Armor Hero Lava English Dub Preservation Project

 

LINKS AND REDIRECTS 

This page serves as a link Hub for this preservation project. Links provided below.

GoFile - [Defunct, looking for alternative]

DailyMotion - Primary stream for the show

@ArmorHeroClips (Twitter) - Main source for project updates

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & THANKS

I'd like to begin by giving a special shout out to Shabadoobie Subs (@INFINITYplease_) for very kindly allowing me to use his Lava OP subtitles for this project, as well as for providing various text translations.

I'd like to also extend my appreciation to Reddit user PaleBlueBlizzard who's reddit comment made me aware of this dub's existence in the first place!

CONTEXT

Hey there! Thanks so much for reading! I’m @ArmorHeroClips on twitter!

I have gained acess to an official English dubbed version of Armor Hero Lava! And I'd like to make sure it remains preserved so I'm backing it up for everyone to watch!

But maybe you need some extra context... 

What even is this show?

Armor Hero Lava is a 2013 tokusatsu series. It was created by Chinese toy Company Auldey, through their TV and film studio Alpha Animation, in cooperation with HEROBOX. It is the third entry in the larger "Armor Hero" franchise, which consists of five main entries produced across over a decade (the most recent of which aired in 2020). 

Armor Hero is often considered China's answer to Kamen Rider. And while that influence is very apparent, the series is generally a love letter to the hero tokusatsu genre as a whole, as it incorporates ideas from various tokusatsu, as well as introducing many of its own ideas and tropes.

The first two entires in the show received official English Dubs, both of which can be watched on YouTube right now for free! (Original Series | XT)

However, Lava is a stand alone entry and does not require context from the earlier entries!

On September 15th 2023 I was made aware by reddit user PaleBlueBlizzard, that a tv station called STARTIMES KIDS had been posting clips of an English Dub of Lava to their Facebook page.

So wait... what's the deal with this dub?!

So this dub is credited in it's creation to STARTIMES, which as far as I can tell is a TV station and Streaming Service that exists in various countries across Africa. Based on the evidence I've seen it seems the show aired either in 2022 or 2023 (or both), which makes this dub very recent! Though there is a bit of an oddity to all this... 

In 2015 Auldey/Alpha released high quality Chinese language raws of Lava on YouTube, but strangely episode 1, and just episode 1, featured a subtitle track. This subtitle track featured "Americanized" names for the characters and a few other localizations... All of which seem to reappear in this dub... In fact the sub track seems to match episode 1 of this dub quite well... How strange...

While I'm not sure quite what happened here, it's possible this dub was produced in 2015, if not earlier, and that's where the subtitle track come from in the first place... It's possible this dub was meant to release on YouTube like the Original Series or XT, but didn't due to various reasons (likely the regulatory laws in China about YouTube and other sites that were passed around this time). Alternatively it's possible Auldey commissions subs for various entires in their major series, with the intent being that they can later be used as a guide for future dubs that may be made... 

In the end I don't really know the details... All I know is the dub exists... 

And after I learned the dub existed, after day of research, one VPN purchase, another day of testing, losing all hope, a failed $10 attempt at gaining access to an African streaming service, losing all hope again, some extra messing around, then one successful $3 attempt at gaining access to the same African streaming service (but from a different VPN location).....

I gained access to the entire show, ripped the English Dub audio for each episode, and am working on combining the audio with those higher quality raw footage of the show available on YouTube. All unique visuals (English logos, and end credits) will be edited back in as well, for an optimal viewing experience. Plus untranslated on-screen text will be translated (when possible), generally through the assistance of the amazingly helpful Shabadoobie Subs (@INFINITYplease_)!

Overall, this could be considered more of a "remaster" of the dub, and is not a straight rip.

You may notice the audio is a bit crunchy... This is an issue with the source audio and is sadly unavoidable. I still think it's very watchable however.

Multiple episodes are avilable right now on Dailymotion, with more coming soon!

My goal is to begin uploading (ideally) one episode a week beginning in October 2023. Though I can not guarantee a specific time frame or pattern of release.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the show! Armor Hero is a very unique series in many ways (even if it also often wears its inspirations on its sleeve), and I'd love nothing more than to see more people get to enjoy it! ^^

P.S. The show also has several other dubs (French, Portuguese, and Swahili) on the same source website, that I would like to get out in some capacity sooner or later if possible.

TASKS & GOALS [STATUSES]

- Gain Access to the Dub [COMPLETE]

- Rip English Dub [COMPLETE]

- Create Remasters of all Episode [7/52 Towards Goal]

- Release all Episodes to DDL Service [0/52 Towards Goal]

- Release Episodes to DailyMotion [7/52 Towards Goal]

- Rip Other Dub Audio [No Progress]

- Release Other Dub Audio [No Progress]