Жақын Елдің Қорғаушысы: Абсолютті Жеңілмейтін Райджин Оу

1991 television anime

Matchless Raijin Oh (絶対無敵ライジンオー) is a 51 episode Japanese anime television series, and the first generation Eldran franchise funded by Tomy and produced by Sunrise. It aired in Japan from April 3, 1991 to March 25, 1992 and later be succeeded by the second generation of the Eldran series Genki Bakuhatsu Ganbaruger. The story revolves around a group of elementary school children who are given command of a mecha named Raijin Oh and their efforts to defend the Earth from the evil Jaaku (evil) Empire. There is also a four episode OVA sequel in the Genki Bakuhatsu Ganbaruger saga. Anime Midstream, Inc. announced in December, 2008, that it acquired the license for and planned to release the anime series Matchless Raijin Oh in the U. S. sometime in 2009 as their first anime release. The company began selling the first volume of the series direct from their website, as well as several other online retailers as of late December 2009. The first volume contained episodes 1–5. The second volume, containing episodes 6–10, was released in September 2010, and translated the title beginning with this volume (and current printings of the first volume are now also marketed under that title). The third volume was released on July 12, 2011, containing episodes 11–15. Each volume contains English and Japanese audio, as well as special features such as music videos, clean openings/closings, voice bloopers, and the third volume contains an audio commentary with several of the English voice actors. Two more volumes were released on June 30, 2012 for volume four and July 1, 2013 for volume five. The rest of the series was released as a five disc boxset; the Season 2 Collection, released on September 30, 2014. However, this set is in Japanese with English subtitles only.

Prior to Ganbaruger arriving to Earth, an evil organisation which was named the Evil Empire (ジャーク帝国) comes to Earth with the intent to conquer and despoil it. From their fortress they launch a missile that will flood the world with (Akudamas (アークダーマ)), eggs of darkness which hatch into evil monsters called (Evil Beasts (邪悪獣)) based on things that annoy or frustrate humans. The "guardian of light" Eldran appears, an Ultraman like entity who is sworn to protect the universe and Earth in particular then appears. Using the heroic robot Raijin Oh, Eldran attempts to thwart the Evil Empire by preventing a missile from striking Earth. What happens instead is that the missile detonated against Eldran, throwing Raijin Oh down to Earth. The robot crashes into Japan's Hinobori city(日昇町 (Hinobori Chō)) a neighboring town to Aozora and Harukaze, elementary school Hinobori Academy. Eldran must leave to continue protecting the Earth, so he leaves the duty of defeating the Evil Beasts to a 5th grade classroom full of children, Earth Defense Class (地球防衛組) in the school where he crashed. He entrusts the children with Raijin Oh, granting each child a different role to perform in either operating or supporting Raijin Oh. Eldran also transforms their school itself, so it can transform into a command center when Raijin Oh is needed. Jin, Asuka and Kouji are chosen to lead Raijin oh, but every day they have many amusing experiences in the school. Jin does not want to study, while his friends do and force him to do it by tickling him.

Raijin Oh was a tremendously popular series at the time of its release, spawning two similar sequels and OVAs. This led to waves of similar TV shows in the early 90s, where a child or children were made into the pilots of giant robots. This was a significant change of pace for the mecha genre, which usually pursued an older demographic and used teenage or adult characters as pilots. Raijin Oh success would inspire future shows like Gear Fighter Dendoh, Machine Robo Rescue, Tomica Hyper Rescue Drive Head Kidō Kyūkyū Keisatsu, and Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion. The spiritual successors contain many plot elements that directly similar to Raijin Oh's premise, characters, but, with the exception of not having a school to house the robots or an Eldran like being to create them. Otherwise, Raijin Oh had little worldwide impact, despite some success in Southeast Asian countries like China and Taiwan. Raijin Oh was featured in the New Century Brave Wars game, along with several of the Yuusha series robots, also created by Sunrise at around the same time. The reason for this was likely to have been the similarities between the Yuusha series and the Eldran trilogy, that and both series were animated by Sunrise. The toy company which made the Yuusha series, Takara would later merge with Tomy and thus both companies had access to each other's toy ideas, hence why Raijin Oh was part of the video game. However the other two Eldran series, Genki Bakuhatsu Ganbaruger and Nekketsu Saikyo Go Saurer were not included; in fact, a few of the Yuusha series robots were also left out of the game. Raijin oh, Ganbaruger, and Gosaurer may have been included in the Brave Saga New Asteria game. Raijin Oh has appeared in several installments of Banpresto's Super Robot Wars series of games. It has appeared in Super Robot Wars GC and its remake, Super Robot Wars XO, Super Robot Wars NEO, and Super Robot Wars BX. This is in part due to the fact that the Super Robot Wars series largely concerned itself with '70s and '80s series at the time the game series began in the early '90s. As of 2009, Raijin Oh is nearly 20 years old and therefore old enough to be nostalgic to adult gamers. It is not clear why Raijin Oh had only appeared in the 3D Super Robot Wars games that appear on Nintendo consoles, as opposed to the more popular 2D games that appear on PlayStation systems and Nintendo handhelds until the release of BX.

The series first appeared on Sunrise Eiyuutan for the Dreamcast. Later on, it was included on Super Robot Wars GC for the GameCube and again in Super Robot Wars XO for the Xbox 360. Raijin Oh is again included as an entry in the Super Robot Wars series of video games, beginning with Super Robot Wars NEO for the Wii along with the other 3 Eldran robots. It also appeared in New Century Brave Wars on the PlayStation 2 in Japan to establish the first official connection between the Eldran and Yuusha series, following the merger of Takara and Tomy. It would later appear as one of the various Sunrise animated robots as a playable character in the RPG Battle of Sunrise, to celebrate the studio's 30th anniversary, released on the PlayStation 2. There also exists a Game Boy fighting game published by Tomy in 1991, which has been translated into English through a fan made patch. Raijin Oh, once again, is included in the Super Robot Wars series in Super Robot Wars OE and Super Robot Wars BX. BX is notable to be the first time Raijin Oh appeared in a 2D Super Robot Wars game.