Almost two years ago now, I learned that one of the greatest cartoons ever made, Shadow Raiders, was on DVD. So, I resolved to get all 26 episodes on disc. I said that once I got every DVD, I’d have a marathon screening of every episode. Well, the final disc finally arrived just one week before I left for Japan, so I never got to do my marathon screening. I finally did my marathon screening four months ago, and while doing it, I wrote a complete episode guide to Shadow Raiders! But, this was during the one week I had my original laptop back, and wouldn’t you know it, it finally crashed for good just as I hit “save.” So, I’ve finally got around to re-typing the episode guide from memory.
Now, Shadow Raiders was one of the greatest cartoons ever made. It was produced by Canada’s own Mainframe Entertainment, the same folks behind ReBoot, Beast Wars: Transformers, and the new computer animated Spider-Man. Shadow Raiders was loosely based on the War Planets toys. Did you remember War Planets? Giant war machines the size of planets with all kinds of gizmos and weapons for destroying each other. Shadow Raiders told the tale of the people who lived on those planets and the lives that such an existence would lead to.
The series focused on a planetary system of four worlds: the planets of Fire, Bone, Rock, and Ice. For centuries, these four worlds have been locked in mortal combat as they raided each other for their natural resources. But then, one day, the lone survivor of Planet Tek arrives with a dire warning: the Beast Planet, devourer of worlds, is coming and will destroy the whole system! So now, it’s up to Graveheart, the lowly miner from Planet Rock, to unite the four worlds into a force to take a stand against the Beast. That was the plot for season 1. Season 2 entered into Battlestar Galactica territory, as the citizens of the four planets fled through space with the Beast hot on their trail.
And that, in a nutshell, was one of the greatest cartoons ever made. And since I have it all on DVD, here’s a complete episode guide!