king_ghidorah wrote:Yeah August I've heard from multiple people that Flash is the better of the two series...what's the hold up with that? Did Flash ever play in Hawaii?
Yes, FLASH did play in Hawaii (according to the fans, there). I'll answer your other questions, below...
king_ghidorah wrote:Is it a rights thing that's keeping if from being released? I've heard some rumors that these haven't exactly sold like hotcakes so there's no drive for releasing any more dvds which certainly seems to make sense as it's been a while since that company has released anything new.
Rumors are just rumors... JN Productions is a small company, which mostly specializes in Translation, Subtitling, Production, Authoring, and Mastering — full post production services, which has been in business for about thirty years. They have subtitled countless Japanese television shows for local Hawaii broadcast, as well as for home video release for a number of companies, including Funimation. The founder of the company, Joanne Ninomiya, started at KIKU-TV in Honolulu, and was one of the programmers at the station, and it was she who took a chance on KIKAIDA, which exploded in popularity (even making the pages of Time magazine in 1975).
When Joanne decided to bring back KIKAIDA in 2001, she also decided to issue the series on DVD as well. KIKAIDA sold very strong — because of the local following, where Tokusatsu Heroes, especially Kikaida, are a big part of the pop culture of Hawaii. Even though KIKAIDA and KIKAIDA 01 were also being rebroadcast in Hawaii, the first volume of KIKAIDA sold over 10,000 units in the first month! And while they already had KIKAIDA 01, JNP decided to license KAMEN RIDER V3 for local broadcast and DVD release, first. KAMEN RIDER V3 also had very strong sales, because of the huge fanbase for KAMEN RIDER around the world (even monster-maker, Shinichi Wakasa bought the JNP/GK set of KR V3 over the Toei set — he said to me this past April in LA, "It's much better and cheaper than Toei's!").
KIKAIDA 01 and INAZUMAN have had slower sales than KIKAIDA or KAMEN RIDER V3, but that was to be expected because of their lower profiles outside of Japan (and Asia). So, no one at JNP/GK had any unrealistic expectations — they know that sales will be good over time as the word of mouth on these titles spreads. With that being said, Toei charges a head-spinning amount to license these shows — far more than something like IRON KING or RED BARON from Senko Kikaku — so, this is a factor. Another is that Joanne decided to re-up their license for KR V3, which would have been the budget allotted for another series from Toei, such as INAZUMAN FLASH. Then, there are Toei's restrictions on where they can sell the DVDs, the ripples from the economic crash of 2008, and bottoming out of domestic DVD sales... I can tell you that JNP/GK wishes to to bring us more series, but as I said, they are a small company (about eight employees), so they are very wise and cautious, so these things are just going take some time to develop.
king_ghidorah wrote:Either way, I'd love to see some more vintage toku releases state side. I've supported every release thus far and will continue to do so.
Thank you!
king_ghidorah wrote:One of my favortie tv shows ever now is Kikaider...makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside just thinking about that show

Me, too!
