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It’s a big year for fans of Japanese fantasy/action TV. Not only is 2021 the 55th anniversary of the Ultra series, it’s the 50th anniversary of Kamen Rider. While both shows started making their way to North American audiences in a big way over the past 18 months, Ultraman has had the bigger deluge of content. But that’s about to change! During a special Kamen Rider 50th anniversary panel, Shout! Factory’s tokusatsu arm, TokuSHOUTsu, announced that two more Rider series will make their way to streaming this year. And one of them will even get a physical media release.

The news comes about a year after TokuSHOUTsu debuted the original 1971 Kamen Rider series, and later the 2000 reboot Kamen Rider Kuuga, on Shout Factory TV and its various channels on streaming. Now joining those is the 2002-2003 series Kamen Rider Ryuki and the 2019-2020 series Kamen Rider Zero-One. Shout! also announced exclusive physical media rights to Zero-One. This will make it the first KR series to receive an official Blu-ray release in North America. It’ll also only be the second series to come to official North American physical media of any sort; in 2001, there was an official DVD release of the 1973 series Kamen Rider V3. Good series, but quite a random one-off.

Shout! Factory/Toei Company

“We’ve seen a tremendous reaction to the Kamen Rider shows on Shout! Factory TV, so we’re delighted to partner with Toei to build the North American fanbase. And with Zero-One, we’ll now have the premiere series for each of the three eras of the franchise,” said Shout’s Jordan Fields. Indeed, this will mean the first Showa, Heisei, and Reiwa series will now be available to view in the U.S.

“I am so happy to hear that Zero-One will be on Shout! Factory TV,” said Takahito Omori, producer of Kamen Rider Zero-One. “Zero-One is the reflection of our future, of conflicts between humans and artificial intelligence, and a story not only about Kamen Rider, but about human beings. I hope fans enjoy watching the show and thinking about technology and ourselves.”

Shout! Factory / Toei Company

Ryuki is an interesting but exciting addition to the streaming service. The third Heisei-era season, it focused on the idea of 13 Riders being forced to battle until only one survived. Our hero is new to this world but becomes the titular Ryuki in line with his destiny. This series was eventually adapted into the surprisingly faithful American series, Masked Rider Dragon Knight in 2009.

No word on exactly when the series will join Shout Factory TV, nor when the Zero-One Blu-ray should come out, but it’s truly an exciting time for North American fans of Kamen Rider. In addition to TokuSHOUTsu’s two full series, the Toei Company, the studio that produces Kamen Rider, has been celebrating the 50th anniversary with weekly uploads of the first two episodes of each of the series. To date they’ve posted episodes from nine of the 31 seasons and three movies.

Read the official synopses of Ryuki and Zero-One below.

KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE SYNOPSIS

HUMAGEAR (humanoid Robots), created by HIDEN INTELIGENCE, the leading company for AI, serves for humanity’s convenient life.

A cyber-terrorist called Metsu-bou-jin-rai Net has secretly had a conspiracy for their final purpose, ‘human extinction’, although the human society aims for the coexistence between human and HUMAGEAR.

Aruto Hiden has taken over a CEO’s post at HIDEN INTELIGENCE, because his grandfather, Korenosuke Hiden, suddenly passed away, and along with the CEO’s post, he also takes over the responsibility for Kamen Rider Zero-One by using his company’s technology.

Aruto tries to keep the peaceful world between human and HUMAGEAR with Izu, his HUMAGEAR secretary, while A.I.M.S., a military squad against HUMAGEAR, chases the terrorist.

 

KAMEN RIDER RYUKI SYNOPSIS

“Mirror World” exists symmetrically beyond an invisible mirror in space, and an exact copy of our human world, where only monsters can dwell. Evil monsters frequently cross the mirror and attack our world.

Only Kamen Riders who make a contract with a specific monster and obtain special power from the monster can enter “Mirror World” and fight against evil monsters with the help of “Advent Card.”

Shinji Kido, a journalist, contacts with Dragon, and becomes Kamen Rider Ryuki. He fights a fierce battle with evil monsters.

Many Kamen Riders appear one after another, and fight to satisfy their own aims. However, only one Kamen Rider can outlive others. Thus, it is their fate to keep fighting to the last man.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

The post KAMEN RIDER ZERO-ONE and RYUKI Coming to North America appeared first on Nerdist.

Howdy, people! It's that time AGAIN! Check out a new installment of Afronerd Radio's Mid Week in Review broadcast airing this Wednesday at 8 p.m. eastern on BTalk 100.  The topics up for grabs tonight are: recent reports assert that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's highly anticipated foray into the superhero genre via Warner Media's Black Adam film might be the catalyst for a new direction from director, Zack Snyder's controversial Snyderverse set of interconnected movies;  popular LGBTQ rap artist, Lil Nas X is causing a stir not only with his new Call Me By Your Name music video but also due to the vid's satanic themes (along with "demonic" special edition sneakers); we never did provide our impression of the first 3 episodes of Robert Kirkman's Invincible series now playing on Amazon's streaming service; two new trailers hit the internets this week-Chris Rock's revamp of the Saw horror  franchise, Spiral, and the S5 teaser for Adult Swim's Rick & Morty series; 

One thing that Dburt is doing (finally) is investing in cryptocurrency, courtesy of Roundlyx. We would implore our followers to investigate, discern and then explore by using our referral code: afro-87A4BF

Call us LIVE at 508-645-0100. AFTER CLICKING ON THE HIGHLIGHTED LINK, GO DIRECTLY TO AFRONERD RADIO!!! 

