[Snowflakian]

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Originally Posted by TM2 D-bot

To bad 4kids practically killed Rider shows in the US (at least for the foreseeable future). I agree that Decade could not make it outside Japan without probably discarding more than 90% of the show, but Kiva could thanks to the current worldwide vampire craze.

Heh, which is kinda funny, considering kiva is the reason decade can't come stateside. Kiva's got a host of design licensing issues to it that toei won't risk afaik right now.

And nah, I wouldn't worry too much about 4kids, the entire thing was botched on all ends. From the craptacular figures, to other problems. But since saban has set the bar on how bad a rider adaption can be... I think the 4kids debacle is just kinda moot. Especially considering it wasn't them that adapted the show, just licensed it to air. Another company licensed it to make it. That's why dragon knight managed a decent amount of action stars from martial arts flicks. It was the same guys behind Guyver2 dark hero iirc. They shopped around for a channel, and only 4kids was willing to pick it up from the pilot they were shown if a few changes were made. Sadly, all of the contest aspect was removed too, which really drove the story well in the original. Like the Lawyer fighting because he was dying, among other aspects of greed and hope that really sucked you in as opposed to a lame big bad's name that's an alien or what not.

What they need to do is just bring them over dubbed with optional subs on dvds. Like how ultraman was done, but then again, that was another one that's been on hiatus for pretty long now. And then figures with actual articulation could help. Even if it's just knees and elbows added.

Another thing that might help, is if all these 'fans' of the show actually watched it instead of just DLing it only. But I digress.

But then we also have the mass market issues, of who really gets these references and nuances to the shows. Like Rider Skull's blatant homage to skull man, and W's nods to Phillip Marlow, rider 01, 02, the hoppers, and such. Let alone the level of violence and lack of redeeming value(it's literally just an excuse for fighting and wants you to imitate the fighting) to american versions makes parents less apt to let their kids watch it even though they don't mind their kids seeing Die Hard (which actually in hindsight, paints police in a good light so it does have a redeeming factor to it, heck I know I'd want my kids to believe their are cops like bruce willis that'll do everything they can to protect them). That's been my biggest gripe to the american version, even though the originals have more violence, and even death, the originals still balance it out with moral lessons within the story. They essentially need to change gears and redirect this to G4 or Syfy, and then maybe we could see something good come out. Like Toku Tuesday to follow animondays. Cutie Honey the live, Garo, Kamen Rider (insert name here), and Ultraman Nexus to start with to really set a trail of the more adult parts of the fiction, besides the older space sheriff movies, or what not like keitai sosakan 7 (knight rider with cellphones! And they transform too!). Which could then bleed into animondays with the skullman anime after starting off with the one ep live action prequel to it. Among the many other shows that spill back and forth from live to anime.

Toei has an american branch now, so it would be easier this way even. They've been trying to shop Pretty Cure(they're self made magical girl series to replace the sailor moon franchise, so they don't have to worry about creator royalties) around for a channel with no luck within the states at least. So why not others unaltered? Especially if they started with blade or kabuto, and kept them accurate. Heck, Kabuto even has a filipino english dub on CN in the philipines.

Also if you're curious what Skull looks like in motion, besides the movie trailers, episodes 11-13 of Kamen Rider W has a special intro and outtro with movie scenes. 14 may have too, but I already forgot from saturday lol.
I generally watch these live using Keyhole tv. But I love the effects TV-Nihon uses too. So I'd highly recommend either or. That's probably the only downside to official DVDs in this case. While I love supporting work I like, I wish they'd put more care into the subs like TV-Nihon does, or offer to hire them at least, but at least since they don't put that much effort into the R1's we don't have to worry about botched font usage and colors. Just the bland yellow/white font. Which I wouldn't mind if they add a dub to the dvd anyway. Sometimes dubs are pretty fun. Especially looking at Godzilla which only feels right dubbed, and Ultraman too for that matter. I definitely need to see the Cutie Honey live movie Dub. And I know the devilman live movie could only be improved by a dub as well. But then stuff like what happened with casshern and its missing footage worries me, and the fact we'll never get some of the director's cuts of these movies either. I don't know, I guess this is something to revisit after they finally release kamen rider the next on dvd.

The Skull rider movie if anyone was curious, is a prequel to kamen rider W. It also hints at the future, and starting in episode 15+ we'll start seeing some of movie stuff in the series story itself. The movie is part of a triple feature. Decade, W, then decade finale. All 3 bleed into each other story wise. And are pretty short seperately.