The first time I watched Ideon, I approached it in the way that is generally recommended, namely by watching all of the TV series except the final episode, and then Be Invoked. I was curious about A Contact though, since I wondered how you summarise 38 TV episodes in a 90-minute compilation movie. The answer is that you do so with great difficulty. The Ideon TV series goes through three basic phases. The first several episodes do a good job of setting up the premise and establishing the conflicts. Most of the subsequent episodes up through the teens are repetitive filler. Then, after a recap episodearound episode 22, it really starts to feel like a show by the guy who brought us Gundam, and that's where it gets good. Unfortunately, A Contact focuses almost entirely on the first half of the series, with its climax being somewhere around episode 25, I think.

To say that the editing in A Contact is choppy would be an understatement. The opening section doesn't make it clear who people are or where the Ideon came from. Events or characters get mentioned once, but never seen. Continuity is thrown to the wolves. On the plus side, it does carve out a fairly comprehensible story arc overall by focusing on Karala, sprinkles in action at the right places, axes all of the repetition from the first half of the series, and actually does a better job than the TV series when it comes to clearly explaining the true nature of the Ideon's power. It's just a shame that the film omits the most memorable occasions of the Ideon unleashing that power. The clearer explanation also worked against the atmosphere a bit, since there were some eerie unknowns about the Ideon.

Considering the way A Contact is structured, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were originally plans to release two compilation movies before getting to Be Invoked. There are just enough threads put in places to connect A Contact to the finale, but this compilation is definitely not how I'd recommend experiencing Space Runaway Ideon.