The Big O II: 2nd Season (2003)
Production: Sunrise
Released by: Bandai Entertainment
Episodes: 13
By Dreamseer

Introduction

The original "Big O," though it didn't seem to blow away the Japanese viewers in its original run, gained a much stronger fanbase when it aired here in the US a couple years back. With its surprising success on Cartoon Network's popular Toonami block, the decision was at last made to finish the series with an additional 13 episodes, and fan excitement started to grow from the word "go." Big O fans were finally going to have their questions answered and that irresistable thirst quenched. It came in the form of Big O II...

Story

When we last left our hero in black, Roger Smith, The Negotiator, he had just leapt into the titanic robot, Big O, ready to face three mysterious Megadeuses that had risen out of the sea to face him. But before the battle can come to an end, Roger is suddenly swept away to another existence- a place that seems vaguely familiar to him, but he doesn't understand why. It is a world that, for him, has been turned upside down. Nothing is as it was before he entered into the fight with the foreign Megadeuses and he is unsure if he will ever return to the world he knew- or if that world even existed at all...

Roger's limits are brought to the brink of being broken and beyond as he struggles to keep himself alive long enough to find out the truth behind all that has happened to him, and the strange world he has lived in for so long. Meanwhile, the femme fatale, Angel, has returned with her a group of terrorists whose goal may be to shatter all that Roger holds dear, the Android Dorothy meets another of her kind, and Dastun meets a partner that gives him a startling new perspective on the city he tries so desperately to
protect, always in the shadow of the towering Black Megadeus known as Big O.

Before the last battles are fought, and the last steel fist is thrown, Roger will have to use every trick in the Negotiating book and more if he wants to find out the answers to the questions that have haunted him over his life. But at what price...? It's SHOWTIME!

Review

With its unique style and film noir flare, the original "Big O," once I got around to finally shedding my skepticism, quickly became one of my favorite animes. The visual style was beautiful, the characters were intriguing, the story was engaging, and when the action started up, it was always great fun. It had just about everything a great series should have. So, suffice it to say, I had high hopes for the continuation of the story in Big O II. There were a lot of questions that had been waiting for quite a while to be answered, and I was just praying that the time lost between the original and the sequel wouldn't have been too great for the creators to spin magic yet again. For the most part, I had little to worry about.

The second season immediately begins with another dramatic mystery, where everything we've come to know about the series up to this point is now questioned- the audience is challenged with the idea that everything Roger has experienced may have in fact been a lie. We have our answer by the end... or at least we think we do. Yep, if you thought the sense of mystery was going to go away, you were wrong. The mysteries just keep on coming.

The striking visual style of the original 13 episodes is kept about the same in the second season, which I was particularly thankful for.

However, there seems to have been a bit of a shift in the storytelling feel between the two seasons. Whereas most of the original played out in a group of mostly singular stories with their own beginning, middle, and end, there are more extremely continuity-heavy episodes in this second season than those that are not, to the point where we begin the next episode exactly where the previous one left off, and the next one after that does the same thing. I was somewhat sad to see the original style taken away, since it seemed to work so well for the show, but it didn't take me too long to get over it. The more continuity-heavy style serves the second half of the story well, for what the creators were trying to do with it.

The action this time around is just as explosive as ever. The giant Megadeus, Big O reveals some new tricks and abilities throughout the second season, which he uses in some pretty sweet battle-sequences. Not only that, but Roger isn't the only Domineus piloting a Big this season. If you thought the action of the first season was good, then you'll just get more of the same, perhaps even better than before. Plus, it's always fun to see Roger do something cool with that little watch-device of his when he's not smashing
robot heads in Big O.

Now, I wish I could say that Big O II was perfect, but there are some aspects of it that I just couldn't shake. Particularly the way the ending is handled. Somehow, I felt like there should have been something more there. I mean, the audience had been waiting on pins and needles for so long, and practically every episode upped the tension and suspense at least a little bit, if not a whole lot, and then we come to the big IT-moment, and... well, there it is. For me, it was honestly a little of a dissapointment. Now, that's not to say that the journey itself wasn't fun, but once I got to the end, I couldn't get away from the feeling that I would have done it differently, had I been given the chance.

Conclusion

Look, if you were a fan of the original Big O, then you need to check out Big O II- it's just as simple as that, folks. The style, cool characters, and great robot action alone is enough of an incentive to take a look at this show. If you haven't seen the original yet, then I would urge you to do so, if you have even the slightest bit of interest. If you're anything like this reviewer, then I think you'll enjoy yourself. I'd be lying if I said I was happy with every aspect, but I think the series as it is had a lot of great things going for it and it deserves to be mentioned among some of the most noteworthy of anime titles. I give Big O II a B+.

BIG O... ACTION!

I'll See You In My Dreams
-Dreamseer