Courtesy of those nice people at Hidive, you can now stream episodes of the anime classic Space Runaway Ideon.
Ideon was a fascinating and very different anime, directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino it followed on from his success with Mobile Suit Gundam.
However, while Gundam started the real robot boom, Ideon went back to a more super robot type approach while still imbuing the setting with strong science fiction elements.
The setting has humanity colonizing the stars and discovering the remnants of an ancient alien civilization, among which is the Ideon.
Comprised of several vehicles it can combine into a giant and very powerful mecha. However, we are not the only ones that want the power of the Ideon and an alien race called the Buff Clan are determined to wield the power of the Ideon for themselves.
Ideon was also one of Tomino’s bleakest and darkest animated works, it also features one of the most powerful mecha ever conceived, that of the titular Ideon.
One of its “weaker” attacks is the Ideon Sword that is unleashed from its wrists. While it is initially able to scythe through most opponents, it eventually ends up cutting a planet in half.
Then there is the Ideon Gun, which can wipe out large sections of the galaxy. So as you can imagine, the Ideon plays merry havoc in whatever Super Robot Wars game it ends up being featured in (shown above).
In addition, the darker tone and very high body count is something that has made Ideon stand out over the years and even helped to inspire later anime works such as Neon Genesis Evangelion.
While it seems that Hidive is streaming the TV series, it’s not clear whether the two later movies will be made available as well, that of A Contact and Be Invoked.
For the time being though, you can officially watch Ideon online and that is a wonderful thing.
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