Daytime Heroes: Masked Rider (1995)

With the success of the Power Rangers franchise in America, producer Haim Saban continued to mine Japanese programming to develop more series for Fox. However, nothing he came up with could match the sustained popularity of the Rangers.

One such example was Masked Rider, based on the Japanese Kamen Rider Black RX, imported to America in 1995 for Fox. Unfortunately, the series was a dud, as it was cancelled after 1 season, but then Saban, determined to make the series as big as the Rangers, moved Masked Rider into syndication, and this was despite the fact that a previous series, VR Troopers, had failed to catch on as a syndicated entity.

Here's the open:



I don't know what the obsession is with bug avatars, as we'd get that in another Saban import for Fox, Big Bad Beetleborgs, in 1997, and of course you know Saban royally screwed up the animated Avengers 2 years after that, as we've previously documented. Suffice it to say, I'm not that versed in Japanese culture, which might provide the roots behind the bug motifs.

Rating: C-.