Big O
The Big O has built up a frightening reputation since it’s inception in 1999, a quick glance at the staff list and it’s not hard to see why, the brainchild of Hajime Yatate, the creative mind behind such established hits as Cowboy Bebop and Gundam Wing and directed by veteran Mecha auteur, Kazuyoshi Katayama, Big O is a veritable smorgasbord of mecha goodness that no self respecting giant robot fan should miss.
“Cast in the name of God. Ye not guilty.”
Paradigm City is a city of amnesia, forty years ago everybody’s memories slipped away, still humanity managed to survive and carve out a new existence for themselves. When these Memories resurface they bring with them new and frightening dangers from a forgotten era. Enter Roger Smith a suave sophisticate who acts as a negotiator, hired to settle disputes and solve mysteries wherever they may arise. With the help of his Megadeus, The Big O, Roger keeps the citizens of Paradigm city safe from dangerous Memories and does battle with the horrors they resurrect.
Appearances can be deceiving, the few glimpses of Big O I’d seen prior to sitting down and watching the series suggested this was going to be a straight laced mecha series with only an eye-meltingly lush visual aesthetic to recommend it. I’m thankful then that after a slew of positive recommendations I finally took the plunge and invested in a copy of The Big O: Complete Collection and had the chance to get better acquainted with this fantastic series.
The first thing that strikes you when you first clap your eyes on this show is the achingly gorgeous art-deco visuals. In a brave and inspired move the show eschews more conventional art design in favour of a strikingly vibrant combination of intricately realised 50’s locales and abstract creative character designs courtesy of Wolf’s Rain’s Keiichi Satou. In a genre as congested as Mecha, originality is hard to come by, so when a show as remarkably inventive as The Big O crops up it’s something of a revelatory slap in the face.
Thankfully that aforementioned penchant for incongruity strays beyond the visuals, and the entire series has an intangible, ambiguous quality, imbuing it with a sense of inimitability rarely seen in the mecha genre. There is a brooding sense of mystery that gives The Big O the feel of a grade-A noir thriller, nothing is quite what it seems in the city of Paradigm, and half the fun of watching Big O comes from trying to unravel the myriad of mysteries that are gradually uncovered.
But despite all the noir trappings and predilection for vast overreaching conspiracies, at its core The Big O is still a series about robots, robots of a certain gargantuan quality. And when these guys go toe to toe the results are suitably stunning, coming from retro stock there is plenty of room for outlandish, ‘fabby’ attacks as well as the odd mammoth Kaiju for the titular mecha to take apart.
Thankfully Roger’s escapades are just as enthralling outside of Big O’s cockpit as they are inside it; being a negotiator he is given plenty of opportunity to dabble in the seedier side of Paradigm City ensuring he gets to mix it up with a memorable gallery of rogues. And what wonderful rogues they are, the main cast may get the most generous helpings of characterisation but it is the riotous ensemble of maniacal villains that really steal the show with their wonderfully obscure schemes and cackling bravado.
The only hole I can really pick in the Big O’s gleaming veneer is that the relatively obscure style and more ambiguous plot elements might turn more casual viewers off, it’s not confusing by any means but there are some very pervasive mystery elements that may leave some viewers with a bitter taste in their mouths.
In Summary
The Big O is a captivating mecha-noir that marries a mature stylish storyline with enough intrigue and action to satiate even the most discerning of pallets, it may skimp on the exposition in places but if you’re willing to overcome this most middling of trivialities you will discover one of the best mecha titles currently available to own on DVD.
