The Big O Showtime: R-D

And with that we come to the end of the first season. A little is revealed, but more questions are raised.

This was a really interesting episode for a season finale. It felt really low-key and unlike any other episode we've had so far. And it mainly focused on Roger. That is weird in and of itself because our protagonist has actually been the focus of any episode so far. Yeah he's been involved and moves the plot of each episode forward, but those plots haven't actually been about him. That wouldn't be strange for an episodic private detective show like this, but this show has made it a point of bringing up Roger's lack of introspection. So Roger has remained a bit aloof and mysterious to us the audience.

It turns out Roger was part of some kind of weird child brainwashing experiment that implanted Memories into prepubescent kids. So part of this episode is Roger going all Total Recall, looking into a past he doesn't really remember and may not have even been true to begin with. He keeps having these flashbacks of a city in flames stalked by magadeuses, including Big O and Big Duo. These look very similar to his freak out back in Episode 4 when he descended into the undercity. His investigation leads him out to Gordon Rosewater, City founder and guy who ran the experiment. According to Rosewater, they did the experiment to preserve the Memories an eventually recreate pre-Event society.

This is pretty clever and goes a long way to explaining Roger's character. His past is very traumatic and ontologically questionable, so it makes sense that he wouldn't really focus on it. And his attitude to Angel in Episode 7 makes more sense now too. Being part of an experiment, probably against his will, to preserve Memories and recreate a destroyed society would most likely sour Roger on people working to restore the past. Having seen the lengths these people will go to, he can't support it. Better to leave it behind and move forward, at least for him.

The Big O Showtime: Enemy is Another Big!

Well fuck me. Major revelations this episode along with the return of a villain.

So first of all, Schwarzwald is back. I thought he was crushed under rubble all the way back in Episode 4. But having dug his way out, his plan is now clear. Schwarzwald wants to reveal to everybody just what happened 40 years ago. Drive everybody as crazy as he is with the truth. The guy comes across like a religious zealot, spreading the glory of his cause. Whether people want it or not. This is exemplified by the scene of his masquerade party, a bunch of the city's elite are there so he can basically set fire to them. Also drug them I think because they all act intoxicated.

Big Duo

Helping him is his megadeus. Yeah, he's got a megadeus now. A megadeus related to Big O called Big Duo. Holy Shit. So far Big O has been unique, even among other megadeuses, in that Big O can be piloted. There have been other piloted giant robots but those weren't megadeuses. So what the hell is Big Duo? Big O's brother? Even their cockpits look similar. Big Duo also seems more powerful than Big O, because he manhandles Big O without much problem and Big O has to crater a city to get a leg up on him. But that's before the bigger reveal, Big Duo can move on its own. It was letting Schwarzwald control it.

This raises so many questions. Can all the megadeuses do this? Just the Bigs? Why did Big Duo let Schwarzwald control it? And why does Big O let Roger control it? I'm starting to think the Bigs might have had something to do with the Event 40 years ago. It might explain how the hell Schwarzwald found one under the city. But I'm not really sure what to makes of this yet. Except are there more Bigs out there?

The Big O Showtime: Daemonseed

Hey, a Christmas episode! Okay they call it "Heaven's Day", but it's totally Christmas. See, they've got trees and everything.

What the hell's that cross thing?

This is actually a neat bit of world building. Holidays can tell us a lot about the culture that celebrates them and I'm surprised when writers don't use this trope more often. Here it establishes more about how weird of a place Paradigm City is. Rosewater confirms that Heaven's Day is a corruption of Christmas, so the citizens of Paradigm don't practice Christianity or even seem to know what it is. A character points out a ruined church later, saying the elderly gather there to sing songs, but nobody knows what the hell they're singing about. Neither do the elderly apparently, just doing it as an echo of their memories. I wonder if this was deliberate by the founders before the Event 40 years ago. We know there was a lot of crazy mad science going on before the Event, and the undercity from Episode 4 had a very City of the Future/Venture Compound look to it. I wonder if, going off my theory that Paradigm City was built as refuge for whatever the Event was, it wasn't also some kind of research center and/or social engineering experiment. Sort of like what the DHARMA Initiative was doing on the Island in Lost.

