The movie rendeemd all of the TV show's faults and goes far beyond its original scope. It's hard to believe this was originaly intended to be a bunch of episodes as the flow of the entire film is quite smooth.
The score definitely helps in this case; we go from typical campy and upbeat songs you'd expect from an old-school anime to a proper orchesrta adding their colourful and rich sound to the events that unfold.
All of the character deaths, monologues and fights were much more impactful this time around and I was genuinely moved the entire time. The ending in particular had me in tears; it was cathartic an paradoxically hopeful, despite all the destruction that took place.
However, Tomino finally had the chance to focus on Ide, the mystery behind it and the meaning behind the constant fighting.. In the end... There simply is no meaning!
Ideon was Tomino's call to love life itself and to cherish the people and the world around you. Having a selfish and single-minded kind of thinking will ruin not only you and the ones around you, but all of us as a species. To deny that this is how we got here would simply be delusional; especially if one were to examine humanity's course after the Industrial Revolution. However, wether or not that was inevitable is a completely different discussion And yet Tomino showed all that nearly 20 years before Turn A Gundam too!
Ideon is often cited as an inspiration to Neon Genesis Evangelion and having seen both, I can definitely see the similarities; although if you come from EVA first (probably like most people), it will take some time before the similarities can manifest. Howver, by the end of both shows (and their respective "The End of" movies) EVA's Human Instrumentality Project and the Ide's power as well as the motivations behind each one will not seem very different. Both however draw heavily from Arthur C. Clarke's 1962 novel "Childhood's End" or "The Overlords: The End of Childhood" as it was printed in Greece in the mid 70s.
Man, what an experience this was. Good art can make you feel so powerful and energetic. You can of course make the arguement that all art is a product, but that is a completely different discussion... I for one belive that there is in fact a complex distinction between a piece of art and a product.
Space! Runaway!!
