This article is about a/an ranger in Hikari Sentai Maskman.

X1 Mask
Ryo Asuka
Name:	Ryo Asuka
Gender:	Male
Sentai Show:	Hikari Sentai Maskman
Color:	Green
Homeworld:	Earth
First Appearance:	Revival! The Mysterious X1 Mask
Last Full Appearance:	Revival! The Mysterious X1 Mask
Number of Episode Appearances:	1 Full list of appearances
Actor:	Shinji Higashi

"X1 Mask!"

Ryo Asuka (飛鳥 リョオ, Asuka Ryō, 39): A former disciple of Chief Sugata who was chosen to be part of the M-Project, which gave him the ability to transform into X1 Mask (X1マスク, Ekkusu Wan Masuku), a predecessor to the main Maskman team.

Contents 1 History 2 Behind the scenes 2.1 Portrayal 2.2 Notes

History

Ryo abandoned Sugata's unit after his girlfriend Yuko was killed during an ambush by Tube, causing Ryo to doubt his ability to protect the world since he was unable to protect the woman he loved. Ryo arrives to help the Maskman team when they are overpowered by Magma Doggler. With Takeru's help, Ryo regains his self-confidence and assists the team in defeating Magma Doggler, but at the cost of his powers. At the end, he leaves the Maskman team to teach martial arts to children with a renewed sense of hope.

During the Great Legend War, Ryo did not participate because of him already losing his powers.

Behind the scenes

Portrayal

Ryo Asuka is portrayed by Shinji Higashi. As X1 Mask, his suit actor was Naoki Ōfuji (大藤直樹, Ōfuji Naoki^?).

Notes

• X1 Mask is a heroic warrior who made his first and only appearance in the 39th episode of Hikari Sentai Maskman as a temporary sixth member of the team. Despite his one-shot appearance, he is considered a precursor to the "sixth warrior" additions introduced in later Super Sentai shows, starting with the introduction of Dragon Ranger in Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger. The 30 Sentai Encyclopedia mentions X1 Mask in the "Sixth Hero" Special File and the character is featured on the cover of Vol. 4 of the Maskman DVD releases.

• X1 Mask's outfit consists of a green body suit with black boots, gloves and vest, and a face-like helmet with a jewel on the forehead. The helmet itself was based on a rejected design from an earlier draft of Maskman titled "The Fiveman" (no relation to the later series Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman), although the rest of the body is different from the concept art. The helmet is also very similar in the design to the ones by Team Battle Fever in the sense that X1's helmet has a visor for each eye and a sculpted mouth and nose.

• In the original "Fiveman" draft, X1 was the codename of the leader and would've wore red instead of green. The rest of the team would've been colored black, blue, yellow and pink, the same colors used in the actual Maskman roster.

  

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