Five teenagers juggle the ridiculous grind of idol work by day, then pilot giant robots against increasingly impossible odds by night. The show treats both sides seriously, which means watching them exhausted between concert rehearsals and apocalypse fights becomes genuinely tense. The real hook is that the Super Devils showing up aren't random, and by the time you understand why, the show has already rewritten what you thought this was about. It swings between bright idol comedy and genuinely dark sci-fi stakes without apologizing for either tone. This is the show that proves a magical girl premise works just as well when your transformation involves a mecha cockpit.

Hishou, Ginga, Ace, Hayate and Ikazuchi are five teenagers who take on assorted idol-related jobs at a studio, doing whatever their manager Reiko asks of them. Secretly, they are the Reideens, a team of superheroes who battle the Super Devils dispatched by an enigmatic figure called Lushu. What the Reideens do not realize is that these monsters are being sent for a larger reason than they suspect. The 1996 TV series runs 38 episodes and blends adventure, mecha action and science fiction.