page_title: Raiden (Metal Gear)
section_title: Popularity
hierarchical_section_title: Raiden (Metal Gear) / Reception / Popularity
caption_attribution_description: English: Yoji Shinkawa's artwork used as a promotional piece at Aire Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS1 4HT, UK
context_page_description: Raiden, real name Jack, is a fictional character and one of the main protagonists of Konami's Metal Gear series of video games. The character was created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, and was introduced in the series as the main player character of the 2001 stealth game Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden appears to be a member of the U.S. special operations unit FOXHOUND and is participating in his first mission against terrorists. Despite coming across as a rookie, he is a young soldier who is later revealed to have been a Liberian child soldier. Raiden also appears as a supporting character in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, in which he is assisting the series' protagonist Solid Snake in his fight against Revolver Ocelot's forces. He is also the main character of the hack and slash game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, in which he is dealing with his past and his present life as a combatant who faces enemies from private military companies.
context_section_description: PLAY editor Nick Jones listed the scene in which Raiden is nude as his fourth-favorite moment of the franchise, calling it the "one of the funniest moments in gaming history". Lisa Foiles of The Escapist included him on her 2014 list of top five katana wielders, writing "this is not a popularity contest and Raiden qualifies" even in MGS2 where "he was whiny, an emo, and kind of a bitch". Raiden proved to be more popular in Japan; according to Yoji Shinkawa this was because he matched the stereotype of the manga hero. 
  Game Informer placed him on "The Snubbed List" of the best characters of the 2000s in response to his new design because it made fans like the idea of a new Metal Gear game solely focused on Raiden.  In a 2010 Famitsu readers' poll, Raiden was voted the 42nd most-popular video game character. GamePro called Raiden's encounter with Vamp in this game one of the "most memorable cinematics" of the series because of his change of fighting style from his debut as he "redeems his girlish image", while IGN listed it as the 80th best moment in video-game history for similar reasons. In 2013, Complex ranked Raiden as the 12th-greatest soldier in video games, "even as he's not as cool as Solid Snake", while GamesRadar called Revengeance "perhaps the greatest cyborg ninja game of all time". PLAY ranked Raiden as the second-top ninja in games. While surpassed by Solid Snake, GamesRadar listed Raiden as the second-best video game hero of all time. In 2012, manga artist Hiro Mashima drew an illustration of Raiden in anticipation of the series' following games. He mentioned having had difficulties illustrating the character. Following Metal Gear Solid 4's release, Raiden also appeared in more lists. IGN's Jesse Schedeen listed Raiden as one of the "gaming icons" and most valuable players of 2009, in response to his role in an upcoming Metal Gear title. Den of Geek listed Raiden as one of the most sexually appealing video game characters, calling him disappointing to some but to others "a pin-up forever". 
  In promoting Revengeance, Raiden's design by Shinkawa was used in presence in London, Leeds and Liverpool during 2013. Voice actor Reuben Langdon described Raiden as a character he always wanted to play as most notably on Super Smash Bros.
caption: Raiden's artwork used as a promotional piece in Leeds, UK, for Revengeance.