Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight

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Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight
KamenRider DragonKnight.jpg
Logo
Format Tokusatsu
Created by Shotaro Ishinomori
Developed by Steve Wang
Starring Stephen Lunsford
Matt Mullins
Aria Alistar
Composer(s) Tony Phillips
Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 40[1] (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Yasuo Matsuo
Fumio Sebata
Aki Komine
Producer(s) Steve Wang
Mike Wang
Roy McAree
Running time 22 minutes
Production company(s) Adness Entertainment
Toei Company
Broadcast
Original channel The CW (The CW4Kids)[2]
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
720p (HDTV)
Original run 02012-01-03 January 3 – December 26, 2009 (2009-12-26)
External links
Website

Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight is the Daytime Emmy Award-winning[3] American adaptation of the Japanese tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Ryuki, the twelfth installment of the Kamen Rider Series. It was brought to television by Steve and Michael Wang and produced by Jimmy Sprague through Adness Entertainment. The series had a sneak premiere on December 13, 2008, but started official broadcasting on January 3, 2009[4] and played throughout the year. Adness chose to adapt Ryuki over the other Heisei Rider shows as it has a large number of characters (Ryuki had 13 Riders in total) as well as a female Rider.[5] It is also the first tokusatsu adaptation of a Kamen Rider Series since Saban's Masked Rider, which was adapted from Kamen Rider Black RX. The show first aired in the United States on The CW Television Network during its The CW4Kids programming block.[2] Statements by director Steve Wang and lead Stephen Lunsford show that The CW had dropped Dragon Knight at the end of the year before its final two episodes aired in the US.[6] The final episodes were uploaded to the 4Kids TV website on December 18, 2009.

In the early licensing information for the series, Adness Entertainment had intended to also film a feature-length movie for Dragon Knight.[7] In an interview, Steve Wang stated that they had written a story for a film, but Adness was raising money to bring over another Kamen Rider for broadcast in the US rather than a film or a second season of Dragon Knight.[8]

To date, the company has not released any announcements regarding any other Rider shows or any intention to begin production of the script written for the Dragon Knight film. This leaves Dragon Knight's fate nebulous. Though Adness still presumably retains the rights to the series proper within the United States, it may not have the rights to the footage or suits due to not having made use of either for the last two years. There appear to be no current plans to release Dragon Knight on domestic DVD within the United States itself, though it has seen international release, as detailed elsewhere in this article. This includes a release in Japan by Toei, the company which holds the rights to Kamen Rider in Japan.

In 2010, Dragon Knight was nominated for[9] and won[3][10] the Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Stunt Coordination", a new category for the Daytime Emmys.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Main article: List of Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight characters

While searching for his missing father, Kit Taylor finds an Advent Deck – a special card deck that allows the carrier to transform into a Kamen Rider and utilize unique weapons and powers – and uses it to become Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. He butts heads with Len, who serves as Kamen Rider Wing Knight, but the pair join forces after Kit learns that an alien warlord named General Xaviax is responsible for his father's disappearance and intends on using him and the entire human race, which he plans to abduct to gain power and rebuild his homeworld. Xaviax tricks people on Earth to work for him by promising them whatever they want, or in some cases, by exploiting their fears and desperation. Kit wonders why Xaviax has to trick them and why he doesn't just find bad guys to do the work for him. Len tells Kit that the decks were only made for one person, and that only a person with an exact DNA match as the original Ventaran rider could use it. This is why Kit is able to use the Dragon Knight Deck. He is the exact Mirror Twin of Adam, the original Dragon Knight, who betrayed the original team. One of the new Earth Riders, Chris Ramirez (serving as Kamen Rider Sting and tricked by Xaviax believing he is working in a special ops government program to fight alien invaders), joins forces with Kit and Len when he discovers he has been deceived, but is Vented along the way. Kit vents Albert Cho, brother of Danny Cho in retaliation. This leads to a personal hatred between Danny and Kit, as Danny seeks to avenge his brother against Xaviax's orders.

Later on Kase, a fellow survivor of Ventara like Len, joins forces with Len and Kit to fight Xaviax. In addition to training Kit as a Kamen Rider, Len and Kase tell Kit all about the twelve Riders who banded together as the protectors of Ventara – a world opposite to our own – to take Xaviax down. However, due to the unintentionally traitorous actions of Kit's predecessor, Adam, General Xaviax destroyed most of the Riders via a process called Venting – which traps defeated Riders in the "Advent Void" between dimensions forever – and stole their Advent Decks. Furthermore, Xaviax continues to send out his Riders who fight to eliminate Kit, Len, and the other Riders who oppose him. After Kit is Vented, Xaviax recruits Adam to once again become Dragon Knight. Unlike previously when Xaviax convinced Adam to 'betray' the Riders by playing to his desire to remain with the girl he loves, Xaviax uses a combination of blackmail and using Adam's girlfriend as a hostage in order to force Adam to work for him.

