Saban's Masked Rider
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.jpg) "I AM AMAZON!!" — Skyrider
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Saban’s Masked Rider (マスクド・ライダー Masukudo Raidā) is a 1995-1996 American adaptation of the Japanese tokusatsu show, Kamen Rider Black RX. It also serves as a spinoff to Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, given the fact that this series’ hero first appeared in a three-part episode of that series’ third season.
This show has such an extremely poor reputation amongst Kamen Rider/tokusatsu fans that the second attempt at adapting Kamen Rider to American audiences, Dragon Knight, did not use the title "Masked Rider", which was used by Toei until 2010. The series was even retconned as a "show-within-a-show" in Power Rangers Time Force.
Plot
Dex is a prince from the planet Edenoi, who was given the powers of the Masked Rider by his grandfather, King Lexian. He was sent to the planet Earth to protect it from the evil Count Dregon and his Insectovore minions.
Why It's Not Amazon
- As a result of a shoe-string budget, the production team was unable to purchase the monster costumes used in the original Japanese show (as well as the two movies used in this show), resulting with some inconsistencies regarding stock footage usage caused by poor editing. This is the reason why Dex wore the same outfit (F. Grand Prix jacket) as Kohtaro Minami all the time to blend in with the stock footage. Most of all, you can even see Kohtaro's face and the two unused Kamen Rider film suits in the show!
- The Electro Saber, originally used as a sword in Kamen Rider Black RX by the name of Revolcane, was turned it into a magic wand that can shoot laser beams at a monster instead of stabbing them to death due to the show being aired on a network, unlike VR Troopers did. The exceptions were Robo Rider, Spearavore, Brain Mite and Ocusect, the latter using the stabbing and sawing footage while the other three were slashed.
- Dex tends to grunt and scream a lot when he fights, which comes across as being annoying.
- Extremely annoying characters, especially Ferbus. The character, who is portrayed as a cute Edenoite pet of Dex, ends up becoming this show’s equivalent of Jar Jar Binks.
- Count Dregon, the main villain of the season, proclaims himself as the most sinister and powerful ruler in the universe, despite getting easily beaten by a mere monster of the week in the episode, "Million Dollar Ferbus."
- Lavasect's counterpart was a final villain of the Showa Kamen Rider series named Emperor Crisis, the leader of the Crisis Empire and the main antagonist of Kamen Rider Black RX. He became a standard MOTD in this show without background whatsoever.
- Lame attempts at comedy. Scenes that are supposed to be funny come across as being awkward, such as this dance.
- The Masked Rider Warriors. To elaborate, the ten veteran (Showa) Kamen Riders show up in the last episode, and almost all of them are mis-named, safe for (sort of) Ichigo and ZX. Notably, Skyrider proudly proclaims himself to be "AMAZON!!!", kickstarting an internet meme as a result.
Redeeming Qualities
- The theme song in the show is pretty epic.
- The background music, which was recycled for Digimon.
- Ferbus' theme song was used for 1996 Saban "Twirly-Doo" logo.
- Donais/Robo Rider is the only character throughout the show who has good acting, and the only villain throughout the entire show that is actually intimidating.
- The next season, Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight was a massive improvement.
- The Italian dub is positive and underrated.
Trivia
- Verne Troyer of Austin Powers fame was the suit actor for Ferbus.
- Peter Shinkoda, who plays Nobu Yoshioka from the 2015 Netflix series Daredevil was the actor who plays Ferrian, Dex's Edenoite friend in the show.