Commenting On: An Introduction to Kamen Rider Black

All Comments: 5

1. Hi, Det!

   Great article about one of the franchises I kindly remember from my childhood. Quite a few of your TBT hit me on that sweet ‘nostalgia spot’. Thanks for that!

   I think the main reason Kamen Rider didn’t get as popular as Power Rangers was that it was very ‘japanese’ something the American audience wasn’t very fond of. Much like other tokusatsu shows (think Jiraya or Jaspion), it was impossible to adapt such a story to the US, like they did with PR. One must accept the fact that the setting was asian (at least).

   Also, at least in South America, many sentai and tokusatsu got quite a following. Kamen Rider Black RX, in particular, was HUGE in Brazil in the 90s.

   I’m really digging your TBTs. Informative but not too long/boring, and you let your opinion come across clearly without sounding biased.

   Makes me feel old, but I like it 😀

   Reply

   1. I try to hit those nostalgia feels with every TBT articles.

      KR franchise being too “Japanese”. Hmmm. That is an interesting preposition that I didn’t think of. But at the same time, Super Sentai is also very Japanese. Maybe they win because boys like big robots? Yes, Jiraiya and Metal Heroes series are also very topical. You know, it might be too late to adapt any one of them even though Japanese anime/manga/drama culture is much bigger now than ever. Those older titles are just too old. Unless they are coming up with new shows, not many people would even consider bringing it to the West.

      True, Latin America seems to be much more receptive than NA in this respect. A lot of the things I researched about every other TBTs usually mention how big the shows/anime are in Brazil or Mexico.

      I dig my memories a lot for TBT inspirations. Thankfully there’s still fairly plenty. XD

      Reply

      1. Yes. I’ve heard people saying that certain sentai/henshin shows were impossible to relate to because of this.

         Sentai shows portrait characters that happen to be Japanese, but could be German or American and would be pretty much the same. Henshin heroes, on the other hand, show aspects that are more… intrinsic to Japanese culture. Monsters based on Japanese mythology, for example, are common today but were rare during the 80s or 90s outside of anime/videogame fandom.

         Watching some henshin shows when I was a bit older, I started noticing many things a kid that wasn’t Japanese wouldn’t really know what it was. Fuurins, Kotatsus, Bosozuku, Onigiri (remember how 4kids switched Pokémon’s Onigiri to “Jelly Doughnuts” because they were afraid kids wouldn’t recognize them otherwise?) and many more examples.

         Try rewatching episodes of Zyuranger and Kamen Rider, and write down everything you see that is common to the Japanese, but not common for us. Kamen Rider wins by a landslide.

         I can’t speak for Mexico, but in Brazil, a huge factor that contributed to tokusatsu being popular was the astonishing amount of Japanese immigrants. Ultraman and National Kid got pretty popular because of that, so one of the main TV channels decided to bring a few more tokusatsu (Jaspion and Kamen Rider, if I recall correctly) and Saint Seiya. In a few days every kid was watching it, so they started airing a lot of anime and sentai shows. As lot as in ‘8 hours a day, 7 days a week’. No, I’m not exaggerating.

         I hope you have plenty of memories left. I was never a fan of TBT-like articles, but these are really hitting home with me. Thanks!

         Reply

         1. I know exactly what you’re talking about regarding daily things and the mythologies. KRB shows quite a lot of day-to-day happenings and it is easy to see how “Japanese” it is.

            Yes, the Japanese immigrants definitely played some parts in it. I was kind of baffled to learn how many there are in Brazil. I saw a short documentary of them probably about a decade ago and it was quite unexpected for me.

            Mexico might be similar to Brazil in terms of tokusatsu’s popularity. I saw some vids of Super Hero Spirits 2000 on YouTube and was pleasantly surprised that the organizers were able to invite so many different singers to the event. There was another one in 2004 and 2006 it seems? Popular enough for the event to happen multiple times.

            Reply

            1. There are a lot of Japanese immigrants and descendants of said immigrants. I met quite a few when I lived there.

               This kind of popularity makes me kinda jealous. Where I live, NOBODY even knows about Kamen Rider, let alone other tokusatsu franchises. A guy who was supposed to be an otaku once told me the Japanese versions came AFTER Power Rangers.

               Needless to say, merchandise is impossible to find.

               Reply