Super robots and spirituality

[Dai]

I just watched Ideon: Be Invoked, the movie conclusion to Space Runaway Ideon, the super robot anime that Yoshiyuki Tomino made in 1980-82, immediately after his original Gundam series. I'm stunned, frankly. I knew that the show--and especially the movie--had a reputation for being grim, but I was startled by both the matter-of-fact way it handled its violence and just how resonant Tomino managed to make his themes of war's self-defeating futility in a show ostensibly about three oversized trucks that combine into a big red robot.



In some ways, you could consider Ideon an anti-super robot show. Unlike grounded, 'real world' mecha shows like the Universal Century Gundam series, Patlabor, or Votoms, the popular image of super robots is as straightforward power fantasies for 10-year-olds. Ideon appears to start out this way, only to turn it on its head by the end. The story increasingly becomes more reminiscent of Urotsukidoji's apocalyptic visions (thankfully without the tentacles) than something like Tetsujin No.28.



And yet, it's far from the only super robot show to do this, almost to the extent that the anti-super robot has become the true super robot. Evangelion, RahXephon, Gurren Lagann, Getter Robo Armageddon: they all start out with action-figure-friendly robots punching each other, and culminate in metaphorical or literal rituals that reshape life as we know it. Then you have something like the 90s Giant Robo, which both revels in and subverts classic super robot tropes.

I'm curious to know which other super robot anime have gone down a route like this, which you thought handled their deeper themes most effectively, and especially where the trend started. I'd guess something from Go Nagai in the 70s was the first, but I haven't seen much anime from that period, so I don't know what. Any thoughts?

[O.Supreme]

Yeah I'd definitely say Ideon got the jump on NGE, there just was no internet back them for everyone to jump on and claim its grimdark ending was THE BEST EVAR!!!!.

I really enjoy a lot of Go Nagai's 70's stuff mostly because it was tempered to a degree. Sure there was some tragedy, but it usually ended on a positive note (at least his super robot stuff, cant speak too much as far as Devilman, Cutey Honey etc... since I'm not a fan of that sort of anime).

I guess I'm an old fashioned sucker for a good ending and positive upbeat vibes, which is why I can watch Super Robot shows like GaoGaiGar over and over again. The original trilogy of Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger, and Grendizer will always ben some of my favorites. The newer series are ok, but you can definitely see a darker edge to them, whihc is tough to watch sometimes, especially things like Getter Robo Armageddon, New Getter Robo, and Mazinkaiser SKL.

[lhb412]

How does it go? Something like: "With Mazinger Z you can become a god or a devil?"

[Dai]

[lhb412]

^ Maybe when Go Nagai wrote those words he was already ruminating on the themes that would make up Devilman?