Meanwhile, Len uses his Advent Deck to awaken the Advent Master Eubulon, who brings back the Ventaran Kamen Riders from the Advent Void as well as Kit, who becomes Kamen Rider Onyx. He also brings back Kase, though Eubulon is forced to briefly reassign the Advent Deck to Maya Young while Kase is trapped in the Advent Void. Once Kase is better, Maya gives back the deck and the Riders head for Xaviax's base to destroy him.[11]

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight episodes

[edit] Unaired pilot

A pilot episode of Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight filmed in 2007 featuring Matt Smith in the lead role of Kit Taylor and Kandis Erickson as Maya Young was produced and was later leaked online before being taken down in December 2008.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main cast

[edit] Recurring cast

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] Suit actors/stunt crew

[edit] International broadcasts

Dragon Knight was shown in Brazil on Rede Globo during its TV Globinho programming block, and has been replaced by a re-run of Dragonball as of September 2009,[14] and was only being shown on Cartoon Network in that country, until it came back to TV Globinho as a part of its Saturday Morning timeblock as of January, 2010, in Mexico on Televisa,[15] and in Venezuela on Venevisión. It also aired in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein on RTL II.[16] However, RTL II cancelled the show after 17 episodes due to low ratings.[17] The dubbed version of the series also aired on Indonesian's free-to-air TV channel Indosiar on Sunday mornings at 6:00 am (UTC+07:00). There are currently plans to air the series in Colombia on Caracol TV,[18] in Italy on Mediaset,[19][20] in Latin America on Cartoon Network,[21] and on other Cartoon Network affiliates in Southeast Asia, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, and Australia.[22][23] On the Australian digital free-to-air channel GO! the show airs on Tuesday mornings at 7:30am.[24]

It was also broadcast in Japan on Toei's satellite subscription channel Toei Channel in the fall of 2009 as part of the Heisei Kamen Rider series 10th Anniversary project.[25] Voice actors brought onto the project include Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Kit/Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, Hiroki Takahashi as Richie Preston/Kamen Rider Incisor, Hiroshi Kamiya as Chris Ramirez/Kamen Rider Sting, and Takahiro Sakurai as Danny Cho/Kamen Rider Axe. The dub was then aired again on TV Asahi in 2010.

Previous actors from the Kamen Rider franchise who lend their voices to the cast include:

On TV Asahi affiliate broadcasts of the Japanese-dubbed Dragon Knight, the song "Dive into the Mirror" by defspiral, is used as the opening theme. The group also performed as Wilma-Sidr for Kamen Rider W. The song "ANOTHER WORLD", sung by Tatsuhisa Suzuki and Satoshi Matsuda under the pseudonym "Kit×Len", was used as the ending theme.

[edit] International DVD releases

In addition to airing outside the United States, Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight is available on DVD in certain countries. In Brazil, 13 DVD Volumes of all 40 episodes were released by PlayArte Home Video even though their site only lists the first two.[26][27] In Germany, Season 1 – Vol. 1 and Season 1 – Vol. 2 were released on DVD by EuroVideo and m4e (Made For Entertainment) in February 2010.,[28][29][30] but no other volumes were released due to the show's cancellation over there. On July 21, 2010, Toei released the first DVD boxset of Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight containing the first 20 episodes along with a DVD release of the Special Event that took place on January 2010 in Japan. Throughout the summer of that year, Toei released 10 DVD Volumes of all 40 episodes as well as a second boxset with the last 20 episodes.[31][dead link] In most parts of Asia, 10 DVD Volumes and 2 DVD boxsets of all 40 episodes were released by MediaLink.[32]

[edit] Video game

Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight
Developer(s) Natsume (Nintendo DS)
Eighting (Wii)
Publisher(s) D3 Publisher
Distributor(s) Bandai Namco Games
Platform(s) Nintendo DS
Wii
Release date(s)
  • NA November 17, 2009
[33]
Genre(s) Fighting game
Mode(s) Single-player
Multiplayer (Wii only)
Rating(s)
Media/distribution Nintendo DS Card
Wii Optical Disc

A fighting game based on the series was released for the Nintendo DS and Wii platforms by D3 Publisher on November 17, 2009, despite the official trailer announcing a December 2009 release.

[edit] Nintendo DS version

The Nintendo DS version was developed by Natsume. In this game, you use your Advent Cards to perform special attacks, depending on how much your Advent Gauge is filled up, with the Final Vent being used when all three bars are full. You can charge your Rider's Advent Gauge by touching and holding your Rider until all three bars are full. You are also able to select two more different cards before starting a battle.

