I do like that kind of thinking, and despite my last post, I am an optimist. I do believe that, if done right, Kamen Rider could have the same level of success in America. We just have to treat it the same way as American superheroes and their movies. If we can connect the dots that way, people will love it rather than dismiss it as a "Power Rangers rip off" or something, as many of us fear.
Also, I am just going to assume you know about Japan's terrible attempt at a Live Action Devilman. I saw it, and it sucks even by American standards... If anything, I do agree that Devilman deserves better. Perhaps a second attempt that does it right.
The biggest wall is that. Many fans and some nonfans would want to play the exotic factor rather than take what made the series such an awesome hit and rebuild it into a success. Or rather, they want it to be a literal retelling. And frankly, that wouldn't slide with today's audience. Sure it shouldn't be a radical redesign, but it shouldn't be a lifeless duplicate that many deplore in Hollywood's current state that looks like a cartoon character.
Real design would need to be applied to the series alongside dedication and creative criticism to make it palatable for international audiences, and better yet, we don't have to devolve to whitewashing to do so. The unfortunate implications is that at best, the main Rider would have to be racially ambiguous or have assumed biracial status, but that should not be the thing to hold it back because I'd soon rather have talent than casting on the basis of their appearances. To balance it however , the second Rider should be Caucasian and overall, inflecting on the global character of the world its set in.
As I recall, I barely knew of Iron Man [though I began to like him on my own] , much less touched Thor because it looked corny as sin. And the Hulk? You can forget about that. Now because of their films, I got interested in those series and I've seen all of the former's films and will see Thor 2. I completely hated Captain America as well until I touched the Ultimates comics and the film. The way Thor was handled as a film was probably the most novel and greatest ways to adapt it.
I won't say much of Spider-Man or X-Men because that was my childhood with Batman, to where I avoided West , and those were fairly popular on their own merits. Spider-Man balanced the nostalgia, but was also a major modernization to it while the Nolan Trilogy just sucked me in since I loved TAS.
I saw some of the footage of the Devilman film and heard about its plot , and I'm actually glad I lost it. It sounds like a pile of garbage to me and more often, it feels like GINO did for Godzilla. I'm ticked that pile of crap was released here rather than the first anime series because I don't want to touch the bootleg with horrible subtitles and because it seems cool.
If I knew some people and I got a script behind it, I'd love to take a crack at a modernization of the "Devilman" series by any means. Right now, I'm in love with the manga version of the story which I've heard is what Go Nagai liked over the anime ,so he used it for the basis for the various following incarnations and OVAs.
After watching Hotel Transylvania, I've gotten back into my monster/horror genre loving roots and it just strikes me that the concept and characters of the series as revolutionary, alongside the occult theme. The way the occult aspect was tackled reminded me much of my other favorite series of Buffy, which I seen every morning before grade school on FX.
And thinking about Devilman reminds me of what I felt watching Power Rangers and Guyver or Kamen Rider for the first time. And frankly, it's a series that cannot be possibly screwed up as it has the best themes in flux right now.
Not really sure what would do the manga more justice: a series on par of The Walking Dead or a film straight on. The only misfortune is that a proper Devilman series would require a semi decent budget to undergo, much more than a Masked Rider film might for its creatures. And the license makes it somewhat out of reach..... someday I guess.:disappoin
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I've never seen Kikaider , so I won't say much other than that it seems like a neat concept as well and frankly if done right would be a great addition to the Marvel film universe. A Japanese World War II weapon put into storage gets awakened first in the 70's and finally the modern era? What's not to like about that? Plus its one of the inspirations of Robocop alongside Gavan.