The Big O is certainly a staggering mix of influences. The opening credits feature the thumping strains of Big O set to Queen’s “Flash Gordon’s Theme” over a silhouetted giant robot. From there you are thrown into a shadowy, thirties, art deco world clearly labelling Paradigm as sister city to Gotham City and the square-jawed features of Roger Smith mark him as a not-so-distant cousin to Bruce Wayne. These elements do not so much recall the Batman Animated series but are more direct reproductions. (At this point my brain’s pop culture reference storage shut down and had to be rebooted).
On the surface, The Big O could be seen as just another stylish giant robot series. Roger Smith’s job as a negotiator is little more than an excuse to throw him into hostile situations and his Megadeuss, (which resembles a mobile version of New York’s Chrysler Building) a steam-powered justification to punch out monstrous threats.
What really sets The Big O apart (and could have easily been its undoing) is its premise of a city that has a forty year old memory. Paradigm City and its inhabitants carry a weighty melancholy. Everybody is alone: photos indicate relationships between now strangers and parents do not recognise their children. People are left to wonder what hubris brought about their fall as a lone, plaintive saxophone underscores their isolation.
Roger Smith is charismatic, debonair and successful, yet his life is incomplete as everybody else. Over the course of the first series, he obtains Dorothy, a robot constructed in the image of a murdered scientist’s daughter, and together with his butler George the nucleus of a family is formed. Attempts are made to rediscover small intimacies: Roger organises piano lessons for Dorothy and the ‘emotionless’ Dorothy buys Roger a ‘Heaven’s Day’ present. This surrogate family is similar in many ways to the Cowboy Bebop crew whose working together for mutual convenience belies their unspoken need for one other. People need people, The Big O seems to be saying and without community or purpose people are lost.
These satisfying relationships are interspersed with plenty mysteries within the town without memories. The check box is ticked for a noir femme fatale, Angel who has stumps on her back where it appears wings used to be and businessman Alex Rosewater who seems to have memories older than forty years. The art deco design is beautiful as are the angular character designs.
For a show with such a stew of elements and overt influences, it is The Big O’s emotional core that sets it apart from the competition. Its melancholy tone and characters are well balanced against plenty of knock-down, drag-out giant robot fights. It is a hearty meal indeed.