Kamen Rider

For the discussion of non-Toho monster media, tokusatsu franchises, and also for mixed discussion of Toho and non-Toho kaiju media.
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Angilasman
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Re: Kamen Rider

Post by Angilasman »

^ The original series is (of course) iconic, but it's also chaotic and slapdash and more than a bit repetitive, which all contributes to its charm, if course. They were figuring things out on the fly!

I'd go with Kamen Rider Kuuga from 2000, as its a really solid version of the central premise of Rider, it's available for free on Shout Factory/Tubi, and it's just really really really good.

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Re: Kamen Rider

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Where's the best place to watch the Kamen Rider shows? I'm just trying to get prepared for the Shin KR film two years from now.
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Re: Kamen Rider

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LSD Jellyfish wrote: Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:12 am I might have asked this before, but where should I begin? Ive never watched Kamen Rider. Should I just start with the first series?
I've heard ZO's a good starting point, too.

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Angilasman
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Re: Kamen Rider

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Gigantis wrote: Sun Apr 04, 2021 9:22 am Where's the best place to watch the Kamen Rider shows? I'm just trying to get prepared for the Shin KR film two years from now.
If you're in North America, Shout Factory has the original Kamen Rider and Kamen Rider Kuuga on their own streaming site, as well as Tubi (which is kind of a free streaming hub). They're free to watch with ads. They also air as part of "Tokushoutsu," the Shout-run channel on Pluto TV that runs Kamen Rider, the Super Sentai seasons Shout has the rights to, and (via a partnership with Mill Creek) various Ultraman shows.

Shout will soon add Kamen Rider Ryuki and Kamen Rider Zero-One to those services, making for a total of four full series available in English, officially, for free!

Toei also has a YouTube page where they're in the process of putting the first two episodes of each Rider show up with English subs as a kind of sampler. Super accessible, but only two episodes! They've also got the three '90s movies: Kamen Rider ZO, Kamen Rider J, and Shin Kamen Rider - Prologue (different Shin: it was a direct-to-video horror movie riff on the original concept) up with subs. They're self-contained. ZO is especially good as an intro to the franchise!

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Re: Kamen Rider

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Angilasman wrote: Sun Apr 04, 2021 10:11 am

If you're in North America, Shout Factory has the original Kamen Rider and Kamen Rider Kuuga on their own streaming site, as well as Tubi (which is kind of a free streaming hub). They're free to watch with ads. They also air as part of "Tokushoutsu," the Shout-run channel on Pluto TV that runs Kamen Rider, the Super Sentai seasons Shout has the rights to, and (via a partnership with Mill Creek) various Ultraman shows.

Shout will soon add Kamen Rider Ryuki and Kamen Rider Zero-One to those services, making for a total of four full series available in English, officially, for free!

Toei also has a YouTube page where they're in the process of putting the first two episodes of each Rider show up with English subs as a kind of sampler. Super accessible, but only two episodes! They've also got the three '90s movies: Kamen Rider ZO, Kamen Rider J, and Shin Kamen Rider - Prologue (different Shin: it was a direct-to-video horror movie riff on the original concept) up with subs. They're self-contained. ZO is especially good as an intro to the franchise!
Well, looks like i'm set. :lol: Thanks!
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tbeasley
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Re: Kamen Rider

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I've been meaning to get into Kamen Rider for a while now, or at least watch the original series, so Shin Kamen Rider seems like good incentive to go ahead and jump into all that. Hopefully we get some physical releases (ala Mill Creek/Ultraman) of the classic shows before 2023.

From images alone I'm certainly digging this Shin Kamen Rider over that horrific man-grasshopper one from 1992.

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Re: Kamen Rider

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Re: Kamen Rider

Post by Tyrant_Lizard_King »

RIP to original Kamen Rider composer Shunsuke Kikuchi. He also famously did the Dragonball/DBZ scores.
Rocker, paleo buff, cryptid enthusiast, Dragonball fanatic, and lover of comic book, video game, manga, & anime babes!
Follow me on Twitter, if you dare! https://twitter.com/TLK_1983
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StreamOfKaijuness
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Re: Kamen Rider

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I have now seen all 98 episodes of the original Kamen Rider series in the span of a year. Thank you, Shout! Factory and thank you, Tubi.

