Kamen Rider Dragon Knight is the Daytime Emmy Award-winning American adaptation of the Japanese tokusatsu series Kamen Rider Ryuki, the twelfth installment of the Kamen Rider Series. It was brought to television by Steve and Michael Wang and produced by Jimmy Sprague through Adness Entertainment. The series had a sneak premiere on December 13, 2008, but started official broadcasting on January 3, 2009 and played throughout the year. Adness chose to adapt Ryuki over the other Heisei Rider shows as it has a large number of characters (Ryuki had 13 Riders in total) as well as a female Rider. It is also the first tokusatsu adaptation of a Kamen Rider Series since Saban's Masked Rider, which was adapted from Kamen Rider Black RX. The show first aired in the United States on The CW Television Network during its The CW4Kids programming block. Statements by director Steve Wang and male lead Stephen Lunsford show that The CW had dropped Dragon Knight at the end of the year before its final two episodes aired in the US. The final episodes were uploaded to the 4Kids TV website on December 18, 2009. The series has seen some international DVD releases, but as of yet there has been no indication that the series will see release on DVD in America, largely due to its cancellation before the airing of the final two episodes.
In the early licensing information for the series, Adness Entertainment had intended to also film a feature-length movie for Dragon Knight. In an interview, Steve Wang stated that they had written a story for a film, but Adness was raising money to bring over another Kamen Rider for broadcast in the US rather than a film or a second season of Dragon Knight.
In 2010, Dragon Knight was nominated for and won the Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Stunt Coordination", a new category for the Daytime Emmys.
Plot
While searching for his missing father, Kit Taylor finds an Advent Deck – a special card deck that allows the carrier to transform into a Kamen Rider and utilize unique weapons and powers – and uses it to become Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. He butts heads with Len, who serves as Kamen Rider Wing Knight, but the pair join forces after Kit learns that the wicked General Xaviax has imprisoned his father and is using him and the other humans that his monsters abduct to gain power and rebuild his homeworld. Xaviax tricks people on Earth to work for him by promising them whatever they want. Kit wonders why Xaviax has to trick them and why he doesn't just find bad guys to do the work for him. Len tells Kit that the decks were only made for one person, and that only a person with an exact DNA match as the original Ventaran rider could use it. Later on Kase, a fellow survivor of Ventara like Len, joins forces with Len and Kit to fight Xaviax. In addition to training Kit to fight like a Rider, Len and Kase tell Kit all about the thirteen Riders who banded together as the protectors of Ventara – a world opposite to our own – to take Xaviax down. However, due to the traitorous actions of Kit's predecessor, Adam, General Xaviax destroyed most of the Riders via a process called Venting – which traps defeated Riders in the "Advent Void" between dimensions forever – and stole their Advent Decks. Furthermore, Xaviax continues to send out his Riders who fight to eliminate Kit, Len, and the other Riders who oppose him. After Kit is Vented, Xaviax recruits Adam to once again become Dragon Knight. Meanwhile, Len uses his Advent Deck to awaken the Advent Master Eubulon, who brings back the Ventaran Kamen Riders from the Advent Void, including Kit who becomes Kamen Rider Onyx. He also brings back Kase, who is hurt and allows Eubulon to reassign the Advent Deck to Maya Young. Once Kase is better, Maya gives back the deck and the riders head for Xaviax's base to destroy him.