The game's "Ventara Mode" is a series of missions where you fight Advent Beasts and other Kamen Riders, with a chance of unlocking them (as well as more Advent Cards) in a certain mission. Xaviax is the final boss and has a different ending for each of the playable Riders except for Wrath who fights Dragon Knight as the final boss due to Wrath being possessed by Xaviax as in the show. Xaviax himself becomes a playable character in "Duel Mode" once all 13 Riders are unlocked and the player has defeated every mission (including defeating Xaviax himself) available in the "Ventara Mode" for each Rider.

Despite being a fighting game, it does not support two player function.

[edit] Wii version

See also: Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes

The Wii version was developed by Eighting and uses a modified engine based on Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes for the PlayStation 2, which was also developed by Eighting. It even uses the same stages and music. Dragon Knight and Onyx's character models were even recycled from Ryuki and Ryuga's character models. However, the gameplay was changed significantly. The Rider Gauge (now Advent Gauge) does not charge anymore. You can only fill it up by attacking your opponent without special attacks. Depending on how much your Advent Gauge is filled up, you can perform special attacks by using an Advent Card, with the Final Vent being used when your gauge is full. You can also select any Advent Card you want before you fight.

Unlike the DS version, you can only play as the 13 Riders. You unlock the rest of the Riders in Arcade Mode and "Mirror World" mode. Xaviax is only a non-playable boss in both Arcade and "Mirror World".

The game's "Mirror World" mode is a feature not in Climax Heroes and is also a series of missions where you not only fight Riders in one-on-one battles, but also defeat Advent Beasts in beat 'em up-like stages, which were not featured in the Climax Heroes series until Climax Heroes OOO for the PSP and Wii, with more stages and kaijins. As you progress, not only are you able to unlock other Riders, but you gain Rider Points to buy more Advent Cards in Card Mode.