I’ve started watching Kamen Rider Agito on Toku. I really dug Kamen Rider Kuuga and I like how this is a sequel series. I’m only three episodes in and it isn’t as good as Kuuga yet but I am digging it.

Gigantis wrote: Sun Apr 04, 2021 9:22 am Where's the best place to watch the Kamen Rider shows? I'm just trying to get prepared for the Shin KR film two years from now.

Shout! Factory TV website:
Tubi website:
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Re: Kamen Rider

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LSD Jellyfish wrote: Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:12 am I might have asked this before, but where should I begin? Ive never watched Kamen Rider. Should I just start with the first series?
As StreamofKaijuness wrote, those are all great sources for Kamen Rider. I use an array of free services for them, namely combining Pluto with Tubi. I vastly prefer Tubi's On Demand interface over Pluto because it's searchable, and both comprise plenty of crossover appeal, with Tubi having some Ultra series and classic shows the other doesn't have.

Toei's official Toku channel on YouTube has the first two episodes of every Kamen Rider series and some noteworthy movies such as Shin Kamen Rider 1992, ZO and J. Their video quality isn't the greatest in Japanese distributor tradition and some that aren't in the Heisei era are poorly formatted.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7pddu ... EiXfQLex3w


I must be among those that absolutely missed Saban's Masked Rider and VR Troopers, and apparently not seeing Masked Rider is a good thing. My only exposure to it was from a comic book that came with Turbo and Samurai Pizza Cats and the latter through a VHS trailer, so I assumed Masked Rider and VR Troopers never got off the ground and that was that. Ironically, my interest came from buying the Abaranger and Hurricaneger DVDs from ToysNJoys in Hawaii after I seen the Dino Thunder episode. I recognized their Japanese versions and coming off from being exposed to Guyver Dark Hero on TV, a similar franchise that had none of Power Rangers' goofiness was up my alley.

The first Rider-related media I watched besides the openings and transformations like Black RX was Kamen Rider The First. While it seems I give this movie a bad rap, it's not a bad movie. I've just been more exposed to Kamen Rider since then. I know for a fact I watched Shin Kamen Rider and ZO before I gave the series a try.


For shows, I 've watched Amazon, Kabuto, Kuuga, Hibiki, Faiz, Kiva, OOO and Black, but out of these, I've completed Kabuto and a quarter of OOO's because those were the ones I've wanted to watch, though I just wanted to see the rare dub of the former out of curious interest since I was in high school. Kabuto's dub is as good as the dubs for the Millennium and Heisei films, given I believe it's the same studio making many of the dubs for Kamen Rider, but it doesn't hold well against the original cast. But the show is definitely amazing, especially its alternate universe movie God Speed Love, which is on par with the experimental Showa films of the 90s.

I went into Black because of all the hype the series has generated for the last thirty years, combined with it being the predecessor to RX, expecting something akin to a Heisei series, only to come with episodes where he's protecting random children who the bad guys are attacking for no apparent reason. So I dropped that. Kuuga however fulfilled my expectations for what I believed Black was like, aside from lacking the traditional cyborg route, and I've watched nearly half of it before I gave it a break.

Kabuto is a stellar series that even though the dub doesn't completely capture the characters, it actually works for some reason for me. It's definitely a show I know a younger me would've been obsessed with had Cartoon Network simply made their live action block or Toonami have shows like Power Rangers and Kamen Rider instead of their low tier reality slop, and it doesn't disappoint. It's intrigue and thriller elements tied with a take on the Invasion of the Body Snatchers concept really make for a unique and enthralling experience. The characters definitely enhance the experience, though storywise, it gets off track with episodes focusing on Iron Chef esque cooking competitions that do very little in service of the overall narrative. Also, Tendou's narcissistic god complex and the characters' reaction to him gets annoying after a while because he's written as some combination of that know it all Smurf the rest rejected, Light Yagami and some cult leader. The other characters make the latter part of the series worth watching, but their handling of Tendou's character while it has its bright spots, wasn't executed well. Also the suits are designed by the same artist that designed the Beetleborgs/B-Fighter series costumes, so I admit that iswhy I was drawn to Kabuto the most.

