Don't Dragon's Usually Eat Knights? The First Episode of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight

Whelp, dear reader, the first episode of Kamen Rider Dragon Knight officially premiered on the CW this past Saturday, and I got a taped copy to watch a few times. So compared to Power Rangers and Kamen Rider Ryuki, how was it? Let's find out. (For those who haven't seen the first episode yet, head on over to http://www.henshinjustice.com for the full episode.)



The story so far centers around Kit Taylor (played by Steven Lumsford), the 18 year old son of a motorcycle racer who went missing several years ago with extremely bad luck who always seems to be in trouble. We first meet Kit in jail, where we are told that he has been in trouble for the last time, and that he would be arrested if he saw Kit again. Kit moves back into his father's home shortly after leaving his aunts, where he is assaulted with flashback memories of his father. We learn that his mother died sometime when he was young. Here he also finds the Dragon Knight advent deck, and first comes into contact with Dragedor, the monster he will later make a pact with to become Dragon Knight. With this advent deck, he begins to see things in mirrors. Things that don't make any sense. He sees a young woman being kidnapped in broad daylight by some weird giant mechanical spider that comes right out of a mirror. He soon meets another woman who is being attacked by some odd bipedal creatures who also try to kidnap her. It is here that he meets Len the first time, who carries the woman out of the mirror she was dragged into. When Kit tries to thank Len, Len begins searching Kit for the advent deck. Kit manages to get away, but in doing so, falls through the mirrored surface of a car. Here he automatically transforms and is attacked by the giant spider from earlier. Len saves him by killing the thing using his advent cards and his contract monster. However, Dragedor appears and blasts fire at them, leaving a cliffhanger for the next episode.

Overall, the episode was definantly one of the better premieres I've seen in a long while. The characters definantly feel real, and there is some emotional trauma in Kit's life, with his mother's death and his father's disappearance. There's also an overarching plot about the mysterious disappearances and one journalists journey to uncover the truth.

The transformation is unique and looks really good. The presentation of the belt is much better than Ryuki, with the belt sorta growing out of len's waist, as opposed to it sort of spinning onto him like in Ryuki. The overall effects are ok. Not the best in the world, but they didn't really have the biggest budget so did good with what they had.

I especially love the way that they incorporated the JP footage with the new US footage. Most of the show was actually US stuff, where as the last bit in Ventara was taken almost directly from Ryuki. The way they set the footage up though, it was an almost seamless transfer between the two.

So yes the actors or good out of suit, but what about inside the helmet? They sound pretty good. Instead of going the Power Rangers route and just having their regular voiceovers, they added a sort of echoey mechanical quality to the dubbing. It's different, and adds a really cool level to the voiceovers. It really seems like they are wearing a suit of high tech power armor.

But I could go on about it all day. I think the best thing that can be said about Dragon Knight can't be said about someone who's been waiting for the show for the past year and a half, but form someone who had never heard of the show until it premiered. My grandma recorded the show for me happened to watch it while it was recorded. Her exact words were "This show is great. I'm putting it on my record list."

I think that if this show is good enough for a 45 year old woman to want to see the series, then Adness has something very powerful on there hands. Here's hoping the keep it up.

So on the Nori Scale of the Awesome, where does this first episode stack? I'm gonna give it a 9/10. It was a wonderful premiere, it just didn't hit every single cylinder.

Anyway, if you don't like my review, watch the show and come up with your own conclusions. And with that I say wait for January when the show gets its full premiere before you pass judgement on it. Until that clearing comes to the path, dear reader, Henshin!

No More Twilight Reviews...For Now!

I've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for the third Twilight book to come back into the library here, but it doesn't look like its coming back for a while, so I've put all my Twilight reviews on hold for now. Hope no one has been waiting for them. Sorry for any inconveniences.