Anime Analysis - The Big O (Commentary)
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- Batman with a sidekick android piloting a giant robot? Why aren't more people talking about this?
Next review will be on a supernatural anime.
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Fun fact: some of the people who worked on Big O also helped with Batman: TAS.
Also, The Big O was very popular... in the West.
Outlaw Star also wasn't very popular in Japan... what do THEY know anyway?? lol
Big O's aesthetic is so damn beautiful.
Beautiful stuff. It took me many years of being separated from the show to finally break away from the lens of Roger and instead consider the show from the perspective of Angel.
Angel is the writer. Something traumatic happened in her past, and so she's taken to writing as a form of self exploration to help resolve her painful memories. She cannot forget them, so she writes about a city where all of the inhabitants forget their memories and inserts herself there. Angel keeps the setting, a city of amnesia, but rewrites the characters over and over again as she subconsciously struggles to find a solution to her problems.
Eventually, after countless drafts, Angel starts writing about the characters becoming somewhat self aware, intentionally leaving fragments of former drafts in the narrative. Angel uses her cast to slowly explore her own wish to forget the traumatic memories of an event that " Clipped her wings". Many characters she creates (the tomato and the "cast" in the name of god metaphors) have their own thoughts on memories and how to cope with them or the lack of them. For example, Angel writes about Schwarzwald, who struggles to find the truth behind his lack of memories and what his reaction would be if he finally discovered that the memories he sought from 40 years ago aka "previous drafts " were also fictional.
The story ends with Roger Smith discovering the truth as well. Roger sees a flash of content from previous drafts where there was a great Megadeus war. Roger sees himself die, and be remade from draft to draft, metaphorically the assembly line. Importantly, Angel has Roger react to the revelations in a way that would be true to his character. Roger chooses to ardently strive to move forward in life without heed of the past. Roger argues the reasoning behind his decision with Angel in hopes of negotiating that she try things his way and do the same with her own situation. This deeply resonates with Angel to the point of moving her to tears. Angel is inspired by the decision Roger made. The negotiator has convinced her. That final shot with Roger confidently comforting Angel's shoulder as she looks on at her "self inserted" interactions with Roger within the story, is a metaphor. Her creations helped her finally discover a way to deal with her painful memories. Angel decides to march on with life, focusing on the present and the future like Roger.
Now satisfied, Angel completes the story and it starts anew with it's final draft. This time Dorothy is not lost, she is simply standing next to Angel as one of her favored characters. Roger continues to be his confident self, eagerly pressing onwards in life without worry of the past. Angel smiles, the negotiation is complete and she is healed, no longer the beast she was before her wings got clipped.
In my mind it's possible that Angels traumatic event was a rape. Her wings being clipped sounds akin to something like that, especially with how vulnerable and sexualized Angel tends to be throughout the show.
In writing her story Angel created a character who had an answer that she could not come up with on her own. Now, when confronted with life's problems, I can imagine her thinking to herself " What would Roger do", then smiling and resolving to move forward with her life to a greater future.
Beautiful stuff.
I've just finished the show for the first time and my thoughts on the ending are exactly the same.
I've doubted whether I understood it properly and started a research. It's amazing by how many interpretations there are, but I find this one to be the most precise. However, I also liked htfwky's idea from paradigm-city forum (you could find it with google if interested): all the citizens are actually clones with implemented memories and Gordon Rosewater designed the city to be reset every 40 years, so that the citizens would become more and more close to human, eventually reaching the pre-war state. That would help the human civilization to move on. I think these two ideas fit so well: Angel, as an author, didn't know how to end the story and iterated over it again and again, which in the end led to the show's ending, where she finishes it and moves on, finding her own truth.
We, as viewers, are just like Angel: we choose in what truth to believe. And that's not overthinking or a plot hole which is usually the case in this kind of shows, it's a true piece of art.
Indeed, beautiful stuff.