OOO's just seems like a missed opportunity on Saban's behalf and just in general for localization purposes. Power coins that morph the main Rider into countless combinations of Riders and it's premise alone, seem like the perfect opportunity to remake stateside. And it's not saddled by being an anniversary season even more blatant than Masked Rider's.[ I watched the review video on this poor excuse of a crossover] Anyways? This series in my opinion in retrospect, is a sort of remake of Kuuga, given its protagonist , the supernatural character of OOO's powers and the main Greeed all heavily parallel Godai, the Kuuga belt and the core group Gurongi. This show's similarity to Kuuga is why I loved that show as well. Sure, Eiji is a tad goofier than Godai and it really leans into standard anime tropes and gags, but the show's story and characters really add to why I like this.

Kuuga is basically what if superheroes and villains existed in the real world alongside Japanese law enforcement. And not just any cartoonish version of law enforcement either. They're competent and act convincingly to the Gurongi threat and Kuuga himself. This show ,had it had much better production values and was made for primetime American television, probably would've kick-started superhero TV shows alongside Smallville due to how down to earth this series and its characters are as a whole. The human characters are heavily relatable and convincing as people Strip away the supernatural elements, and it's a compelling criminal drama with a vigilante fighting criminals unlike many of its successors that apparently treat the cops like a joke. If you like any criminal dramas, Red Dragon or Silence of the Lambs, you'll like this series.


For films? Shin Kamen Rider 1992 is good, but it's practically unrelated beyond it having a grasshopper creature, being more of a horror film in vein of the 80s Fly film and the Hulk TV series and with the body horror of both. ZO is more on the lines of a traditional Rider series and has GARO creator Keita Anemiya at the helm as its director. It's pretty good and definitely feels more like something from the Heisei era of Riders than the Showa. I've never seen J, but the whole concept of a rider becoming gigantic rubbed me the wrong way like if Ultraman started riding motorcycles and fighting human-sized aliens. Kamen Rider Kabuto: God Speed Love as mentioned above is a very decent standalone film that feels more substantial than the typical "movie" which is a mere extended episode like most others. It's set in an alternate universe from the main series and is self contained like the previous three films.

I have also seen Kamen Rider the First. But besides its decent fights and suit design, it suffers from shoddy CG effects, pointless subplots [like the unnecessary love triangle] and far too many characters undermine what otherwise would've been a stellar reboot. Imagine if Spider-Man 3 focused on the Clone Saga and Ben Reilly on top of the love triangle, Venom and Sandman and the new Goblin. That's what The First is. Another reason why I like this movie is the fantastic cinematography and filming style the director employs. There's especially beautiful scenes set during cherry blossom season which factor into the plot that would be absolutely stunning in high definition. As it was my first official exposure to Kamen Rider, I give it some slack, but I'd definitely would've dropped it if I seen it today. I don't see any point in viewing The Next because of this reason.
Last edited by Bigdog on Sun Jun 06, 2021 11:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Kamen Rider

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MaxRebo320 wrote: Tue Mar 02, 2021 5:31 pm Currently watching Agito, and I am quite liking it, even if it can be kind of meandering at times. Just a heads up though, on Amazon Prime, the subtitles stop midway through the show (episode 25). I'm now watching it with fansubs. Given how unprofessional Toku is, who knows if and when the remaining episodes will have subs up.
Thanks for the heads-up. I've watched 21 episodes of Kamen Rider Agito on Toku via Prime Video, so I guess I'll be seeking another source that actually has subtitles pretty soon.

I am really liking Agito. The characters are fun and the episodes are smoothly paced. Between this and Kuuga, I'm a fan of these Heisei-Era Kamen Rider shows and I look forward to checking out Ryuki when Shout Factory TV brings it to Tubi later this year.

Speaking of Heisei-Era shows, Kamen Rider 555 is now available to stream from Toku! They've had a handful of episodes on their website for a couple of months but they've got all 50 episodes on their Prime Video channel now. Hopefully they have subtitles on every episode!
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Re: Kamen Rider

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Good news! I've watched up through episode 28 of Kamen Rider Agito on Toku via Prime Video and they have English subtitles! Hopefully this will be the case through the rest of the series.
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Re: Kamen Rider

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Toei’s Kamen Rider Accelerates Toward International Markets
Kamen Rider may not have the international recognition of Godzilla — yet. But Toei, whose first “Kamen Rider” live-action TV series aired in 1971, has announced an ambitious project for raising the profile of its motorbike-riding, insect-faced cyborg hero both at home and abroad on the franchise’s 50th anniversary.

