Post by Torgaman on Feb 28, 2009 12:16:27 GMT -8
Yup KAMEN RIDER is back on American tv as part of the CW's kiddie show Saturday morning lineups in a show titled KAMEN RIDER DRAGON KNIGHT. I have seen my first episode today and since the story appears to be serialized I am completely lost as to what's going on. I am not very "up to date" as to the Kamen Rider shows in Japan but it seems the footage they use is from recent times [2000-to current]. From what I can tell the story is roughly about various people with Kamen Rider powers that are somehow tricked or coerced into battling each other. The show is like the Americanized POWER RANGERS show, in other words they have replaced the Japanese actors with American actors and retained the Japanese footage of the heroes in their Kamen Rider suits. Unlike the earlier SABAN encarnation of MASKED RIDER this new encarnation is definately closer to it's Japanese original counterpart as it features more action,explosions and violence though I don't think I spotted any direct hits to the head,even in the Japanese footage. A curious note is that the cast features out of work SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE alumni Victoria Jackson and she looks like she could be on one of those celebrity reality shows where the has been stars have to lose weight. As for the other actors they all look like they should be on one of the CW prime time soaps, alot of emphasis on asthetic looks and little emphasis on acting. Perhaps the bright spot is that KAMEN RIDER DRAGON KNIGHT uses plenty of footage from the Japanese show so their is plenty of "rubber suit wrestling" on the show to keep Henshin fans happy. However oddly enough the Kamen Riders don't appear to use motorcycles in their battles. But then again I have only seen one episode. Guess next Saturday morning I'll be checking out the CW4KIDS lineup for more of the series.