Otakuism

Space Runaway Ideon is the show Yoshiyuki Tomino went on to complete immediately after Mobile Suit Gundam. It features a cast of refugees fleeing from the merciless Buff Clan and possessing the giant robot Ideon, a machine powered by the mysterious, omniscient forced called the Ide. The show was canceled prematurely at 39 episodes, but Tomino had a chance to wrap up the story with two movies: A Contact, a recap of most of the TV show, and Be Invoked, the true apocalyptic conclusion. Ideon has inspired dark, realistic anime ever since, most famously Evangelion.

For the original TV show itself, I’d have to say it’s a very mixed bag. It was a struggle to complete the whole thing. The show has several good ideas and some very dramatic moments, especially towards the end. The music is beautiful and always utilized to the best effect. However, aside from the introductory episodes you could throw away the complete first half of the show and not lose anything. After about midway the show really picks up to become something great. A few of the characters often act erratic. This is very much a LOLTomino anime, and it takes a lot of patience to put up with his bizarre direction sometimes. The animation is a product of 1980, never exactly bad, or at least not often, but never exactly that great either.

The final movie, Be Inoked, is much better than the show. In fact, I’d say it’s one of the best anime movies ever made; a sublime work of art that shows Tomino and his themes at their finest. It’s almost two hours of constant fighting, grim death striking down the most innocent of characters every minute, the most famous moment being when a young girl is beheaded by rocket fire. As the death toll mounts the characters continue to fight, hoping that their sacrifice won’t be in vain. The movie ends in the most beautiful ten minutes I’ve ever seen, a sublime cosmic odyssey that offers a message of hope and redemption after all the bloodshed. The movie also got a good budget, so the animation is some of the best possible for that time. The music impresses even more, an excellent orchestral soundtrack that embodies the movies uplifting themes.

My main reason for first watching Ideon was its supposed influence on Evangelion. After seeing all of it I can definitely say Anno got a few things from here. Midway through the series Ideon goes berserk and lets out a fiendish yell, very similar to Eva 01’s berserk mode. A music track from Be Invoked is the exact same as one used in End of Evangelion, specifically the scene where EVa-02 rises from the ocean. The Buff Clan’s violent takeover of the Solo Ship is the exact same as SEELE’s raid on NERV. Everybody flying around naked at the end of Be Invoked invokes images of naked Shinji and Rei during Instrumentality. And then there’s the general themes of both shows: the barriers between people, growing up, and humans trying to control a force beyond their understanding.

Ideon takes a step further though, addressing themes of racism, xenophobia, and militarism. In this show the characters are maybe a bit too human, showing the same fears of the unknown as we would. Biologically, humans and the Buff Clan are the same, but the fears and hatreds of them both ultimately lead them to destruction. To me, Tomino’s anti-war theme shines through best here, and it’s impossible not to see Tomino reflect post-war Japan through this series. The Buff Clan even have samurai’s that choose to die nobly in battle!

It’s also interesting to compare the finale’s of Evangelion and Ideon. In the End of Eva Shinji, and ultimately Anno, rejects the merging of human souls, instead insisting that humanity should work to connect to each other the best way they can, that the struggle is more important than the ideal that instrumentality represented. Anno’s presentation of this idea is a complete rejection of Tomino’s conclusion with Ideon. At the end of Be Invoked humanity and the Buff Clan are wiped out. It is not the end of the universe as many fans proclaim; that must be a false rumor started to show the Ideon’s power. Instead they all become one with the cosmic Ide and are led by the purest being in existence, Messiah - not Jesus but the child of the human Bes and alien Karala. Aptly named though. The final shots show everyone transforming into light and flying into space, ultimately landing in the ocean on another world. The film ends showing real waves crashing against the shore. Ideon shows the true end of humanity in it passing on to a higher form and starting a better existence elsewhere in the universe. It’s an idea similar to the newtypes in gundam, that man must evolve to a higher form if he has any hope of overcoming war.

Ideon is a ground breaking show in anime. What Tomino started in Gundam, making mecha more realistic and dark, he completes in Ideon. While Gundam was a show trying to be real robot but dragged down by elements of super robot shows, Ideon is a super robot show in a real robot universe. The Ideon itself fights with punches and missiles for most of the show, even if it is an oddly unlimited supply of missiles. The Buff Clan have no huge mecha, but instead can only fight back with larger and larger numbers of (often) bizarre mecha. While the true revolution of mecha anime would come with Dougram and Macross, it is impossible not to see the seminal influence Ideon has had on all anime after it. If you’re really hardcore I would say watch the TV series, but just A Contact and Be Invoked would probably suffice. Definitely try to see Be Invoked, as I cannot sing the praises of that movie enough. They just don’t make epics like this anymore. I leave you with an example of Ideon’s excellent music from Be Invoked (I don’t think it really spoils anything, but to those who really care about that stuff I would say don’t watch it, just listen.)

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?