Well, that's kind of hard to do since... well, Angel only went from side-character to main character at the end of season 1. Angel was never really an Important character, she only started being important at around episode 7, which gave us the background of the wings scar on her back, and nothing much in the show insinuated that we had to look at her perspective, since she only debuted in episode 3, and we've only got more about her background in Season 2. And to be fair, I don't think we were ever supposed to do that, since, yknow, the show was originally about a Noir mystery, not a writer who has some serious trauma. I read somewhere that after season 1, Konaka, the guy who created Serial Experiments Lain, started writing the episodes, and they started going on more of a psychological tone, rather than the Noir storyline we're used to, which makes sense, since at the ending of season 1, Roger is apparently fine, only with a bullet mark on his shoulder, but then at the beginning of season 2... He's the embodiment of an existential crisis
Angel is my favorite character, however, I am ALLLLWAAAYS partial to anime "Maya-dere" tropes. I love that trope and Angel is the very definition of a maya-dere.
This show has a Lovecraft vibe to it... humans living without memories, following routine with their heads in the sand, an under city full of ghosts where memories can physically manifest that anyone could go down into... but no one does.
And the frog men
One of the best things about Big O in regards to the mech fights is how much more believable the physics are. Rather than a jet-engine style laser shooter that can turn on a dime like many animes, Big O is a giant hulking colossus of metal, and the way it fights truly represents that in the show. The battle of Big vs Big Duo is by far one of my all time favorite mech fights, and I still rewatch it to this day. The physics, the music, the characters, and Vort's speech about who really controls the robots blend together into one of the most impactful and memorable moments in anime for me.
Exactly
You absolutely need to watch Giant Robo OVA. It's the one that inspired Big O.
The shows ending was left open due to the writers not being sure if they were going to continue the show or not. Which is why that hint was shown in the final episode.
I grew up watching this anime as a kid and rediscovered it later in like again.
ShadowWriter45 same bro this is my childhood 😭❤️
Me To Man!!!!!
Me too! I never got to watch all of it back then though, so now as an adult I've re-watched it and I enjoy the story behind the show a lot. :D
Same. Rewatched it a few years ago. Might give it a go again.
I envy all of you
He does look a bit like Bruce Wayne from the 90s animated cartoon. I have a feeling that the creator was using Bruce Wayne as a base for how to draw the guy.
The same studio that was doing the backgrounds for Batman the Animated Series worked on The Big O as well
I understand that this show has a few issues, but what show doesn't? It's not perfect, but it's so awesome on so many levels. The atmosphere is amazing..
Each fight has an underlying purpose. It's not just random fights. They drive the story and give exposition to the villains motives. I've watched this anime countless times and there's so much too it to understand. The music is excellent... That queen rip-off opening pumps me up every time.
I still reflect on the ending, and imo it's better than evangelion.
Big O is my 5th favorite anime and I have watched it again and again over the years. I'm puzzled why so few people liked it.
I personally loved this anime, but was slightly put off by all the disjointed psychological aspects and the major unanswered questions. Id love to see a remake of the series, that would streamline the story and take the time to fill-in some of the plot holes.
What I really like about this show is that it would probably be pretty cool even without the Giant Robots.
Pretty much. Keep the humans and the Android around, while solving mysteries, and it would make a great purely mystery oriented shoe
while I can agree that the mechs in Big O may not have that really fast paced action from shows that we've come to know and love like Code Geass Gundam or even Neo Genesis you have to agree that the more steampunk look of the machines really actually adds a certain kind of charm to it. I mean yes having some real fast-paced kickass action would be good but on the same note these are machines the size of a skyscraper why not show them as being kind of slow plodding but still really powerful?
I always found the finishing touch Big O uses on the show's monsters especially satisfying. The way it locks it's fingers in, and the piston spams down on contact, reverse doming dudes with one overwhelming punch. Shit was hype.
