Densetsu Kyojin Ideon (Space Runaway Ideon)

Mankind has traveled to the stars and come across various alien civilizations, now long dead. Upon discovering the archaeological remains of such a civilization on the planet Solo, humanity finally has its first encounter with a living alien species: the Buff Clan. When Karala Ajiba, the daughter of the Buff Clan's military leader, sets foot on the surface of Solo, the Buff Clan launches a brutal assault on the colony to retrieve her.

In order to escape, Cosmo Yuki, Kasha Imhof, and Bes Jordan climb aboard three trucks, which soon transform into the giant humanoid robot Ideon. When the settlement on Solo is destroyed, the survivors board a recently discovered spaceship—the Solo Ship—and flee, endeavoring to get away from the aliens and finally find peace. The relentless Buff Clan, however, is still in hot pursuit and will not give up so easily.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

The series won the Animage Anime Grand Prix Award in 1980.

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Summary:	Densetsu Kyojin Ideon: Sesshoku-hen
Sequel:	Densetsu Kyojin Ideon: Hatsudou-hen

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Characters & Voice Actors

Jordan, Bes

Main

Tanaka, Hideyuki
Japanese

Yuuki, Cosmo

Main

Shioya, Yoku
Japanese

Ajiba, Karala

Main

Toda, Keiko
Japanese

Imhof, Kasha

Main

Shiraishi, Fuyumi
Japanese

Formossa, Sheryl

Main

Inoue, You
Japanese

Zaral, Gije

Supporting

Hayashi, Kazuo
Japanese

Kitten, Kitty

Supporting

Ukai, Rumiko
Japanese

Afta, Deck

Supporting

Matsuda, Tatsuya
Japanese

Piper, Lou

Supporting

Inoue, You
Japanese

Narrator

Supporting

Shiozawa, Kaneto
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Tomino, Yoshiyuki

Director, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics

Urakami, Yasuo

Sound Director

Takizawa, Toshifumi

Episode Director

Sadamitsu, Shinya

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

"Fukkatsu no Ideon" by Taira Isao

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Ending Theme

"Cosmos ni Kimi to" by Toda Keiko

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Reviews

Feb 21, 2015

TwoSevenTwo

Recommended

Let's be honest here. You're probably interested in this series because of the movie's reputation, and you're wondering if the TV show is worth watching. Let's get this out of the way first: you CAN skip the TV series and just watch A Contact (the compilation movie) followed by Be Invoked (the new and improved ending). This may be fine for you: you'll get skip some of the repetitive bits of the series, but you'll also skip characterization. While the TV show is a bit slow at times, A Contact and Be Invoked try to cram everything together... things develop a ... bit too fast.

The problem with Ideon becomes apparent as soon as you watch the first episode. At its core, the show is a series of 22-minute commercials for toys which haven't been sold in decades for a country on the other side of the world. Animations are reused heavily, early plots mostly follow a predictable formula (land on new planet, aliens attack with new strategy, mech pilots save the day), the characters can be hard to like, and you get tired of the revolving door of villains. But there are also episodes where the show takes itself seriously. Tensions between the main characters are handled with respect, and most of the main cast develops quite wonderfully, even if it seems a bit slow. The plot is sometimes stitched together with crude seams, but at other times it flows quite well.

Once you get to episode #23, the tone changes, and the series discovers its purpose. Remember how the conflict in episode #1 seemed almost accidental in origin? By episode #23, the conflict has grown so large that no matter what anyone says or does, the fighting will continue, and the consequences are always serious. Even if you save the day, you can't save everyone. Even if you surrender, you can't stop fighting. Even as you work towards the same goals, you can hate and betray each other. The plot picks up the pace, characters develop and break down quite spectacularly (they don't cope with things by whining about them, thank goodness), and even the deus ex machina that saved the day in the first half of the series gets turned on its head. Everyone gets a moment before the end to show their true depth.

Episode #39 should be skipped, just watch "Be Invoked" instead, since episode #39 was recut, improved, and made into the beginning of the movie. It is a great episode, but the movie gives you a better version.

All said, I would give a 5/10 or 6/10 to the first 22 episodes, with the acknowledgement that a few of those episodes are fairly good. I'd give the last 17 episodes a 8/10 or 9/10—again with the acknowledgement that there are a couple stinkers, such as episode #34. I might rewatch this someday, but I'd skip over most of the episodes.

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Jul 28, 2012

ZeraX

Recommended

First of all, i usually don't make reviews, but i will make a exception just because i loved this anime and its movies by all my heart, and will be a quick review.
and please forgive me, i'm NOT good at writing reviews nor good at expressing my thoughts in English because my English isn't that muchl..

