Adam Tyner

Shout only has (or has only announced) physical home media rights for 2019’s Zero-One. That’s probably not at the top of your wish list, but given that Kamen Rider has been effectively MIA on home video on these shores, it’s still exciting and hopefully bodes well for more in the future.

To be fair, Shout hasn’t mentioned any plans beyond just having physical media rights — Blu-ray is just an assumption on my part — but I feel like it’s a lock.

PerryD

I grew up in Japan in the early 70s and watched the original Kamen Rider along with the various Ultraman series. The Ultraman season releases are great, would love to see the same treatment to the original Kamen Rider someday. I also have fond memories of a show called Rainbowman that I haven't seen since those days.

fujishig

Rainbowman was awesome. They did an anime remake in the early 80s too.

I grew up with Kikaider, Kamen Rider V3 and Battle Fever J subbed on Hawaii TV, with the subbed movies being shown in some theaters. The same people who released Kikaider on DVD also released V3 and Inazuman but they were pretty expensive and not available everywhere:
https://generationkikaida.com/produc...n-rider-v3-dvd


They've been subbing a lot of Tokusatsu as part of some cultural thing for the (delayed) Japanese Olympics, but while they put a lot of episodes of basically everything under the sun on youtube, only the first few episodes of each are subbed:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7p...zkzFEiXfQLex3w


This was probably the most exciting thing about "Kamen Rider Week" even moreso than Shin KR or the KR W anime. Zero-One is basically the latest completed series (and the first in the Reiwa era), which is good: I was a little worried when they started with Kuuga that it would die on the vine before it got to more modern stuff. Ryuki is the one that was actually adapted here a few years ago as Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight. With this, and Ultraman being renewed plus the latest series being on youtube, I'm excited. I'm also hoping that Amazon Prime removing Amazons season 1 (which was one of their "originals") means that that's been licensed somehow as well.

Off to watch Kamen Rider Saber (and Zenkaiger) with my kids in our Saturday Morning ritual.

PerryD

Kikaider, wow another blast from the past. I had a action figure of him that I loved to play with when I was little.

Adam Tyner

Bullmoose has the preorder up for Kamen Rider Zero-One. It’s listed as the complete series plus the movie. $59.98 MSRP; January 25th release.

Edit! The full listing is up on Shout Factory's website.

Master O

Kamen Rider has limited marketability on these shores, unless you are already a fan of Tokusatsu shows and/or Japanese culture in general, so it's not surprising that KM has been effectively MIA on home video here.

Adam Tyner

Eh, there's no shortage of far more obscure movies/TV series/etc. finding their way to DVD and Blu-ray. I don't think Kamen Rider would be some colossal mass market success, with box sets filling the shelves at Target and Walmart or whatever, but I absolutely think official sets could turn a fair profit if Toei's asking price isn't too exorbitant. Licensors are more of a stumbling block than the size of the audience.

Adam Tyner

On Facebook, Media Blasters teased a box set of Shin Kamen Rider (‘92), Kamen Rider ZO (‘93), Kamen Rider J (‘94), Kamen Rider the First (‘05), and Kamen Rider the Next (‘07). Apparently these are all (?) the Kamen Rider movies — excluding the 2023 Shin Kamen Rider — that aren’t tied to the TV series.

Adam Tyner

Twitter

Adam Tyner

There are some screenshots, technical comments, and comparisons to Japanese BDs and broadcasts on r/kamenrider.

WTK

Phase 1 complete, Kamen Rider will rise! It will be born in 2022

WTK

via Anime Expo:

Kamen Rider Kuuga: The Complete Series Blu-ray (Shout! Factory) | September 20

Adam Tyner

Media Blasters is tentatively planning for an October release of two Kamen Rider sets: one is a collection of the '90s films and the other pairs First with Next. Good bit of extras, including Kamen Rider World.

I would've liked to have seen something other than Kuuga announced for Blu-ray since it's been streaming for a good long while now, and any "HD" presentation will be an upconvert. (At least, it sure does look like it was shot on standard-def video at the less-than-cinematic framerate of 30fps.) I'm not sure I'm in for this one -- maybe, maybe not -- but I'm always happy to see more toku on Blu-ray.

WTK

Kamen Rider Kuuga: The Complete Series + Exclusive Poster

https://www.shoutfactory.com/product...roduct_id=7876

fujishig

I've gotta think they're going to fast track at least W in time for the anime, if they have any say at all.

Adam Tyner

Media Blasters tweeted this morning that the Kamen Rider movie box set isn’t coming in October as hoped for, thanks to the whole Crunchyroll thing disrupting other plans. But they’re working on it and hoping to have it out in time for Christmas. But that is definitely not a sure thing.

WTK

The Crunchyroll disruption is caused by their acquisition of online retailer Right Stuf (considered to be largest online anime retailer): https://www.rightstufanime.com/post/...chyroll-family. A good portion of Media Blasters titles are no longer available from them. Media Blasters has been working with other smaller online retailers and launching their own online store: https://mb-storefront.com/.

I don't think Kamen Rider movie box set is coming this year. MB is behind on many announced titles across the board. They're up to September in terms of solicitations. Many of their solicited titles don't get released on time either.

fujishig

I didn't even realize that a lot of MB stuff isn't available on RS. What happened? Just wanted to go it on their own or something? Or did this happen only after the acquisition was announced?

WTK

It's what CR classified as "erotica" products (won't be going to details in this forum). These type of products kept MB afloat in recent years and was allowing them to branch out on other types of titles (like Kamen Rider).

fujishig

Ah, gotcha.

Adam Tyner

Despite being a relatively recent Kamen Rider convert, I fell in love with the franchise enough to roll the dice on a 4K box set of the eight original Shōwa-era theatrical releases. (And I mean "original" in the sense of "the stories were written with theaters in mind", rather than repackaged TV episodes.) It's not cheap, and these mini-movies are presented exclusively in Japanese -- no English subtitles -- but I had a blast anyway. Over the past month, I've been chipping away at a very lengthy review.

Since I'm not particularly well-versed in this era of Kamen Rider, take my comments on the movies themselves for whatever they're worth. But this review does include nearly 50 screenshot comparisons and more than 200 images total. As far as I know, they're the only "real" screenshots of the collection anywhere on the Internet, with the handful of others floating around seemingly having been off-TV photos.

fujishig

As a kid in HI, I would watch the Kamen Rider movie and Inazuman double feature every Summer. Man I miss that and KIKU. I wonder what happened to all those subs of JAKQ and Battle Fever J.

WTK

Kamen Rider Black Blu-ray via Discotek Media

Adam Tyner

I was hoping for some Kamen Rider news from the stream, but I wasn’t anticipating a best case scenario like this! Day one for sure.

fujishig

Wow. That's a surprise.

They haven't even solicited Kamen Rider 1 have they? That's been subbed and shown on their channel for a while now.