You're right, it is very "Batman"... Like, just the character designs and animations alone, look just like one of the old Batman cartoons.
paradigm city and roger smith and all the people in it are a simulation which is why they have no memory. angel is the only real human , the architect of the simulation. and roger is supposed to be her "ideal" "perfect" man for the world she created. but she made him so perfect that he showed her the error in her ways.whenever her simulation didnt go how she planned she would restart it.roger showed her she cant live in that world anymore and that she must exist in the real world. the series ends with angel resetting the simulated world one last time so roger forgets her and abandoning it leaving only her digital character behind so the people of paradigm can live peacefully forever while she exists in the real world seperately.
thank you for explaining the show i ben trying to understand it for years lol
@Leeswea_dagoat No, that's only partially true. The entire show is a show within itself the people of paradigm city and the people outside the domes were set to continue reliving the same story, having know memory. Arnold Shwartzvald referred to them as puppets (the show is the stage) Gordon Rosewater the old man (Alex Rosewaters' father) actually had memories of negotiating a deal with paradigms best (Roger Smith) to stop the cycle, to stop repeating the same situation. The only way was to negotiate with The Angel of Death ( Big Venus, think) in the end Roger plead and was finally able to reach a conclusion.. I'm not sure what this you mean about her perfect "ideal" man and this simulation stuff the story was all the same it never changed. He showed her nothing until the very end where he in fact negotiates with her. I haven't seen the show in sometime now, but I know for sure it wasn't no simulation lol
@@limitless5958 you clearly haven’t researched the show and it’s author enough .... even on the wiki it explains paradigm city is a simulation.
@@teamskdm1 Technically they never referred to it as a simulation in the anime, not a single time. Considering that was the only thing you could point out and i haven't seen Big O in YEARS seems My research and knowledge of the show is pretty accurate. Also, wiki is not a reliable source so if you're just doing a wikipedia check without actually watching the show, then your dumb. Kind of like your so-called correction.
Well that's....a take that exists.
Evangelion is an exercise in vague misery, that gets by entirely on the 10% of it where giant "robots" fight. Trying to get any meaning from it is like trying to see the Emperor's new clothes. You just keep staring at nudity thinking there's more too it, but there isn't...even after redoing the ending twice. It's mainstream pap that dwells on teenage angst for entire episodes because that sells.
Big O has an actual point, and if anything too many layers of meaning. There's no way absorb it all in one go, no singular interpretation. It not only spans multiple genres, but melds them together expertly. At no point does it drag on, in fact it ends about 5 minutes sooner than it should because all that was left to do was linger for the sake of letting the audience feel closure. Though that too is purposeful, even if unintentional.
Frankly the comparison is insulting.
Thank you
Honestly, I don't like comparing anything with anything. Unless they're truly comparable. The Big O, Evangelion, and RahXephon (Especially RahXephon and Eva) and commonly compared by fans. But I'd say it makes no sense. There's minute similarities, but if we're going that far, I could point out many similarities Eva has to other shows, and so on... So minor similarities are indeed always irrelevant in the grand overall picture.
RahXephon has it's own unique story to it. Infact, I watched Eva first but never paid much attention to it. Then I saw RahXephon, and really enjoyed it. Then, I noticed that people compared Eva to RahXephon a lot, so I decided to re-watch Eva. I re-watched it once, twice, a third time, now I've re-watched Eva about 8 times since the first time I watched it... I've seen RahXephon (the series and movie, and the books) more than that... I don't see how Evangelion and RahXephon are at all comparable. They're both completely different stories, with completely different sets/settings, completely different characters/main characters. RahXephon is a heavy love/romance story, while, I honestly wouldn't say the same about Eva. It has elements of this to it, but the entire story wasn't at all focused on two people who were lovers but their love ended in tragedy, and one side is trying to repair it while the other side (Ayato) is so confused he has no clue what's going on in the messed up world he's forced to endure.
Shinji from Eva is in no way comparable to Ayato Kamina from RahXephon. They're just two completely different people. Even the super robot (not exactly mech, more like mechanical monsters...) from both series were completely different. In RahXephon, they were a made by some old guy named Bahbem who had been jumping bodies for thousands of years, and had lived thousands of years prior to the story as we watch it, and he created the RahXephon along with the other "mecha" (actually super robots) we see in the anime RahXephon.
