It's been a long fucking quarantine.
Anyways, I wanted to talk about
Reideen for a sec. For a little context, it is a very loose reimagining of the super robot show 'Brave Reideen' from 1975, which was Yoshiyuki Tomino (the Gundam Guy)'s first anime directing job.
The remake, from 2007, is about highschool boy Junki Saiga, whose archaeologist father disappeared mysteriously. The discovery of his father's remains leads Junki to a mystical bracelet, and soon enough he finds himself piloting a giant golden robot and fighting aliens.
From this description, it does sound very generic, but watch the intro:
You don't see a lot of giant robot, right? You mostly see this girl, Akira Midorino, who doesn't really show up until a few episodes in. Her house got destroyed in a monster attack, she changes school districts, and a romance unfolds between her and Junki.
I was sufficiently confused by the intro that when I first started the show, I did double-check the DVD case.
So, Reideen is a mystical robot, and there are temples and things that house components of it, and it turns out Midorino is the last component of Reideen, she is its consciousness. The girl is Reideen. They were telling us the whole time!
Also I like that the twist means it's basically a slice of life romance where the girl is also a giant robot.It's a show in which all the characters are likeable, the plot moves along briskly, there's one episode where they completely change genre.
Also at the end Reideen uses a sword the length of the moon to kill a monster the size of the moon, and that's always fun.
In short, I do definitely recommend for quarantine viewing.
I did also look into the
other reboot of Reideen, from 1996, and Let Me Tell You, it is the most "1996 anime"-anime ever, and it's all on youtube.