The Big O


It's nearly impossible this day and age to look anywhere without seeing a piece of nostalgia from our childhoods being brought back to life like a metaphorical zombie and shot up with enough adrenaline and moisturizer to where a whole new generation can experience what you did. My own childhood, as far as I can remember on my own, was filled with watching the same Disney movies on VHS over and over while ever rarely getting the chance to watch the TV on my own seeing as, well, we only had ONE TV and my father was very vocal about his dislike of cartoons. It wasn't until the early 2000s that I finally had a TV on my own. A decision my parents would deeply regret if they knew what I watched. Chapelle's Show, Family Guy, but most importantly, [adult swim] being beamed into my head when I was barely six years old. Ever since, I've been a fan of series like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, and Evangelion. But I don't remember WHY I liked them so much; why I've committed certain scenes and episodes to the backlogs of my memory despite RARELY ever watching these series in chronological order; just picking them up whenever I either stayed up that late or woke up early enough to catch what was on repeat like InuYasha and whatever else they happened to push back that night. Which was how I caught today's subject into my memory: The Big O.

The Big O was one of those series where I truly needed to re-watch again as an adult, because the brain dead kid I was never appreciated this show for what it truly was. Airing from 1999 to 2000, The Big O was one of the most western anime I had ever seen in my life and was radically different from everything I had ever seen at the time. The series is a tribute the film noir genre with its music, camera angles, lighting, and even old school tokusatsu series. 

Plot


The story follows Roger Smith (Steve Blum), the top negotiator in Paradigm City; a police state thought to be one of the last remnants of humanity. Roger handles everything from kidnappings to metaphysical crises (I'll explain that little number in a bit). Everyone in Paradigm City are the remaining survivors of a catastrophic event 40 years prior to the series where all memories of what happened and what caused it were gone. As such, memories have become the most precious commodity in the entire world. Anything and everything is risked by the various characters of the series to find something that can trigger memories of their pasts and what happened all those years ago. Assisted by the android R. Dorothy Wayneright (Lia Sergeant) and his butler Norman (Milton James/Alan Oppenheimer), Roger starts down a path to uncover the tragedy of 40 years ago. Roger is armed to the teeth with enough gadgets and tools to survive any situation. A kidnapping gone awry, and pyromaniac set to destroying the city, a giant robot robbing the local bank of its gold-




I'll explain. 

Paradigm City has an unfortunate pest control problem where occasionally, a giant mechanized threat appears from nowhere and begins wreaking havoc. Roger's answer? Summoning one of the best giant robots ever: the eponymous Big O, a mech that can only be used if its pilot is worthy enough. 

At its core, The Big O is a giant robot anime that follows an episodic format, where Roger has to take on a case that eventually leads to confronting a mech of some kind with a connection the mysterious Paradigm Group, the corporation that holds the last city of humanity in the palm of its hand; more specifically, its leader: Gordan Rosewater. 

Being a monster of the week series, its hard to really delve into the plot. But, each episode is amazingly paced with an intriguing mystery to keep you guessing over what the monster of the week is after and who's behind it. The dialogue and atmosphere keep you glued to the screen as you see these characters interact to solve the mystery of the day. Even if the answers are given, you just end up asking more questions and getting enticed to keep watching and figure out just what the Paradigm That, and the robot fights just bring out your inner super robot fan as you watch the Big O deliver one of its devastating Sudden Impact punches, the Arc Line lasers from its eyes, and if the monster is tough enough, bust out the devastating Chrome Buster. The Big O has the strangest combination of the film noir style and story telling mixed with these instances of the Megadeuses smashing through Paradigm City and it can be quite polarizing the first few times you see it. One moment, Roger is discussing the nature of memories and grasping metaphysical concepts, the next moment he's delivering action poses like he's straight out of a damn sentai. The show finds the perfect balance point of seriousness vs fun and it's absolutely enjoyable. That is until Season 2 when the metaphysical questions and themes take the steering wheel and careens the series into a painted-on-tunnel.

Production

On the production side of things, the design and art deco style complimented with the washed out palette of colors always keeps your eyes to the screen. If you're somewhat reminded of the classic Batman: The Animated Series, that's shouldn't come as any surprise as Sunrise Studious was a subcontractor for Warner Bros. Animation during BTAS's run. Roger's entire design and motif may as well be Batman with a giant robot, which I'll take any day.

Appreciated, but not quite the tone I'm looking for. 
 Making the art style stand out more is the music. The combination of electronica and jazz just soothes the soul as the piano and sax bounce off each other beautifully. And when the action needs to kick up, the music catches up with it with an immediate left turn into tracks that wouldn't sound out of place in a Godzilla movie. Even when the series makes an out of place comedic tune to match the hammier villains, it doesn't break the experience. Granted, the use of stock footage is abundant, but it can easily be looked over. The designs of the various mecha and titular Big O are amazing, taking a more practical approach to giant robots. Big O moves slow, destroys pretty much everything it goes through, and packs a wallop for its lack of speed. Then again, I do have to question how a giant robot nearly the size of the Empire State Building is able to lift off and travel as fast as a plane with two propellers just big enough to serve as hands.

