The Ideon: Be Invoked

MS06FZ★ 9

It is difficult to write a review of The Ideon: Be Invoked without also writing about A Contact. It's not recommended you watch this film without having seen either the full series or the first movie. However, if you have the context needed from having watched the preceding events, Be Invoked is a truly excellent ending to the show. The essential idea behind The Ideon is that it subverts the idea of super robots being man's servants against an alien menace by giving the titular robot a form of mind of its own, and removing the element of human control. The events of Be Invoked pick uparound where the series and A Contact end, with a credits sequence introducing the events not shown as in-depth in the first film as in the series - such as the Ideon Sword, and Cosmo's relationship with Kitty. Then it gets going with its own plot, and it's a hell of a ride. The hope for peace hinted at in A Contact is quickly wrecked and the audience are drawn into watching the universe spiral towards its ultimate fate in a bleak, horror-like film. The sound is fairly minimalistic, which makes the moments with music hit a lot harder. The sound effects provide a sense of dread and threat - while the sound of, say, the G-Stone firing up would make you excited to see the heroes win, the sound and sight of the Ide Gauge is much less enticing. Tomino uses this giant, mysterious, screen throughout both movies as a a constant visual reminder of the relationship between man and machine and as the events of Be Invoked get bleaker its constant lighting becomes representative of humanity's loss of control. Be Invoked has a reputation for being one of Tomino's more violent works and that's certainly the case. No-one is safe, from children to pregnant women and countless others - and it is the matter-of-fact way in which both sides kill indiscriminately - sometimes without even the chance to prevent the deaths - which contributes to the bleakness. Unlike in, say, Victory Gundam, the deaths are hard-hitting and emotionally draining rather than mildly ridiculous.

Quiddity131★ 10

The Ideon: Be Invoked is the thrilling conclusion to the Space Runaway Ideon franchise. In my eyes this is one of the best anime movies of all time and still is today, almost 35 years after its release. A little bit of background is necessary coming into this movie. Space Runaway Ideon was a television series that aired from 1980 to 1981. Originally intended to last a full year, the show got cancelled after 39 episodes. The show’s director and much of the crew had been involved with the show Mobile Suit Gundam, which had suffered a similar fate, but had been provided with a4 episode extension to finish the series. The show’s staff tried for the same with Ideon, including even storyboarding the final 4 episodes, but were unable to get the extension. As such those final 4 episodes were never produced, and the final episode of the series ends right in the middle of the action with a very brief and disappointing end sequence. Thankfully the show’s staff were provided the opportunity to finish the story with a pair of movies. The first, A Contact, is a compilation movie covering the majority of the series. As a viewer you have the option to either watch that movie before seeing this one, or watching the first 38 episodes of the television series. My recommendation would be to watch the television series. The depth of character development can’t be matched with the brief compilation movie and said movie leaves things out, enough so that you will be confused by certain aspects of this movie. Be Invoked provides us with an edited version of the final episode of the TV series (with the ending sequence removed) and those final 4 episodes of footage that never got created. It provides a conclusion ending to the franchise. This movie is the highlight of the Ideon in pretty much all respects. It greatly builds upon the characters and storyline from the TV series. Technically the movie truly shines in several respects. The animation of the movie is quite strong, significantly surpassing that of the series (significant portions of the final episode, which appear in this movie were reanimated). The franchise’s character designer/animation director Tomonori Kogawa truly does a great job here and I’ve heard that he personally animated significant parts of this movie on his own. Admittingly, I’m a biased fan of late 70’s and 80’s anime, but I think the animation quality here really stands up, even today. The music of this movie is also breathtaking. They really went full out with it. The epic scenes in the movie are made all the more so by the music supporting them. The music delivers regarding of what the scene calls for, whether it’s thrilling battle music, more somber themes or something else. There have been individuals who have listened to this movie’s music and weren’t even aware it came from an anime such as this, it is so grand in scale and style. The director and animators also don’t flinch from using interesting style choices throughout. For example the movie even features some live action footage, something virtually unheard for the format of this era. The setting of the movie takes place entirely in space and a significant portion of the running time is the various battles between our heroes, the crew of the Solo Ship and their enemies, the humanoid alien Buff Clan. This is space opera and combat at its finest. Some tremendous battle sequences throughout the movie that don’t ever leave you bored. The sheer scale of things is often impressive, and is greatly helped by the movie format. At the same time, the movie contains enough character and plot scenes to provide a proper conclusion to the story threads and character arcs that took place throughout the series. This includes proper resolution to one of the show’s biggest mysteries in the nature of the Ide, the energy that powers the Ideon. I’d really only have 2 warnings for people wanting to see this for the first time. First, the movie has a reputation that has a good chance of overshadowing the viewing experience. The vast majority of the people who see this movie likely are into it due to its notoriety and as such will be at least somewhat spoiled. I think the movie lives up to the hype (granted I saw it long before there was any hype over it in the first place), but there is the possibility that one expects so much of it that it can’t hope to live up to their expectations. The movie also has some content that will offend some. This movie is extremely violent and gruesome at times and doesn’t hold back. For example, the movie opens with a character seeing his love interest decapitated by an explosion, her bloody head flying past him. There is a particularly infamous scene where one of the young children gets killed in similarly gruesome fashion. The movie also contains a significant amount of nudity. I would hope that most viewers wouldn’t avoid the movie for these reasons, but they are things to consider before watching it. Strong animation and music, thrilling space battles and plot twists, resolution and answers to the storyline from the series, I couldn’t recommend this movie further.