The Ideon - Be Invoked

A truly apocalyptic take on intergalactic warfare, Yoshiyuki Tomino's The Ideon - Be Invoked functions as a corrected and expanded conclusion to the Space Runaway Ideon television series, freed from budgetary and, quite apparently, the decency constraints inherent to the small screen. Be Invoked goes far beyond the special effects skirmishes of its nearest live action contemporaries; the scale here is both massive and completely despairing. Dozens of planets are pulverised in the crossfire between the Solo spaceship and the pursuing Buff Clan. The calamity these warring factions generate is not constrained to their deep space front line either, the universe itself is being shook apart. 

Multiple sentient civilisations - including both belligerents' home planets - are battered to dust by meteors, the cosmos itself objecting to their ever-expanding conflict. Where other space operas give us a glimpse of the brief hot spots that bubble up during never-ending cold wars, Be Invoked goes much further, depicting the depressed mania that drives two species towards mutually assured destruction. The attacks on the Solo craft - the prehistoric battery that holds the mysterious power of Ide - come in unrelenting waves. The now derelict Buff Clan hurl every remaining member of their race into a suicidal war with an insanely powerful robot and the crew of a reality skipping spaceship. 

Be Invoked's death toll is easily in the millions; the hero characters aren't immune either. Tomino wrongfoots his audience at one crucial point, quickly reversing a fatal outcome for a pregnant, plot relevant, Princess and the high-ranking naval officer attempting to protect her. Once we are reassured that our favourites will remain shielded and safe, Tomino begins running rampant through his cast. No-one is safe from an instant, distressing, end. Not civilians or medical officers; not child soldiers or even, in one horrifying instance, a distracted toddler. Be Invoked takes the churning bones of a big mech battle show - the merchandisable machinery and a cast packed with adolescents - then removes all sense of safety, steering the series towards a genuinely astonishing outcome.