Of course, Eva was a super robot show too, kind with some psychological and mystery elements in it (just like RahXephon, and Big O, I guess this is why people compare the three all the time). But their super robots were totally different from the ones in RahXephon, and even Big O.
I could go on and on and on and on talking about these three shows, especially RahXephon and Big O, because they're my two favorites (that's for sure). But again, I just see no point in comparing any anime with any anime. Any video game with any video game. Any guitar riff with another guitar riff even if they sound similar. Some guitarists are bound to hit similar/very close notes. A guitar is a guitar, and only so many patterns can be made on it. Same with other things. Stories are stories, they can only be written in so many ways. To compare everything with everything, I feel like that's just lame.
I think what it is, is that most people have just become used to doing that, for whatever reason, comparing things to other things. "Oh, RahXephon and Eva are like the same but RahXephon is a rip off of Eva". Like, why would anyone have to even say that? They're certainly not the same, nor are they rip offs of eachother. They're two entirely different shows. It just feels like someone picking on one of the other shows, when they do that (because usually they call one of them a rip off of the other).
I like to keep things simple, and just not compare things. Unless there's some extremely legitimate comparison to be made.
Thank you, for saying that.
well fun fact, big O was animated by the people who animated batman
I think it draws more from the works and theories of Isaak Asimov and Metropolis then evangelion.
true
I actually blind bought the steelbook for this show last week and it’s one of the better Blind buys I’ve done in recent years. Really good series and I thought S2 was great.
As a ten year old when I saw this show I was fascinated! It was the darker strange hard to understand gundam show on at like 1am. Every time I saw it on I immediately changed the Chanel to it. But I remember never being able to gather any kind of story. But I thought it was super cool. I’m gonna have to come back and watch it again some time.
The reason why the mechs were so slow is that they were trying to be realistic; realistic mechs would move slow and have hardly any articulation as shown. Big O was about being realistic because Evangelion hardly ever showed a lot of aspects about the mech, especially the people who worked on the mech. In big O, they made it clear that Big O was powered by your everyman. For one thing, they have shown the repairs of Big O which is shown in Evangelion also.
Take it from someone who actually likes mecha; the fights in this show are sweet.
Just like this anime's plotting, I stumbled upon this gem of a series through a convoluted route. Way back in 2001 (American 1st showing of series) when this was on a young Toonami I recall seeing a brief moment of one of the robot fights and the aesthetic was unique for the time, with admittedly a more than slight feel of the late 1990s Batman cartoons. Sadly I was not pulled in, as the darker tone of this toon was unappealing, however the style, being no very anime was enough to make it stand out in my mind. Fast forward 20 years and I am watching a Vtuber collaboration with Robcedee walking around Tokyo Dome Center and the large Farris wheel is named "The Big-O". This took me back to this show.
The irony is i dont like Evangelion but i love Big O😂
This anime reminded me a lot on BioShock. Specially the underwater episode.
Personally, i found it cute when dorothy called roger a louse
I'm suprised that you still haven't gotten to Gurren Lagann. Would really love to hear your thoughts on that show.
He hates giant do not anime so it may not happen for a while.
Wildest thing I heard about the show is that Big O and other Megadeuses are all steam powered
Shame many people write of the ending of season 2 because they don’t spend enough time thinking about it
I just re-watched both seasons. First let me say that I did enjoy the show a lot. However after learning that the creator never really intended to answer the mystery and just wanted to create unique stories within that universe, and only because cartoon network conditioned the second season on him revealing it, it kind of lowered my opinion of it a bit. I mean, it's not like he had the ending in mind to tie everything together from the beginning or early on. He was basically forced to think of one and went with a pretty eccentric ending that after learning all that, seemed like a bit of a cop-out. It's a good show, not great but good.
