The Kamen Rider Series also known as the Masked Rider Series (up until Kamen Rider Decade), is a Japanese superhero media franchise consisting of tokusatsu television programs, films, manga, and anime, created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori. Kamen Rider media generally features a motorcycle-riding superhero with an insect motif who fights supervillains, often known as kaijin (literally meaning Strange Person). The series is mega popular in its' home country of Japan and has grown to be one of the most popular and beloved icons in children's entertainment in the country and has made several attempts to establish itself globally. It is produced by Ishinomori Productions and Toei Company, which they also produced another well-known Tokusatsu series which is the Super Sentai series (the latter producing the first two Sentai entries).
For more than 50 years, the franchise started in 1971 with the original TV series, that follows college student Takeshi Hongo and his quest to defeat the world-conquering Shocker organization. The original series has launched several TV and movie sequels and launched the second Kaiju Boom (also known as the Henshin Boom) on Japanese television, during the 1970s, causing a great impact towards superhero and action-adventure genres in Japan. Bandai has the toy and merchandise rights to the franchise in its' home country of Japan, as well as in other regions, while Bluefin Distributor, which is a subsidiary of Bandai Namco, they distribute the merchandise in North America.
Outside of Asia, two American adaptations were produced in the series. In 1995, Haim Saban got the rights to adapt Kamen Rider Black RX into Saban's Masked Rider. Created as a spin-off to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, it featured many elements from other Toei Tokusatsu adaptations that Saban also did, such as Power Rangers, VR Troopers and Big Bad Beetleborgs. However, the series failed due to low ratings and poor toy sales. A second attempt to bring Kamen Rider over to western audiences would not happen again until Kamen Rider Dragon Knight where it was adapted from 2002's Kamen Rider Ryuki. It was produced in 2008 with Adness Entertainment, Toei Company and Ishinomori Productions collaborating together with much higher praise and acclaim with critics and fans.
Dubbing History[]
The franchise actually has a history where many Kamen Rider entries (most specifically the Heisei era entries) were given English dubs, albeit done in Asian regions. The original 1971 Kamen Rider series received an English dub, as well as Kamen Rider X, Kamen Rider OOO, Kamen Rider Kabuto, Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Wizard, Kamen Rider Fourze, Kamen Rider Den-O, Kamen Rider Decade and many others. They were usually done in The Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong. Even Malaysia. English dubs continued to be made until after Kamen Rider Wizard's English dub finished in 2016. Since then, it has not been dubbed in English after that.
Kamen Rider Hibiki and Kamen Rider Kiva were seemingly skipped, due to the former having heavy Japanese culture references and the latter being horror/vampire-themed for the titular character's motif.
Filmography[]
TV shows[]
In order to avoid confusions, the original year for the Japanese debut and the year for the English dub releases are included separately.
| Original Year | Dub Year Release | Title | Country | Dubbing Direction | Studio | Dub Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 1977 | Kamen Rider (1971) |  Japan
|
? | ? |  Philippines
|
| 1974 | 19?? | Kamen Rider X | ? | ? | ||
| 1988 | 19?? | Kamen Rider Black RX | ? | Speedy Video |  Malaysia
| |
| 2000 | 2001 | Kamen Rider Kuuga | ? | ? |  Hong Kong
| |
| 2001 | 2002 (Omni Dub) 2023 (FreeTV Dub) |
Kamen Rider Agito | ? | Omni Productions ? |
Hong Kong ? | |
| 2002 | 2003 (Omni Dub) 2004 (Voiceovers Unlimited Dub) |
Kamen Rider Ryuki | ? ? |
Omni Productions Voiceovers Unlimited |
Hong Kong  Singapore
| |
| 2003 | 2004 (Omni Dub) 2024 (FreeTv Dub) |
Kamen Rider 555 | ? | Voiceovers Unlimited | Singapore
| |
| 2004 | 2008 | Kamen Rider Blade | ? | |||
| 2006 | 2009 | Kamen Rider Kabuto | ? | Omni Productions | Hong Kong
| |
| 2007 | 2012 | Kamen Rider Den-O | ||||
| 2009 | 2012 | Kamen Rider Decade | ||||
| 2009 | 2013 | Kamen Rider W | ||||
| 2010 | 2013 | Kamen Rider OOO | ||||
| 2011 | 2014 | Kamen Rider Fourze | ||||
| 2012 | 2015 | Kamen Rider Wizard | ||||
| 2016 | Unreleased (Recorded in 2016) |
Amazon Riders | Sergine Dumais | Encore Voices |  United States
|