Like the founders were trying to weed out what they considered a hindrance in human behavior (religion or just Christianity) but realized the value of yearly societal rituals so re-worked them to serve their own purposes. Just a guess, I might be completely off base here. That mad science is our plot catalyst again, as a Memory crazed Santa slips a street musician some kind of mutant seed that's going to destroy the city. All it does is grow a big Christmas tree though. That's actually kind of funny because this giant tree starts growing and Roger calls Big O. But what's his giant robot going to do to a tree? It's a tree, it's not like you can punch a tree.

The Big O Showtime: Winter Night Phantom

Really great stand-alone episode this time, focusing on a character we know but don't know much about.

Dastun has a recurring dream (or memory?) of a woman getting shot on a pier by a policeman and then dying in his arms. It's actually interfering with his current case, a series of bombings on retired city officials. Not helped by him seeing the woman from his dream at all the crime scenes.

It's nice to see some focus on Dastun. He's been mostly at the edges of the series so far, and we've only gotten an idea of his character so giving him some attention feels warranted by now. And he really shines here, trying to put his personal issue aside to focus on his job. Also having to deal with Paradigm's obstructive bureaucracy getting in the way. He's a man of integrity, who feels the weight of every life he could have saved. Roger barely appears this episode, mostly giving voice-over about Dastun and exposition, but it helps the episode. The voice-over lets us in on Dastun's character and we can see why he and Roger are friends, and why he's Roger's conduit with the police. Good character stuff.

The Big O Showtime: Beck Comes Back

Oh yes he does. I'm actually going to spend most of today's Showtime talking about Beck because he's our first real recurring villain and I just love the guy. Plus, there wasn't much world-building or story advancement this episode.

But I'll mention a few interesting things I noticed. Beck's plan involved kidnapping some rich guy's son, so Roger was called in to negotiate. And his plan is one I've never heard before, haggle. Yeah, Roger tells the rich guy to act like he doesn't care about his son to drive the ransom down. That's...actually a clever plan. You know the kidnappers won't kill him, he's the only thing they have to bargain with, so this might actually work.

How's my Riker beard?

Second thing is, it turns out the kidnapee isn't even the rich guy's son. See he's 40 years old, born right after the amnesia event, and his mother was already pregnant when the event happened. What I think happened, it's sort of unclear, is that the rich guy and the mom woke up in his mansion after the event and with no memories, fell in love with each other. That's a cool idea that comes organically from the setting. I wouldn't have thought of that.

And finally, Roger is treating Dorothy like a human. Beck screws her up again, he did something similar in Episode 2, and while she could be fixed so it wouldn't happen again the procedure would affect her memories. Roger tells Norman not to do it, as to spare Dorothy the pain of memory loss. It's a tiny thing but still speaks to Roger's character and gives Dorothy a funny line to close the episode. She's good at that. Now onto Beck.

Giant Robot Month: Destroy All Mutants!

Recently unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con, the first look at the villains of X-Men: Days of Future Past. At right, the head of one of the Sentinels. In case you didn't know, the Sentinels are giant robots designed to hunt down and kill mutants. They first appeared in X-Men #14 way back in 1965, created by Anti-Mutant anthropologist Bolivar Trask who'll be played by Peter Dinklage in the film.

I like the design. Retains enough of the classic Jack Kirby design like the orange eyes, but made plausibly realistic looking. I'm a little sad they lack the iconic Sentinel face but it may be too early to dismay. Several propaganda posters showed at the same presentation revealed a more comics-faithful look for the robots. I'm also a little worried it's too small, this head is only about the size of a man's torso, but with the above about the face and the time-travel shenanigans involved with the story (Look up Days of Future Past for more) I think this may be a prototype Sentinel in the 70s-set past scenes and we'll see bigger, more faithful-looking Sentinels in the future parts of the story.

This flyer from the presentation seems to back up my theory, referring to this as a "Mark 1" Sentinel and celebrating Trask Industries' 50th Aniversary. From that, we can infer Trask has been making these robots for a while. Until we get more details on the movie, that's all I can guess for now. But you can be sure I'll bring up any news here.