For people who dont know. Basically. The entire show is a show within itself the people of paradigm city and the people outside the domes were set to continue reliving the same story, having no memory only knowing they lost their memories 40years ago. Arnold Shwartzvald (important character)referred to them as puppets (the show is the stage. The stage is shown later in the last season, where Angel is also whipped on this stage. Actually a stage appeared on another episode as well, I believe) Gordon Rosewater the old man (Alex, the son he owns paradigm) actually had memories of negotiating a deal with paradigms best negotiator (Roger Smith) to stop repeating the same story (or play) by negotiating with Angel (Big Venus) doing so, would break the cycle. In the end Roger plead with her and was finally able to reach a conclusion.. That's the show in a nutshell
I think the foundation of the show is loosely based around the 1927 film "Metropolis" which of course is referenced on the book written by Gordon Rosewater. There's some parallels between the plots of Big O and Metropolis that I just can't ignore.
Joh Fredersen, the city-master in Metropolis who spends his life in luxury, is very clearly Alex Rosewater, which rules over the city as CEO of Paradigm City's mega-corporation.
Freder, the son of Joh Fredersen, ends up trying to negotiate on behalf of the workers in the city's underground at the Heart Machine in Metropolis, is obviously Roger Smith. This is, I think, hinted at when Gordon Rosewater remarks that he and Roger Smith already had a pre-existing contract.
In Metropolis, Freder's life is thrown off by the arrival of a beautiful woman named Maria. This is why I suspect that Angel is Maria. Roger's life is thrown off balance by the appearance of a beautiful and mysterious woman named Angel, who inevitably invites chaos and unanswered questions into his life.In Metropolis, a robot is also altered to look like Maria. Since Angel ends up as either the dominus of Big Venus or actually turns into Big Venus, it just feels correct.
Grot, the foreman of the Heart Machine, I believe is Gordon Rosewater. Grot of course is the leadership figure among the underground workers. The workers I think are meant to be represented in Big O as the civilians of Paradigm City, who suffer frequently at the hands of the Paradigm Corporation, even when they don't know the Paradigm Corporation is behind it. So Gordon Rosewater hires Roger Smith to negotiate with Alex Rosewater on their behalf, because every time the city is reset, Alex Rosewater ends up destroying it with Big Fau, which causes Angel to reset the city so everyone can try again for a better outcome.
This is speculation, and I'm still working on the theory, but I'm going to check out Metropolis and see if I can't find a parallel between one of the supporting characters and Dorothy. That, I believe, is the missing piece of my theory.
@@JimiGosu Interesting.
I think the ending is inspired by Twin Peaks. Twin Peaks was huge in Japan in the 90s - it partially inspired games like Silent Hill.
In Twin Peaks the entire show is meta about TV. It seems the world of Paradigm City is artificial & some people are cognizant enough of this fact.
Schwarzvald goes insane. He wants to prove he has free will. He also doesn't seem to grasp exactly what's going on which is why he resorts to violence against "powerful" people who themselves are pawns. Rosewater wants to also break the cycle. He may have been instrumental in "hiring" the actors. It seems some people are in on this being a production but he believes Roger has the ability to create his own destiny. He's more than just a pawn.
Their memories are fake. The world repeats from the moment we're introduced to the show. They have memories going back 40 years but those don't seem real - which makes sense. A lot of episodes are about people clinging to memories even though the memories seem to be dwlusional or half understood
I’m surprise I haven’t heard of this anime,thanks for letting me know.
I love The Big O so much
Bro you sound like Beck! Love the review.
I am sorry but I love the robot battles, even if they can get a,little repeatative. And at least the Robots in Big O have distinct designs.
Although nowhere near as good as the battles in Gundam Wing. still good
They Should Do Big O Season 3 and 4
There was going to be a season 3 but was cancelled.
My childhood right here
A lot of the concepts that are integral to this shows story are concepts that are talked about fairly frequently On apps like Instagram. even RUclips to a lesser extent. Examples such as domes and the nature of reality. Do we live in a simulation. Archetypes and the nature of time being cyclical.
love this series so much...
