Ranked #527

The Ideon: Be Invoked

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 up around 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. read more

The Ideon: Be Invoked it's the second and last movie of a compilation of the series Space Runaway Ideon created by the infamous Yoshiyuki (Kill'em all) Tomino.

Story 10/10 the story is very appealing and well developed at least in this second movie, there's a lot of tragedy, a lot of killing, all of them caused because the two enemy factions are unable to understand each other and they make their small diferences bigger then their really are. At the end of it all the hatred, the pride, the desire for vengeance and the willing to live, merge in one of the most epic and tragic ending you could see

Art 10/10 the art is outstanding especially for the time it was made

Sound 10/10 it manages to create an great atmosphere

Character 5/10 completely underdeveloped, never get to know any of the characters past, motivations, or distinctive personalities, somehow the spectator can feel for them, but it's unable to relate to them.

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