The Big O

Paradigm City, a city of amnesia and a place of belonging. It remains populated by forgotten pasts and the ruins of their labors due to a calamity 40 years ago. Shrouded in a fog-like mystery, it is up to people like Roger Smith to shine a light through the mist. Acting as a professional negotiator and suave agent, Roger is a self-tailored ladies man whose only love is for funeral black. However, as he gets deeply involved with his clients, what often starts as a simple negotiation evolves into Roger saving Paradigm from crime and peril.

In the process, Roger stumbles even deeper into the untold folds of the city. As a rule, things are hardly ever as they appear. Serving as gray knight in a gray world, Roger is not without allies. By his side are Norman, a loyal and widely skilled butler, and Dorothy, a human-like android with deadpan snark. Together with the relic Big O, a jet-black mecha of gargantuan size and weight, they help Roger serve iron justice to Paradigm's lurking villains as he discovers the truth about 40 years ago.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Wayneright, R. Dorothy Main

Yajima, Akiko Japanese

Smith, Roger Main

Miyamoto, Mitsuru Japanese

Burg, Norman Main

Kiyokawa, Motomu Japanese

Rosewater, Angel Main

Shinohara, Emi Japanese

Seebach, Michael Supporting

Hori, Katsunosuke Japanese

Beck, Jason Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu Japanese

Dastun, Dan Supporting

Genda, Tesshou Japanese

Big Ear Supporting

Tsuji, Shinpachi Japanese

Gabriel, Alan Supporting

Futamata, Issei Japanese

Frederick O'Reilly , R. Supporting

Tanaka, Nobuo Japanese

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Katayama, Kazuyoshi Director, Episode Director, Script, Storyboard, Screenplay

Tsuruoka, Youta Sound Director

Nakamura, Kenji Episode Director

Reviews

Jul 12, 2024

Thebruhhomie

Recommended

-The Big O short review.-


Extremely unique premise and world with tons of style, great animation, a unique art style, great story boarding, and fantastic music to back it up.


Suave and cool characters with tons of charisma, and thematically it does a pretty good reflection, in a cool and smart meta way, on the idea of memories and how it makes us perceive reality by exploring the existential crisis that comes with having no memories as well as playing and blurring the line between what’s real and not in the narrative while, cleverly, not giving a solid answer in the whole final arc of the show ... and at the same time delivering a solid message despite many of the concrete mysteries of the plot not getting resolved.


Wild, dreamlike stuff, but expected from Chiaki J. Konaka.


Unfortunately, the second half feels more unfocused than the first, the animation takes a hit as well, and some character arcs feel rushed while other characters feel like they were forgotten halfway through (Dorothy, unfortunately).


It also features some dumb plot holes and some big contrivances here and there.


But overall pretty good, better first half, and episodes 13 and 14 are masterpieces.


Bye bye.


Thanks for reading.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 25, 2024

ajc228

Mixed Feelings

The first season functions as a pastiche of noir, giallo, mecha anime and 60s tokusatsu programs. It blends elements of pulp fiction with Lovecraftian undertones. The mostly episodic adventures range from detective fiction to kaiju and climax with a giant robot battle. The robot fights are dynamic and provide novelty by having the titular mech reveal a special move or hidden weapon to defeat each enemy.
The show drops hints about the mysteries of Paradigm city and the reasons for its’ residents losing their memory. While it never answers these questions, they mainly function to evoke a certain mood. Part ... of the fun lies in the ambiguity and confusion. It carries a David Lynch-like quality where solving the mystery is not as important as the tone and themes it imparts.
The second season feels like less like a cohesive pastiche of different genres and more of a retread of the first season. In addition, it focuses more on solving mysteries that have no satisfying answers. It repeats stories, ideas, and themes of the first season with diminished results. The change in story focus and shift to more metatextual content alters the tone and makes the series less fun to watch. What was once a breezy series of adventures becomes a navel-gazey bore.
There are two reasons for the change: First, Chiaki J. Konaka writes all the scripts for the second season. Second, it was intended to end on a cliffhanger to give the mood of an older serialized program. When Cartoon Network produced another season, the writer had to contradict/undo story elements from the original show to continue the story. Another major issue is the animation switches from traditional cel animation to early digipaint. Characters are given subtle but noticeable redesigns. The earlier aesthetic that took inspiration from Bruce Timm and the more rounded features of 60s manga becomes more streamlined and angular. While the animation never takes a nosedive it takes more shortcuts and features less of the fluid mechanical animation seen in season 1. The end result is a very mixed bag of plot points and characters moments that only work some of the time.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Aug 9, 2022

Ciaran_Zagami

Not Recommended

I really want to recommend this anime

Its got a lot going for it.

Great animation, great music, great action, good characters, an awesome and mysterious setting.

In fact everything is basically perfect.

So why the hesitation? It's not really something I can talk about with out spoiling the entire series and that is REALLY something I don't want to do.

... If you even remotely think this series sounds interesting I highly encourage you to give it a try.
For the rest of you, abandon all hope of avoiding spoilers.





All my problems stem from the ending.
I think its supposed to be some weird cosmic reality bending thing. Where god herself in the form of Angel/Big Venus decides to reset reality to the series start. But this time she will retain her memories and allow everyone's lives to go on unaltered. Allowing them to live free, possibly within a giant stage Mario 3 style.

And thats just.

Well its stupid.

The only character who gets to grow, who gets to remember the world and change as a person. To move on with her life is Angel.
And I don't like her.
All my favourite characters get reset. Beck's crime sprees don't matter, Dastun and his men's bad ass final stand never happened, Dorothy's dad never died, the butler never went full John Wick on some robot spiders.

Nothing grows, nothing changes, nothing maters. The series just resets. Again. And implies that more resets are inevitable, perhaps a subtle commentary on the nature of fiction and inviting the viewer to come back some day.

But anyone who knows me, or has read my other reviews knows I find that kind of thing utterly contemptible. It is, in the simplest words I can manage. Lazy.

Even if only imagined, events must have stakes. Risk verse reward and the possibility of change. Else it becomes meaningless.

In short, my feelings on Big O are deeply paradoxical. I love so much about it but I cannot accept the generic and intensely melancholic "the show must go on" style ending.

The manga allegedly has a much better ending, as I'm given to understand. In the manga Roger doesn't debate the ethics of resetting the world. Instead he fights against it and in the end prevails, insuring that even if no one has a past. The human collective has a future, one that cannot be erased by some generic blond in a hot pink catsuit.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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