Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we’ll be embarking on an entirely new journey, as I explore the first episode of the widely acclaimed The Big O. Though The Big O enjoys a generally positive reputation among western fans, I’ve never actually seen the property before now, which might not be a surprise if you know me particularly well. Giant robots aren’t really a draw for me in anime – you might as well tell me “this show’s characters wear a lot of sweatshirts” for all it’ll grab my attention. Additionally, “this show is like a western superhero story” is a pretty strong anti-draw for me, and I’m far from enamored with Batman’s “billionaire decides the route to societal justice is to individually punch muggers until they stop committing crimes” mythology, which is often the first reference point people highlight when trying to pitch The Big O.

But as I’ve since learned, those pitches are more a product of their typical resonance in the wider fan community than an accurate reflection of The Big O itself. More recent pitches, coming from people who actually know me, have seized on much more alluring details – like how director Kazuyoshi Katayama was an animation director on Giant Robo, or how it’s written by Chiaki Konaka, a veteran of both Princess Tutu and Serial Experiments Lain. And visual echoes of Batman: The Animated Series (a very good show, my antipathy for Batman himself notwithstanding) aside, The Big O’s gothic arches and lumbering beasts feel naturally evocative, and clearly reflective of Katayama’s Giant Robo past. I enter The Big O with as few preconceptions as possible, and simply hope to have an interesting time. Let’s get to work!

Episode 1

Katayama’s had an interesting career – it seems he’s averaged about one product every two years for the last three decades, but he’s rarely taken a major role in a TV production like The Big O, and more often stuck to that common ‘80s creator track of working on OVAs and films through his later years. His resume makes me feel like The Big O is simultaneously embracing two different kinds of retro-futurism; its art deco backgrounds and towering cities seem to echo the imagined future of early twentieth century American fiction, while its lumbering robots point back towards the key properties of ‘80s-era anime

Alright, now that’s an interesting start. Along with the phrase “Cast in the name of god, ye not guilty,” we get a vision of magma slowly resolving into the Big O’s facial structure. I guess we’ll have to see what role religion plays in this drama

Ooh, these opening shots are lovely. Heavy steam clouds imply city streets as some sort of trolley car honks in the distance, and we’re introduced to gently curving traffic lights, reminiscent of old-fashioned street lanterns

The character designs are all distinctive geometric objects scored with dark shadows, faces hidden. It’s easy to see why the aesthetic reminds people of Batman: TAS, with its similarly angular and shadow-heavy designs. But at the same time, this is a Sunrise production from 1999, with background design and cinematography vaguely reminiscent of temporally adjacent properties like Bebop

Our protagonist is Roger Smith, and he performs “a very important job here in the city of Amnesia.” His name seems intentionally anonymous yet emphatically American, and we’ll have to see what the city’s name implies

We pan up to see skyscrapers actually falling into each other, as a mournful sax plays. This setting is wonderful

I like how the lingering question of the job Roger performs is answered by the title card, “Roger The Negotiator.” I’m generally a fan of when a show feels in conversation with its own titling and iconography, something I might have first picked up from Evangelion

Roger has a very cool car

Oh man, these layouts are so nice. I love this shot aiming up as Roger walks beneath a broken hangar ceiling, with the harsh edges of metal extending like fingers or barren branches. I like it when cities are treated as organic characters

Roger steps directly into a hostage negotiation. No unnecessary exposition here; the storytelling is as lean and muscular as the character designs

Apparently the kidnapped girl’s father haggled over her ransom

The girl looks like a porcelain doll, and is wearing an old-fashioned dress that serves as another gesture towards ‘50s Americana

Dorothy Soldano is her name, and her father has a bullet-shaped head

Aw shit, this is actually a robot Dorothy. And the father refers to the city as “Paradigm City,” interesting

An issue with the subs has shifted me to the dub, where I’m greeted by the pleasant surprise of Roger being voiced by Spike’s actor Steve Blum. Alright fine, I’ll watch a dub

Other parts of the city look like more conventional ‘80s New York. The lighting, setting, voice acting, and cell quality makes it hard to avoid feeling echoes of Bebop. That’s a good thing!

