Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m delighted to be returning to The Big O, where the assumptions that define Roger’s world are collapsing with terrifying rapidity. More and more, it’s seeming like the entire city of Paradigm is some vast fabrication, a dream of a city more than the genuine article. As last episode quotes from Hobbes, “Imagination and memory are but one thing, which for diverse considerations hath diverse names.” What we don’t know or remember, we fill in with creations that feel just as substantive as our true memories. And in a city without memory, who is to stop a man like Rosewater from painting our collective consciousness in the hues of his dream?
In a city that’s already seeming like cardboard facades on wooden struts, Roger feels like the greatest fabrication of all. He’s already learned he’s a product of Rosewater’s conditioning, specifically bred and brainwashed to pilot the Megadeus. Given that knowledge, how could he possibly believe he’s acting of his own volition, rather than simply playing out some minor thread in Rosewater’s grand opera? Given the profound incuriosity of Paradigm’s general population, perhaps Roger’s desire for the truth was also premeditated – perhaps Rosewater, having already claimed everything else, now desires an observer to witness his ascension. Did Rosewater intend for all of this, and to ultimately claim Roger as his chosen son? Let’s find out!
Episode 18
It’s still quite odd to me that this show never received a proper OP, just a collection of cuts from the first few episodes. Is that at all common? It feels like it’d make it harder to promote the show, as a great OP generally works as the best two-minute pitch of some given property
We open by panning in on Paradigm’s prison as a storm rages overhead. I appreciate that even in the context of this relatively conventional prison, our supervillain is still afforded a lonely castle tower all to himself
Jason Beck is attempting to catch a lightning bolt in order to power some presumed escape attempt. Shades of Frankenstein, but this conceit is common enough that we’ll have to see if that’s actually intended
Delightful returning to this show’s playfully geometric aesthetic and lovely compositions. Great shot of Jason against the cell bars, with the backlit cell bars contrasting neatly against his uniform
Also some great use of exaggerated foreshortening for the shots of his minion raising a fork to the heavens
“The Greatest Villain”
Quite the tonal contrast as we jump from electrocuted and afroed-up Beck to Roger and his jazz accompaniment. Beck always does seem a tad more farcical than this show’s general tone, more of a Roadrunner and Coyote-style antagonist than a noir villain
Welp, apparently this is going to be a Roadrunner and Coyote-style episode, as his dramatic intro is immediately cut short with a series of goofy horn noses, leading into the reveal of Roger himself still asleep
“It’s alright for someone to sleep past noon every once in a while. That’s what it means to be a free human being.” Oh my god, I love this. This feels like a Big O parody episode, with Roger applying his usual self-serious philosophical musings to subjects like “I don’t wanna get out of bed”
His client is “the legal council for Yoshifuru Yakimoto Industries,” the biggest company behind the construction of the domes. Their estate is wildly ostentatious in its aping of traditional Japanese aesthetics, featuring a traditional golden palace, and also a mini replica of Mount Fuji
The three people that greet him are all similar caricatures of Japanese businessmen, and seem more like robots than people
“And that was the last anyone ever heard from me.” Goddamnit Roger. Alright, Dorothy, get out there
Dastun arrives with the news that Roger’s been kidnapped. An unusual degree of fluid character acting in this episode, both from Dastun here and Beck earlier. The Big O’s exaggerated, angular character designs generally facilitates shots where stillness is a virtue, and the characters essentially become a part of the scenery, but I’ll never say no to fluid character acting
Love the detail of Dorothy’s lenticular eye as we zoom in for this confrontation
Yep, Beck’s got Roger, and he’s still sporting that afro
Were there some specific works of blaxploitation cinema that made a big impact in Japan? The history of black representation in anime is fraught with all sorts of racist caricatures, but there also seems to be a strain of appreciation for a certain kind of heroic afroed archetype, and I wonder if that comes down to some particular film’s cultural penetration
Yep, plenty more exaggerated expression work for Beck here. This is a surprisingly generous episode for being such a goofy one-off
Somehow, Beck has learned that Roger is the Big O’s pilot
