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Halloween Special - Chouja Raideen Ep 1 Review

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It's Hallow's Eve everyone and this is gonna be a shocker to ya because I'll be doing a review on the first episode of Chouja Raideen,a show that had potential but wasted it's potential as the series goes down. To answer your questions that goes like 'Raideen?!! How dare you diss on him!! Are you insane?!!' Well,yes this is Raideen but it's far from being the original Raideen we all love and know. No,this is not a remake of Raideen but rather called Chouja Raideen a.k.a Raideen The Superior which in my eyes is a reboot of the Tadao Nagahama and Yoshiyuki Tomino collaborated effort to make one damn good series called Yuusha Raideen,one of the first Transformers to be shown in television and even appearing as the main robot in Shogun Warriors in America.

When Super robots became popular thanks to Exkaiser in 1990,its only sensible to remake such franchises to become the definitive leader of the Super robots. There is Getter Robo Go which was made by Toei in hopes of reliving the old days of Getter Robo and Getter G because you know why but failed due to the anime being a complete nonsensical shitfest. Super Getter Robo Go..ugh...Getters are strong as they can be. Ken Ishikawa,who made the toys of Getter Robo Go,went to make the manga version of Getter Go which is a sequel to the actual manga of Getter Robo. The manga Getter Go is a masterpiece by no means but I'm not here to talk about returning franchises from the 70's into the 90's. I'm here to talk about Chouja Raideen.

How good is it compared to the original? Well,I'll be reviewing the first episode and will conclude the verdict afterwards. The opening at first may seem epic like if it was going to a darker approach but few seconds afterwards,you'll see a problem with the animation as it focuses on too much panning,too much zooming and worst of all,animation from the episodes which is a bad sign. Mostly shows from Japan have great animation despite the animes not having good animation at times but with few exceptions of course. It also shows the transformation which is constantly shown in the show many times which is redundant to have it here,especially the God-bird change. Afterwards,we see the Reideen warriors flying downwards using the same panning technique and ended with an anti-climatic finish. The song 'In my justice' was pretty good but too bad it was wasted on such a crappy opening. It just goes to show you what kind of budget they were on when they made this anime.

The first moments of the first episode shows the introduction of the main villain,Lushu a self proclaimed "Super Devil" voiced by Kazuki Yao known for Judau from ZZ Gundam and Shinobu from Dancougar. It actually is cool to hear his theme at first while like a good villain,explains his plot to take over the universe by collecting the plot mcguffin-esque Zodiac orbs to reveal God Reideen which is sleeping on Earth. Pretty self-explanatory with his lackey by his side as we cut to the episode title with a very cheesy music cue. It sounds like it could belong to a magical girl series and it is not a good sign there. We see a figure with shades speaking to a feather called the God feather as he falls down from a greater height. We cut to a school medical centre where a young man named Hishou is reading an article to his friend,Ruri who's been in a coma for quite some time,dismissing the article of an extra-terrestrial via satellite as BS. Guess he didn't like E.T. that much. Too bad.

This scene is by far the most powerful scene in the entire episode as it signifies how guilty he was for not saving her in the first place and it does not help the fact that as he left the ward room,her mom,who came to visit her told Hishou that she's glad to have someone by her side,broke into tears. It's actually pretty depressing couple with the fact that in a flashback,Hishou mentions that his parents were divorced,leaving him,his mom and little sister who's name is Tsubasa strangely enough to live for themselves. It seems so hard to have Hishou working without his father supporting the family and I can feel it. Also in the flashback,Ruri who was standing on the parapet of the school's roof was pushed by an unknown force,forcing her to be in the state she's in. Hishou returned to the scene of the crime,fences have been included after the incident,only to be thrusted into a flashback from a being called Reideen Eagle who told Hishou of the coming of the Super Devils. When Hishou refused to believe it,God Feathers keep harassing him one after another until her sister surprisingly comes to wake him up from a vision.

The shade wearing figure watched closely,stating that his powers are yet to be awakened. We cut to the plot where the burly creature causes havoc and develops a boner over an idol,Kirari and thinks to himself that he'll be self-rewarded if he gets both the Zodiac orb and Kirari,the said owner of plot mcguffin,the idol singer Hishou's sister Tsubasa wanted Hishou to take her to the said Idol's concert. Afterwards,a car capable of breaking the physics of how a car was meant to be driven stops and stepping out of the car reveals one of the most annoying characters in the series with the most godawful song that makes you want to go back to Bulk and skull several times. This is Reiko,an entertainment manager who wanted to have talents that could rival even Kirari. She spotted Hishou and offered him a chance to be a star but not being an idiot,he refuses and...god...later,I'll get to why this was so annoying for me.

