Reideen

Made by Tohoku Shinsha for WOWWOW TV, Reideen as the name suggests is a modern version of the '70s super robot anime Yuusha Reideen. What is different is over 30 years of advancements in anime technique and computer graphics is evident in this series. The realism of graphics and the finesse of animation is world apart from the original Reideen. But unfortunately much of the spontaneity and the drama of the original Reideen seems to be lost in this series. You might say that this is something different all together. The animation has very rehearsed quality to it and cut from one move to another looks artificial, and when the scene cuts into battle between Reideen and the monster robots, the move slows down couple of notches more. The battle sequence is probably done with CG and there's lots of scenes where the camera angle moves around Reideen in 3D, but it's very difficult to actually see what Reideen or the opponent is doing due to battle always happening (at least in the first few episodes) at night, and the confusing shapes of both robots. Reideen's movement is so slow it's hard to feel the action from the all important battle scenes, and the fake way the weapons appear also takes away from the excitement.

Reideen is gold in color in this series and resembles more of RahXephon which is an homage to the original Reideen. Refinement in art department is almost perfect in this series, but it fails in the way story is being scripted, and the awkward battle movement between Reideen and not so impressive looking enemy robots.

Beautiful, but too lacking in power to be crowned the honorable name Reideen and to be identified with the fantastic original.