The Uncut Nexus
After leaving the Picca Park, Ren arrived at the filming site of "Ultraman Nexus." In the previous life, Nexus was considered an outlier in the Ultraman series. Compared to other Ultraman shows, it was much darker.
The human hosts of Nexus would suffer all the injuries sustained in battle. One after another, the Space Beasts would appear, and the human host's body would gradually deteriorate from the endless fights, ultimately sacrificing themselves.
What's worse, the Night Raiders initially didn't trust Nexus because he emitted a similar wave pattern to the Space Beasts. This even led to humans attacking Nexus in the early stages.
When Nexus fought, he would release a Meta Field. This field could drag the Space Beasts into another dimension, preventing them from advancing into towns. However, the Meta Field's composition was actually made up of Nexus's own light. This meant that Nexus was literally burning his life to fight the monsters, with one host after another.
Due to the Meta Field preventing city destruction, Nexus never received the gratitude and respect typical of other Ultramen, nor was he hailed as a hero.
As a result, the characters in Nexus were very well-developed. Viewers remembered not just the mighty Ultraman, but also the heavily scarred human hosts who continued to transform and fight.
Because of these unique elements, some fans in the previous life believed that "Ultraman Nexus" was better than "Ultraman Tiga." However, Ren thought this praise was a bit overblown.
There's no denying that "Ultraman Nexus" was more appealing to young adult audiences, and Ren agreed that the storyline was good. But as many might know, due to poor audience targeting and unfortunate time slots, the show had low ratings. This led to a drastic cut from the original 52 episodes to 37, leaving many fans disappointed as the story was rushed to an end.
The severe trimming of the series caused the later episodes to progress too quickly, leaving many plot points underdeveloped and reducing its appeal.
Ren wasn't overly biased towards Tiga, but objectively speaking, a cut series couldn't really compete with Tiga. If "Nexus" hadn't been cut, it might have had a chance.
Moreover, "Ultraman Nexus" followed a serialized storyline with a behind-the-scenes villain driving the plot, while "Ultraman Tiga" used a more episodic approach. Episodes of Tiga were mostly self-contained, making it easy to jump in at any point, unlike Nexus, which required following the continuous story.
In this world, however, "Ultraman Nexus" could truly stand on par with Tiga.
Why? Because in this world, Ren was producing an uncut version of "Ultraman Nexus"!
The original "Ultraman Nexus" was cut from the 25th episode onward, but with Ren's help, his assistant Felix had crafted a script similar to the original but without the cuts.
There were some differences from the original, but they had been adjusted to be more logical.
At this moment, the crew was filming the Seiji Saijo arc, covering episodes 39 to 47.
In this arc, six Space Beasts would appear, and Saijo would be consumed by darkness, transforming into Dark Zagi. There would also be scenes of Gouru Moku transforming into Light Mephisto and fighting off Zagi before reverting to human form.
Yes, this was the Seiji Saijo arc! In the previous life, this character's role as a host was quite short due to the series being cut. However, in the original plan, Saijo was a significant character, so his time as a host was meant to be much longer!
Before the events of the series, Lucifer, or Ishibori, had targeted Saijo ten years prior, killing her mother and planting darkness within her heart to pave the way for her transformation into Dark Zagi.
Of course, each host had their own unique form: Jun Himeya represented life, future, protection, persistence, and pursuit with his red form; Ryo Shinomiya represented hope, time, happiness, joy, and wonder with his blue form; and Saijo had her own form.
Ren incorporated the rumored orange form into the story, representing calmness, composure, loneliness, and memories.
As Ren watched the progress of the shoot, he was satisfied and ready to head back to the company when Andrew, the director, and the special effects artist approached him.
"Mr. Ren! We've been using the Meta Field for a while now, and Director Andrew feels the effect isn't great. He wants to change it to this. What do you think?" the special effects artist asked hesitantly.
In normal circumstances, he would follow the director's instructions, but changing things now might delay their schedule.
"Oh? What's the change?" Ren took the new draft of the Meta Field from the special effects artist.
"I feel the original Meta Field looks too simplistic," Andrew explained. "Later in the script, Komon travels back in time to his childhood through Nexus's power. I want the Meta Field to transform the surrounding space and time into a future a thousand years ahead, suggesting that if the invaders aren't defeated, the future will become a wasteland."
"However, the schedule is tight, so…" Andrew rubbed his hands nervously. "I was hoping we could retract my previous statement in the meeting."
Previously, Andrew had confidently promised Jada during a meeting.
"Sure."
Seeing the new draft, Ren realized it resembled an early concept of the Meta Field from the initial "Nexus" plans in his past life. After some thought, he agreed to Andrew's suggestion.
"When do you think this will be ready for release?" Ren asked, looking forward to the uncut "Nexus."
"By the end of March!"
"End of March?" Ren nodded. "Good."
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