#254: Zone of the Enders - 2167 Idolo (2001)

 

Studio: Sunrise

Director: Tetsuya Watanabe

Screenplay: Shin Yoshida

Based on the videogame franchise by Konami

Voice Cast: Takehito Koyasu as Second Lieutenant Radium Lavans; Chiharu Tezuka as Viola; Houko Kuwashima as Dolores; Rumi Ochiai as Melissa; Yoshiko Sakakibara as Dr. Rachel Links

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

Idolo as a tie-in does suffer from the issue that, separated from its source, you are aware of the wider franchise it can grow with or lost virtue from, and the inherent concern that if the rest of the multi-media franchise is forgotten, these type of tie-ins rarely get re-released. Only months after this was released, the 2001 animated series Zone of the Enders: Dolores,i was already being broadcast, so there was a considerable push for adapting in animated form the world of Zone of the Enders, a videogame released that year in a big marketing push. Set in a future Earth and its relationship to other colonies, which Idolo deals with from the Martian colony, Z.O.E. as abbreviated was sold as a killer app from Konami for the Sony Playstation 2, a big cultural phenomenon within itself as a videogame machine riding the height of the original Playstation. Zone of the Enders even had Hideo Kojima as a collaborator, which would have hyped the game even in the West when it was released. Ironically though, the legacy of this franchise is more likely held by Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (2003), which was a much larger work in scale, length and virtues for critics, even having animated cut scenes sourced to studio GONZO.

Obviously, in context to this, Idolo is a tie-in meant to sell the first game as well as expand the story with a prologue, in this case setting up an enticing premise in its sleight original-video-animation length of fifty minutes. That it is produced by Sunrise, the Gundam creators and frequent studio for robot and mecha animation, offers an enticing prospect too this merely touches on. In the future, whilst we have colonised the galaxy there is also unfortunately bigotry, in this case to oppression of those humans born on Mars by Earth, who treat them as second class citizens least when it comes to their army on Mars even beating up Martian soldiers for fun, worse as being born on Martian gravity causes Earthlings to have an advantage in incredible strength. What is enticing to this anime, and is a slight spoiler, is knowledge that this is actually a prologue from the perspective of the future antagonists of the first video game. This sets up the BAHRAM, the military force that will invade and destroy the Jupiter colony the first game's lead survives, setting them up from the perspective that BAHRAM are the product of previous evils; colonial discrimination of the Earth forces sets forth those in this story, lead character and soldier Radium and the character of Viola, one of the more important characters herself from the first game, as those fighting back oppression only to become a destructive force in the future of the narrative. That in itself is really interesting, and this Idolo prologue in itself is tantalising in what you get as, whilst none of this is subtly told, it is a context distinct to tell this narrative from, as wishing to free themselves of the Earthlings, scientists on Mars are covertly developing the titular Idolo, a mecha built from the mysterious material Metatron, which presents a dangerous result both to how it influences the pilot and when the Earth forces catch wind of this machine, wanting to claim it for themselves.

As a piece of a full multi-media project, including that there is a twenty six episode television series which runs from Idolo, set before and after the 2001 game, Idolo does suffer from the fact that it is a slight story, where the scenario is  a prologue to a wider document. As a one-off by itself, I credit this with doing a lot to stand out; it does not, truthfully, have as much visual punch as one could wish for at times but including its bleak ending, which sets up the necessary context for later parts, it has a lot to admire. As a prologue to a larger work, it cannot go further, but beyond this there is a lot to admire in terms of the boldness of its story, as Radium's tale is there are someone being more controlled by the Idolo by its special properties, and simply the entire idea of this being a prologue to the antagonists of this franchise is something distinct, as it forces context of how even villainous figures can be moulded by similarly villainous acts, moral complexity something to admire when done like this and actually succeeding in its little form. Violet in particular, without additional context, would be left a character you wish was developed more, a figure harmed by the evils of the Earth forces, including being a victim as a child of "Space Radiation Sickness", causes by an Earth terrorist attack on Mars' colonies, but who even if a mere fragment has the fascination of where her arch is intended to go. Her emotional attachment to Radium, who brought her into the Special Forces after she tried attacking him on the street as a confused young woman, will become a huge emotional trajectory with the bleak outcome of this story, which does get even some visually striking aspects and a twisted bleakness when it involves the artificial intelligence taking personalities and a hallucinated wedding reception. Considering what the epilogue in the future brings up, and whom Violet comes in the franchise, a key antagonist for the first game and the franchise, and this proves one of Idolo's best aspects.

Even in terms of production, whilst the look and style of the show is not the most elaborate, it is solid, and the music especially by Hikaru Nanase is a stand out from this project, alongside "Kiss Me Sunlight" by Heart of Air as the ending theme a little gem, the group collaborators through this franchise.  Idolo is tethered to this franchise, with its director and key screenwriter continuing with the television series, and these adaptations are obscurer nowadays whilst the games were well regarded. The Zone of the Enders HD Collection in 2012 preserved both games, but it is Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner, the sequel which continues this narrative, which clearly left a huge mark for many, including a remaster, called The 2nd Runner M∀RS, which was released in September 2018 for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 4. This does place concern that Idolo is forgotten among this, which is a shame as, in terms of what it was meant to achieve, it does a commendable job. The series, which follows on with this its own prologue, is an entirely different narrative structure in length, and has new challenges as a long form narrative to deal with, but Idolo by itself, as the only one, would have been commendable as a one-off tie-in worth resurrecting.