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NEWS: Kamen Rider War Film Lets Fans Vote on Ending

I'm in North America and my vote did count (Classic Riders naturally because that includes my Rider Black). I'm not sure if they will scrub the voting based on region, but for now on the main page, North American fans can vote. It's two simple buttons as shown in the article. So far there are barely 6000 votes total (as of February the 8th) but I would imagine that will go up by quite a bit by March. I'm going to bookmark the front page for the movie and see how this goes.

I hope that Japan realizes there is a small but VERY loyal group of Rider fans here in the US. That and if I was able to ask I would want the other filmed ending as Value added material on a DVD/Blu release but I can't have it all or Kamen Rider would air legally in the US like Power Rangers .

Saphiro01 wrote:

I'm in North America and my vote did count (Classic Riders naturally because that includes my Rider Black). I'm not sure if they will scrub the voting based on region, but for now on the main page, North American fans can vote. It's two simple buttons as shown in the article. So far there are barely 6000 votes total (as of February the 8th) but I would imagine that will go up by quite a bit by March. I'm going to bookmark the front page for the movie and see how this goes. I hope that Japan realizes there is a small but VERY loyal group of Rider fans here in the US. That and if I was able to ask I would want the other filmed ending as Value added material on a DVD/Blu release but I can't have it all or Kamen Rider would air legally in the US like Power Rangers .

Yeah it suck that Japan doesn't recognize international fans for tokusatsu, I mean Japan is not taking their international fans seriously unlike South Korea where K-pop and K-dramas has gotten a huge audiences outside of Asia. I say this as a 7 year anime fan and I became a K-pop/Hallyu fan last year and as a long time anime fan, South Korea play this pop culture export game better then Japan.

I'm sorry Super Sentai/Kamen Rider (the same goes for J-dramas in huge #) aren't streamed in the US like Korean and Taiwanese dramas, I wish Japan can ride on this and give Tokusatsu the same global push.

Blame Power Rangers. The sentai fad of the 90's pretty much killed any chances of that stuff ever getting a serious release in the US. I really want someone to pick up Garo. That would be huge overseas, especially with an anime coming out.

Michael asks:
In a previous column you mentioned that Japanese Dramas are hard to licence. I've actually been interested in watching Jdramas and have noticed that they are almost never available on streaming services like Crunchyroll, DramaFever, and Viki. On the other hand, those three services all have plenty of Korean dramas. What exactly makes Jdramas harder to licence than anime or Kdramas? Is there perceived to be no English language audience for them by Japanese licencors, or is there another issue that makes them difficult to licence? Do large networks like Fuji TV, NHK, and WOWOW even attempt to shop their hit dramas to foreign distributors?

Basically, the Japanese talent agencies make it impossible. They usually co-produce, or at least have some major controlling interest in every series their major star is in, and their standards for how that show is to be disseminated in a major market like America is unrealistic. They demand license fees that nobody could ever recoup, insist on ridiculous limitations on artwork and availability, and basically make life hell for all who might attempt to work with them. It's a non-starter.

Japanese talent agencies are also so spoiled for the level of control they have in Japan that they pretty much don't know how to play well in other markets. Agencies are used to writing marketing disguised as content DIRECTLY for publications, dictating how, when and which photos of their stars can be printed where. The agencies use the threat of withholding access to their stars to enforce these demands, and they get surprisingly little blowback. Some agencies also have yakuza ties, just in case someone was considering screwing with them.

In the case of TV dramas, the agency known as Johnny & Associates (Johnny's Jimusho) is thought by many to be one of the most difficult. Johnny's controls Japan's most popular boy bands and their members, from SMAP and Tokio to V6 and Hey! Say Jump!, and get those guys placed in pretty much all of the popular dramas. Johnny's requires approval on every step of the process, and have a reputation for being so difficult that many companies in Japan refuse to even attempt to work with them. To give some indication of how ridiculous they can get, Cyzo Magazine reported earlier this year that with SMAP's Takuya Kimura reprising his lead role for the Space Battleship Yamato live action sequel, the agency is demanding that all the space battles and CG be ditched in favor of human drama with lots of close-ups.

Every once in a while one of these agencies attempts to do something with an American media outlet, and is quickly taken aback and insulted when Entertainment Weekly or Rolling Stone either a) doesn't care about their pop star that doesn't speak English; and/or b) uses an image in a way they consider improper. And then they take their toys and go home.

Movies tend to be easier to license, as the contracts involved give the talent agencies less say over international deals. But for TV dramas? Forget it. Even if you could navigate those disgusting, fetid waters far enough to actually get to release something, the amount you'd have to pay to license it would surely bankrupt you, and the approvals process would probably prevent you from even getting a DVD out. Not worth the trouble, not worth the expense.

@mdo

Now that I think about it after having read the same said answerman article that is a very good point. There are a LOT of young J star actors and even some voice actor talent that end up rangers/heros/kamen riders. That and there are a ton of J-Pop songs that are in the background of a lot of episodes let alone intros and endings .

Darn. I would rather enjoy a good intact fansub of the tv broadcast then have an official version subtitled but scrubbed of audio ala some anime releases like Kodocha and Zeta Gundam. But to be fair an official release is something I would support.

edit: Holy crap V3 got an official US region 1 release!

I voted Showa! Any news on this legal tokusatsu streaming site?

Oh, you're right! Sorry, I should have dug a little deeper and the answer would have been right there