Space Runaway Ideon

Plot (taken from Wikipedia):

Space Runaway Ideon begins in 2300, far enough in the future that mankind has begun colonizing other planets. On the planet Solo in the Andromeda Galaxy, a group of archaeologists had come across the mysterious remains of the Ideon—three large armored trucks with the ability to transform into a godlike mecha. They also come across a large spaceship. For six months they had diligently restored the machines but failed to get the giant tanks to move. Suddenly, a humanoid alien civilization known as the Buff Clan comes across Solo.

Karala, the daughter of the Buff Clan’s military commander flies down to the planet against orders to investigate (her commanding officer, Gije, is reluctant with her, due to her standing and the fact that he once was a soldier under her father). She is pursued closely by commrades sent by Gije, but they lose sight of her. Assuming the “aliens” (Earthling colonists) have attacked Karala, the Buff Clan begins to attack. Cosmo Yuki, the afro-wearing protagonist of the series, climbs aboard one of the three tanks and, when it initially forms the Ideon, fends off the first assault, repelling Gije’s men.

This is a short respite, though, as another force is sent down soon after. Bes Jordan, leader of the sparce military force stationed with the colonists orders that the Ideon tanks be armed with missles, but while that’s happening the cities on Solo are obliterated by the Buff Clan soldiers. An air raid siren is sounded and the survivors, using the Ideon for protection, board the spaceship found with the Ideon (known as the “Solo Ship”) and flee. The survivors travel from planet to planet, constantly pursued by the Buff Clan who desire the Ideon for themselves along with the mysterious energy source behind them, known only as “Id” or “Ide”.

The Ideon is piloted by several Solo Ship crew members, but the main pilot is Cosmo Yuki.

As the crew of the Solo Ship fight and survive further, the true power of the Ideon begins to slowly be revealed with terrifying results. Although the crew often latches onto various hopes and optimism, as the death toll of the crew rises and the devastation surrounding them increases, the crew of the Solo Ship slowly begin to despair. Eventually turned away by their own world out of fear, what fate awaits this lost ship and its inhabitants?

Firstly, this is a very old mecha anime, which aired in Japan from 1980 to 1981, spazning 39 episodes. It was supposed to be 43 episodes, but due to bad ratings, the last four episodes were canceled. Ironically, a year later, when a summary of the whole TV series plus the unaired episodes were made into two feature films, A Contact 接触篇 and Be Invoked 発動篇, which conclude the whole Ideon saga once and for all, it garners a huge response. According to famous anime magazine Animage, Ideon once stands at #10 among the greatest anime series, a poll which considered popularity, influence and opinion.

Popularity – At the time it was aired, nobody really give a damn about it. It was only noticed when the two feature films were released.

Influence -It sort of inspired Neon Genesis Evangelion 15 years later, where the premise, direction and many scenes are strikingly similar. Evangelion also have two feature films to end the whole plot together.

Opinion – Although it’s not the first mecha show to show such a dark and twisted plot (Mobile Suit Gundam had already taken the honor), it does emphasize on the characters and their emotions when dealing with dire situations, rather than the battle scenes (mecha shows prior to this are mostly focused on the robots fighting, good and bad are very distinct making the protagonists truly heroic and the antagonists truly evil etc etc). It’s also one of the first to have such a catalytic ending with numerous disturbing death scenes.

Secondly, it should be noted that it is directed by Tomino Yoshiyuki, who’s also the director for the UC Gundam series. He direct this anime immediately after finishing Mobile Suit Gundam. This anime is one of the few by him that was devoid of any hopes of a sequel, due to the apocalyptic ending.

I watched the two feature films, which are short and sweet enough to catch my attention. Before I watch this, I already have a rough idea what the story will be like, since I have played the game Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 ~Shuuen no Ginga e~, which Ideon is featured in. This anime, other than Evangelion, kinda remind me of Mugen no Ryvius, where the characters are also forced to adhere to drastic situations fending for themselves. Both are similar where both ships are considered outcasts and are not allowed to return back to their home planet. In Solo Ship’s case, the cause is more noble as they are trying not to reveal the location of Earth, although that was not really their primary concern in the beginning.

Throughout the whole story, especially towards the end, you will see characters you know dying one by one as Solo Ship continue its hopeless escape from the pursuit of the Buff Clan, who are trying to either obtain the infinite power of Ide or to destroy it before other aliens use it to destroy them. Fear and uneasiness frequently occupy the minds of those on the Solo Ship, but they know they have to fight on, for only one purpose: survival.

It’s interesting to see that both sides are fighting in order to survive: Solo Ship as they are afraid that they will get decimated, Buff Clan as they are afraid of the power of Ide. Little did they know (well, both sides do realise it towards the end, but the wheels of destiny have been revolving, and they cannot stop anymore) that everything they are doing will lead not only to their demise, but also the whole of the universe.

The power of Ide is an unknown source of energy, which is reported to be infinite. Being the manifestation of the consciousness of the inhabitants of the Sixth Civilisation, when awakened, it will sought to rebuild the whole universe if it realise that it has become too corrupted. Basically this is the idea of reincarnation, but to have Rebirth, you will need to have Death first. Thus everything will be destroyed prior to creation. The power is best synchronised with the pure hearts of infants and children, as can be seen in the anime where on numerous cases, they were able to draw the power of Ide when the children feels threatened.

