The Big O
By Jeffrey Couto

The Story

Paradigm City has lost its collective memory, the result of an event 40 years in its past. No one in the city can recollect what happened before this event took place, all memories prior to it can no longer be recalled.

As a result of this loss of memories the citizens of Paradigm City are forced to re-learn how to use, invent and maintain their modern machines. Only a few select people in the city are able to master these machines and even fewer of them can remember enough to create and operate their own.

Amongst the citizens of Paradigm City is a person who goes by the name of Roger Smith, better known as the negotiator. Roger is a professional negotiator, helping parties reach agreements in difficult situations and assisting in other areas were he might be needed. He is aided by Dorothy Wayneright, an android he rescued, who lives with him and assists the negotiator as a way to repay him for saving her.

Roger Smith is also the pilot of a formidable Megadeus robot, Big O, which he uses when the situation calls for it. The origins of Big O lie in the past, before the event that took everyone's memories away.

How Good it it?

I was really thrown off by Big O the first time I saw it because it was a very unusual mix of Japanese and American influences, story and design wise. It not only had the stylings of recent WB animated series like Batman and Superman (which as I found out later was the result of Big O being animated by the same studio that worked on the WB programs), but also a lot of Japanese influenced designs that borrow from now classic animated series like Giant Robo.

Big O's story is very captivating and really draws in the viewer as we journey with Roger Smith in his quest to learn more about Paradigm city's forgotten past and and his own past life. Big O's story is driven by the characters, not by action scenes, which is a good change of pace for this type of fare.

The main characters of Roger and Dorothy are also very engaging and play well off each other. Whereas Roger is a bigger than life character who often plays it cool, Dorothy is more low-key and cautious about the way in which she operates. Often Dorothy will question Roger's actions or call him out on mistakes, which typically results in humorous exchanges, but in the end they both benefit and learn from each other.

The title robot is very unique and one of the reasons I loved this series. Like Giant Robo, Big O is a massive machine that comes to the rescue (using a massive underground track system) whenever the situation calls for it. Big O is piloted by Roger, who somehow has the piloting knowledge needed to operate this giant weapon from the now forgotten past. Unlike many of its flashier animated counterparts Big O is a more practical and realistically designed robot. Its main weapons are missiles, piston powered punches, machine guns, cannons and lasers.

The animation in Big O is excellent and should be checked out by all animation fans as its style is very unique. It relies on classic cel animation, and very simple character and mechanical designs that allow the flow of the drawings to be very smooth from frame-to-frame. The soundtrack to the series was also very well done, relying mostly on some good piano and orchestrated pieces.

Final Thoughts

I highly recommend Big O to all animation fans, especially if you enjoyed other giant robot programs like Giant Robo and Shin Getter Robo. After watching the series I can hardly wait to see what happens in the second season of Big O, which should be out Stateside very soon thanks to the folks at Bandai!

Jeffrey Couto