the first two, the Divine Mirror and the Seven Star Sword, the third one, the Dragon Crystal is failed due to being fused with Gou, which caused him to become a target for the Crown. After sending out his last Gaia Soldier named Valcanon to fight Gou, he went to easily beat him up and captured and brought him to Crown's Mt. Fuji headquarters.
After hooking up Gou to a device, Zodiac then extracted the power of the Dragon Crystal from his body to activate the Gaia Net which the disaster will be occured soon. When Dr. Shiroishi and the others alongside Gou's brother Masato got to his lair, Zodiac went out to confront them and fought with Masato/Deathferd while Dr. Shiroishi and the others went to his lair to rescue Gou. When Zodiac is about to finish off Deathferd, a revived Gou transformed into Guyferd and joins the fight with his brother to defeat and destroy Zodiac together, but not before he taunts them the world will be destroyed until he explodes. Despite this, the Kazama brothers managed to sacrificed themselves to stop the Gaia Net, saving the world from the imminent destruction as result.
Heinous standards[]
The heinous standards of Seven Star Fighting God Guyferd may be high, but not necessarily too much as most of the Crown are an evil organization who plans to use Fallah to forcibly mutated the entire humanity into superior beings so Zodiac could rule them over as their god.
Compared to other major villains like Metal Master who brutally slay down Guyborg GX-9 and aid Zodiac in his plans to spread Fallah all across the world to forcibly mutate and wipe out entire humanity, Megumi Shion who plans to experimented many children by infusing them with Fallah and leaving her subordinates including Minoh to die as the Crown's lighthouse headquarters is destroyed, Mister Bicross who order to kidnap many people like skilled martial artists and the rest of J-Force to use them as test subjects for Crown's Fallah experimentation, Minoh who aid the Crown in their crimes by developing Guyborgs and Fangs, Deathferd who only works with the Crown in hopes of defeating his brother Gou/Guyferd, Kuzan who helps Zodiac in preparing for Gaia Net to activate in order to wipe out the entire humanity and create a superior beings for him to rule over, and lastly Guyborgs and Fangs who only worked under Crown's orders.
On the other hand, Zodiac is the only villain who stands out as the most heinous amongst them, mostly not just because he's the Big Bad of the series, but he has much more bigger plans than the rest of them, no matter how vile and horrible his plans are. Back when he used to be a scientist as he first discovered the Fallah during his expedition in Peru, he became obsessed with the effects of Fallah so much that he decided to use it to forcibly mutate the entire humanity into a superior beings for him to rule over as a god, even if it means killing his own researchers in order for him to reach his goals. While hiding behind his shadows, he has Mister Bicross, the front-man of the organization, to kidnap many people like skilled martial artists and the rest of J-Force to use them as test subjects for their Fallah experimentation, like forcibly mutating them into superior beings.
Following the destruction of his Mutian lab, Zodiac began his next plan by creating a device to spread Fallah all around the world and forcibly mutate and wipe out the entire humanity, which is launching the missiles full of Fallah samples. He and Metal Master also set up Metal Shion's death and extract her brain to put on the device so it could quickly spread the Fallah all around the world. But when it goes wrong as Gou and his allies managed to foil their plans, Zodiac puts his grand plan in motion, therefore starting an Operation Gaia by setting up Gaia Net with Daruga Tablet, a powerful ancient that could empowered the device, and also the other artifacts he need to activate the device like a Divine Mirror, a Seven Star Sword and finally a Dragon Crystal, which was fused inside Gou. If you want to know what Zodiac could do with the Gaia Net, well, the worst part is that he plans to use it to wipe out the entire humanity in order to create a superior beings for him to rule over as its god. Yeah, some kind of God Wannabe who wants to create a new species in his image...
Mitigating factors[]
We do only know that Zodiac is mutated with Fallah before, but there's no indication if he has problems with Moral Agency or not. Unlike some others who were mutated with Fallah, Zodiac only does understands what is right or wrong, but only choose to do evil by his own will and he doesn't care as long as he got whatever he wanted.
Despite being shown to have treated his subordinates decently, this is because he saw them for how useful they are for him and doesn't genuinely cared for them as long as he got what he wanted. Rather then being concerned of Metal Shion's death, Zodiac's only response is just laughing evilly without any sort of empathy whatsoever, showing how proud he is as setting up her death would work, proving he only using her as a bait even if it means getting the Astronium on his hands for his plans.
One could argued if he makes an offer with Gou/Guyferd could be considered honorable, i've doubted it. He only does this because he wanted him to join the Crown and abandoned the "worthless" humanity he considered, but when Gou refused, Zodiac only leave him alone just to let him reconsider his decision of whether he should join the Crown or not, which is a simple pragmatism rather than genuine honor. But later, he drops this once he let Gou died after the powers of Dragon Crystal were extracted from his body to activate Gaia Net, so nothing really makes him honorable. We have a similiar issue with Belos who does the same thing to Luz, but only for him to kill her which she disintegrates into particles of light during the final battle.
“ | On this small planet, in a fight for hegemony, are foolish lifeforms that destroy the environment. Those are humans. As long as a shapeless thing like feelings keep moving humans, the absurd act of war will repeat itself once and again. The only ones who can stop that are evolutionary advanced lifeforms, namely us. | „ |
~ Now that explains how Zodiac's ideology were just false and wrong. |
Don't forget to mention that his ideology of humans destroying the Earth's environment like starting a war which will be repeated itself once again might've sound like an extremist, but this is just plain wrong. Well, if you look closely as a quote from above, it was proven that Zodiac's ideology weren't genuinely well-intentioned because it shows that his motives is just clearly selfish and uncalled for. Plus, the end of the quote suggests that he plans to replace the entire humanity with superior beings, even if it means wiping them all. Now it makes sense why he would said that just to manipulate Gou/Guyferd into joining with the Crown.
Final verdict[]
Thanks to late Shozo Iizuka's great performance on Zodiac, let's give him an easy yes for attempting to spread Fallah around the entire world to forcibly mutate and wipe out the entire humanity and plans to use Gaia Net even if it means letting the humanity to be exterminated.