If it hasn’t become obvious yet, I’ve been on a mecha fix lately. Current shows this season are pretty good, but they lack a certain passion to them. Even Gurren-Lagann hasn’t inspired me that much, since it’s basically a rehash of every other super robot show with some things done good and some things done badly. So I’ve been watching some old series to make up for it, and now I’m starting to watch my oldest: Space Runaway Ideon circa 1980. Ideon is the first show Yoshiyuki Tomino directed after Mobile Suit Gundam, and is also one of his more infamous ones, which I exactly why I want to watch it.

Cosmo Yuki: greatest afro wearin’ mecha pilot, or GREATEST afro wearin’ mecha pilot?

The story of Ideon is set in 2300 on the planet Sola in the Andromeda galaxy. Human colonists there have just unearthed three vehicles that appear to be too modern for their age. In the space around Solo is a search group of the Buff Clan, an alien species that looks just like humans, and are looking for a mysterious power known as Ide. Finding life on the planet, the rebellious Karala heads down to the planet herself to investigate. This would be fine, if Karala wasn’t the daughter of the Supreme Commander of the Buff Clan, making her safety paramount to everything else; so a group of soldiers is sent to retrieve her. On the surface both the military and scientists are investigating the unearthed vehicles, with conflicts already rising between the two groups over whether the vehicles are weapons or not. Among them is Cosmo Yuki (thank you Tomino names), our afro wearin’ main hero and the son of one of the scientists. Yes, he seriously has a huge afro. I have no idea how he fits it under the space helmet he wears in battle.

Karala: the stupid girl that starts it all.

The aliens in search of Karala can’t find her, and of course think the humans have already killed her, so they attack the excavation site in revenge. Mass Tomino-style death ensues. Cosmo, his female friend Kasha, and Bes, a military officer, all manage to get into the vehicles and move them. Out of nowhere the vehicles react to each other and getter change- I mean, combine to form Ideon. Ideon then precedes to swat the alien ships out of the sky like flies. For the next few episodes Ideon follows a pattern of Buff Clan attacks, Ideon repels, massive number of casulties. After the colony is attacked the survivors find a spaceship buried underground, similar to Ideon, and begin using it as a base. Karala herself has survived and is hiding with the refugees. Gije, her guardian, is furious and continues attacking the colonists to find her, until he himself is captured, along with Karala, by the colonists. At the end of episode 5, Karala has signaled a ceasefire to the Buff Clan, leading to a momentary peace. But things don’t look so good, especially when the next episode it titled “White Flag of Betrayal.”

Obviously, she’s Sheryl.

Ideon may be an old series, but its storytelling is very tight. One noticeable thing to me already is all the little conflicts introduced so far. First is the conflict between the leading scientist Sheryl and the military officer Bes. The two have a continous sparring match going on over who is responsible for what, with Sheryl continually mocking the violent nature of the military. It’s a microism of the usual conflicts between the rational yet cold planners and irrational soldiers. Then there’s the larger struggle between the colonists and the Buff Clan. The Buff Clan has been characterized very well so far as a complete society beyond being just evil aliens. They are a people with legitimate fears, who when first finding out the colonists have technology as advanced as theirs immediately fear that they’re the ones who are going to be attacked instead.

Bes being badass.

The threat of the “other” is a continuing theme in the battle so far, as both sides are driven by fear, greed, and hate. A good example of this is Karala’s assistant Mayaya, who constantly screws up Karala’s efforts for peace by adopting a “shoot first, ask questions later” kind of policy, which is more the norm than the exception for most of the characters. Another good example is when Karala, Mayaya, and Gije are captured by the colonists, who immediately form a kind of lynch mob lusting for blood. Karala tries to reason with them, but all they can think of is the thousands already dead. Even Cosmo isn’t opposed to killing them, his father dying in an earlier attack. When it comes to light that the only reason the Buff Clan is hunting for the Ide, and in effect killing the colonists, is because they believe in some ancient myth of their society; it acts to only further the rift between the two groups, with the Buff Clan seeming even more alien now. I wish more shows these days could have this kind of complex characterization and multi-faceted conflicts.

I also liked the way the Ideon itself is used right now, skirting the lines between a super robot and a real robot. He’s super because he’s nigh indestructible, no attack even scratching him so far. But the only way the Ideon can fight is by equipping him with missiles and manned guns, so right now Ideon acts more like a moving battle ship than any kind of robot. A very interesting take on the idea. But, of course, this is Tomino who is known for breaking tradition. Obviously the animation in Ideon is very different, but I wouldn’t call it bad per say. There’s been little reused animation so far, and I like the way they animated explosions back then. Feels a little more visceral to me. On the music front, I absolutely love Ideon’s OP song, Fukkatsu no Ideon. It starts out with just a simple guitar, but then speeds up into this kind of disco rock song, with epic lyrics about the birth of the giant god that will destroy everything. Awesome. So awesome that I feel the need to show it:

And here’s the live version sung by Isao Taira, a man who has impeccable hair and who’s voice sounds like sex to me:

So far I’m loving Ideon. Probably the most complex series I’m watching right now, even moreso than Darker than Black. I’m very interested to see what surprises and intrigues it has in store for me.