Audience reviews
20 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
immosha
While a visually striking aesthetic, film noir has not had many breakthrough moments in Japanese animation in the past few decades. The Big O is one of the few works to introduce a bold chiaroscuro style into its design philosophy and anchor its episodic format in a detective mystery plot. Did I mention this is a super robot anime?
The show is mainly driven by its witty writing - main character Roger Smith is cool and collected as the Bruce Wayne-esque cop-turned-detective protagonist with a penthouse suite and a butler, but often finds himself in jabbing dialogues with the straightforward android R. Dorothy. Differences in character personality really shine through here than in most by-the-book anime, with real chemistry shining through, whether in self-deprecatory moments or classic sla…
Read at the sourcefastghosthunter
Big O is a 90s nostalgia show that millennials grew up watching on adult swim. Being made around the turn of the century when cable television was at a cultural zenith before the internet and smartphones had become ubiquitous. A period of time when you left your TV on and woke up late at night to grab some water and unexpectedly catch Inuyasha, Gundam Wing, and sometimes The Big O. This series is a product of a collection of Studio Sunrise veterans and auteur writer Chiaki J Konaka who has reached a cult-like status in the industry for working on some of the most ambitious anime of the 90's and 2000's.
The original season of Big O was made in 1999. An important detail to note because Big O was able to coalesce various tropes and show the blueprint of what would become the foundation of s…
Read at the sourceMAGNUS8M
The Big O is probably best viewed as an anime version of "rock'em sock'em robots" with a touch of unexplained mystery to pull you in and make you wonder. Unfortunately, another company got involved with completing the series in the second season by turning the unexplained-mystery into "plot dump", therefore killing the mystery. The second half pulls down what could have otherwise been given a perfect score from me.
The Big O is about a giant robot that is used to beat up other giant robots, kaiju, or whatever else attempts to destroy the area known as Paradigm City that it protects. And that's really all it needs to be.
Roger Smith is its pilot, who keeps his identity as a 'domineus' secret while he spends most of his time as a "Negotiator", helping the people of "The City of Amnesia" wh…
Read at the sourcejoemaamah
[beavis voice] The Big O heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh[/beavis voice]
This got a lot of hype when it first came out, but I was sooooo sick of all the trash mechas that had come out in the 90s by then, I ignored it. But one night at Blockbuster, I had pretty much tapped out the rest of the anime section, so I was stuck picking this one up.
Despite my apprehension, I liked this more than I wanted to. The artwork was cool, and much better than the stuff that had been getting puked out by the studios up to that point. They actually put some time and effort into the animation. The characters were very cool, in a James Bond sort of fashion. The sound track was catchy.
The story? Well, it wasn't quite as tropey and cliche as other mechas of the day. It was an interesting premise and it move…
Read at the sourceThebruhhomie
-The Big O short review.-
Extremely unique premise and world with tons of style, great animation, a unique art style, great story boarding, and fantastic music to back it up.
Suave and cool characters with tons of charisma, and thematically it does a pretty good reflection, in a cool and smart meta way, on the idea of memories and how it makes us perceive reality by exploring the existential crisis that comes with having no memories as well as playing and blurring the line between what’s real and not in the narrative while, cleverly, not giving a solid answer in the whole final arc of the show and at the same time delivering a solid message despite many of the concrete mysteries of the plot not getting resolved.
Wild, dreamlike stuff, but expected from Chiaki J. Konaka.
Unfortunate…
Read at the sourceajc228
The first season functions as a pastiche of noir, giallo, mecha anime and 60s tokusatsu programs. It blends elements of pulp fiction with Lovecraftian undertones. The mostly episodic adventures range from detective fiction to kaiju and climax with a giant robot battle. The robot fights are dynamic and provide novelty by having the titular mech reveal a special move or hidden weapon to defeat each enemy.
The show drops hints about the mysteries of Paradigm city and the reasons for its’ residents losing their memory. While it never answers these questions, they mainly function to evoke a certain mood. Part of the fun lies in the ambiguity and confusion. It carries a David Lynch-like quality where solving the mystery is not as important as the tone and themes it imparts.
The second season f…
Read at the sourceVjestiprime
The Big O remains as one of the most underrated anime’s of all time, incorporating the pros of the East and the West to create something truly magnificent. A grandiose, retro mecha-tale with one of the most unique and interesting worlds seen in anime. A high recommendation for fans of the golden age of mecha anime, following in the footsteps of Hideaki Anno’s Neon Genesis Evangelion. As my last rewatch of 2024, I can happily say The Big O has moved up exponentially on my list of the finest anime’s of all time, with my current second viewing coming 2 years after my initial discovery of the show.