Ok, now, Ideon isn't a typical anime which anybody can watch or enjoy,
it's an anime that can be watched by hardcore mecha anime, classic anime fans, and or Tomino's fans.

Ideon's story was unique, one of kind gets interesting as the series progresses to a degree you became on your edge ...

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Jan 14, 2021

Royal_Conquest

Recommended

This is Tomino's masterpiece. I don't mean that in the sense that this is a perfect anime by any means. But it is trying so much. All of his ideas are laid out plainly here and wrapped up in a very final way by the movie afterward. I would say Tomino spent the rest of his career chasing after the ideas and themes laid out over the course of this series. There is more of this in Zeta Gundam than 0079. You can see a lot of different aspects of things in this series very plainly being expounded upon in Zeta, ZZ and Victory Gundam ... going forward.

For starters, I don't believe you are supposed to like any of these characters exactly. Not on a personal level. Unlike a lot of Gundam where the main cast is kind of just supposed to be "the good guys", these are a bunch of petty people who don't have any reason to like each other, stuck in this messed up situation where they can do nothing but flee for their lives. I ended up liking them, but for reasons that have to do with how they are portrayed as events continue to unfold. The giant robot that is The Ideon's mystery slowly being unveiled over the course of the series while actually becoming sort of horrifying as the characters realize they have no control over what comes next.

And as far as Tomino themes go, this is it. The inevitability of mankind to fight over cultural differences and circumstance no matter how similar they actually are. The connectedness of us all and can we ever truly understand each other? Do we have to understand each other to love each other? The overall tone of this show is bleak but I don't believe it ever crosses into pure nihilism. This is a work that is asking the question and positing what we do in the face of the unknown, and total annihilation. I would never in my life believe Tomino thought he had the answer, that is like the one solid silver lining in his politics for me that cuts through the cynicism and a few other rather problematic things he believes. It's why I think this show is so interesting if you are willing to really dig into it.

And then just as a structure, I think it's just good sci fi. Yeah it falls into a bit of a formula but that's okay when what's there is being presented well. This is a very specific kind of show from a very specific era of anime and I think that is only a positive. I would not think to dismiss it for being so.

Ideon also has some really good sound design. I am no expert in the field of course, but I really dug the soundtrack. I can sing that Ideon Theme song by heart because I watched it every single episode.

Some things to keep in mind if you watch this, you sort of have to let go of your seriousness to enjoy something like this if that makes sense. This is a show that takes itself super seriously when it wants to but is also still very much a Tomino show and is extremely goofy when it's not being serious. It is also a Super Robot show way more than a Real Robot show. A lot of theme overlap but the big super robot is gonna be the big super robot. Be Invoked is essential to watch when you are finished the TV Series. Don't watch Contact. Anyone who tells you to watch Contact is full of it, it cuts out everything good about the series and barely makes sense.

Now if you want to talk about space battles, and mecha combat, Ideon's got that too. There are some really ridiculous and interesting designs for the Buff clan's robots and I always enjoyed seeing what they had next to throw before the might of the Ideon. There are scenes from inside of cockpits in Ideon that put most of Gundam and other mecha to shame. Just for the sheer tension and the sense of helplessness that you would have in some situations. I give this a 10 in story because it is such a wonderfully interesting mess and is lowkey responsible for inspiring lots of things that came after it. It is really going for it and because I enjoyed it so so much as someone who has been moving through mecha anime for the last year. This really felt like a high point.

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Poll: Space Runaway Ideon Episode 14 Discussion Beatnik - Aug 22, 2009	14 replies	by VivaceRex »» May 18, 9:11 AM
Poll: Densetsu Kyojin Ideon Episode 12 Discussion Hannah_Ana - Feb 8, 2014	10 replies	by VivaceRex »» May 17, 12:17 PM
Poll: Space Runaway Ideon Episode 10 Discussion Beatnik - Aug 14, 2009	11 replies	by VivaceRex »» May 16, 10:37 AM
Was Kunio Okawara really the mechanical designer for Ideon? ohumbasa - Mar 27	0 replies	by ohumbasa »» Mar 27, 5:01 PM
Poll: Densetsu Kyojin Ideon Episode 20 Discussion Hannah_Ana - Feb 10, 2014	5 replies	by TheKing528 »» Feb 19, 10:22 PM

Densetsu Kyojin Ideon

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Yuuki, Cosmo

Ajiba, Karala

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Densetsu Kyojin Ideon

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