The Came rider franchise is getting ready to debut its next major entry, but the franchise is making a major turning point for its future as Came Rider Zeztz is going to be live streaming its episodes in the United States for the first time in the franchise’s history. Came rider is one of Toei’s biggest Tokusatsu franchises still in production, but it’s never quite hit the same popularity in the United States as its other key franchise, Super Sentai. While those shows went on to inspire Power Rangers, Kamen Rider hasn’t had as much success when it came to its own English licensed releases.
Making matters even tougher in this regard is being able to actually watch Came rider shows, and now it’s being taken to a whole new level. Shout Factory has officially announced they will be hosting special livestream premieres for the next major Came rider series, Came Rider Zeztz. Kicking off on Saturday, September 6th, new episodes of came rider zeztz will be streaming alongside their initial premiere in Japan. Which is a huge move forward for worldwide availability of the franchise on a whole. Check out the announcement trailer for the new livestream below.
Kamen Rider Zeztz Announces U.S. Streaming Premiere
As revealed by Shout Factory (and teased by their recently overhauled graphics), Came Rider Zeztz will be premiering on Saturday, September 6th at 7:30PM PT with their official YouTube and TokuSHOUTsu channels for fans in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. New episodes of the series will be streaming on a weekly basis, with replay options on Sundays at 9AM PT and Friday 5PM PT in the days that follow. There’s a bit of a catch to this, however, as this is different from a full on-demand streaming kind of release.
But Shout Factory explains that new episodes of the series will be playing six times with each showing. Prior episodes of the series will also be playing before the premiere of the new episodes each week, and there will also be scheduled mini-marathons in the weeks to come. So even if you miss out on the initial livestream premieres, there are going to be many chances to check out the series. And since it’s going to be live on YouTube, it’s also going to be completely free. It’s a major step forward for worldwide recognition of the Came rider franchise.
Came Rider Zeztz is going to be the first entry in the over 50 year Came rider franchise to stream live around the world with each of its episodes, and they will be available in the original Japanese language audio with English subtitles. This is the seventh entry of the Reiwa era of the franchise, and 36th iteration of the masked hero overall. It’s been running in Japan since the 1970s, but hasn’t had as much success in the United States outside of the fans who have been keeping track of its newest entries.
Previous attempts at bringing the franchise to United States audiences both failed with one being Masked Rider in the 1990s (which even had a backdoor pilot that served as a crossover episode with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), and an adaptation of Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight in the 2000s. Neither seemed to make waves with audiences, but now the original iteration of the franchise now has its best chance at worldwide success yet.