A twist of the Neo-Noir genre, The Big O takes us to the City of Amnesia, a greatly complex and unique setting unravelled as the show continues through its 26 episode run. On top of its Neo-Noir my…
Read at the sourcelyyki
I was recommended this as one of the best Film Noir animes ever made. And I have to agree. The mood in the first season is perfect with this longing of the past long forgotten. Songs, characters, the visual style - it all works.
And then capow, suddenly a giant mecha appears.
I get that some people really love mechas but I've never seen the appeal. And in this show especially it feels so out of place. It has the perfect somewhat grounded noir mystery feeling so a giant robots fighting sours that style a lot. And not only does it feature Giant Mechas, it's like the biggest story component aside from collective amnesia.
Second season abandons the story of the week format for a more longer narrative but it also loses a lot of the cool noir mystery factor in the process.
But even after a…
Read at the sourceSeanInTheFlesh
The Big O is truly a unique masterpiece of storytelling and art. Its such a big twist for an ending that left the watcher with a grim and upsetting, yet calming feeling. It leaves no answers, it leaves it entirely up to the ready to decide, but its not hard to determine what the ending means truly.
The thing about this anime is, i feel as if there was a different ending planned when it was originally made versus when it actually ends. Theres so many questions left unanswered, and that is truly upsetting. But even still, the ending we're given is just as good, and is filling for what we went through with the seasons.
There's no stone left unturned for characters in this, everyone is dealt with magnificently and given their arc, and even expanded on after the fact. It's truly a loving a w…
Read at the sourceSara_Isayama
The Big O is probably my favorite Mecha ever, and definitely a true classic in general. Imagine if Batman piloted a giant mecha in Gotham City. Only in this city, humans and androids live together side by side, and everyone, (humans and androids), has lost their memory from all events further back than 40 years ago, when some horrific cataclysm happened. The world of Big O has a very Art Deco, retro noir feel to it. People use rotary phones, but they also have a kind of ray-punk
esque, technology with vacuum tubes, computers with lots of wires and typewriter like keys, and retro-looking giant robots. If Cyberpunk, Raypunkm and Diselpunk, combined and made a desaturated noir detective story, this is what you'd get. It's fantastic.
The characters stand out the most. Each is mature, acts l…
Read at the sourceorcsamizdat
a true noir, and tonally perfect in that regard (think "the third man"). not super concerned with answering questions, just drip feeding you atmosphere and little mysterious tidbits as it drags you along. also shockingly funny. dorothy and roger make a great pair, and their rapport/potential romance only gets better as the series progresses.
the ending is apparently controversial, but i thought that (without spoiling anything) it couldn't have finished any other way. the final episode is really a reflection on how you the viewer are *supposed* to watch the big o. it's no secret that a lot of "mystery" television relies more on speculation and implication than enclosed, tightly structured plots with definitive answers. the ending of this tries to explain, i think successfully, why we find…
Read at the sourceangzyx
I typically never write reviews, but I came across this precise anime after a couple of months of not watching any shows. I was able to finish watching season 1 within two days, and I was intrigued the whole time. I am neither a big fan of Mecha anime for some reason, but I couldn't help but love this one. It included everything I typically want in an anime: great characters, soundtrack, and action. The ending left me a bit puzzled, but again there is a season 2, and I am sure my confusion will be cleared after watching the second part!! I definitely recommend watching this anime :)
(I also want to say that the art style may not be everyone's cup of tea but I loved it)
Read at the sourceSanaeK10
The Big O is what you get if Batman TAS was written by the guy who did Serial Experiments Lain. From a modern day perspective looking at this in the present day, it's not too dissimilar to what happened when Madoka exploded in popularity a decade ago: i.e. You get a lot of shows either trying to capitalize on its success, or more generously speaking you have creators willing to explore more adult themes through a genre that has otherwise generally been associated with children's entertainment. After Evangelion became a household name, so too did many mecha shows began to incorporate more mature themes into their narratives, and The Big O stands out as being one of the more successful and memorable ones.