Characters/Cast

Schwarzvald
In my earlier mention of the resemblances to BTAS that The Big O has, that also includes its cast. Not a literal manner, but enough to where you can see the resemblances and enjoy them. Roger Smith is easily one of my favorite characters; the man's canny and cynical nature wouldn't look out of place in a detective novel. And its rare these days to find a main character who's an actual adult, something I miss about older anime. Being voiced by the legend Steve Blum himself just adds more glory to it. Dorothy's deadpan back and forth with Roger is always appreciated, and you'd be surprised by how much emotion can go into a robot's voice, with special thanks to Lia Sargent. Wendee Lee makes a to-no-one's-surprise-appearance as the elusive Angel, a femme fatale Roger encounters with her own agenda among the various conspiracies going on. The antagonists of our series has the rotation of Roger's rogues gallery, which includes: Alan Gabriel, the kill-happy cyborg played insanely by Crisping Freeman (MAN WAS THAT OUT OF NOWHERE), Jason Beck (Bob Buchholz), the wannabe supervillain genius and resident Lupin III parody, Schwarzwald, the mad conspiracy theorist in one of Michael McConnohie's best roles, and finally the head of the Paradigm Group, Alex Rosewater (Michael Forest). The revolving cast of side characters with their own histories coupled with Roger's rogues gallery makes every episode a wonderful experience. No character feels out of place, useless, or drags the plot or take up too much time. Until a certain villain from Season 2.
Alan Gabriel
Jason Beck




Angel






Alex Rosewater













Unfortunately, when the series initially aired, it did poorly in Japan, and the planned 26 episodes was cut to 13, the final episode came and went on a cliffhanger ending. A sad fate of a once fantastic anime. But, this series did so well in America (a common theme among other "western" themed anime such as Bebop and Trigun), that Cartoon Network rolled the dice and funded a second season to be co-produced by Sunrise, Bandai Visual, and CN three years after the original series ended. What we got wasn't able to live up to the first season. The Big O lost a lot of its charm when the second season was made. Season 2 took the questions about Paradigm, the event 40 years prior, the Big O, and all the other conspiracies and wrapped them into so many layers of different questions and possible realities, you're left with your head spinning and asking yourself: "what the hell did I just watch"? Is this all an illusion? Are we just actors on a stage? Are memories real? Are we real? Basically the show went so far up its ass that the Matrix is having a hard time keeping up with how much brown both productions can get on their noses. A small detail, but the switch to digital art did lose a bit of the rustic charm of the show, but its nothing that can be blamed on anyone; just a change in production that was inevitable.



While Season 2, on its own, wasn't bad, I'm mostly focusing on the final episode, where all our questions are very nearly answered...! Until the last five minutes where EVERYTHING gets thrown out of whack. Who's to blame for the ending? A combination of two things, it seems. In an interview with CHO Japan in 2013, series creator and director Kazuyoshi Katayama stated that Cartoon Network wanted two things with the new season: more action, and more answers. The man never intended to reveal everything, leaving the series open ended and with no conclusion. Which, in practice, is fine. A medium, film, anime or book, does not need to give you all the answers. Sometimes the crackpot theories that fans make was the intention. But, the Katayama compromised and we got...episode 26. Questions we had? Some were answered. More questions raised than ever? Absolutely and annoyingly so. Sometimes, we as an audience do need answers to what the medium is presenting when the medium gives the promise of a resolution, but never follows through with it, Was CN to blame for wanting the creator to compromise their vision, or was the compromise? No one can say, and it was sad to see a once amazing series go down as it did. There was also a rumor that a Season 3 was going to be approved as well with an additional 26 episodes that fell through when Season 2 didn't do to well.

But, even with Season 2's crash and burn, The Big O as a whole is still an amazing series and one of my favorite anime, easily among my top 10. The atmosphere is among the most gripping things about this anime. The art is great, the music enthralling and memorable, the characters well done, the mysteries tight and strong.Going down this path of memory lane, re-experiencing the great anime that shaped my taste today (barring InuYasha) shows just how important memories really are. To finally understand and appreciate just WHAT I watched when I was a kid is a joy. What was once a struggle to stay up all night to catch these shows is easier than ever with today's media. Unfortunately, with Bandai Entertainment's collapse in the west, we may never see The Big O stomping on our giant TVs today. While Sentai Filmworks announced that they picked up the licence back in 2013, until I see evidence of the Black Megadeus's return, I'm going to chalk up Roger Smith's return up there along with the Robot Damashii prototype of Gundam Spiegel. I fully recommend this series to anyone able to see it. While Season 2 is a drag (or in Poe's case, nonexistent), I still recommend you pick it up with the few traces of the show's shining points still beaming through.



A+


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