Kamen Rider English Versions

[TokuNoob]

Originally Posted by Tendou

TokuNoob you can watch almost all of the Kamen Rider series subbed on TV Nihon's site.

Not with my limited internet access plan. And I tend to enjoy shows more on a television screen anyway. And as usual I tend to agree with Tendou. There really wasn't much of a Highlander "theme" to it, more like vague similarities. (Remake of Highlander planned for 2010. This has nothing to do with the thread, but since Highlander was mentioned I felt it was justified.)

[Tendou]

Originally Posted by TokuNoob

Not with my limited internet access plan. And I tend to enjoy shows more on a television screen anyway. And as usual I tend to agree with Tendou. There really wasn't much of a Highlander "theme" to it, more like vague similarities. (Remake of Highlander planned for 2010. This has nothing to do with the thread, but since Highlander was mentioned I felt it was justified.)

Yeah that's understandable. I know there are Kamen Rider shows subbed on Youtube and other places. I don't remember if limited internet access affects streaming content. I had recently bought a new computer and the screen is actually bigger than my tv and is an LCD screen. Plus I could stream it to my tv through the 360 which is a feature I never knew about until recently.

[KamenRiderToriga]

Another reason to consider 360 over Wii for me. Damn.

[PrimoPiccolo]

Originally Posted by Tendou

They don't need to change any of the Rider's names because they all fit English excluding the three Riders from the movie. They changed the Ryuki Riders names because they were completely Japanese excluding Knight and Odin.

And Scissors, and Tiger, and Verde (which was Spanish), and Femme (which was French).

no Hibiki because it is not a real Kamen Rider show. Just a last minute fill in.

Oh, how erroneous that statement is...

Was the original conception of what became known as Hibiki plotted out as a Kamen Rider series? No. Was said concept molded as expertly and for just as long as any other season to become a Kamen Rider series? Yes.

Hibiki was certainly different from the average Kamen Rider, but it was by no means "last minute". I suggest you do research on this subject, rather than trust those whose opinions were formed mostly from the missing Rider Kick or lack of the word Henshin.

[Tendou]

Originally Posted by PrimoPiccolo

And Scissors, and Tiger, and Verde (which was Spanish), and Femme (which was French).


Oh, how erroneous that statement is...

Was the original conception of what became known as Hibiki plotted out as a Kamen Rider series? No. Was said concept molded as expertly and for just as long as any other season to become a Kamen Rider series? Yes.

Hibiki was certainly different from the average Kamen Rider, but it was by no means "last minute". I suggest you do research on this subject, rather than trust those whose opinions were formed mostly from the missing Rider Kick or lack of the word Henshin.

I say last minute as an expression due to the way the show was handled. I should have elaborated much more clearly. Hibiki like you said was initially not a Rider show idea. It was made into one, but very little was altered to make it fit into the Rider universe. The lack of the usage of Henshin and the lack of a Rider kick in I believe the entire show.(Might have missed a time when they said it.) This was one of the most prominent issues and may seem like a little thing, but is a recurring trend in the Riderverse. This is by no means the biggest problem though. Also the style while unique was completely completely different than any other Rider series and bore no similarities what so ever. The show had strong musical themes, but the themes overtook the show itself and would have been fine if it was not a Kamen Rider show.

The director or creator(can't remember what his title was)expressed massive disappointment in what he was allowed to do and what he wasn't allowed to do. The show started with many interesting concepts and had for example the usage of fire coming out from the Oni's mouths and claws. All of that was changed due to the target audience of a Rider show. The studio forced a change in that because many of those interesting concepts were too graphic for the target audience. Thus the show went under a disappointing change. The latter half was filled with changes to the script leading to dropped characters, lessened characters and other issues. The ending was changed numerous times and ultimately the show was a mess.

Now I use the expression last minute because the show was hardly modified to be a Kamen Rider show. They didn't modify it to fit the target audience which is the biggest problem. They did little to nothing to make the show appropriate for the time slot. Like I said earlier there were many interesting concepts in the first part of the show, but all that was changed throgh the course of its run because of issues I cited. The show seemed to be modified only during its run and not prior. Thus it seems like a last minute show even if they spent the same amount of time with it like other series.

Now comes my opinion on the show. Besides these facts I disliked virtually all of the show. I did not enjoy the strong emphasis on music. I am not a musical or artistic kind of person so a music themed show has already lost me. The glare in manys scenes was maddening. The production value at first seemed decent then it just dropped off the map. Mostly the second half killed the show for me.

[KR Stardust]

Hmm...interesting topic. I'm not so sure about the one for Decade though. Reason being that what about those that are not familiar with the other Riders, as well as the background stories?

As for Double...I can sort of see some potential for that one.

[TokuNoob]

I think Americans just can take the style. It's too far from reality for the casual viewer to take seriously or to view as worth anything, it isn't antimated and too budget constricted for little kids hooked on "Dinosaur King" and "Pokemon."

Sadly, Tokusatsu will remain solely for the enlightened.

[PrimoPiccolo]

Originally Posted by TokuNoob

Sadly, Tokusatsu will remain solely for the enlightened.

Don't be an elitist. We like what we like, doesn't make any one group superior to another.

That said, tokusatsu is everywhere these days. The Last Airbender, Percy Jackson and The Olympians, Caprica, all tokusatsu. They may not be within the Henshin Heroes sub-genre like Power Rangers and Kamen Rider, but tokusatsu nonetheless.

The Henshin Heroes style was a very accessible thing in the '90s, you didn't need a strong storyline to attract an audience. And with Power Rangers having done the hard work back then, it was insanely easy to pitch a Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad or Tattooed Teenage Alien Fighters to compete with it. These days, superheroes are so entrenched in our media, you have to bring something solid to the table for America to spend serious money on it, something Adness valiantly attempted, but ultimately left with much to be desired. Heck, with MMPR back on television, it's pointing out how much the series had to evolve to survive its 17 years on the air.

I have no doubt we'll see more in the future, everything circulates. But it's going to be a lot better than what we've been exposed to in the last few decades.

[mbozzo]

We all are praying that the American writers are making another Kamen Rider series.

[Ignis]

It would be funny if they made Psyga speak Japanese in the English version.