Big O

[Dracos]

Some people may claim that Big O is somewhat like the next Batman in terms of style and form and goodness.  Others may claim it's the next jesus, if you hear them talk.

I think they are all smoking something and I do not want them to share.  Big O is many things, but good is not among them.  It sports for starters an opening theme that makes all thinking men cry.  And not in a good way.  More in the: "My eyes and ears they bleed from this horror!" way.  It entirely consists of going "BIG O~! BIG O~!" with a cruddy instrimental in the background and a few sketches spun around as if they are supposed to be exciting.

As for the actual anime well, it had me wavering throughout much of it between "Well, there's something deep in there somewhere and at least it has some cool paint." to "...they are just putting these things in to convince the shallow minded that they have something and to look cool."  By the end, there was no doubt: This was made by fucking little kids with the 'Oooh' stage not finished.  Thankfully, I did not afford myself any of 'season 2' (the remaining 13 eps of this series that apparently considers 13 eps a season).

How are the characters, one might ask?  Well, let's see...  we have the hero, Mr. Whiny Fuck Innocent Negociator Roger Smith.  This guy will be giving you your voiceovers and treating you and everyone else like a retard when he's not busy either whining about people being uncivilized, being extremely abrut and frantic, or acting 'heroic' while calling on his super robot of near invulnerability.  You see, just in case you forgot last episode that everyone lost their memories fourty years ago, he'll remind you in his filler voiceover.  Now, he has this odd thing against actually killing anyone, which you'll notice as he happily blows up buildings and destroys the city when 'saving it'.  It's like all his other 'ethics and rules', which only seem to pop up to give him some sort of 'character' when he's not being a complete ass.  Every single instance that they are brought up in instantly results in either the scene changing, him whining, or him instantly breaking that 'principle' that he finds so important.  He also likes rules.  Quite a bit in fact as you'll hear him go on and on, telling the viewer about six or seven 'rule number 1s or 2s' that he has.  These never become relevent, and in fact are brought up at silly times when there is apparently not enough plot in the episode to make it interesting.

There is also Dorthy, which you meet in episode 1.  The weird android who should be deep, but isn't.  Who obviously has some strange hidden background...which isn't spent any real time on in the first 13 eps other than to hint that it's there.  Maybe season 2 touches on it.  Personally, she's the 'best' part of a bad series.  She also is weirdly the most sentimental character in the entire cast, clashing painfully with the fact that she's supposed to be an emotionally crippled mimic ninty percent of the time.

And let's not forget the butler!  The overly heavy handed attempt to mimic Alfred from Batman.  And I admit, he can be cool.  But...  he really doesn't get much screen time and just is a blah character most the time anyway.  Used way too much for comic relief such that his cut and dry butler routine is ruined to the viewer.  He serves the whiny Negociator in the super giant mansion they have, maintaining his secret robot...Big O!

Big O is probably the coolest 'character' among the good guy cast.  Which is likely why they bring him out every episode and to handle every problem.  There's nothing this robot can't handle and no where it can't go!  It's magical subway system reaches everywhere!  Inside the city, outside the city, in the middle of theme parks in other domes.  You name it, Big O goes there!  He's also effectively invinicible for most the series, taking nothing more than trivial damage.  The city police can't seem to figure out whether he's a good guy or not.  One moment they curse his entrance, the next they cheer, the next they fire missiles at him.  It's just retarded.

Let's see who else we have...  Oh yes, the police chief!  Who... just doesn't cut it.  Period.  They try to get some interplaying going between him and Roger Smith but it never flies well.

And last among the good guys we have the informer!  Who's never named, gets all of ten minutes of camera time in the entire season, and is easily the coolest character in the series.  You'll know him by the fact he's about the only one who ever apparently reads the newspaper, making him the most informed fellow in town.

Among the bad guy cast we got...

Beck...  a criminal who well.  Um.  He's there?  He magically pulls giant robots out of his ass?  And well....yeah that's about all one can say about Beck.

There's also Sc------, who's name I'd write except it's some weird crazy shit.  He's actually quite cool as a character.  Pity he's in such a sucky story and is damned underused.

There's also a bunch of one shot guys.  Enough to make you question what the fuck they were futzing around with when they were only doing 13 eps for the first season.  All of which involved giant monsters or robots.

Which is problem major for this damned series as a lot of it's 'plot' revolved around the past, the memories, and the super robots.  Which become phenomenially less cool and important when apparently small time crooks can build giant robots easily.  In fact, as far as I can tell the only ones who don't seem to get giant robots are the military police, who apparently spent all their budget on tanks and missile launchers that do nothing against anything.  They are also squished a lot by giant mecha.  Despite this, the story tries to make a huge deal in the last part of the series about there being 'other big robots'!  ..."Uh, right boss, now why don't you tell us what makes this different from the other 10 megadeuses you've tossed out?'  Yeah, winner move there.  Any drama that is tried for is totally ruined by this and really, would've have hurt that terribly much to have even a single episode of the hero being cool without having to rely on a giant mecha?

Cutting the blather:  I'll move to the good points of Big O:

It'll make a nice expensive doorstop.

Dracos

[Edward]

Perhaps that's a zero in the title, not the letter O?

[DB]

Big O. Hmm. While not as critical of it as Drac, I will admit to it being very middle of the run to low average. Having seen the second season, a lot of what had been hinted at in the first 13 eps is elaborated on. Although the ending (acutally the last 3 episodes) will make you scratch your head as it comes sort of out of nowhere (not as bad as the end of the DoA movie, but then, that was Niike's  big middle finger to everyone). It doesn't really explain anything, save in the vaguest terms. Perhaps is was an attempt by the creators trying to go for some deep philosophical meaning, if so, it failed by beaing too convoluted, and the format of the story not supporting that type of ending (ala Eva).

In summation, it might be worth watching once, if nothing better is on. I'd only give it a 4 out of 10.

[Kaneda]

Big O isn't that bad a series. I've seen worse. Then again, I've also seen better. I think the biggest problem with Big O is that even well into the second season, they still haven't gotten any closer to solving the mystery of what happened forty years ago.

Unfortunately, by this time, most of the viewers have probably stopped caring. Another nitpick, is that half the time, the plot is so messed up that you can't even tell what the hell is going on.

Xman