Zi-O Adaption for America
So here on Tumblr, something I have noticed alot of is the desire by users to adapt Kamen Rider to more fit the western market, or simply to recast and change the series so that it fits a view point they would like to see. (Such as changing item names or the genders of most of the cast).
And I found these ideas pretty interesting, I typically prefer the Japanese versions of Sentai to Power Rangers, but it could be interesting to see another Rider season get brought to America. Since the last one we had was Ryuki, better known as Dragon Knight in the west years ago.
But the issue with rider seasons like Decade or the most recent series Zi-O is that their anniversary seasons, and most casual people won’t know who most of these riders are. And while I may pose an idea on how Decade could be done at some point, my idea for Zi-O could be a fun “what if” if hasbro ever did decide to do it.
For starters, unlike most people I would not change any of the names of the riders, I feel most work very well and could work well enough for english audiences with one obvious exception that I will get to in a second. The Japanese characters used heavily in Zi-O would be hard to get around, but it could be used as an educational purpose, teaching the predominantly young audience about Japanese writing, similar to how say Toqger had a segment dedicated to teaching children about trains despite not being an educational show.
So beyond motifs, the general of Zi-O could remain largely the same, with a bigger emphasis of showing off the previous riders and perhaps moving some around so that they make more sense. Such as not doing Build and Ex-aid back to back, given how close they would be.
Now for the story itself, in 2018(The original time setting of the show so props won’t have to be changed and the Jiku drivers screen display can remain.) the main character wants to be King, why? Well because in this universe, theres legends of the “Masked Riders” a group who was lead by a prince from another planet, so if he became a king he could be like that hero. And than of course people from the future come, making the claim that he’s evil; but I feel Americans will need to be given more of Oma-Zio’s presence through out the show to truly mark him as a treat. Anyhow why would our American Zi-O meet other riders? Well the lore in universe would be that following Masked Rider in 1995, other heroes began to defend the earth since his departure to return home, these heroes call them selves Kamen Riders, and would help tie in Masked Rider to Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. So as the audience get to travel through time seeing other riders and what could have been what they were like. Kind of like how the future riders were handled actually. With some possible potential for most post decade seasons to get some adaptions at a later point.
With the recent over quartzer movie in mind, I think having Masked Rider as the big influence of the series could help make the ending of the show work well. I don’t know a whole lot about how Zi-O will be ending, after all we still have that movie and four more episodes, but I think by the over Quartzer movie into the main show, so we could have those villain rider mess with our main character, originally leading him down the path of Oma-Zio in the first timeline.
Now if Hasbro handles the toys or not, I suggest that they simply bring over the Japanese toys rather than make all new ones. Why? Well because sounds come directly out of the Ride-Watches, and for all the base riders they use no full on Japanese, just the jingles and names of each rider. And the LED screen is in english as well so no need to really change that. I would recommend perhaps including sounds for Ride-Watches that do contain lots of Japanese to have a switch so fans of the Japanese seasons could still get the sounds out of the watches without having to buy the Japanese versions.
So thats my super broad idea of tying the world of Kamen Rider back into its American roots, with Masked Rider and Dragon Knight having a large influence on the plot. Im not super used to sharing my shower thoughts like this, so I hope it was a good read!
