IdeonReviews

Ideon Ep. 39: In the Cosmos With You

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Summary

Karala brings food to Joliver and some of the other technicians in the engine room. Karala feels pain in her abdomen. Suddenly, the Ideon gauge glows strangely and the Solo Ship speeds up greatly. The crew is unable to move due to it traveling so fast. Suddenly, the ship comes to a complete stop. The Ideon gauge glows strangely again. An odd light glows around Karala. Joliver runs towards her and they are both transported away from the Solo Ship. Bento tells Bes about them disappearing. Bes is skeptical and tells him to keep looking around for them. Cosmo and Kasha wonder if the Buff Clan is behind this. A maniacal Sheryl says they’re simply in the palms of the Ide. The strange glow envelops the Bairal Jin as well and Karala and Joliver suddenly appear there in front of two Buff Clan soldiers. The two of them run away. An alarm is set off and many other soldiers head through the hallway. Heading through an elevator, the two of them are confronted by a soldier who is shocked to see it is Karala. Karala takes the opportunity to escape. Doba is told that it is Karala aboard the ship. Gindoro confirms it through a surveillance video. Karala wonders if this is her father’s battleship and says she would like to meet him. Their elevator stops where armed soldiers are waiting for them. Doba and Gindoro walk into the hallway. The Ide shows the Solo Ship an image of the Bairal Jin. Karala tells Doba that the Ide brought her here to use her as a messenger. Doba blames Karala for the deaths of thousands of his soldiers. Doba and Joliver are surprised to realize that they can understand each other’s words. Hatari analyzes the Ide to track down Karala and Joliver. Karala tells Doba that fighting will only increase the power of the Ide and says it will increase the meteors falling on their homeworld. Doba blames it on the Solo Ship. Karala says that Earthlings and the Buff Clan can grow to understand each other and that proof of that is a baby inside her. Angered by the news, Doba attacks Karala with a laser sword. Joliver jumps in the way and is injured. Karala grabs Joliver’s laser and points it at Doba. Karala and Joliver escape. Doba tells his soldiers to kill Karala once they find her.

Karala and Joliver continue to head through the halls of the Bairal Jin and hide from the soldiers. They find the Heavy Mobile Mecha hangar and defeat the soldiers there chasing them. Doba orders his soldiers to find out the source of the recent tremors occurring around the Bairal Jin. Suddenly the Solo Ship departs from DS space right in front of the Bairal Jin and rams right into it. The Buff Clan’s forces approach the Solo Ship and the Ideon heads out to fight them. Karala and Joliver, putting on spacesuits, realize that the Solo Ship has come to rescue them. They leave the dock but are still pursued by some soldiers. Cosmo tells the Solo Ship to keep the Ideon Gun since they wouldn’t be able to use it here. Bes and Hatari are able to find Karala and Joliver. A strange light glows from Karala’s abdomen. Bes heads to one of the Solo Ship’s cannons to help Karala. He fires upon the soldiers pursuing her and Joliver. They make their way to a small Buff Clan shuttle. The Ideon uses its ‘All Missiles’ attack on the enemy. Joliver tells Karala she’s gotten stronger. They head out in the shuttle. Bes tells Hatari to pull back the Solo Ship and have the Ideon protect Karala and Joliver. Cosmo brings the Ideon towards their shuttle, but it is blown up by a stray blast seconds before the Ideon reaches it. Cosmo curses the Buff Clan over Karala and Joliver’s apparent deaths. Doba and Gindoro are able to hear him. Bes asks Hatari where Lou is. Hatari says the Ideon gauge has returned to normal. Bes says to reverse the thrusters and escape. Doba is upset at his force’s lack of success against the enemy. Suddenly a glowing light appears in front of the Ideon. It is Karala and Joliver, unharmed. The Ideon grabs them and heads back towards the Solo Ship. Cosmo tells Bes and Hatari the good news. Joliver tells Karala she’s a great woman and that he’d try to be with her if she wasn’t with Bes already. The Solo Ship escapes into Null Space. Doba orders his forces to track down the Solo Ship, even if they have to go to the end of the universe. At that moment, the Ide was invoked. Yet another strange light envelops the Solo Ship. Doba and Karala’s encounter was the last chance humanity had, and both sides rejected it. The Ide released its infinite power, using Karala’s baby as the trigger. The souls of Piper Lou and Karala’s baby then travel through space.

Commentary

No, you didn’t read wrong, that’s how the show ends. The first nine tenths of this episode come across quite well. The Ide transports Karala and Joliver to the Bairal Jin, where Karala has the opportunity to confront her father. It is revealed that she is pregnant with Bes’s baby. During their escape Karala and Joliver are seemingly killed, only for the Ide’s power to protect them. Things look to be moving towards an exciting climax… then it just ends. The ending narration explained that essentially Doba and Karala’s encounter was humanity’s last chance, and because they didn’t take it, the Ide wiped out humanity. None of which we see of course because there was only two minutes left of the series when this occurred. To say the ending of Ideon TV is a disappointment is an understatement. However, the creators had a good excuse. Like Gundam the year before, Ideon was cancelled prematurely. With Gundam, Tomino got a four episode extension to resolve the show. He assumed the same would happen with Ideon. It didn’t. Thus, the entire final four episodes of the show had to be combined into the final two minutes of this episode, with disastrous results. Luckily, in 1982 the creators had a chance to make two movies to wrap up Ideon properly.

Overall Rating
4.5/5

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

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