The Solo Ship crew watches a meteor fall towards Earth. Meanwhile the Gerowa Zan departs from Null Space nearby. Gije wonders if this is the home planet of the Solo Ship crew. Gije plans to head out again using the Galbo Jick. The Gerowa Zan sends out a number of Zlow Jicks and Zigg Macks. Sheryl receives a transmission from the Earth Union military telling them to turn back. Suddenly an Earth craft lands aboard the Solo ship. Out comes Kiranin Colbock of the Earth’s Science Academy. Colbock says the military refuses to let them go to Earth because they’ve brought aliens with them. Colbock wants to see the Solo Ship’s data on the Ide. Sheryl says she’ll allow it if she’s allowed to use the Gloria computer. Colbock says that’s impossible as it is under military jurisdiction. Suddenly an alarm goes off, signifying that the enemy is near. The three Ideon units launch in order to fight off the Buff Clan’s forces. Soon after they dock into the Ideon. The Ideon quickly destroys a Zigg Mack then launches its all missile attack against the Zlow Jicks. The Ideon returns to the Solo Ship deck. Aboard the Solo Ship bridge Sheryl tells Colbock about the Ide and how it powers the Ideon. Colbock tells Sheryl that Gloria is on the Moon base, Moonland. Daram and Gije watch footage of the recent battle, revealing the Ideon to be stronger than ever. Daram orders an attack on Moonland from three sides. As the Ideon heads out to battle again, Bes and Sheryl ask Cosmo to guard Sheryl’s craft as she heads down to Moonland. Cosmo is still feeling pain from his injury. Sheryl and Colbock’s craft heads over towards Moonland. Bes is upset at the lack of reinforcements from the military sent to the Moon. Daram feels that this means that Earth couldn’t be the home planet of the Solo Ship crew, but Gije notes that meteors have been falling on this planet just like their’s. Gije tells Daram he’ll head out again on the Galbo Jick. Sheryl, Colbock and Joliver land on Moonland and head into the computer center there.
Cosmo plans to pull the enemy back from the Moon in order to give Sheryl more time. Sheryl, Colbock and Joliver take advantage of the chaos to head through the computer center unnoticed and they reach the room with Gloria. Sheryl and Colbock input a data tape into Gloria to analyze their data on the Ide. The Galbo Jick heads out and immediately grabs ahold of the Ideo-Delta. The Ideo-Delta soon breaks free and approaches the other two Ideon units. Gije takes the opportunity to launch another Gel attack on them. The Solo Ship drives itself right into the Galbo Jick, stopping the attack. Gloria completes its analysis of the tape, saying that the Ide’s energy is infinite. Sheryl prepares to analyze the Ide’s system when guards arrive. While struggling with the guards Colbock is shot and killed. Joliver tosses a pellet with knockout gas at the guards, enabling him and Sheryl to escape. The Galbo Jick knocks the Ideon into the Moon. The Galbo Jick, kicked by the Ideon, splits into three units as it continues to fight. The main unit is destroyed by another kick from the Ideon and Gije is forced to escape in an escape capsule. The capsule crashes on the Moon and everyone aboard except for Gije is killed when it blows up. Aboard the Gerowa Zan an upset Daram decides to abandon Gije due to his failures and the Gerowa Zan heads into Null Space. Gije realizes that he’s been abandoned by Daram. Sheryl cries over Colbock’s death as Cosmo arrives. Later aboard the Solo Ship bridge Kasha poses the question about whether they’re still happy to see the Earth. Bes and Sheryl are upset over the Earth Union military’s lack of support shown towards Moonland. Joliver and Sheryl explain that the Ide’s power is infinite. Sheryl explains how the Ide is comprised of the consciousness of hundreds of millions of people from the Sixth Civilization and that if not used correctly, it has the potential to cause ultimate destruction. Cosmo asks why she hasn’t been able to comprehend the Ideon’s control system. Sheryl says they can’t go back to Moonland after what happened with Colbock. Joliver volunteers to explain things. He explains how the ‘Ideonite’ material on the Solo Ship confines the will of the Sixth Civilization, also known as the Ide energy. He explains that the Ideon originally awoke due to the self-defensive instincts of those on Solo. He says that the Ide will protect them as long as they continue to have that mindset. Cosmo asks if there’s harm in having too much of a self-preservation instinct. Karala explains that the Ide will destroy others to prevent them from invading its own existence, and perhaps that’s why the Sixth Civilization was wiped out. She wonders the Sixth Civilization went extinct because they were unable to control it. Another meteor falls towards the Earth.
The action has moved to the Earth sphere and this episode features a pair of battles played out around the Moon. Strangely enough, the Earth military refuses to send any help to those on the Moon, and pose an attitude to the Solo Ship similar to that posed by Ajian and Kyaral. Gije has seemingly been abandoned by Daram and is stranded on the Moon, which will cause some major developments over the next few episodes. Sheryl befriends Colbock from the Science Academy only for him to die before the episode is even over in typical Tomino fashion. Also interesting of note is that the show gets a new eyecatch starting with this episode which shows the Ideon firing the Wave Leader Gun which will make its first appearance in the next episode. Finally, this episode includes a long explanation of the Ide at the end of the episode based on Sheryl’s use of the Gloria computer. Not only is the Ide’s power infinite, but it also has the power to cause the destruction of the entire universe. It is also revealed the Ide is actually the merged consciousness of millions from the Sixth Civilization and the reasons behind the behavior of the Ide are also explained, somewhat. This concept would inspire Hideaki Anno approximately 15 years later in Evangelion. The large number of plot developments and excellent animation make this episode easily the best in the series so far.
Ideon Info
Director(s):
Yoshiyuki Tomino
Toshifumi Takizawa (movie 2)
Writer(s):
Sukehiro Tomita
Ken’ichi Matsuzaki
Yuuji Watanabe
Hiroyasu Yamaura
Arata Koga
Mechanical Designer(s):
Submarine
Kunio Okawara
Character Designer:
Tomonori Kogawa
Musical Composer:
Koichi Sugiyama
Format:
39 episodes; 2 movies
Airdates:
Japan 05.08.1980 – 01.30.1981
Theatrical Release:
Japan 07.10.1982 – 08.10.1982
MAHQ is now officially on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mahqdotnet.bsky.social.
Our future on this cursed app is unclear, but expect more posts over there.
Cutaway diagram of the VF-1J Valkyrie Fighter Mode from “This is Animation Special: Macross Plus”(1995). Larger versions on my DA profile:
https://www.deviantart.com/marchly/art/Macross-VF-1J-Valkyrie-Cutaway-Diagram-detailed-973372931
https://www.deviantart.com/marchly/art/Macross-VF-1J-Valkyrie-Cutaway-Diagram-clean-973371729
Art by Kiyomi Tanaka. Original concept by unknown Macross fan. Image built by me
#Gundamn278; Next Episode! With our special guest, Sophia, we finally tackle the second half of the latest chapter of the #Gundam Franchise; #WitchFromMercury! Join us live on 07/20/2023 @ 10:15 p EDT! #MAHQ #Mecha #Anime #Podcast #G_Witch
Live Stream: https://youtube.com/live/fqw4pnuOYF4?feature=share
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