Kamen Rider has been delighting tokusatsu fans ever since the first series hit screens in 1971. The show has spawned a gigantic cross-media empire that includes movies, manga, toys, and video games. And the Kamen Rider franchise is still going strong today, with the currently airing Kamen Rider Revice acting as a celebration of the franchise's 50th anniversary. However, until recently, American fans haven't had access to most of the franchise as very little has been officially released outside of Japan. There is good news for fans though as a Comic-Con panel confirmed that two legendary Kamen Riders will be Rider Kicking their way to America next year.
At the Comic-Con Special Edition event, there was a panel called Kamen Rider 50th Anniversary and Beyond. This panel featured two massive announcements. The first was that StoneBot Studios will be bringing an English translation of the long-running Kamen Rider Kuuga manga to America. First launching in the pages of HERO’S magazine in 2014, the manga now spans 18 volumes, the newest of which comes out this month. Part of this manga's appeal is its all-star production team. It is written by tokusatsu legend Toshiki Inoue and illustrated by Hitotsu Yokoshima, the man behind Bateren XX and Akuto-ACT.
It is an adaptation of the TV series Kamen Rider Kuuga. This series, which ran from 2000 to 2001, was the first entry in the Heisei Era of the Kamen Rider franchise. It followed Yusuke Godai, a young man entangled in an ancient war between the Rinto and the evil Gurongi Tribe. His primary weapon in this war is the Arcle, a strange belt that allows Yusuke to become Kamen Rider Kuuga. In 2020, Shout! Factory started streaming Kamen Rider Kuuga on their TokuSHOUTsu channel, allowing American audiences to watch the complete show officially for the first time, making this the perfect time to localize the manga.
The other announcement was that StoneBot would also be working on an original comic book series. This will be a four-issue mini-series and a collection of one-shots based on Kamen Rider Zero-One, the first Kamen Rider series of the Reiwa Era. This series was broadcast in 2019 and 2020, and it was set in a world where advanced AI robots called Humagears helped humans perform many daily tasks. However, when a cyber-terrorist group starts hacking and corrupting the Humagears, it is up to the new (and slightly unwilling) CEO of Hiden Intelligence, Aruto Hiden, to stop them. This announcement is fitting as Shout! Factory will start streaming Kamen Rider Zero-One on their TokuSHOUTsu channel in January 2022. This makes Zero-One the fourth series to join the service after the original Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Kuuga, and the recently added Kamen Rider Ryuki.
Also, another Comic-Con Special Edition event saw the American premiere of the Kamen Rider Zero-One: REALxTIME movie. This is a theatrical spin-off movie set after the final episode of the main series. It sees Aruto and his allies Yua Yaiba and Isamu Fuwa stuck in a race against time as they only have 60 minutes to stop S, a terrorist who wants to bring about the end of the world.
A few years ago, it was impossible to find Kamen Rider media in America. However, it is clear that the franchise is finally taking steps to rectify this. On top of the announcements made during this panel, we also know that Funimation will be broadcasting Fuuto Pi, the anime spin-off to Kamen Rider W, next summer. It also seems likely that Hideaki Anno's 2023 film Shin Kamen Rider will also get an American release, showing how quickly the franchise is making inroads in America. Hopefully, this means we'll see more American releases in the future so that American fans can more easily watch, enjoy, and support the content they love.