By today’s standards, the death scenes in the anime can be considered mediocre, as graphics at that time are not able to represent at least half of that of reality. Here’s a video that shows summarises the death scenes:

However there are two scenes which truly shocked me, as I think which did for those who watch the anime a long time ago.

Ok, on this pic I suppose you can see the severed head flying across the vision of Cosmo, who’s the main pilot for Ideon. This is not really horrifying, but it does have a huge impact on Cosmo. Imagine the guy/girl you love has his/her head severed in front of you? Sorry, the mere thought of it makes me want to puke…

Here we got a cute girl in the midst of a gunfight (she’s should be around three or four years old)

Next she saw the half-severed body of an enemy soldier in front of her, which kinda shocked her…

And the next thing you know, her head got blown off by a beam.

I don’t know, this gotta be the worst death scene out of this whole anime. The way it is done, and furthermore it’s just a little girl… And most people do agree with me on that. This is very disturbing… reminds me of the gruesomeness of war… I can stand adults being killed, but when children get killed, it just bring that pain to my heart, even if this is just anime.

 

From Wiki: Characters on both sides of the final fight were given death scenes: a very young character being decapitated by gunfire, for instance, was seen as particularly shocking at the time.

In Super Robot Wars:

Ideon had been featured in two SRW games, namely SRW F/SRW F Final スーパーロボット大戦F/スーパーロボット大戦F完結編 and SRW Alpha 3 ~To the End of the Galaxy~ 第3次スーパーロボット大戦α 終焉の銀河へ. Interestingly, both games are the finale games for their respective sagas.

Ideon can be regarded as the strongest mecha ever in the history of SRW, or rather the whole of all mecha animes, credits to its infinite power of Ide. When the Ide gauge is at its max, the energy involved power up Ideon significantly, where it’s defense and attack are at its highest. The only mechas that can possibly contest with Ideon are Genesic GaoGaiGar and Gunbuster. However, though Genesic GaoGaiGar has infinite energy through The Power, it’s not available everytime and it does have limited energy, depending on the capacity of Genesic GaoGaiGar (The Power gives the ability of EN Recover Maximum every turn). Gunbuster is indeed powerful with its huge size (standing at 240m, it’s the biggest Super Robot in the history of SRW. Ideon is only half the height, at 105m) and its destructive weapons, but its energy is not exactly from an infinite source. Plus, its power is limited by the weapons it wields. Whereas for Ideon, the uses for Ideon Sword and Ideon Gun are unlimited, as long as the Ide gauge is at Lv 5 (which is max) and it’s HP is below 50% (the MAP versions appear when it’s HP is below 25%). It should also be noted that with the every level increased, its power also increases dramatically. Note that the levels of the Ide Gauge are based on the alpha 3 version.

Ideon is most famous for 3 attacks (there’s another one: Black Hole Cannon. but it’s so insignificant that it is not shown in SRW, because he only use it once in the TV series), which are also its most destructive weapons.

All Range Missiles 全方位ミサイル – An all out missile attack. Available at Ide Gauge Lv 3. Note: The music in this video is the original BGM for Ideon. In the next two videos, the BGM is that of the enemy.

Ideon Sword – Sounds like a normal weapon, but I can assure you that it’s not. Available at Lv 5, it’s a glowing light sword made out of the Ide energy which manifest from Ideon’s hand. The length of the sword is adjustable, and theoretically the length can go INFINITE. The use of both hands as swords is also possible. The raw power of this move is best seen when it’s able to cut a planet (which i think is around the size of Earth) into half.

Ideon Gun: No, it’s not just a gun. It’s more like a cannon. Ideon Gun is a blaster cannon that is built on the Moon base based on the designs found in Ideon, and utilise Ide energy by having cords attached to Ideon itself. The destructive power of this weapon is able to wipe out fleets of warships, or rather decimate EVERYTHING in range. This is also probably the most destructive weapon in the whole of the SRW universe.  Only available at Lv. 5.

Both Ideon Sword and Ideon Gun possess the highest damage ever in SRW, and worse still both have MAP versions, with Ideon Gun being able to wipe out EVERYTHING on the map if Ideon is on the far side of the map.

The top one is from SRW F/F Final, while the bottom one is from SRW Alpha 3.

In F/F Final, Ideon is a particularly dangerous machine to use. It’s Ide gauge have seven levels. There are a few conditions to increase the levels. Firstly, Ideon takes damage. Secondly, Ideon hits an enemy. Thirdly, the gauge will go up at the beginning of the turn depending on how much HP Ideon AND Solo Ship have. The lower the HP, the faster the rise of the gauge. However, failure to hit an enemy and killing an enemy lowers the gauge. Above Lv 4, Ideon will go berserk and start using its Ideon Gun randomly. At Level 7, if Ideon is destroyed, the game will ends with the “Ideon Ending”, the bad ending where everything in the universe turns to dust.

In Alpha 3, the Ide Gauge is instead set to 5 levels, the conditions are pretty much the same, and the “berserk” system is removed. Couple that with the fact that Ideon Sword and Ideon Gun have unlimited usage, Ideon became the most abusive mecha ever in SRW history, where it can easily take out all enemies at a very low HP. There’s also a bad “Ideon Ending”, which is uncovered in the final Ideon stage depending on the choices that you make.

Storywise in SRW, many characters who are supposed to die follows their destiny. The only ones who did not die are Cosmo, Deck, Kasha, Bes, Hatari and those kids in Solo Ship. If I’m not wrong, Karala and Joliver should still be alive in the game too.

~ by rei_andrew29 on 14 April, 2007.