Otakuism

When we last left our crew aboard the Solo Ship they were being continously hunted by the alien Buff Clan. The Solo Ship managed to escape the planet Solo by jumping into Null Space - basically faster than light travel - but were attacked and forced to flee the space, landing on a prehistoric world. During these events, Mayaya again tries to free Karala, but is killed in a shootout with their guards. On the new planet some of the children get lost, forcing the Ideon to look after them. But before the Ideon can find them an enemy mecha piloted by Gije gets them and uses the kids to force Cosmo into a one-on-one duel with Gije. Gije easily owns Cosmo’s ass and is happy when Bes arrives to take up the fight. During their duel Gije’s subordinate ignores orders and goes to attack the Solo Ship, giving Bes the oppurtunity to win the duel. While Gije’s flees Kasha tries to step on him with the Ideon, but Cosmo and Bes override her, saying it would be dishonorable.

The Solo Ship is attacked again, and this time is lured into Null Space to chase after the enemy. But this is the Buff Clan’s plan, and they try to ram one of their ships into the Solo Ship to destroy it. Fortunately the Ideon manages to push the ship out of the way, but not before tracking beacons are put on the Solo ship. The Solo crash lands on an icy planet inhabited by weird insect/birds called Bajin. Due to the trackers the Buff Clan easily finds the ship and Abadede, the commander of the group, decides to head out alone to finish things. He uses the Bajin’s behavior of attacking things that kill their own to force them to attack the ship and Ideon. At first things are going fine, and Abadede even manages to sneak onto the ship. He tries to persuade Karala to leave again, but she definitely refuses and joins the humans. Abedede leaves disappointed and is about to finish the Ideon when Cosmo figures out the Bajin’s behavoir and forces them to attack Abadede’s mecha.

Abadede is then killed by the Bajin, and the Ideon and Solo are safe for another day.
I’m still really liking Ideon; not because the battles are awesome, cause they’re mostly just footage of things blowing up, but because the characters are all so diverse. There’s your honorable heroes like Cosmo, Bes and Gije; then the downright bitchy characters you love to hate, like Kasha and Sheryl. God, I hate Kasha so much. One, her voice is incredibly annoying, a high pitch yell that never shuts up. Two, she is one of the most racist, hateful, and sadistic characters I’ve ever seen. Not only does she want all the aliens to die, but she’ll step on them when they’re just running away, or try to kill them even when it jeapordizes the entire crew. And finally, she’s so stubborn she can’t admit she’s doing anything wrong. Even though her piloting skills are terrible and she screws everything up, she still yells at Cosmo when he’s trying to help her so they all don’t die. Please just kill her already!

I like the way Ideon is portraying how individuals react to war and deal with the enemy. On both sides there are those who realize that the two groups aren’t really alien at all but have a lot in common; that it’s worth trying to find peace between the two. Sadly, both these groups are overshadowed by the larger forces that want war and fear the enemy as barbarians that will kill them all. Sheryl is a great example of this. Even though she is shown repeatedly that Karala can be trusted she still hates her and finds any little excuse to lock her up. Even when Karala saves her life, all she can do is say she won’t say thank her and slaps Karala across the face. Fortunately Karala slaps back and they have a slapping fight for a while. It was a rather odd moment overall. Damido on the Buff Clan side is similar, continually rejecting the idea that humans understand honor. Instead he single handedly breaks peace treaties just to attack the enemy sooner. Both sides can’t believe the other has any kind of belief system similar to their own, so they find any little reason to hate each other and continue the fighting. A very nice portrayal of the psychologies behind war, I think.

I’ve heard that Ideon slows down between 10 and 20, so I’ll have to see if it can keep my interest. If it continues showing these complex characters in conflict, then I should be happy. And now for a quick jump from the past to the present: Haruhi has a second season now, not that everyone and their mother doesn’t already know it. Even if I don’t think it’s worthy of its own post, I should at least mention it. What kind of otaku would I be if I didn’t?