Trivia / Kamen Rider Dragon Knight

• Acting for Two: Stephen Lunsford as Kit and Adam (The other Riders besides Len and Kase make appearances as both Earth and Ventaran versions, but never have both their characters in the same scene).
• Actor Allusion: Three cases in the Japanese dub:
  • Kenji Matsuda, despite a relatively short stint as Grant Staley/Kamen Rider Camo, manages to get in some wolf-howl battlecries and utters the taunt "onii-san, kocchira".
  • Len is voiced by Satoshi Matsuda, who played Len's equivalent, Ren Akiyama/Kamen Rider Knight, in Ryuki. Both Len and Ren are also the last Rider standing in their respective series' Rider War arcs.
  • This isn't the first time Yuria Haga's becoming the main female deuteragonist of the hero Rider in the show, considering her previous role as Mari Sonoda in 555.
• All-Star Cast: The Japanese dub is filled with Kamen Rider veterans — Joe the Haze, Ren Akiyama, Kamen Rider Odin, Mari Sonoda, Zanki, Urataros, Deneb, Kivat-bat the 3rd, Saga, Onodera (A.R. Kuuga), and Kiva-la all took part in the Japanese dub. Only the voice actors for Kit/Adam and Danny/Hunt can be considered as new for toku scenes; but even then Danny/Hunt's VA is Takahiro Sakurai, who is already known for his roles as Cloud Strife, Suzaku, and Sasori; while Kit/Adam's VA would later become the voice actor of Ban and Noctis.
• Better Export for You: The recursive import into Japan received a DVD release, a guidebook and a novel.
• California Doubling: Indoor variant. In the finale, Grace's Books is either rebuilt or moved to a new location. The scene was clearly shot in a Borders Books, which was a major chain at the time but went bankrupt just a few years later.
• The Cast Showoff:
  • The third episode features a scene where Len, portrayed by karate champion Matt Mullins, trains on a rooftop. Although it makes sense for the character, the scene has absolutely no plot relevance. Looks good, though...
  • Later in the season, there's a sparring scene between Len and the Advent Master, played by Mark Decascos. That scene exists to show off their skills.
• Conclusion in Another Medium: Not only were the last two episodes only viewable online, but a sequel novel came out exclusively in Japan.
• Creator Backlash: Of a sort, with how they reportedly left the "Kamen Rider" designation untranslated to avoid association with Saban's earlier, much loathed import.
• Dawson Casting: Aria Alistar, who plays the teenaged Maya, was in her late 30s while filming the show.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: For those who want to watch in North America, the only way to see it is to watch the episodes via Internet if you can't buy the DVDs released in other countries. Stephen Ford, who played Kit Taylor, tweeted in early 2024 that he "fully fucking support[ed]" pirating the series in lieu of an official release.
• Network to the Rescue: As mentioned before, Dragon Knight's ratings were terrible in its home country. Nevertheless, both 4Kids and the CW (but mainly the latter...) backed the show to the last claiming that it's still a really good show and ratings don't always reflect that (despite sometimes acting otherwise). To be fair, they had a point considering how popular the show was and still is outside of the USA.
• No Export for You:
  • Inverted, it had a DVD release everywhere except North America.
  • It also got a Japan-only sequel, playing it straight.
• One-Hit Wonder: Kamen Rider Dragon Knight Adness Entertainment's only production credit prior to the company becoming defunct in 2021.
• Poor Man's Substitute: In an inversion, Matt Mullins for Jason David Frank. See What Could Have Been below for more.
• Recursive Import: The show was dubbed into Japanese, with a vocal cast featuring an All-Star Cast of several Kamen Rider veterans. For extra points, Len's dub actor is the actor who played Ren Akiyama/Kamen Rider Knight, Wing Knight's Japanese equivalent.
• Remade for the Export: the Dragon Knight video game is a remake of both the Ryuki game and the Kamen Rider Climax Heroes games.
• Screwed by the Network: CW4Kids dropped the show just two episodes short of the series finale. Proof here. On the other hand, they did finish the series off online (before it even stopped airing!) though for what it's worth, one of the unaired episodes was yet another Clip Show.
  • As for why: 4Kids ends shows in December and starts new ones in January. Kamen Rider didn't quite finish its run by New Years', so tough luck.
  • Also as mentioned under Network to the Rescue they had plenty of chances to cancel it due to its low ratings, but refused to do so because they really liked the show.
• Short Run in Peru: A number of episodes aired in Brazil prior to the US (who had decided to put the show on hiatus for a bit).
  • Aaand Mexico beat them to it.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The show's producers have said that they originally wanted to adapt a different Kamen Rider (the rumors variously say 555 or Blade), but were made to do a series with more Riders (and therefore more merchandise). They've also said that if Dragon Knight did well enough, they would've gone for the passed-over series next.
  • According to an interview with one of the writers, Grant was originally conceived as an eco-terrorist who Xaviax coerced into believing that Dragon and Wing Knight were working for a corporation that was polluting the environment. Actor Christopher Babers also said in an interview that he believed that Camo had a soft side deep down that might've been a game-changer had he had a bigger role.
  • Believe it or not, Jason David Frank almost got the role of Len - yes, Tommy Oliver could've finally become Batman. However, due to producers not wanting people to believe Dragon Knight was in the same universe as Power Rangers, the role went to Matt Mullins - ironically enough, had the show's producers adapted any post-Wizard Kamen Rider series, odds are that they would likely have had to make the series in the same universe as Power Rangers, in order to adapt the crossovers between Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. Coincidentally, it wouldn't have been his or Johnny Yong Bosch's (who played Kit in the video game) first time being involved with an American adaptation of the franchise.
  • The World of Ryuki arc in Kamen Rider Decade featured Kamen Rider Abyss. Said arc aired in the middle of Dragon Knight. However, the reason Abyss was not used was because of the fact that the rider was a part of Decade's license - if Adness wanted to use Abyss, they would have had to have bought the rights to Decade.
  • Dragon Knight was also rumored to air on Cartoon Network after production completed. It'd end up airing in this channel in other regions, primarily South America.

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