Many years before Anno Hideaki remade the ending to his audacious but unfinished sci-fi TV series with an avant-garde theatrical tour-de-force in The End of Evangelion, Tomino Yoshiyuki blazed the trail with The Ideon: Be Invoked, providing the full ending Space Runaway Ideon never got on television in spectacular (and spectacularly violent) fashion. Alongside its companion film, A Contact – which recaps the story of the TV series – Be Invoked completes the Ideon experience in the most purely Tomino ways imaginable, with incredibly intense action, an absolutely astonishing amount of bloodletting, and, in the end, a transcendental vision of collective human consciousness breaking free from these shackles we call bodies. It is one of the darkest, strangest, and most spectacularly produced anime films of all time, a crucial step not just in the career of Tomino Yoshiyuki, but in the history of Japanese animation itself.

Enjoy, and come back next week for something completely different: Tomino’s delightful Western mecha comedy Combat Mecha Xabungle!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37

History and A Contact Review: 0:01:37 – 1:03:44

Eyecatch Break: 1:03:44 – 1:04:28

Be Invoked Review: 1:04:28 – 3:17:29

End Theme: 3:17:29 – 3:19:43

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Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

“Tominoson-G Mk. V” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku & KAITO. “The World You See” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

It’s finally time to discuss what is almost certainly Tomino’s best-known and most widely renowned work outside the world of Gundam: 1980’s Space Runaway Ideon, the 39-episode TV series that begins with a relatively similar premise to Mobile Suit Gundam – a ragtag crew of space colonists flee an invading army, with a mysterious and powerful mecha in tow – before quickly spinning into much stranger, darker, and more philosophical territory. In fact, Ideon might be something closer to a horror anime than a traditional mecha show. But however one defines it, Ideon is undoubtedly one of Tomino’s finest hours, bold and brutal and artistically extraordinary at every turn. For today’s show, we look specifically at the original TV series, which ends abruptly (albiet distinctively); on next week’s episode, we’ll look at the two films Tomino and Sunrise produced in 1981 to recap and ultimately finish the story. The Ideon is simply way too big to contain in a single episode.

Enjoy, and come back next week for our review of The Ideon movies: A Contact and Be Invoked!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37

Intro and History: 0:01:37 – 1:24:34

Eyecatch Break: 1:24:34 – 1:25:17

Ideon TV Series Review: 1:25:17 – 3:56:28

End Theme: 3:56:28 – 3:58:38

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

“Tominoson-G Mk. V” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku & KAITO. “The World You See” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com

Considering Japanimation Station started its life in 2019 as Weekly Suit Gundam – which itself started with a six-part podcast miniseries following Sean and Jonathan discussing every aspect of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series from 1979 – it’s safe to say we’ve already reviewed the legendary ‘First Gundam’ on this show. So for today’s episode, we’re doing something a bit different to celebrate the most crucial turning point in the career of Tomino Yoshiyuki: Narrating the history of the series from its conception through the release of the Gundam movie trilogy, which heralded the dawn of a ‘New Anime Era.’ It’s our most scripted episode to date, as we share original research and writing on the creation and historical impact of Gundam, while also making space to discuss how we see the show itself in the light of our ongoing ‘Tomino-thon’ project. Even if you’ve heard us talk about Gundam many times before, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

Enjoy, and come back next week as we look at the original 39 episodes of 1980’s Space Runaway Ideon!

Time Chart:

Theme Song: 0:00:00 – 0:01:37

The Making of Gundam ‘79: 0:01:37 – 1:39:41

Eyecatch Break: 1:39:41 – 1:40:27

Dawn of the New Anime Era: 1:40:27 – 2:10:38

End Theme: 2:10:38 – 2:12:47

Subscribe to our YouTube channels!

Japanimation Station: https://www.youtube.com/c/japanimationstation

Purely Academic: https://www.youtube.com/@purelyacademicpodcast

Read Jonathan Lack’s movie reviews and stay up to date with all our podcast projects at https://www.jonathanlack.com

Subscribe to PURELY ACADEMIC, our monthly variety podcast about movies, video games, TV, and more: https://purelyacademic.simplecast.com

Follow Japanimation Station on Instagram and Threads @JapanimationStationPodhttps://www.instagram.com/japanimationstationpod/

Read Jonathan’s book 200 Reviews in Paperback or on Kindle – https://a.co/d/bLx53vK

“Tominoson-G Mk. V” – Music by Thomas Lack, Lyrics by Sean Chapman, featuring Hatsune Miku & KAITO. “The World You See” – Music & Lyrics by Thomas Lack, featuring Hatsune Miku. https://www.thomaslack.com