Space Runaway Ideon

[GVman]

I wish Bandai or someone would release Ideon over here in all of its glory. Maybe all in one big DVD box set, with a limited edition version that comes with a red afro wig.

[Quiddity]

That'd be wonderful. Just don't expect it to ever happen. There's wishful thinking, then there's really wishful thinking. ;)

[NAveryW]

Ideon certainly wasn't obscure in Japan. Not necessarily "well known", but not obscure. As for America, I'm guessing it was only hardcore Tomino fans who were aware of it. It wasn't even subbed until a few years ago.

[GAP]

If Ideon only destroyed the Bff Clansmen asnd the humans, why it is held all over the internet as the ultimate universe destroying robot?

[Dr. Nick]

If Ideon only destroyed the Bff Clansmen asnd the humans, why it is held all over the internet as the ultimate universe destroying robot?

You might as well ask where did all those silly Evangelion misconceptions originate.

[Mr. Tines]

why it is held all over the internet as the ultimate universe destroying robot?

Because its power is maximum?

[Quiddity]

If Ideon only destroyed the Bff Clansmen asnd the humans, why it is held all over the internet as the ultimate universe destroying robot?

Mostly because fanboys went out of control in versus threads discussing it at places like Animenation back before it was fansubbed and before they had even seen it. That went so out of control that it became most well known for that, when 99% of the people saying that had never even seen it. Never underestimate the ability of fanboys going out of control on something they've never seen! :)

Although there is Gundam - Ideon crossover manga out there that does state that the universe was destroyed, so you never know... the ending of Be Invoked is rather ambigious although I'd lean on the side of it not being destroyed considering we see Saturn, with its rings that were partially destroyed in one of the latter episodes.

[Reichu]

I'm watching Ideon at last, with around 4 episodes and the movie left.

I'll be blunt -- I don't think this show has aged particularly well. The animation is bad, which would be okay if it managed to accomplish successful visual storytelling in spite, but it's hard to characterize what's on screen as much more than a mess. "What the hell is going on, and why?" The storyboarding and direction just seem fundamentally flawed. The dramatic pacing is all but nonexistent, in both the short- (establishing scenes, creating tension, etc.) and long-term (the show puts even less effort into a character relationship than Shinji/Kaworu -- despite at times having more episodes to work with! -- and then expects us to care when the Kaworu analogue dies). The episode format is mindnumbingly formulaic and monotonous, basically amounting to: Solo Ship people stand around and talk, Buff Clan people stand around and talk, then Buff Clan attack Solo Ship and Ideon (...again) for the rest of the episode. The dialogue and characterization are pretty terrible overall. Some of this is certainly an artifact of the very "raw" translation*; the show would play much better and more smoothly with a more natural-sounding script, though I doubt that would solve all of Ideon's woes.

With better direction, characterization, world-building, and pacing, this had the potential to be quite great. I wouldn't object to a remake. I've been told that Be Invoked is a "masterpiece", but we'll see.

* Note that I'm not dissing Quiddity et al.'s efforts in the slightest. In fact, I well remember when my translation skill set was similarly impeded by a tendency toward literalism and difficulty rephrasing idiomatic expressions to sound natural. One almost inevitably goes through it in the process of learning and improving. Though I do wonder why #shin-getter didn't have someone smooth over the translations for fluency -- was there no one to do it, or did they actually think the scripts were fine as is?

[pwhodges]

I watched the two films, and couldn't imagine sitting through the uncut series; but yes, Be Invoked was the more interesting part, though the animation remained... quaint... right to the end.

[Mr. Tines]

I watched the series and then the movies as they were being subbed, and quite enjoyed the "rinse, lather, repeat" formula, OTOH, I can't say that it has much rewatch appeal.

[Reichu]

I watched the series and then the movies as they were being subbed, and quite enjoyed the "rinse, lather, repeat" formula

It probably works better with a break between episodes, but I'm doing five or so per sitting, so the monotony really sticks out. I think instead of doing the same thing every episode -- with mild variations -- the show would have been better served by having fewer skirmishes, of greater variety and higher stakes.

The Buff Clan are laughably video game-ish in their ability to throw endless streams of mecha -- which, of course, gradually transition into more difficult-to-defeat models like all proper mecha-mooks should -- at the ragtag band of heroes. The show feels like a shmup half the time.

[hui43210]

I watched the whole thing back in October-November, it was all worth it just to see Be Invoked. You can tell Anno took big inspiration from it for EoE. The series got repetitive but the movie is one of my fav Anime films now.

[Falcon_of_the_Sun]

The show feels like a shmup half the time.

LOL, sounds like I could like it a lot!

[Mr. Tines]

LOL, sounds like I could like it a lot!

If you've seen the first ten episodes or so of Gundam 0079, then it's on that sort of level all the way through.

[Quiddity]

* Note that I'm not dissing Quiddity et al.'s efforts in the slightest. In fact, I well remember when my translation skill set was similarly impeded by a tendency toward literalism and difficulty rephrasing idiomatic expressions to sound natural. One almost inevitably goes through it in the process of learning and improving. Though I do wonder why #shin-getter didn't have someone smooth over the translations for fluency -- was there no one to do it, or did they actually think the scripts were fine as is?

Translation-wise, for the series, there was no one else to do it. I was all they had and that I was even able to do it in the first place was because I had all the scripts to the episodes. I went ahead with it knowing that there was literally no one else to do it and it wouldn't have been fansubbed otherwise. I can't recall anyone editing my scripts, which really should have been done, although its been so long (almost 10 years now I think?) that I could be forgetting things. I know the translation/scripts have gotten much criticism on the web over the years!

That said, for the movies we did have a second translator who went over things after I did and I think both translation-wise and fluency-wise they turned out a lot better.

As for your overall comments on the series (did you ever see the movies?), I think it being a product of its time really shows. The need to have a battle in every single episode makes it very formulaic at times, particularly in the first half of the series. Tomino's a great idea man, but I think his execution can be off at times and its a similar complaint one can have about many of his shows, in particular his 70's and 80's shows. I think by the 90's and after one could get away with non-action episodes like Eva and other shows were able to.

Nonetheless, I think things really pick up in the second half and the Be Invoked movie makes it all worth it.