We cut to the idol singer which caught the eye of Hishou who gaped at said idol and familiarises her with Ruri,strange. The monster shows up with a rape face a mother could not love. Making a complete retard out of herself,Kirari was shocked to see the monster but not anyone except Hishou saw the kaiju. She ran,stating that 'They've come.' The monster,being amazed,stated that no human can see the "Super Devils" and wonders why both Kirari and Hishou,who ran after the monster,could see them. Hishou gets his salad tossed,you get the deal,Reideen Eagle forms with Hishou,bam boom bam,monster killed as Hishou is left to wonder what the hell was going on.

For starters,the introduction to the series is actually pretty good. Kazuki Yao did a great job as Lushu and damn,what a rock theme he had at the beginning. Who does he think he is? Lord Raptor from Darkstalkers? The monster on the other hand is just embarrassing to me because he stated that humans can't witness him but a driver he knocked could? Where's the logic in that? Also,he develops a crush on Kirari? Yeah,I recall Abaranger having a croc monster falling for Ranru but only because how epic that Tokusatsu is. The whole idea of monsters being invisible is stupid. Why not appear when he saw Kirari? Is there a barrier that prevents humans from seeing them? The plot mcguffin Zodiac orbs have something to do with that? Also,his attacks are meh. They're not that terrifying,just bland. A theme that these "Super Devils" have in common but I'll get to that someday. As for Hishou,he is voiced by Kentarou Itou,the voice of Rockman X from Rockman X4 so it is understandable to why he is my fave character. Because the show is centered around him and explores a little about his background,even in flashbacks but is thankful for what he has but also feels guilty for not being there for Ruri,his girlfriend that he failed to protect. This is something the director has failed to see the potential of this show. His character is something I can relate to 'cause he reminds me of Kotaro Minami from Kamen Rider Black when he loses someone he cared about. Even the ending reminds me of KRB's first episode. The scenes with his sister in this episode does remind me of his time with the Amano family from Kamen Rider Black RX.

The shades wearing figure is also well done. He reminds me of Quattro Bageena from Z Gundam but after this,the quality of the series drops. Reiko....grrr...is voiced by Atsuko Tanaka,the voice of Motoko from Ghost IN THE SHELL!!! You know you did something wrong when you give a woman who voices tough as nails woman to voice a petulant entertainment manager with an annoying ass voice coupled with an annoying ass theme that rivals Bulk and Skull's theme and Lori's (from Cybersix)theme is just pish!! Reiko....is just an attention hoe in my eyes and that gives the impression that we really didn't need her and the fact that she knew about Reideen in the first ep from Quattro Bageena rip off is really saying much. I may not be a fan of Ghost in the shell but this choice makes you really wanna go after the director who made this damn show. This show was made a year after G.I.T.S. glorious debut..A YEAR!!! God,it makes me feel so dirty.

Kirari,typical damsel...nothing special about her. She is voiced by Ai Uchikawa who is Sayaka Yumi from the Mazinkaiser OVAs. It actually is cool to hear Sayaka sing but really,there's nothing to get from her except for the fact that she knew the "Super Devils" came.

The fight scenes are lackluster and from a Sunrise show,that's pretty pathetic considering that they made one of the best fight scenes especially Z and ZZ Gundam. It goes to show you what kind of budget they are on when they made this show. Also,the voices for the Reideen warriors in the flashback are also shit because they assume it takes place back in the past but they retain the voices of the chosen ones and not the wise old warriors thing,ya know like every single show that did this before this damned thing was made. They could've gotten the voices of the Autobots from the Transformers G1 japanese dub. That would made much more sense because warriors from the past aren't supposed to sound modern.

But overall,pretty good episode but after this,the series will fall flat on its face and you will know why this show bombed so badly and Tomino should've been ashamed of this along with Gundam F91's failure. Tomino,where art thou?
We're just getting started!!

My first ever review and boy this show had potential but didn't. This was rewritten due to devart cannot read my original review that was destroyed. Please deviantart,give us the option to save a draft when we write text. >: (

© 2013 - 2024 RyugaSSJ3
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Mrtrainfreak12's avatar
Glad I'm not the only one who hated this series!

I am not kidding the only good mecha reboot that ever came out of the 90's was the Giant Robo revamp. At least Yashuro Imagawa KNEW what he was doing with the source material even if he couldn't use the characters from the tokusatsu

Speaking of that...,Tetsujin Future-x can die in a fire (note: Real robots do NOT work as an upgrade for Tetsujin 28/Gigantor even if it was a different mecha!