The Big O Showtime: Missing Cat

My apologies for no new Showtime yesterday. My return from seeing Pacific Rim took longer than expected and I missed my deadline. But we're back now with an episode where Dorothy gets a kitty!

But before that, Dastun shows up at a crime scene where a millionaire has been killed by her dog. Her dog that's mutated into some kind of kaiju thing. Okay... Kitty Time!

Pacific Rim: A Review

It's awesome. What the hell did you think I'd say?

All right, I suppose I ought to go more in depth. Because Pacific Rim is awesome not just for the spectacle of giant robots fighting giant monsters, but for more less flashy reasons that make it an incredibly solid film and the best movie of its kind in a long time.

The Big O Showtime: Day Off

Sorry folks, no new Big O Showtime today. I'll be on my way to see Pacific Rim in IMAX by the time you read this, and so will be away from my computer all day.

But don't worry, we'll return to Paradigm City tomorrow with episode 8. And more Giant Robot content than you can shake a Megadeus at.

The Big O Showtime: The Call from The Past

Hooray, more story! Things actually moving forward again!

Today's episode starts with Roger and Angel stranded in Rapture from Bioshock. We learn in flashback how they got there. None of Paradigm's fishermen will go out because they're afraid of a "sea titan" whose fishy minions have been coming ashore at night. Roger's investigation leads him into the ocean and he runs into Angel, who's after the same thing. He hijacks her submarine and they end up stuck in an underwater building.

The atmosphere in this episode is way different than usual, but still done excellently. It's a mix between Lovecraft, the aforementioned Bioshock, with a little Godzilla near the end. All foggy docks and sunken cities. They manage to make it creepy and haunting, in a good way. Especially at the end, when the "sea titan" (actually a seaweed covered Megadeus) comes out of the ocean. It's an evocative moment. Though we never get an explanation for the creepy divers scaring the fishermen. Angel says there's a big stash of Memories in the underwater city, so I assume that's what they're after but it isn't clear.

The Big O Showtime: A Legacy of Amadeus

Filler again, but better this time. Because it's character focused.

Roger is sick of Dorothy's piano-playing waking him up (at 1 PM), so he drags her to a piano bar he frequents. And the piano player there is also an android, like her. Well that answers my question of how common androids are. Dorothy is still an anomaly though, because she can pass for human. Instro, the piano player, is very clearly a robot. And an old friend of Roger's. He introduced Dorothy to Instro so he could teach her to play the piano more soothingly.

Definitely a robot

This is where the episode works better than yesterday's. It makes us care about Instro, even though we're meeting him for the first time. And the writers do this by connecting him to our main characters, who we the audience already care about. They establish that Instro is old friends with Roger from his days in the police, Dastun knows him too, and so when Roger sees Instro involved with a shady character he naturally shows concern. Instro and Dorothy form a connection too, as he teaches her to play, coming from their shared android nature and similar paternal relationships. These feel more natural to us the audience, so when the main characters care what happens to Instro we also care what happens to him. It doesn't feel forced.

The Big O Showtime: Bring Back My Ghost

Huh. Filler. Wasn't expecting that.

Yeah, not much really moved forward this episode. No new information or character development. Well, we do find there's more giant robots in the city but we knew that already. Just an okay one-off story. Not much for me to talk about.

Okay, it's not really development but we get more of Dastun's character this episode. He has the whole "one honest cop" thing going for him. We learn in this episode that the police are corrupt and working for the Paradigm Group. That's actually the catalyst for the plot, the "ghost" of a murdered cop comes back for revenge against the dirty cops who killed him. Spoilers, the ghost is actually a giant robot.

The Big O Showtime: Underground Terror

Ah, the mystery deepens. Things are getting freaky in the city of Amnesia, and every new episode just raises more questions. Or specific to this episode, our protagonist. It didn't really occur to me until now, but we don't know much about Roger do we? We know he quit the police a while ago and became a Negotiator, but he's still an enigma for the most part. There's more I want to talk about, but I'll come back to Roger's secret past.

