Space Runaway Ideon: Complete Series + Movies

Bowing on Blu-ray, Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino’s classic mecha 1980-81 anime centers on a space struggle between earthlings and an alien race called the Buff Clan over a piece of ancient technology. Discovered by an archaeological team from Earth on the planet Solo, Ideon is a gigantic robot that assembles itself from three trucks. Accidentally reactivated when the Buff Clan attacks, it accompanies the outmanned earthlings as they escape on an ancient spacecraft with the enemy in close pursuit. Among the passengers is Karala, the daughter of the Buff Clan commander, who tells the earthlings of her people’s search for the Ide—the force that drives both the robot and the ship. As the chase continues from planet to planet, many perish during skirmishes, and the Ideon’s power grows to world-annihilating levels and is ultimately used to literally remake humankind (Ideon‘s final message is that humans must learn to use technology for beneficial rather than destructive ends). Presented in a boxy 4:3 aspect ratio, the animation is the flat, comic-book standard of the early ‘80s, and the overall tone of the series is quite harsh—the Ideon is no friendly Optimus Prime, but a dangerous piece of equipment. While Ideon might be more important for its influence on mecha anime than its intrinsic quality, this well-engineered set does the series proud. Compiling all 39 episodes plus two 1982 feature films—A Contact and Be Invoked—in a Blu-ray edition, in Japanese with English subtitles, rated TV-MA, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)