Kamen Rider

While I could probably list more groups, the Kamen Riders are the last that would be well-known here in the US. Designed by the legendary Shotaro Ishinomori, the Kamen Riders have a stronger fanbase that the general public would realize. Two series were produced based on the franchise, but for various reasons never really shined. In their native form, however, the series has garnered much praise with a fanbase along the lines of Doctor Who does outside of the UK. The actual Japanese name would be “Kamen Raida”, which translates as “Masked Rider”. The combined translation is the one used by English-speaking fans, which I assume to be the result of how the Japanese names sounds anyway.

Defining Characteristics: Like Ultraman, the Kamen Riders took a break between the “showa” and heisei” eras. The Showa Riders all maintain the strong insect aesthetic of the original series, which would take a while to extend to their motorcycles. Some have scarves in homage to the original. While the insect theme has been toned downed nowadays, the Heisei Riders still maintain the head crest and compound eyes and ride motorcycles. All use a “Rider Kick” finisher, where they put their power into their foot, hitting the monster with (usually) a flying drop kick. Some of the riders of both eras carry weapons. Also universal is the “henshin” belt (“Henshin” means “transform”.) If not the source of their powers it is at least how they transform into their Rider Forms and the Heisei Riders also maintain themes reflected in their belts and style of transforming.

American Translations/Counterparts: While I can’t think of a counterpart per say, there have only been three official US releases of the series. Saban’s Masked Rider series went in a totally different direction for its Japanese source material, and for various reasons have alienated the Kamen Rider fanbase. (I wouldn’t be surprised if this is another reason the combined translation has taken hold, to push the Saban version away from the franchise.) The recent Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, another Saturday Night Showcasee, is more faithful to the spirit of the franchise (or at least the heisei era) although it took the core concept of its series and ran with the ball, creating a unique show and one of my favorites. Sadly 4Kids did a poor job airing the show and it never really caught on. A remake of the original series was translated by Media Blasters and is available on DVD.

Current Status: The series continues on and has a strong fanbase who will pay lots of money to import the toys, despite not having any real showing outside of fan circles. Fan translations like the one I’ll be showcasing this Saturday are the only distribution for the show, but I would love to see it get an official release, thus broadening the audience.

So if you’ve stayed this long, congratulations. You don’t actually win anything, but come back Saturday to learn a bit more about the Kamen Riders and one I already hinted about last Saturday. Actually, you’ll be waiting two weeks for that as I decided to start with my favorite older Rider first, and then we’ll get to the new guy. If you want to know more about tokusatsu, I recommend a web review series called Toku Time, although sometimes he seems to be preaching to the choir of the “Toku Faithful”, I find it informative.

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