The Ideon: Be Invoked ran so End of Evangelion could fly.

i haven't been THIS slackjawed at anything anime since my first watch of End of Evangelion several years ago.

absolutely masterful. the best payoff i've gotten from the groundwork of a preceding TV show tie-in since motherfucking Fire Walk with Me. it's THAT amazing.

the sheer amount of emotions this film puts you through as it boils to a mind-melting fever point is overWHELMING. the previous 39 (well, 38 really if we have to discount the final episode) episodes completely lull us into believing in the in-world plot armor; everyone on board the Solo Ship and the Ideon are protected.

there's never been a situation where they would die or be harmed. so when that plot armor is stripped away, and we see MAIN CHARACTERS and fucking TODDLERS getting their heads blown off, brains splattered by shrapnel, the shit is absolutely horrific. it doesn't even need to be overtly gory or bloody (in fact, some deaths are quite beautiful) to evoke gutting feelings of despair/disgust as everyone is slaughtered to the bitter end.

it doesn't help that this film takes extra, extra, extra care to humanize literally EVERYONE with momentary character moments/beats on both sides. every protagonist has a moment and interactions, every notable side character. we start to care for them in this film even more than we did in the entire run of the preceding show.

and of course it's at the end, even when we've identified and felt pity for the villainous Buff Clan leader, that's when the plot armor is ripped off and everyone, EVERYONE, starts getting picked off one at a time through a series of near-graphic deaths. apocalypse wrought by hellfire.

it's a truly dreadful experience.

but then, when you think it's all over, the film completely turns itself end over end and becomes a transcendent spiritual spectacle complete with intercut live action footage, a powerful 2001 homage, and several minutes of an ethereal choral/symphonic closing suite.

it's an emotional whiplash that eventually leaves you in a transfixed, arresting catharsis. i haven't felt this way in years about any film, anime or otherwise.

there's much to be said about its overt allusions to the Freudian psychoanalytic theories regarding Id, or the Judeo-Christian overtones in its infamous Kill-Em-All Tomino ending (which Hideaki Anno more than obviously took many cues from), but the best thing about the ending is it doesn't just speak or preach or babble about these philosophic ideas, instead it just shows us.

again, just like Kubrick's 2001, Be Invoked takes larger-than-life ideologies, philosophies, and theories and strips all the jargon away to instead present it in its most raw form using the primary vessel for ideas in the medium of film: visuals.

with all of those layers working in tandem, Tomino succeeds in weaving an experience that isn't just a suckerpunch to the gut, but a veritable barrage that assaults every key emotional and cerebral point in your soul.

truly larger than life, a masterpiece through and through. a film that i find myself running out of superlatives to describe.

between this and Do You Remember Love? it's now obvious to me that 80s Japan has created the best space operas of all time outside of Star Wars.