Customer Reviews

Super Robot Red Baron: The Complete Series

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I own both the BCI version and Mill Creek version of the Super Robot Red Baron DVD's. If you can find a copy of the BCI release I would highly recommend getting that version over the Mill Creek release. BCI is now out of business so those discs are harder to find. My reason is that the Mill Creek version is a very shoddy cheap re-release of the BCI version. The episodes are crammed onto 4 DVD's rather than the 6 dvd's in the BCI version. Normally this would not be a big deal only meaning higher compression artifacts and lower image quality however somewhere in the process Mill Creek screwed up the subtitles so that as you are watching the show they start to go out of sync with the voices. It eventually gets to the point where subtitles are appearing on the screen when there is no voice to go along with it. It's very annoying and makes watching the episodes much more difficult as you don't always know which subtitle goes with which speaker. From the price it's obvious Mill Creek's are a budget release but in my opinion it's worth the effort to find the original BCI release even if it costs a little more.

(The Mill Creek release of Iron King has the same issue)

Super Robot Red Baron is an immensely entertaining item of televisual sci-fi culture from 1970s Japan. A group of young people work for a super-science organization that battles a crime syndicate / evil empire from space. Central to every episode is a climactic battle between the good-guy giant robot, Red Baron, and the equally enormous bad-guy robot-of-the-week. They fight it out, Godzilla-style, in an H-O scale landscape complete with model cities, refineries, factories, and little toy tanks that actually shoot. Generally speaking, the production values compare well to some shows from the same era, for example, Doctor Who of the 70s. There is a certain amount of the quirky-seeming (to western eyes) comic relief that is often present in Japanese productions. And while character development is limited, it is not altogether absent, and there are also moments of genuine drama and pathos. Most importantly, there are occasional flashes of visual brilliance. For example, in the series finale there are scenes of a surreal virtual reality beach and a clockwork throne room that would be at home in an episode of The Prisoner or in one of Andrei Tarkovsky's science fiction films.

If I had to pick a Kaiju(or Daikaiju, which means Giant Monster in Japanese) TV Show that is my favorite, I think Super Robot Red Baron would have to be my pick. Why? Well, it's a Japanese tokusatsu(special effects) TV series that doesn't take itself too seriously yet is serious enough that, even the hardcore Kaiju fan, would love it. The series, itself, aired from April 4, 1973, to March 27, 1974, with a total of 39 episodes. The series was produced by the same team that brought you Ultraman and Iron King. It's story was later retold in the anime of Red Baron and the sequel Super Robot Mach Baron. It is set in the early 21st century. The Iron Alliance begins stealing giant robots built from all over the world as well as kidnapping their creators. Kurenai Kenichiro who creates Red Baron turns over his robot to his brother Ken. Ken is a member of SSI (Secret Science Investigation). Ken uses Red Baron to help them put a stop to the Iron Alliance from taking over the world. That's pretty much what the show is about.

The series is completely in Japanese with subtitles. While it is fine with me, it will probably upset some of you. Really, you shouldn't let that stop you from watching such an awesome show. It'll give you a better understanding of Japanese TV shows such as this.

Should you be looking for film art- this isn't it. But if your a fan of the early Japanese "Secial Effects" shows that really started with Ultraman then this value-priced pack is a great buy. Packing is well done and each of the 4 disks has it's own sleeve in the box. But realise that this series was made on what looked like Ultraman's lunch budget, and that is where the fun really begins. Supposedly made by people "responsable for Ultraman & Iron King (another gem)" it has the same basic "evil monster of the week" set-up, only this time with some of the silliest robots ever to be seen, which includes the title robot - actually a mecha with a pilot, and others including one that plays a mean game of golf.

The transfer cold have been better, but in a way it ads to the feeling of just how old this series is. While I couldn't find anything that said when Red Baron was produced, my guess from the hair, what they wore, and some of their vehicles, my guess puts it at the early to mid '70s so being just a bit grainy adds to it's charm to me. I also strongly recommend that if you buy Red Baron then just save the time and get "Iron King" at the same time - it's sort of like RB's big brother from the same source and many of the same "qualities". Between the two you will not only have some great entertainment but also a great value.

Now if only Johny Sako was in the same price range...

It is very cheap for those OLD Japanese TV program in 1973 time frame ... just after UFO series from UK ...
I did not watch the TV program however recalled when I watched it in now these days...
I am Japanese and I do not need to see the sub. cap. however I could not off it even DVD player ( SONY, Pioneer ) toggles it off... still appeared it ...
Then Uses GOM player ( Ubuntu 10.4 LTE ) then I could manage to display it off .... ( but not with WMP, DVD player on Mac... )

For English native people, it might be hard to understand the story with the cap. ( I think ) and good for who like the Japanese SCIFI long time ago...

Rgds,
T.Aoki

its like the skyking series just fighting robots instead of monsters. red robot is more like what it should have been named since red baron was a german ace that was killed this name was dumb.not a full screen either.

The red baron should move like normal robot those in others series ex: power rangers. But overall it a good series.

As a fan of japanese giant robot alien fighting series like ultraman or the space giant, I thought this would be fun to watch since I haven't seen it before so after reading the description saying language is English, I bought the set and it arrived in good time but then I noticed the language is Japanese and subtitle in English which is a big let down for me because I'm the type of person who like to watch a tv show not read a tv show, read a book, read a magazine but not a tv show so remember this if you decide to buy the language is not in English as stated in description.