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Also, Afronerd Radio's podcast format can be heard via BTalk 100 Pandora, Spotify and,  IHeartRadio....more formats to follow!

One of the great divides in Blerd-dom is the debate over whether representation advances through legacy heroes or through new, original Black characters. It’s been a conversation for as long as I’ve been on social media (which I consider impressive given that I’m old enough to remember life before social media). With Black stories having become more prominently marketable than they’ve been in years, the discourse over diverse stories cementing their foothold in popular culture has naturally made the rounds again.

On one hand, we have the legacy characters (usually superheroes) that are handed the mantle of an established, usually more popular hero. They’re usually diverse and progressive in some way the OG isn’t and often fills a void left by their predecessor. For example, for all his everyman, working class charisma, Peter Parker is still a white guy from Queens making a decent living in the tech industry. Meanwhile, his younger protégé, Miles Morales is a half Black/half Latin kid from Harlem who speaks three languages and is a STEM prodigy. Also bitten by a radioactive spider, Miles ends up taking the mantle out of a sense of responsibility to the city after witnessing his Peter being killed in action (before a retcon/reboot). Although he isn’t quite the marquee character the Black Panther has quickly become in the past few years, Miles has turned out to be something of a poster child for well received representation in comics since his creation in 2011. However, sometimes legacy characters like Miles receive some pushback for being a diverse character that still has to be centered around a predominantly white brand.

That’s where the argument for original Black characters comes in. Now, is Miles Morales original in the sense that he has his own agency, motives, and quirks completely outside of repping the Spider Man brand? Absolutely. But the argument could be (and is often) made that once you cut through all that, he’s still serving a prime directive of casting a wider net to sell a predominately white franchise whose fandom will always go up for its white OG. Meanwhile, when “original” characters enter the discourse, it’s usually someone like Milestone’s flagship hero, Static.

Created in 1993 by late visionary Dwayne McDuffie, Virgil Hawkins could easily be considered an archetype in the Black hero pantheon that paved the way for Miles. A noble, quippy teen with that balances Blerdiness and street smarts, Hawkins champions the hood the in a way that represents us without belittling or satirizing us.

Or there’s Eric Brooks alias Blade, a half vampire hunter of the undead that blends a very specific sort of cultural cool with the kind of escapist power fantasy we see out of white characters like Batman or Wolverine to deliver what looks like the John Shaft of the supernatural.

It’s through these modern day archetypes that Black people get to see themselves represented in the kind of stories many of us grew up on while carving out a mythology that feels specifically for us without being forced on us.

But the criticism on this end of the representation spectrum is that even in a time where Blackness has been made to feel like a marketable commodity, these heroes don’t necessarily feel like they can be as popular as their counterparts with recognizable bat or spider emblems. After all, feeling like your thing is THE thing that everyone else knows about is part of the attractiveness of pop culture. And that comes with the fear or uncomfortable possibility that your thing won’t catch fire the way the white people’s thing does.

So, which one is more valid? Which side of the argument is right? The answer is both are valid but neither are unequivocally right.

This isn’t popular to say in our increasingly polarized society but the truth is….it’s completely fine and probably necessary to support both.

We deserve to be seen in every arena.

Proper representation means the entire spread must be accounted for. The concept of legacy characters puts a bad taste in some mouths because the optics read too much like “hand-me downs” which is not what you want to sell to people whose ancestors had to eat the parts of an animal that their oppressors didn’t want not too many generations ago. But the idea of mantle passing didn’t start with James Rhodes or Sam Wilson. Superheroes as far back as the Phantom and Zorro have elements of inheriting mantles over the years as the need for a protector arises. And even if this weren’t the case, kids deserve to see themselves represented in the stories they love like Spider Man.

Meanwhile, original characters and independent content is always equally crucial. In fact, the more legacy characters and mainstream affiliates manage to pique the audience’s curiosity, the more they’ll probably look for alternatives outside the box.

If we’re ever going to increase the chances for Black content to prosper, it’s crucial to lend support to several different types whether they are popular or up and coming. The more the merrier. Besides, this increases our chances of seeing more eclectic costumes at conventions. Because, personally, I’m tired of seeing a Deadpool at every booth.

Cover image via Screen Rant

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The post Legacy vs. “Original” Black Characters: We Can Win With Both appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

WonderCon@Home 2021 kicked off on Friday with a panel discussing the animation industry featuring several leading players in the industry.

The panel was moderated by David Derks (vice president, ASIFA-Hollywood) with panelists Stephanie Sheh (voice actor/writer/producer, Netflix, GKids), Maki Terashima-Furuta (anime producer, Production IG USA), Michael Sinterniklaas (voice actor/voice director/scriptwriter, Netflix, Cartoon Network, Studio Ghibli), Chrystin Garland (visual development, Netflix), Daniel Dominguez (executive producer/showrunner, Netflix), and Brooke Keesling (head of animation talent development, Bento Box).

Topics included how animation adapted to life in COVID times, with a detailed discussion on the various forms of voice recording and their benefits. Panelists also talked about how animation has taken advantage of the need for remote working and how it has been regarded as a more valuable art form due to its ability to continue through quarantine.

It is strange to be thriving in pandemic times but animation has succeeded due to its very nature. The panelists also share their advice on how to get started in the industry, including tips on where to network and how to share your work.

The full panel, Animation Superstars: Animation’s Dominance in Film, TV, and Streaming, can be viewed below:

The post WonderCon@Home 2021: Animation Superstars appeared first on The Nerd Element.