Fall deep enough into the mecha rabbit hole or spend enough time on old super robot forums and you are bound to come across Yuusha Raideen, a 1975 super robot anime most notable nowadays for being the first mecha anime directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino of Gundam fame. At first glance, Raideen seems to be just another in a long line of monster-of-the-week giant robot shows made to sell toys to kids, and to be sure, it is definitely that. But it is also the birthplace of stories and ideas that would influence the mecha genre for years to come. Lost in the ever-increasing seasonilization of animetoday and the global phenomenon the industry has become, the history of anime in Japan is fraught with peaks and valleys. Just as Neon Genesis Evangelion resuscitated the anime industry in the 90s, so too did Mazinger Z breathe life into it in the early 70s. But while Mazinger Z is the progenitor of the super robot, for the first few years after its creation, every mecha anime that aired was based on the work of Go Nagai (and, in the case of Getter Robo, Ken Ishikawa) and made possible by the same trifecta of companies: produced by Dynamic Planning, animated by Toei Animation, and aired on Fuji TV.

Yuusha Raideen was the first super robot show to break this mold, as it was produced by a company called Soeisha which would later be renamed to Sunrise. So while it was the Mazinger series brought the idea of the super robot to public consciousness, it was Yuusha Raideen that made it a full-fledged genre. As I mentioned above, the show is also famous (in mecha circles, at least) for being the first giant robot show directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, who oversaw the first 26 episodes. The latter half of the series was directed by Tadao Nagahama, most famous for his Robot Romance Trilogy of Combattler V, Voltes V, and Fighting General Daimos. Tomino and Nagahama are well-known for what they brought to the mecha genre that it elevated it from simplistic, goo vs. evil, monster-of-the-week storytelling into a deeper exploration of humanity, machines, war, and a whole host of other compelling topics. And despite essentially being a commercial aimed at selling toys to kids, you can see the blueprint for many of their later works in Yuusha Raideen.

Raideen is a story about the teenager Hibiki Akira, captain of his school's soccer team, who is one day called out to by a voice in the sky telling him to pilot the giant robot Raideen and save the world from the Demon Empire, who have reawakened after 12,000 years of slumber searching for the infinite energy source known as Mu. Joined by his eventual girlfriend Mari, his best friend Araizo, and the professors and soldiers at the Mutropolis base, Akira leads the fight against the demons and, along with Raideen, becomes humanity's last hope. If you know anything about super robot shows, you will be able to tell by now that this is in fact how the series plays out. Each episode involves Akira fighting a Fossil Beast (or, in the second half, a Berserker Beast) sent by the demons to destroy Raideen, and always—and I do mean always—winning.

Like the Mazinger series, particularly UFO Robo Grendizer, what is impressive about Yuusha Raideen is how the show tells character-driven stories within this episodic formula. And while there are certainly highs and lows, I think Raideen is overall pretty successful in how it handles its characters. Akira, for example, while being a typical super robot protagonist in the vein of Koji Kabuto, has a bit more gravitas to him, and I think it's because while the series certainly has its lighthearted moments, Akira is often quickly called away to pilot Raideen. There's a underlying sense of duty that consumes Akira as the only person who can save humanity, and I think that's an interesting concept, especially only 30 years removed from the end of WWII. The side characters don't have a whole lot going for them and can often fall into tropey personalities, like Mari's jealousy of Rei Asuka (...) who seems to know Akira. Still, there are times when Akira and Mari share very heartfelt moments and we see that she genuinely cares for him, and she even learns how to help Jinguuji pilot the combat fighter Blugar later in the series. Araizo doesn't have many serious moments, but he is a good comic relief character. Perhaps the best character in the series, however, is actually one of the villains. Prince Sharkin, who is apparently one of the inspirations for Char Aznable (unsurprising if you see Sharkin in action) is a really compelling character who owns the screen when he is on it, and who also has the greatest moment in the series when he commits seppuku after losing to Akira (which leads Akira to honour him).

For me, the one thing I find really compelling about this series is Raideen itself being a sort of deity, or at least having an intrinsic connection to one. The narrative undercurrent throughout the series of Raideen's relationship the ancient civilization of Mu gives it a fantastical/mythical origin story that differentiates it from the other super robots of the time. While most were built by scientists, Raideen's origins are a lot less clear at least for most of the series. Because of this, the show does some incredibly awesome things in certain episodes that build up the mystery of Mu. For the sake of conserving space, I'll share one of my favourite examples here: Episode 28 is one of the best of the series, as the group finds the ruins of Mu beneath the face rock where Raideen sleeps and then come across a door that seems to lead to space or perhaps even an alternate dimension. During this episode, Akira is killed piloting Raideen and Raideen is destroyed beyond repair—but the power of Mu brings them to this space and heals them. Yes, the purpose of this is to restore the balance of the super robot show so that the monster can come next week and initiate the same formula on repeat. Again, though, you can see how Raideen is starting to break open this structure to tell more interesting stories. More importantly, this idea of the fantastic super robot made its way into so many later anime (many of which I love) that it's hard not to see the influence of Raideen in them.

The final episodes of the series bring this storyline of the Mu to a head in conjunction with an underlying character trait of Akira's, and that is him wishing he knew his mother. We find out near the end of the series that Akira's mother Lemuria is in fact the princess of the Mu people who was sealed in a hibernation chamber for 12,000 years. She returns in the end (on a strange flying ship) to meet Akira and bring about the final battle, as she and the Demon King Barao are both looking for the Star of Ra Mu, a source of incredible power. The reunion of Akira and his mother serves as an emotional high point of the series, but it also paves the way for a true innovation in mecha: an unhappy ending. In the final episode of the series, Akira indeed defeats Barao, but does so at the cost of his mother's life, as she sacrifices herself to control the Star of Ra Mu and help Akira win the battle. The show ends with his mother's body being carried away by the ship on which she arrived, with Akira's father commenting that the power of Mu will allow her to be reborn somewhere else. It isn't completely bleak, but it does offer some real consequences for the characters, and for Akira (who, in the penultimate episode, also sees his friend and fellow pilot Jinguuji sacrifice himself to save him and Raideen).

But while it's tempting to see Tomino and Nagahama's names attached to this show and think that this sort of suffering for the main character was an innovation to the genre, I actually think Raideen is more of a natural progression. Earlier shows like Great Mazinger and Grendizer have their characters deal with loss near the end of the series and sprinkled in episodes throughout that made the pilots question why they were in the cockpit in the first place and what sort of role they are meant to play. When you consider how later mecha anime brutalize their main characters (yes, I'm looking at you Evangelion), it is fascinating how the beginnings of this were happening in the genre's earliest entries. I think where Raideen shines in particular, though, is in how it bridges the early super robots of the Mazinger series to later shows like Mobile Suit Gundam or even Muteki Choujin Zambot 3 which play their conflicts straight and show how the teenage pilots of these awesome super machines are in way over their heads. Raideen isn't as consistently interested in this sort of emotional turmoil, but it has its dark moments and overall tends to bring its human issues closer to the spotlight.

Overall, I think Yuusha Raideen is a good show. It's not incredible and it's not perfect, but it does what it does very well and makes a lot of history along the way. If you care at all about giant robots, I would recommend checking out an episode or two. I'm still working my way through the history of mecha anime, but from what I've seen so far, it seems to me that Raideen had a way bigger influence on the genre that I would have thought before I watched it. Granted, most of this is because Tomino and Nahagama went onto create shows that were even more influential than this. Still, if all that mattered about Raideen was its production, it wouldn't be worth talking about. But I think there's something here that makes it valuable in its own right.