YMMV / Raideen

Brave Raideen

• Draco in Leather Pants: Or, rather, Draco without pants. Prince Sharkin, Emperor Barao's second in command, was the first in a long line of blond bishonen villains, and a large part of his appeal was the VERY short tunic he wore. Two of his successors in the Romantic Robot Trilogy were dressed in the same fashion, while one is clad in conspicuously tight leggings underneath his fur cape.
• Fashion-Victim Villain: Prince Sharkin and Admiral Darudan, who seem to think that pink is an intimidating color.
• Genius Bonus: One for the Historicity enthusiasts:
  • The Atlantis-Expy planet is called Mu and it's Alien Princess is called Lemuria.
  • The Mu Empire civilization heavily resembles Rome and India. James Churchward proposed that the mythical continent was where those civilizations started.
• Macekre: The show was heavily edited for American television. Most if not all the religious overtones of the show were altered, with the villains being changed from demonic forces to an alien presence, characters that were victims of demonic possession becoming aliens in disguise, and even Raideen's attacks being altered to more resemble science as opposed to mystical (although certainly churches and religious symbols didn't bother these demons, and conventional weapons did, so both interpretations are possible, and in fact are probably not mutually exclusive). Even stranger, this Macekre was subtitles only, so anyone who was even slightly educated in Japanese and just needed subs to "fill the gaps" could spot the edits immediately. Due to this, and the fact that it only aired in the US on Japanese local community channels in a few cities, the fact that it ever aired at all was quickly forgotten by just about everyone.
• Periphery Demographic: In it's native Japan, it ended up amassing a large amount of female fans because of the Pretty Boy main villain, Prince Charkin. Charkin/Akira Slash Fics were a common pairing for them, and Tadao Nagahama recalls that when he killed Charkin off, he received messages with razorblades◊ from angry female fans.
• Spiritual Successor: According to RahXephon director Yutaka Izubuchi, the similarity of designs and powers of the title robots and the basic plots of RahXephon and Raideen are intentional...
• Squick: Berostan, the withered, goggle-eyed high priest of the demons, had flashes of protectiveness toward Sharkin. He expressed these by grabbing the prince's bare thigh.
• Theiss Titillation Theory: Sharkin's Roman-soldier-style miniskirt always made him look one stiff breeze away from indecent exposure.

Raideen the Superior

• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Berserker is this in the first episode. While he was a henchman on a mission where he was supposed to get a MacGuffin, he did little actual damage (and no deliberate damage) in the process. He tended up sidetracked by a "cute" idol (who just happened to be carrying the MacGuffin), then, when the MacGuffin turned out to be fake, he dropped the mission. When a boy went to the idol's rescue, Berserker explicitly said that Berserker would not harm the girl. Indeed, while he did pursue her, cornered her, and acted creepy^note He did a creepy tongue motion in front of her, plus his use of "Washi" may have been meant to imply that he was a Dirty Old Man. even after the idol said "no", Berserker never actually harmed her, even when trying to get the MacGuffin. The only real harm he caused was when he accidentally made her fall off a building. Besrserker ended up dying a gruesome death.