Goddamnit, and now Roger’s contact is voiced by the announcer from Catherine, which I just finished replaying. This is gonna be weird

Paradigm City. One day, forty years ago, everyone in the city lost any memory of anything that had occurred before that day. An interesting conceit – a city that embodies the constant reinventions of urban life even through the memories of its inhabitants. Lots of directions they could take that

Roger has a dedicated butler named Norman. The Batman comparisons were not entirely unwarranted

Oh man, I love Roger’s art deco interiors. This show has such a strong style

The android Dorothy has arrived. “Norman must be senile. How else could he possibly confuse an android for a human?” And the android fires back “you couldn’t tell the difference at first, either.”

Androids and questions of “what is it that makes us human” seem like a natural fit with this amnesiac city, where everyone is essentially play-acting the human lives they had before

The android asks for his protection

A pan across photographs reveals Roger’s military past

I like how much baggage and wider context is implied through Roger’s conversation with this old military man. References to influence “outside the domes,” Roger’s extreme anger at being referred to as “lieutenant,” lots of interesting threads

Apparently Soldano didn’t actually have a daughter

Dorothy invites herself along to Soldano’s factory. I’m already appreciating how easily she deflates Roger’s Smooth Bachelor affectation

The edges of the city are an industrial wasteland

Man, these backgrounds. The scale of this factory comes through clearly in the tiny shadows cast by our leads

They definitely built a giant robot here. Roger finds Soldano himself dying in the control center. “I never wanted to built it… for people like them.” The classic scene of the inventor’s death, played almost as straight as in Giant Robo

“It’s alright, Nightingale.” Soldano now sees the android as his daughter, though she has no love for him

Dorothy acts as decoy while Roger plays with his cool car. Some terrific explosion animation here

“You’re a louse, Roger Smith.” Dorothy saying this with her hair all ruffled from a giant explosion is extremely powerful

Haha, I love the old-fashioned phone receiver and quaint monitor in Roger’s car. His car is a wonderful mix of mid-century design and modern batmobile

And at last, fifteen minutes in, we get our first brief glimpse of a giant robot. I love that restraint

“Whether they’re living or dead, I have a contract to fulfill.” I guess we’ll have to see what led Roger to this particular ethos

“You’re a rookie? Be smart and remember my face next time.” Steve Blum is a pretty great fit for this role

Dorothy notices her real father in the crowd, a stoop-backed old man who screams “doomed genius inventor”

I like the design of this robot, which looks almost like it’s wearing a kind of carapace. Vaguely reminiscent of Rahxephon, though I suppose the influence works the other way – Rahxephon came out in 2002

Consistent use of reflections in this episode, which fits for a show about questions of identity

And The Big O arrives, its scale conveyed through the ramping up from one errant manhole cover to the entire street collapsing. This also feels old-fashioned in a good way; an awed emphasis on just how BIG giant robots are, a sense of wonder the genre less frequently indulges in these days

That “cast in the name of god, ye not guilty” phrase reappears in the Big O’s interface

Solid mechanical animation and a great sense of weight to this brawl. I also really like the shots conveyed from the inside of city apartments, which are beautiful in their own right, celebrate this show’s unique art design, and also emphasize the ridiculous scale of this battle

Oh man, this piledriver power is executed with such joy. I love this giant handle he swings all the way back to fire his fist

But Dorothy is in the wreckage, directly beneath her sister’s falling body!

And Done

Aw shit, that was awesome! I admit, I was a little concerned this would be either too superhero-esque or too robot-focused to keep my attention, but I shouldn’t have worried. The art design is goddamn phenomenal, the characters are already grabbing my attention, and the storytelling is incredibly tight, offering plentiful intriguing worldbuilding threads while still maintaining a punchy thriller pace. The Big O’s first episode is confident and beautiful and extremely unique, while drawing on a variety of art traditions that seem like they’d be almost fundamentally incompatible – mid-century art deco, larger-than-life super robot shows, spy films and superheroes and even some hints of Metropolis. This was a terrific premiere, and I’m eager to see what the second half of this two-parter holds!

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