Anime Reviews ⇢ The Big O
The Big O
Za Biggu Ō (THE ビッグオー)
Average Rating: 8 / 10

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Ratings: 2
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Content Overview
Violence: 4 / 10
Nudity: 2 / 10
Theo Theme: 1 / 10
Neg Theme: 0 / 10

Brief Description:
Aired 1999 (first season), 2003 (second season)
Recommended age: 10+

Forty years ago, there was an event that changed the film-noir world of Paradigm City, turning the surrounding land into desert and erasing the memories of before from everyone who lived there.

In the present day, Roger Smith, our hero, is a hostage negotiator. He's a smooth operator in a black suit, operating by his own rules, a combination of James Bond and Bruce Wayne. And like Bruce Wayne, Roger has a secret identity: the pilot of the mecha known as Big O. Together with his robotic companion, R. Dorothy Wainwright, they seek to solve the mysteries of Paradigm City and of the event that changed it forever.

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_O_%28anime%29]Wikipedia article[/url]

User Reviews
August, 2011: rocklobster [ Already Rated ]

Main Review
No one in Paradigm City has no memories of the past. Megadueses (mechs) appear all over the city, deepening the mystery of what happened forty years ago. Roger Smith, an expert negotiator, protects Paradigm City along with Big O - a giant mech. Roger and friends keep searching for the truth behind all the strange events.


Comments
The Batman parallels are part of the reason I like both the anime and the manga. Roger Smith is Batman, R. Dorothy is Robin, Officer Dastun is Commissioner Gordan, Norman is Alfred, Gabriel is Joker, Angel is Catwoman, Beck is the Riddler, Schwartzvald is the Scarecrow. It's great for those who were fans of the anime or are fans of Gundam and/or Batman (my fave superhero!)


Music
The music's kind of cheezy, but it suits the series pretty well for the most part. The only bad part is the music we hear every time Big O starts a fight. I much prefer the drumbeats in Evangelion better.

Sub vs Dub
The subtitled version's okay, but I found Norman's voice too deep for my taste.

Manga
Big O is available as a manga from Viz. There are vast content differences between the anime and manga.

Related Movies
none

Violence Details
This series has a lot of your typical mecha style violence.


Additionally, in episode 12 there are a string murders, in which we see some murdered characters with a fair amount of blood. Later on there’s a bit of blood on some of the characters during intense action scenes, but there’s really no gore or extreme violence in Big O.



Language Details
The first “season” of Big O (episodes 1-13) contain no coarse language, in the dub. The second season, however, does contain a small amount of language. Nothing beyond PG-13 level, though.


Nudity Details
We briefly see Angel's back in episode 7 but there’s no actual nudity in Big O-- just a bit of fanservice from Angel. Still, I wouldn’t say it’s something to be concerned about

Sexual Content Details
In one episode Roger and Angel are trapped in a building together. They make a few tame jokes that reference a bit of sexuality, but it’s nothing raunchy. Also, in this scene Angel is in some skimpy clothing. Throughout the series she tends to show some cleavage, and wear some short cut clothing, especially in the “second season”.

Religious Material Details
To be totally honest, there is a LOT of religious material in Big O that most tend to overlook. It’s similar in a way to Neon Genesis Evangelion, with some Judeo-Christian symbolism, but wouldn’t really be considered offensive (to some) like NGE.
The recurring phrase that is shown on Big O’s (and other mech’s) screens is “Cast in the name of God, Ye not guilty.” While the meaning of this is never actually stated, it can be debated.



In one of the early episodes, the giant serpentine mech is considered an “electric god” by the city it invades. Also, during the murders in Act 12, the murderer leaves the “Cast in the name of God…” phrase at the crime scenes.
There’s not very much religious symbolism in the first season, but it starts to get pretty heavy in the second half. In the second season we see a lot of symbolism, like Alex Rosewater becoming a sort of “anti-Christ” and proclaiming to be the “Son of God”. His father seems to take a sort of “God” role himself. There are some references to the number of the beast, 666, near the end. Roger in a way becomes the savior to the people. If you look, you’ll notice a lot of symbolism. All of the “Big” robots are designed after creatures from Jewish mysticism. There are various other things one could analyze, but they really shouldn’t be a turn off, nor considered offensive in any way.


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Added: August, 2011