So my probing of HiDive's US offerings resulted in another unexpected return to an unfinished series, so strap yourselves back in because it's time to relaunch:
Space Runaway Idevangelion: Episodes 9-16 rewatch(?)
"Did you come here to laugh at me?" edition
Sadly for the meantime without comedy screencaps, since streaming makes that rather difficult. I'd definately seen most of these before, but it was helpful to go back a bit to remind myself what the hell was going on when I last left the crew of the Solo Ship and yeah, they were blowing up dinosaurs and stuff, pretty standard fare for the era.
I wouldn't forget Lady Harulu's arrival, obviously; sipping her wine, superior smirk to the camera, haircut as sharp as her jawline. Tomino seems fond of these ruthless female antagonists, she's clearly the Haman/Kycillia of the series (although Sheryl is already doing a pretty good job of filling that role from the other side) but given Ideon's reputation as a more brutal show
and the fact she's introduced basically ordering one of subordinates to violate her own sister (and also ordering everyone else to laugh at this, which they nervously comply with) I wonder if she might even be closer to
Last Exile's Delphine, which would really be worth sticking around for.
In fact, the female characters in Ideon are easily the most interesting all around so far. Bes might be an honorable man, but he's actually a pretty crap leader and it's obviously Sheryl who is actually making most of the decisions for the Solo Ship, just as Harulu is for the Buff Clan. And for all his bravado, Cosmo would be pretty lost without Kasha, who he's obviously developed a much greater respect and appreciation for with her willingness to join the fight to the point they're almost forming their own competing leadership against Sheryl and Bes. And with Karala caught between being hated by Sheryl for being one of the enemy and by Harulu for being a traitor (despite being probably the nicest person in the show) it does really seem to be the women of Ideon who are mainly driving the story.
There were hints of this earlier, but I'm definately noticing the aspects of the show that went on to influence Eva creep in in a much more obvious way now - Not only do we have Sheryl installing equipment to measure the kids' mental states during their connection to the mysterious Ideon (which they still understand next to nothing about) but an episode where Cosmo
acquires and then just as quickly loses a caring mother figure causing him to seriously lose it, and both he and Ideon appear to share a scream of both rage and torment in a shot clearly meant to evoke how terrifying a machine this is supposed to be, one that surely stuck with Hideaki Anno, because my immediate thought was
"It's gone berserk".
And perhaps this long wait to resume the series was worth it, because it finally clicked with me what one of the OST tracks reminds me of musically, and frankly it's perfect. If there's one thing that could improve Ideon, it would setting the space battles to
a ghost of memes past.
Buff Clan ist ein schönes Clan, Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!
[insert laughing Harulu pic here]