Kamen Rider Black from Discotek!

[lhb412]

While we've been waiting for Shout Factory to announce any more acquisitions or home video releases and for Mediablasters to actually give a release date to the set of films they acquired - all of a sudden Discotek comes from behind with the surprising announcement: Kamen Rider Black on blu-ray, loaded with extras, coming next year!


https://mobile.twitter.com/discotekmedia/status/1584711977787543552

[Benjamin Haines]

Hell yes! Kamen Rider Black is my favorite of the seven Kamen Rider series that I've seen. The characters, the action, the designs, the music, the running story arc, the way it's halfway between the almost completely episodic approach of the original series and the heavily serialized approach of the Heisei shows — it all just hits the best balance.

It's crazy that by the end of next year there will be no fewer than three complete Kamen Rider series available on North American BRD. Here's hoping that Shout Factory can eventually release Ryuki and the original series on disc.

What else could Discotek be planning for this new Toku Time label? They've certainly come out swinging with Space Sheriff Gavan, Legend of Dinosaurs and Monster Birds, and now this. It would be great if they kept releasing more Metal Hero and Kamen Rider shows but I wonder if they'll go for any more movies, namely other Toei films like The Green Slime or The Magic Serpent.

[lhb412]

Instead of releasing all the shows through one distributor (ala Ultraman) it seems Toei is offering up Rider series by series as different licenses. I kind of feel like Discotek might concentrate on the Showa side of things (Rider, Metal Heroes, other Ishinomori stuff) while Shout deals mainly with Sentai and Heisei Rider?

It seems we are entering a boom time of boutique labels licensing Asian genre material, whether it's Japan or Hong Kong, tokusatsu or martial arts or horror. Frankly, I think anything might be licensed in this environment. Stuff we never thought we'd get here.

[Benjamin Haines]

^ It definitely seems like anything is possible at this point. Things have come a long way from the days when the Showa Godzilla films were scattered among multiple distributors and Chaiyo had a stranglehold over Ultraman.

It looks like the new 10-episode series Kamen Rider Black Sun is already available on Prime Video. I'm currently 26 episodes into Kamen Rider Black RX, so just a little over halfway through, but that is the next Kamen Rider series on my watchlist.

[lhb412]

^ I'm excited to watch Black Sun and that new Guillermo del Toro series on Netflix, 2 shows I've been really anticipating - but my smart TV has reached a point where trying to watch anything longer than a short YouTube video makes it crash!

I'll pickup a roku stick in the next few days....

[Benjamin Haines]

Smart TV? Roku stick? Man, you're making me feel old-fashioned for still using a PS4 to watch streaming services. I just had to Google image search Roku stick because I didn't know what one looks like.

My lady and I watched the first episode of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities the other night. It's intense! I like how it's an anthology with a different director for each episode.

[lhb412]

^ I'm beginning to think the 'smart' part of smart TVs are about as powerful as a calculator.

As for Cabinet; it looks really cool! GDT hired some awesome directors to helm the individual episodes and largely was hands off with them aside from one respect; he was really involved with all the creature effects! There's all sorts of makeup and costume and puppet work in there!

[Benjamin Haines]

February 28 is the release date for Kamen Rider Black. It's available for pre-order now on RightStuf and Amazon, which apparently are the only two outlets that sell Discotek's products.

https://www.rightstufanime.com/Kamen-Rider-Black-Blu-ray
https://www.amazon.com/Kamen-Rider-Black-Blu-ray/dp/B0BQ5R9TQQ

[lhb412]

Kuuga from Shout in early Feb and Black from Discotek at month's end. Wow! Now we just need a date for MB's Kamen Rider movie set.

They also released specs for the plentiful extras on the Kamen Rider Black set, and they mysteriously allude to a one minute long extra that they're keeping secret for now. Speculation, of course, is that it's a teaser for a further set.

[Benjamin Haines]

Discotek will release Kamen Rider Black RX later this year!

https://twitter.com/discotekmedia/status/1620249030822621186?cxt=HHwWhMDTnZf6o_wsAAAA

[lhb412]

Dang. And they said more toku is coming! (Also, they're releasing that Bullet Train movie I've always wanted to see).

And my rightstuf order with Black, Gavin and Ryuki should reach me by day's end!

(Almost) too much toku!

--- (edit, later that day) ---

Man. It feels surreal to have KR Black in my hands! This is something I've wanted for decades!

[Benjamin Haines]

^ All three of those shows are awesome! I look forward to reading your thoughts on them.


I watched Discotek's advert for Kamen Rider Black RX. It's not exactly spoilery but it does show a few things that I thought were cool surprises when I watched the series.