Roger is strung up on a literal cross, and berated by Beck for the terror he has wrought among the populace. Ooh, I love this – on the surface level, Beck’s accusations are ridiculous, as Roger almost solely works to defend the city. However, this Christ imagery actually draws attention to a deeper truth – that Roger truly is the “son of God,” aka Rosewater, and thus could be considered an extension of Rosewater’s grasp on the city
Dastun is a nervous wreck as they prepare for a phone call from the kidnappers. Wonderful application of this episode’s fluid character acting, as it reveals just how much Dastun cares about his friend
They’re also drawing some comedy out of Dorothy’s “character acting” as well, or rather the opposite – she always moves in one fluid movement, with that stiffness adding to the deadpan impact of “it appears Roger has been kidnapped”
“I’ll be handling the negotiations from now on.” “Oh, I’m sure if Master Roger heard that, he’d be delighted.” Was that a joke from Norman? God they are having fun with this episode. Also, “Dorothy has to save Roger from his own stupid decisions” is almost universally the best Big O content
Roger is also portrayed as more of a buffoon than usual, getting angry at this robot model they’ve built for mimicking him
And of course, Dorothy just rides a conventional bicycle to the handoff at eighty miles an hour
They’ve even got Looney Tunes-style sound effects as Beck inflicts some slapstick violence on his subordinates
Beck steals the Big O’s activation watch with a… bladed, magnetized yo-yo? What is this episode!?
Even for simple sequences like Beck walking past the encaged Roger, the character acting is so damn fluid this time, with Beck evoking a specific lazy saunter that really captures his feeling of total victory
Looking down the staff list, it seems pretty clear this was a special episode, and possibly not one done in-house at Sunrise. Most of the key animators on this episode only contributed to this episode, and the director was Kenji Nakamura (who’d go on to direct Mononoke, Gatchaman Crowds, etc). Additionally, this is the only episode where Akihiko Yamashita actually contributed to the key animation, rather than providing storyboards. The end result is an episode where every character is bursting with personality, so much so that it feels like a different production altogether
We’re also getting more ambitious active camerawork here, like this cut where Dorothy banks into a slide as the camera pans against her
Cannot fucking believe this shit. The Big O is now being propelled through the city behind the Roger-head on a little wheelie tray, which is just perpetually shouting “Big O!” at its suspended watch
Goddamn is this episode’s character acting fluid. I don’t really understand why this show opted to bestow its silliest episode with its most ambitious sequences of animation, but frankly there’s a lot I don’t understand about why animators do what they do
I mean, to some extent it does make sense – this episode is largely driven by physical comedy, which actually necessitates more fluidity than the show’s usual dialogue-driven conflicts
Plus it means we get great cuts like Dorothy casually lifting Beck’s goons and tossing them aside with her bike
“I was joking. I was just trying to lighten the mood.” This episode’s interpretation of the cast isn’t exactly true to the show proper, but it is extremely funny
Once again, Dorothy is undone by her greatest nemesis: a big magnet
Fortunately, she’s prepared countermeasures in case Beck tried to beat her the exact same way as last time, and now it’s Beck stuck to the magnet
The animators are having altogether too much fun with Beck’s absurd gesticulations. Understanding more and more why this episode has such a stacked staff list
And of course, Beck has a three-part transforming robot that he pilots alongside his minions. The old guard must have leapt at the chance to contribute to something like this
I now see why this dome exists at all: so the Big O and the Beck Mk. III can do sweet poses in front of Mount Fuji
Apparently Beck randomly recalled a memory of Roger’s relationship to the Big O
And Done
Ahaha, well. I had my intro all set up to continue our exploration of memory, belief, and identity, and then The Big O pulled out that insanity. But in spite of not really progressing this show’s narrative or themes in any way, or even really fitting in with the general characterization of its cast, this episode was nonetheless a great fucking time. The opportunity of one last Beck episode was apparently too much for many animators to resist, resulting in an episode overflowing with character acting personality and graceful visual punchlines. An episode like this embodies what a unique artform anime really is; any show can take a variety of forms over its production run, and with an animation crew like this in attendance, The Big O was able to riff and roast like never before.
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