I love Big O! ❤ Great series! 👍🏾
Oh wow! So the show has an actual ending? Last time I saw it, which was years ago, I saw it end with just a ton of megadueses inexplicably coming out of the ocean. Where can I watch the complete series?! I would absolutely appreciate it!
They didn't get a renewal at first in Japan because of the poor ratings and there was a lapse. Then after they went and made a second season cartoon network never dubbed or ran it. So that's why you can't recall beyond episode 13.
Kinda have a theory ... But i don't know ... What if .. Big venus was responsible for the world being destroyed and everyone wanted to forget the event of the beast ...
Flash AAAAA, Saviour of the universe
Is that how you pronounce evangelion? I've been saying EE•van•jel•lee•on.
ShadowACS love your videos man there awsome. have you ever considered watching watamote its funny as hell.
Bruh I loved big o
Big O is my stuff
Earned yourself a new subscriber ✊
26 More Episode
Roger Smith is Bruce Wayne
“I won’t provide the actual ending”
What a fucking waste of 7 minutes of my life Jesus. Put that at the beginning next time
Roger and the great big o are great but the chase for memories was tedious.
@ShadowACS do attack on titan season 3, it's evolved and gotten so much better that it's rated in the top 5 anime in mal and for good reason, and if season 4 follows the manga this anime might even be up there with code geass and become a modern classic, it's not me fanboying the basement twist is that good
i really don't like that kinda experimental thing animators tend to do....evangelion already made that annoying, confusing & pretentious, & big O suffers from that same issue IMO.
just get to the point without taking confusing turns, get the point across & make it simple & clear.
being "experiemental" is just a pretentious way of saying "i wanna feel special & mysterious sonimma make things confusing as hell to flex muh intellect".
hence why i don't like it.
Can you review Magi Kingdom of Magic, Beastars, ID-0, Aico -Incarnation-, Sword Gai the Animation, Hamtaro, Superbook, and Sekko Boys?
I know you didn't like Magi, but give it a chance because the scale of the anime has gotten bigger and you got some of it wrong.
It's highly unlikely with Beastars to Sword Gai because they're on Netflix which I'm unsure you have a subscription.
Maybe review the first season of Hamtaro.
This is one of those "flawed classics" that is kind of take it or leave it. Personally it was enjoyable but that ending....is a mess. I think they tried to hard to make it difficult to understand which is always bad. If the anime is complicated (like ergo Proxy) than so be it. But making something convoluted on purpose just to confuse people is lame.
I wish you did spoil the ending after all it has been decades...
Hey love this series.
Tartraria Metropolis
Sounds like it's not for me but would someone tell me how angel got those scars (joker reference not intended) cause now I'm curious
She's an angel
@@punishedsquilliam9962 are those where her wings pop out? Did she fall from heaven and get them
@@HxH2011DRA
He final role is as "Big Venus" Which is supposed to be a metaphor for the fallen angel, Lucifer. Towards the end she sprouts her wings and pilots the Big Venus resetting the simulation.
@@punishedsquilliam9962 ahhhhhh k thanks for thr info!
I remember this show as batman with giant robots and a cyborg sex doll.
Shadow ACS please review Puella Magi Madoka Magica Movie Rebellion (Which is a sequel to the anime series )
Is this a thing whenever he uploads a video? You guys ask for Rebellion even though he might not want to?
I wish you mentioned the ending and explained it
I hate NGE but I LOVE big O
Kinda feel Attack on titan got a lot from this
I like Big O but it did get repetitive.
Big o is anime that people don't talk about a lot it shame I think big o is a perry good anime if you like James bond Batman cowboys beeop neon genesis evagioegion you going love big o
I liked Big O
There is a VN that has a ending like big o but it's brutal it's like if you made saw into a hentai but it's ending is great it's euphoria and don't watch the hentai it sucks read the VN
And Have Kids 3
Review Rokka No yuusha or Hyouka.
And The Final Episode Roger And Angel Should Get Married
And break Dorothy's heart???
Older.....i remember it came out....