Tokusatsu

[DragonKent17]

Anybody watching Kamen Rider Zi-O right now

the fact the Future Rider are potrayed by Super Sentai Alumnis

[DragonKent17]

Kamen Rider Blade: Complete Selection Modification Blay Buckle & Rouse Absrober Coming Soon.
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[BeastieRunner]

I can't figure out if the new Ultraman series should go here or the anime thread?

Anyway ... I've been watching it and really enjoying it. Just found out they announced a season 2!

Anybody else watching it?

[AdamFTF]

Man, really had to dig for this thread.

Anyway, I just thought I should let you folks know that the original Kamen Rider series from 1971 is currently streaming in the U.S. and Canada thanks to Shout! Factory. It's on Tubi along with a bunch of other Shout! Factory stuff as well as on Shout! Factory's own website and the Shout! Factory TV channel on Amazon Prime Video. But the main thing seems to be that it's the flagship show for their new Pluto TV channel Tokushoutsu, which airs Kamen Rider, Ultraman Leo and the Super Sentai stuff they already put out on DVD.

I've been watching it on Tubi. It's weird as hell (which I was honestly expecting from an early '70s tokusatsu show) but I'm enjoying it.

[Angilasman]

It's crazy. I've been aware of all these shows for years, and it seems like besides a few releases here and there American fans of tokusatsu would just have next to nothing. Now it seems like there's a deluge. They've alluded to adding more series in the coming months, and unless the issue with Hasbro and Sentai has been hammered out I'm going to guess that they're going to be Kamen Rider shows. I hope they get Kamen Rider Black, which I had a few bootleg VHS tapes of as a kid. It stuck to the classic Rider formula, but because it was made in the late eighties had a totally different aesthetic that makes it so cool.

Apparently this streaming stuff is sort of testing the waters, but I hope it is successful enough that we could get home video releases. Mill Creek is spoiling us with all the Ultraman Blu-rays!

[AdamFTF]

It's crazy. I've been aware of all these shows for years, and it seems like besides a few releases here and there American fans of tokusatsu would just have next to nothing. Now it seems like there's a deluge. They've alluded to adding more series in the coming months, and unless the issue with Hasbro and Sentai has been hammered out I'm going to guess that they're going to be Kamen Rider shows. I hope they get Kamen Rider Black, which I had a few bootleg VHS tapes of as a kid. It stuck to the classic Rider formula, but because it was made in the late eighties had a totally different aesthetic that makes it so cool.

Apparently this streaming stuff is sort of testing the waters, but I hope it is successful enough that we could get home video releases. Mill Creek is spoiling us with all the Ultraman Blu-rays!

It could be more Kamen Rider. Or they could go in an unexpected direction and bring over some Metal Heroes stuff or some stuff that's not from Toei or Tsuburaya.

Tokusatsu does seem to be having a bit of a moment. Sentai and Kamen Rider coming over thanks to Shout! Factory. The Ultra series sets from Mill Creek. That gigantic Showa Godzilla set from Criterion. There's some other stuff too like that Juspion blu-ray. I want to say what's happening is likely a combination of factors. Part of it is likely the acknowledgement of how big anime's become in the West and media importers looking for a similar largely untapped market. It's also probably because the kids who grew up with Power Rangers, VR Troopers, Big Bad Beetleborgs, etc. have now grown up and have some disposable income.

Anyway, let's try to enjoy it while we can.

UPDATE: This week, the tokusatsu news just keeps coming. Just the other day, Toei announced the launch of Toei Tokusatsu World Official, an official YouTube channel where they will over time post 70 different tokusatsu shows from their catalog. The first two episodes of each series will have English subtitles. The rest will be available in Japanese, but the press release says that they may make a call for subs. This suggests a sort of crowdsourcing approach, which sounds strange. With only two episodes from each series guaranteed to have subs in any language on their "World Official" channel, the question becomes what the intent of this channel really is. Best guess is that it's a way of drawing in potential licensors. After getting Kamen Rider and various Super Sentai shows licensed by Shout! Factory and Juspion by Discotek Media, they saw the potential to license out other properties and got the idea to set up the YouTube channel as a way of providing samples. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how this pans out and whether anyone will take the bait in terns of crowdsourced subs or licenses. https://www.toei.co.jp/release/public/1217460_1140.html

[AdamFTF]

I don't know if it's against the rules to post two posts in a row (sorry mods), but I wanted to bump this up to the front page so people know that Kamen Rider Kuuga is coming to TokuSHOUTsu tonight at 7pm. It'll probably be on Shout Factory TV and Tubi tomorrow.

[Frontier]

I don't know if it's against the rules to post two posts in a row (sorry mods), but I wanted to bump this up to the front page so people know that Kamen Rider Kuuga is coming to TokuSHOUTsu tonight at 7pm. It'll probably be on Shout Factory TV and Tubi tomorrow.

No Fear! No Pain !

I wonder if they'll subtitle the Gurongi dialogue.

[AdamFTF]

No Fear! No Pain !

I wonder if they'll subtitle the Gurongi dialogue.

I haven't even watched any Kuuga yet, so I don't even know what that is. I'm looking forward to it once it's on Tubi. Still working through the original Kamen Rider, though. For the past couple of months I've had more tokusatsu than I can keep up with. I still haven't watched Return of Ultraman or finished Juspion.

Still, I wonder how Toei's quest for more licensors is going. It's the only explanation I can think of for that YouTube channel of theirs. While nice for sampling, the whole thing proved less useful for me once I realized I couldn't watch Super Sentai or anything else Saban adapted in the '90s on it.

[Angilasman]

^ I loved Return of Ultraman! I think it runs out of steam maybe during the last quarter or so of its episodes (good finale, though), but before then? Stupendous! Especially the earliest episodes. The early episodes have miniature effects and monster battles that compare and often surpass the best Kaiju movies of the day. Really tremendous stuff. And having the human host for Ultraman being more of a relatable, normal guy was a real breakthrough.

Watching Kamen Rider Kuuga right now! Honestly, it's like having a second childhood being able to easily access all this stuff I was aware of but didn't know how to get as a kid.

[ZeroBG82]

No Fear! No Pain !

I wonder if they'll subtitle the Gurongi dialogue.

Haven't watched any of it yet, but I'm told that they have indeed done so.

[Vakanai]

Has anyone seen Bravestorm? Giant mecha Japanese film, should fit here.

[AdamFTF]

Haven't watched any of it yet, but I'm told that they have indeed done so.

They have. So, what was a mystery in Japan is rendered into dramatic irony in North America.

One of the things I like is how the first few episodes echo the original show. You know, how there was a spider monster and then a bat monster. This is also one of the few Kamen Rider shows I've seen where they give a reasonable explanation for where he got the motorcycle.

[Frontier]

They have. So, what was a mystery in Japan is rendered into dramatic irony in North America.

One of the things I like is how the first few episodes echo the original show. You know, how there was a spider monster and then a bat monster. This is also one of the few Kamen Rider shows I've seen where they give a reasonable explanation for where he got the motorcycle.

Early Heisei was much better about the bikes then later Heisei.

[marshal88]

the heisei era kamen riders series starting with kuuga pretty much have them in their own universes unlike the old showa continuity except for the crossover movies.