I'm still fuzzy on what a negotiator is. Before I thought it was an illegal profession in some way, but if so why is Paradigm Group hiring Roger? According to him, they basically own and run the city, so I don't see why they'd need some criminal to do work for them. I was wrong about that then, hopefully this gets clarified. Anyway, Roger goes to Paradigm HQ for a new job. There's this really cool subway-car elevator thing there I love the design of, it's strange but fits into the setting perfectly. While there, Roger runs into Angel again.

The Big O Showtime: Electric City

Giant Electric Eel monster? What the hell?

Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. There's a few new things introduced in this episode I should talk about first. Like the opening credits. They're all right, I like the newspaper effect they're going for, but the repetition of silhouettes moving across the screen gets old fast. And I wish the theme song had more lyrics than "Big O" repeated over and over.

One of the strongest elements in the show so far is the repartee between Roger and Dorothy. Their bickering is wicked entertaining and it all comes from their characters rubbing against each other. This is present in the opening scene where they get some humorous back-and-forth. And Norman, Roger's butler who's been mostly in the background, gets a good line or two in here as well. Good writing here.

The Big O Showtime: Dorothy Dorothy

Day 2, Episode 2. First, two things I forgot to mention last time. I really like how Big O's cockpit looks. The typewriter keys and bare metal foot pedals are the best extrapolation of the show's 40s design sense applied to a giant robot cockpit. And on the animation side, I like how they convey Dorothy's weight. When she moves on her own it doesn't look different than anyone else, but when they try to move her she becomes solid and immoveable, almost like a statue. Weight is hard to convey in animation, but this show pulls it off very well.

All right, onto episode 2. Thankfully, a few of my questions from last time were answered. Apparently robots are uncommon in Paradigm City, at least they are now. I gather from dialogue that they were more common before the event 40 years ago, whatever that was. And the writers add a new wrinkle to the setting by mentioning that people in the city avoid the subway, and that's why Roger store Big O down there. Though it's kind of a dick move on his part to keep crashing up through the road and making the city pay for it. Anyway, that's an interesting detail and I hope the writers go more into it.

The Big O Showtime: Roger the Negotiator

We begin with Episode 1, or Act: 01 as the above title card says. Right off, the praise for this show's design work is well-deserved. The character models are more simplistic than the usual in anime, but distinctive in their own way. I also appreciate how whole-hog they go on the film noir atmosphere. It doesn't have the chiaroscuro lighting but everything else looks like it emigrated straight from a Fritz Lang film.

On that note, the music is wonderful at setting that atmosphere. It's full of lonely saxophones and sad pianos that compliment Roger's noir narration. And later during the giant robot fight, it's more triumphal and still matches well. But this highlights something I noticed. I won't call it a problem, first episode and all, but it is strange. The thing is the more standard giant robot battle at the end of the episode, though still well-made, kind of clashes with the more somber noir feel from the beginning. The colors in this part are brighter and more comic-booky in contrast to the washed-out look from earlier. I'm thinking this is deliberate, showing the difference between the inside of the domes and the outside city, but again it's the first episode.

Giant Robot Month: The Big O Showtime

As I said, July is Giant Robot Month here on the blog and I've prepared something special for you. The Big O is a cult classic anime that aired on [adult swim] in 2001. I've been meaning to watch it for some time now after hearing about it's Philip K Dick-esque premise and Batman: The Animated Series inspired design sense.

Plus, you know, giant robots.

So for Giant Robot Month, I'm going to watch one episode of The Big O every day and, with no prior research, and give my thoughts on the episode and the show. I'm calling it "The Big O Showtime" and the format will like my Clone Wars reviews but more informal. Come back later for the first article on Episode 1: "Roger the Negotiator".

Announcing: Giant Robot Month!

Fuck Yeah!

That's real by the way.

Yes, in celebration of Guillermo Del Toro's upcoming Pacific Rim I declare July to be Giant Robot Month! A celebration of Humongous Mecha.

So stay tuned for...

The Top 20 Greatest Giant Robots list!

An obscure Comics Character Pitch of Red Ronin!

My review of Pacific Rim!

An episode by episode look at Adult Swim's The Big O!

And much more giant robot goodness to come. Wordsmith out.