The Wii version supports two player function as opposed to the single player-only DS version.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "FACTOID". http://www.kamenriderproductions.com/factoid2.html. Retrieved 14 February 2009. 
  2. ^ a b "「Kamen Rider Dragon Knight」全米放映決定! | 東映[テレビ]". http://www.toei.co.jp/release/tv/1174795_963.html. Retrieved 11 June 2008. 
  3. ^ a b "WINNERS: Daytime Entertainment Creative Arts Emmy Awards". June 26, 2010. http://www.welovesoaps.net/2010/06/winners-daytime-entertainment-creative.html. Retrieved 27 June 2010. 
  4. ^ "'Kamen Rider Dragon Knight comes to CW4Kids at the beginning of the New Year". http://henshinjustice.com/2008/11/17/kamen-rider-dragon-knight-coming-much-sooner-than-you-thought/. Retrieved 17 November 2008. 
  5. ^ "仮面ライダーが米国で製作中 新たな“クール·ジャパン”? – 日経トレンディネット". http://trendy.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/pickup/20080421/1009658/?top. Retrieved 23 April 2008. 
  6. ^ "“Kamen Rider Dragon Knight” officially canceled after episode 38 | gaijINside". December 12, 2009. http://www.gaijinside.com/kamen-rider-dragon-knight-officially-canceled-after-episode-38/. Retrieved 12 December 2009. [dead link]
  7. ^ "The story, as presented at the 2007 Licensing Show". Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070928002436/http://picsmcgee.com/albums/Licensing+2007/scan_03.jpg. Retrieved 19 June 2007. 
  8. ^ "Steve Wang interview of Way Above Top Secret". January 4, 2010. http://way-above-top-secret.com/index.php?/topic/119-wats-exclusive-steve-wang/. Retrieved 2 April 2010. 
  9. ^ "NOMINATIONS: 37th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards". May 12, 2010. http://www.welovesoaps.net/2010/05/nominations-37th-annual-daytime-emmy.html. Retrieved 12 May 2010. 
  10. ^ "「KAMEN RIDER DRAGON KNIGHT」第37回デイタイム・エミー賞において最優秀スタントコーディネーション賞を受賞！ | 東映［テレビ］". 2010-06-29. http://www.toei.co.jp/release/tv/1192155_963.html. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 
  11. ^ "KASW Schedule". Titan TV. http://kasw.titantv.com/apg/basic.aspx?siteid=50065. Retrieved 8 November 2009. 
  12. ^ "Carrie Reichenbach – News". http://www.carriereichenbach.com/news.htm. Retrieved 21 April 2008. 
  13. ^ "I Survived a Japanese Game Show - ABC this summer, the fun starts here - ABC.com". http://www.abc.go.com/summer/isurvivedajapanesegame/index. Retrieved 6 June 2008. [dead link]
  14. ^ "Kamen Rider Heads to Brazil". AWN. January 16, 2009. http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=date&newsitem_no=26065&dir=2. Retrieved 16 May 2009. 
  15. ^ "Adness Licenses Kaman Rider Dragon Knight To Televisa". AWN. August 21, 2008. http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=top&newsitem_no=24483. Retrieved 19 April 2009. 
  16. ^ "Kamen Rider Dragon Knight". m4e. http://www.m4e.de/en/ent_kamenrider.html. Retrieved 22 August 2009. 
  17. ^ "Quotencheck: «Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight»". Quotenmeter.de. February 2, 2010. http://www.quotenmeter.de/cms/?p1=n&p2=40125&p3=. Retrieved 19 February 2010. 
  18. ^ "Adness Entertainment: Televisa Schedules Debut Date for Kamen Rider". Brand Licensing. July 31, 2009. http://www.brand-licensing.com//DocPage.aspx?IzmLang=9&DID=9486&DIA=9486&LIC=631&OPS=0&LUR=http%3a%2f%2fwww.brand-licensing.com%2f%2fNewsPage.aspx%3fIzmLang%3d9%26LIC%3d631%26LPS%3d0%26&. Retrieved 9 August 2009. 
  19. ^ "Adness Secures New Broadcast Deal for Kamen Rider". AWN. February 10, 2009. http://news.awn.com/index.php?ltype=top%20newsitem_no=19534&newsitem_no=26374. Retrieved 16 May 2009. 
  20. ^ "Adness Entertainment Amps Up Sales For Kamen Rider Dragon Knight". Brand Licensing. February 10, 2009. http://www.brand-licensing.com//DocPage.aspx?IzmLang=9&DID=8295&DIA=8295&LIC=631&OPS=2&LUR=http%3a%2f%2fwww.brand-licensing.com%2f%2fNewsPage.aspx%3fIzmLang%3d9%26LIC%3d631%26LPS%3d0%26&. Retrieved 11 August 2009. 
  21. ^ "Adness Strikes New Latin Sale for Kamen Rider". WorldScreen. September 2, 2009. http://www.worldscreen.com/articles/display/22297. Retrieved 4 September 2009. 
  22. ^ "Kamen Rider Dragon Knight Secures Asian Cartoon Network Slot". WorldScreen. January 6, 2010. http://worldscreen.com/articles/display/23775. Retrieved 7 January 2010. 
  23. ^ "Dragon Knight spreads its wings". C21Media. January 6, 2010. http://www.c21media.net/resources/detail.asp?article=53599&area=79. Retrieved 7 January 2010. 
  24. ^ . http://www.yourtv.com.au/guide/event.aspx?program_id=250213&event_id=36314345&region_id=81. 
  25. ^ "仮面ライダードラゴンナイト：「龍騎」原作の米ドラマ　日本語版にオリジナルの松田悟志も(まんたんウェブ) – 毎日ｊｐ(毎日新聞)". http://mainichi.jp/enta/mantan/entama/graph/20090831/. Retrieved 1 September 2009. 
  26. ^ "Kamen Rider vol.01 – Grupo PlayArte". http://www.playarte.com.br/Filme/Default.asp?id=1465. Retrieved 25 December 2009. 
  27. ^ "Kamen Rider vol.02 – Grupo PlayArte". http://www.playarte.com.br/Filme/Default.asp?id=1470. Retrieved 25 December 2009. 
  28. ^ "Kamen Rider Dragon Knight – m4e – made for entertainment". http://www.m4e.de/en/dvd_kamenrider.html. Retrieved 25 December 2009. 
  29. ^ "EURVIDEO - That's Home Entertainment - Filme, Videos, DVDs, Blu-ray - Kamen Rider Dragon Knight". http://www.eurovideo.de/film_detail.php?film=2186. Retrieved 25 December 2009. 
  30. ^ "EURVIDEO - That's Home Entertainment - Filme, Videos, DVDs, Blu-ray - Kamen Rider Dragon Knight". http://www.eurovideo.de/film_detail.php?film=2187. Retrieved 25 December 2009. 
  31. ^ "DVD 「KAMEN RIDER DRAGON KNIGHT」特集". Toei Video. January 11, 2010. http://www.toei-video.co.jp/DVD/sp21/dragonknight.html. Retrieved 12 January 2010. 
  32. ^ "MediaLink_Kamen Rider". http://www.medialink.com.hk/character/2010/KamenRider_2010/MRD_2010.html. Retrieved 8 September 2010. 
  33. ^ "Unleash Your Final Vent with All 13 Kamen Riders in the Kamen Rider Dragon Knight Video Game Available Now". Business Wire. November 17, 2009. http://ca.sys-con.com/node/1190087. Retrieved 17 November 2009. 

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