The House of AnimeJB

Before we begin…

The Spring 2007 Reideen is a remake of Yuusha Raideen from 1975, which has another remake called Chouja Reideen from 1996 Rah Xephon was heavily inspired by the original Raideen, which is why they are so similar.

We are approaching this as if we haven’t seen any of the previous versions, because…well, we haven’t. No spoiling the entire plot for us, now!

Episode Summary

Saiga Junki, protagonist and math genius, is having weird dreams about piloting a giant robot. When his long-time missing father is found dead, he and his family go out to the research site where he was found. While going through his father’s notes, he comes across something about “The Great Warrior Raideen”, and when checking out a cave on the site, he finds a weird hole, looks in, and faints. He wakes up with a gold bracelet in his hand.

That’s when a meteor crashes into the earth and beastly giant mecha shows up, smashing through the nearby dam. Instead of escaping on the helicopter with his family, Saiga runs back to the site to get his father’s belongings and gets caught in the massive rush of water escaping from the dam. His bracelet glows, matching the words his father had written, and Saiga says “Fade In”. He is now inside The Great Warrior Reideen, facing off against the beast mecha as he was in his dreams.

The Opener

Calophi: I feel an extreme need to mention that the opener really confused Eurkos and I when we watched it. It was almost completely made up of pictures and short scenes of the girl above, and we were sitting there like, “Where’s the mecha? Is it coming now? How about now?” When they finally got to the end scene where they start lining everyone up for “the group shot”, we were like, “Wait for it…wait for it.. THERE!” Reideen is the absolute last thing in the picture. It amused me.

It also brings me hope that this means there will be a heavier focus on character development, seeing as how they added in Reideen as an afterthought in the opener. Maybe I’m taking this a bit too far?

Eurkos: It was kind of odd to see the opener to a mecha anime be so different. The imagery is all of the same cute girl doing random cute things, and other stuff that suggests a high school romance series set to a smooth, low-key sort of song, as opposed to the usual upbeat, dance sort of music you get from typical mecha shows. Then, at the very end, we see portraits of the major cast members, and finally Reideen. It’s not even actually Reideen… just a silhouette. I think it does set a mood for the series, and I also hope that it’ll mean more focus on character development and less on “robot get stronger now!”.

Characters

Saiga

Calophi: Saiga is…well, at the moment, not very interesting. Even though he’s nothing like, say Shinji from Evangelion (good looks, smart, has friends), as of now there’s nothing to him really. Also, he looks like he’s about 30 with his glasses on, which annoys me, but when he’s piloting Reideen he’s deliciously naked - including his glasses. He looks much better that way! He should pilot Reideen all the time.

Eurkos: It’s rare to find a mecha anime protagonist who’s not stuck in self doubt. At least, he’s not yet. We’ll have to see what happens later. He seems especially smart, which might be a new trend (Light in Death Note and Le Louch in Code Geass). So far he hasn’t done anything particularly interesting except be smart and lack common sense, but he has potential.

And I don’t particularly care for the naked part, but these things happen I guess.

Maedasaki Taro - Researcher?

Calophi: We don’t really know what Taro does. When asked what it was he did for a living, he said it didn’t matter. I think he’ll be around a lot though - he seems to know things about Reideen.

Eurkos: I think it’s fairly obvious that he’ll be around for a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has his own secret agenda for looking for Reideen or taking particular interest in Saiga’s father’s work. He reminds me a lot of Kaji from Evangelion, in that he seems to know what’s up (possibly more than he should), he seems to have a thing with the younger ladies, and he doesn’t like to shave. Should be interesting. It’s also worth note that Saiga’s mom messes up his name, calling him Maeda Sakitaro rather than Maedasaki Taro. He felt the need to correct her on it. I doubt she’s the first person to do that, and there may or may not be something to it.

Mystery Girl

Calophi: Mystery Girl gets her jollies by watching massive floods and giant mecha fights. That’s all we know about her! She’s probably closely linked to ancient mecha in some way and may be a potential love interest for Saiga.

Eurkos: She’s the cute girl in the random cute poses all over the opener, so its kind of obvious that she’s of major importance. It’s no coincidence that she’s right by the action. But, as of now, we know nothing about her.

Saiga’s Family

Eurkos: Everyone would probably agree on Saiga’s sister’s cuteness. His mom’s not too bad, either. I see them becoming more important later in the series, possibly as leverage to get Saiga to do something (pilot Reideen) that he normally wouldn’t.

Calophi: Saiga’s sister is cute as a button - typical little sister material, really. Both she and his mother seem really nice, but maybe not really integral to upcoming plot other than (like Eurkos said) supporting Saiga later.

Saiga’s Friends

Calophi: Of all his friends, the only one who might be important later is the girl to the left in the very back, who says she’s his childhood friend (she bungles the words and says “girlfriend” instead). I can see her having/developing a crush on Saiga only to find herself in competition with the Mystery Girl.

Eurkos: Another rare thing for a mecha anime is the fact that the main protagonist has a nice size group of friends. The school setting has the makings for a high school romance series, like the opener would suggest. I think the childhood friend (who is also cute, by the way) mixed up the wording on purpose, since she sort of hesitates before saying it. Saiga’s reaction also suggests that this isn’t the first time she’s done this. Almost definitely love-triangle setup between her, Saiga, and the mystery girl.

The Mecha

Eurkos: I really like Reideen’s design so far. The movements especially. It almost seemed like they weren’t designed to be on Earth. The “bad guy” mecha, that looked like a beast, was also nice. I didn’t like that one as much, though. The oversized chin and teeth made it look a little cartoony, like a Disney-style lion face.

Calophi: I’m not usually easily impressed with mecha, but this was really awesome. The ancient machines really looked ancient instead of shiny and new, and moved incredibly slow, you know, like heavy metal objects are supposed to. And their movements were really realistic! Especially for the beast mecha. That thing creeped me out.

Final Verdict

Calophi: I have to say, this first episode was standard fare for mecha anime - boy is normal, boy is suddenly piloting mecha, boy really, really does not want to pilot mecha. Even the mysterious girl at the end was fairly predictable, given that she appeared in the opening and all. But I mean, the mecha were really neat, and for shows like this you pretty much have to keep watching to get any proper sense of plot out of it, so it’s staying on for my 6-episode test.

Eurkos: Like Cal said, it’s a fairly standard first episode for mecha. Introduce normal boy, introduce supporting characters. Introduce link to giant robot, then introduce the catalyst that forces the normal boy into the pilot’s seat. Done before? Sure. Overdone? Not really. It’s tried and true. Don’t fix what ain’t broke, I say. Mecha anime is never established by the first episode. Definitely moving forward with the 6 episode test.