There are two distinct halves to The Big O, and the story behind its development is we…
Read at the sourceCRIMSONSAMA
What is The Big O? Is is a episodic robot action show featuring villains and monsters alike? Is it a show contemplating the effects on a population if their memories were completely wiped? Is it a take on the view of God and how humans are just puppets part of a grand play? Or is it about the intense fear and disgust of tomatoes? If you answered yes to all of the questions, you would be correct. Who would have thought a show that on the surface looks and feels like a homage to batman, could be actually about many other deeper topics; like if androids have rights, or do memories define who we are or do we define our memories? This show has a great cast of characters and I'm still surprised about the fact that cartoon network was involved. Has to be one of the greatest animated shows from ca…
Read at the sourceJoe_Devaney
Overview:
"The Big O" is probably one of the earliest examples of an anime drawing inspiration from Western media, in this case the immensely popular "Batman" franchise. The results are mixed- while the Western influences are definitely there, the overall style of the series is still undeniably Eastern, which works both for and against it in different ways, with a frequently confusing story, dated art and somewhat underdeveloped characters. While there is a good experience to be had here, I would personally think twice before expecting anything better than that.
Story (6.5/10):
The series is set in the fictional Paradigm City, also known as the "City of Amnesia", where people co-exist with androids and mysterious mechs called Megadeus. It's called such because, 40 years before the story…
Read at the sourceCiaran_Zagami
I really want to recommend this anime
Its got a lot going for it.
Great animation, great music, great action, good characters, an awesome and mysterious setting.
In fact everything is basically perfect.
So why the hesitation? It's not really something I can talk about with out spoiling the entire series and that is REALLY something I don't want to do. If you even remotely think this series sounds interesting I highly encourage you to give it a try.
For the rest of you, abandon all hope of avoiding spoilers.
All my problems stem from the ending.
I think its supposed to be some weird cosmic reality bending thing. Where god herself in the form of Angel/Big Venus decides to reset reality to the series start. But this time she will retain her memories and allow everyone's lives to go…
Read at the sourceSCLFI
The Big O, where the O stands for organic. Not really, but if there is a single word that does help to characterise The Big O, organic would be a good contender. Compared to plenty of other anime out there, particular those that feature giant robots and far-off sci-fi settings, many of them can struggle to feel organic, and for the most part, such shows are typically impersonal, with the characters not being of much interest, and the large setpieces are their only selling point. The Big O is a rare case of a show that has both a good setting, and good characters.
On the surface, The Big O’s setting is nothing too remarkable, Paradigm City, a futuristic city that despite being several hundred years in the future, still looks like an Eastern European slum in a lot of places, in which some i…
Read at the sourceReey_Monteiro
No doubt TBO has become the best mecha I have ever seen in my life, it is difficult to find words to describe how incredible TBO is.
The characters are very good and very charismatic the atmosphere of the anime is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, not to mention the soundtrack that is a masterpiece. I love all the TBO characters, they are well written and unique.
The Big O plots are amazing and mindfuc **, but if you pay close attention, you will be able to understand the story or not lol. I was so crazy about the plot that it came in a short sequence of time.
About the end .. Yes, Angel was a robot / Megadeus, to begin with. When her operator died, she became human. Essentially becoming a physical resemblance to her operator, but without any recollection. Due to its ab…
Read at the sourceCritically_Red
I don't know if people are still reading reviews on this show or not. And I know reviews can seem to go on and on sometimes, so I'll be as brief as I can here.
The Big O is a very eclectic experience. It's as moody as it is humorous. It's as atmospheric as it is fast paced. And it's as lighthearted as it is existential. It follows a formula similar to a saturday morning cartoon, where the hero is usually pressed in to a corner, and at the last minute pulls out the big guns and saves the day. But it works so well here because there's so much more substance elsewhere in the show.
It overtly pulls inspiration from film noir tropes, making this perfect for anyone who enjoys the gloomy jazz and blues vibe that Cowboy Bebop executed so well. It does however, take a different direction with t…
Read at the sourcejinxthewicked
Big O is genuinely one of my favorite anime of all time. It's an enjoyable noir mystery with mechs and compelling characters that make the entire thing feel solid and well thought out.
The animation is very of-the-time but clean and nice to look at (especially in the blu-ray release, which I absolutely bought the moment that I could). The art style is more on the simple side for the characters themselves, but really shines when it comes to the mechs like Big O itself.
DO NOT go into this anime expecting a full on mecha anime. That's not what it is and not what it tries to be. It's a noir, first and foremost. The mystery and the characters are what bring this anime to life.
Read at the source
