Could Kamen Rider Be Adapted Today?
With the long term success of Power Rangers, many tokusatsu fans seem to have a consistent question that comes up every year. That question is, are we going to get another American adaption of Kamen Rider? The question really is not whether we are going to get another Kamen Rider series, but instead can it work? Now I know what you’re saying, “But Scott, Power Rangers worked and is still working so Kamen Rider must be able to work.” The issue with that is Kamen Rider is not the same as Power Rangers or even Super Sentai. So let's see if a new Kamen Rider could work.
So with Kamen Rider having past history in the US, we first have to look what these shows did. Now I know a new Kamen Rider series would a way to reintroduce these other series leave an impact on the odds of a new season. So the first attempt was Masked Rider and to be honest this show was just plain bad. It had a feel of a bad sitcom. On top of that it tried to be an action hero show and I’m sorry, but that just does not work. Granted sometimes early Mighty Morphin sometimes resembled a heavy martial arts Saved By The Bell, but it eventually found its own identity. This show is so bad that when Tony Oliver,producer of both Masked Rider and Power Rangers, was asked about Masked Rider at a convention, his response was simply, “ We don’t talk about Masked Rider.” With the various toku franchises held by Saban, this is the one that truly did not work. VR Troopers was good,but ran out of useable footage. Beetleborgs which was targeted toward a younger audience,but it was successful until similarly running of useable footage. To really sums up how bad Masked Rider was, Kamen Rider creator Shotaro Ishinomori told Saban Brands that would never get the rights to another Kamen Rider series as long as he was alive.
So after that terrible first attempt, there was one more attempt years later. That attempt was Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. Now I have not actually seen this series so I’m not going to reflect on whether or not the season was good or bad. From what I seen and heard, it does make an attempt to be different with the plot instead of Ryuki’s mirror world Highlander games and the action was good enough to win a daytime Emmy. Though I don’t really what other show would run against it. Now this series was not done by Saban,but by a different company Adness Entertainment. So with a series that looks like it was a decent success that means more should have followed, right? Wrong. This show suffered a lot of issues with the channel, the CW, in running the show. Dragon Knight aired on the CW’s Saturday morning cartoon block, a.k.a. the last stand for Saturday morning cartoons not on an exclusive cartoon channel like Nick or Disney. Dragon Knight ran for 40 episodes, but for some reason the last 2 episodes did not air on TV, but instead exclusively on 4kids website.
Now looking at the history, things actually don’t look good for a new US Kamen Rider series. To have new series work there are two important elements for success. A company is willing to invest in bringing a new Kamen Rider series to the US. The other element is a channel willing to pickup the show. This is a difficult combination as Kamen Rider is a unique show to try and market for. The issue right now with that is as far as I can tell Saban Brands is still barred from doing anything Kamen Rider. A few years ago there was copyright claim for a Power Rider. Sounds very similar to Kamen Rider,but nothing ever came out of it and the copyright actually expired.
Now personally, currently Saban Brands looks to be the best company to do another Kamen Rider just because of their past experience with tokusatsu. Also with Power Rangers being on Nick, if Nick would like a similar series Saban Brands would be able to provide a show with relative ease. Now what about Adness Entertainment? Well from what I’ve heard the company actually went under so that kind of dashes the hope of Adness doing something. So right now, it's really up a wildcard to come out of to bring back Kamen Rider. Shotaro Ishinomori once said that, “when an era needs it, Kamen Rider will return.” So maybe right now Kamen Rider is not needed in the US, but may return someday. Let’s not forget: there are years of Japanese Kamen Rider to love and enjoy.