Unveiled in April at a splashy live press conference in Tokyo, the project is headlined by a new film, “Shin Kamen Rider,” directed by Anno Hideaki, the creator of the Evangelion sci-fi franchise and the scriptwriter and co-director of the 2016 smash “Shin Godzilla.” Details about the film, including story and casting, are still sparse, though Toei has penciled in a March 2023 release date.

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Mac Daddy MM
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Re: Kamen Rider

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I admit, I've never been a huge Rider fan. I loved Black and Amazons. And Agito was okay and Black RX was a disappointment. Loved J and ZO, Shin was also okay. But man, I may be crazy, but I am actually VERY interested in the new series...

Next Kamen Rider is dinosaur themed and its baddies are Mexican/Day of the Dead themed and a bunch of Mexican weebs are now offended across social media. This has my interest peeked a lot.
Last edited by Mac Daddy MM on Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.


Quote of the Year:
plasmabeam wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 3:03 am Hear me out on this. What if Godzilla is actually Suko’s father? In GvK when Godzilla defeated Kong and they were roaring at each other, what if Godzilla inseminated Kong at that moment and that’s why they were screaming?

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Re: Kamen Rider

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Mac Daddy MM wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:49 pm Next Kamen Rider is dinosaur themed and its baddies are Mexican/Day of the Dead themed and a bunch of Mexican weebs are now offended across social media. This has my interest peeked a lot.
Also, the secondary rider is played by a racist. So that's... something.

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Mac Daddy MM
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Re: Kamen Rider

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Cryptid_Liker wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 3:22 pm
Mac Daddy MM wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:49 pm Next Kamen Rider is dinosaur themed and its baddies are Mexican/Day of the Dead themed and a bunch of Mexican weebs are now offended across social media. This has my interest peeked a lot.
Also, the secondary rider is played by a racist. So that's... something.
God, I love how Japan legit doesn't give a single flying fuck about American cancel culture and I 100% love it.


Quote of the Year:
plasmabeam wrote: Tue Dec 05, 2023 3:03 am Hear me out on this. What if Godzilla is actually Suko’s father? In GvK when Godzilla defeated Kong and they were roaring at each other, what if Godzilla inseminated Kong at that moment and that’s why they were screaming?

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Re: Kamen Rider

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Racist as in the "new definition" of accidently getting mad and saying teh N-word to a man of color.
Or
Racist as in, i'll burn down your home, yah people's home and dress as a spooky ghost while doing it!

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Cryptid_Liker
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Re: Kamen Rider

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SpaceG92 wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 3:53 pm Racist as in the "new definition" of accidently getting mad and saying teh N-word to a man of color.
Or
Racist as in, i'll burn down your home, yah people's home and dress as a spooky ghost while doing it!
Whichever one blackface fits into.

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StreamOfKaijuness
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Re: Kamen Rider

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After going a month without internet access, I've finally finished Kamen Rider Agito. What a fun series! It started off as a bit of a Kuuga rehash but it quickly found its own identity and style. The characters are great and the show's mysteries are played well, with some cool surprises.


From the TokuSHOUTsu Twitter page:

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I could start watching Kamen Rider 555 on Toku now that I’m done with Agito but I really want to keep watching these Heisei-Era shows in order, so I guess I’ll watch something else in place of a Kamen Rider series for the next few months until Shout starts streaming Ryuki.
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Angilasman
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Re: Kamen Rider

Post by Angilasman »

Just had the most incredible find at the used book/movie/record store: a two disc DVD compilation of all the Kanen Rider theatrical specials 1971-1988! Must be a HK release (official? Boot? Looks official with its nice packaging) as it has Chinese and English subs. Plays on my R1 Blu-ray player... but when I get to the Kamen Rider Black movie (the one I wanted to see the most) it glitches and becomes unwatchable. Oh, well. Still a cool thing to have!

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