Know your anime? Can you explain this series? (May be spoilers in replies)

I have watched very little anime ever. But for two or three nights I had to be up late and had the TV on. I watched an episode of a series titled( I think) “Big O” Not sure why it has that name. So by now I’ve watched about four episodes and I’m still trying to figure it out.

The show takes place in “Paradigm City” and it appears to be alone in the world. Parts of it are under domes. Apparently alive forty years ago lost their memories and all anyone had to go on was written records lying around. It’s run by The Paradigm Corporation(natch) A main character is Roger Smith, kind of a Bruce Wayne type, complete with butler that has a British accent. I kind of like the butler and his wry comments as he manages his gentleman. Also under the roof is a female android named Dorothy. I don’t know how she fits in. Roger also has a big robot that he uses to battle some of the Batman type villains that keep cropping up. And there is a police officer named Dan.
The artwork is not bad, at least the characters don’t have those big eyes.

Can anyone fill me in on the background of this show, or point me to a link?

I’ve seen the entire 1st season. There are a lot of open-ended aspects of the series; it ends on a huge cliffhanger at the end of the season but the good news is Season 2 starts August 3rd on Cartoon Network (though I’ll be on vacation that week…DAMMIT!)

Here’s my take on the plot- Around the year 2030, there was a massive world war. Humans developed the technology to produce the Megadeuce, a massive robot capable of great destruction. The AI of the Megadeuce was tied into the pilots own brain; the Megadeuce shared a bond with its pilot the way a dog bonds with its owner.

I believe the technology behind this ‘bonding’ lead to either the creation of a kind of superweapon or some sort of horrible accident which caused the survivors of the war to lose their memories. I’m banking on deliberate-its convenient for the people behind it to make the world ‘forget’ what happened so that folks like Rosewater can exploit the fact that many people don’t WANT to remember what happened.

Big O was the first of a series of front-line Megadeuces. Big Duo, and a third Megadeuce (Big Trio? Its never mentioned the name; you see it at the VERY end of the series). Roger pilots a Big O. Big O is ‘bonded’ to Roger Smith. The "Cast in the name of God- Ye not guilty’ is a security measure I believe.

The ‘bonding’ is what allows the rogue Megadeuces to operate without a pilot. Since the catastrophe, many of the pilots either died or lost their memory, but the AI of the Megadeuces survived. Like a lost pet, the Megadeuces occasionally wake up, and the chaos they ensue is often the result of them futilely looking for their master (Sea Titan is a good example). Its rumored that memories are stored in the Megadeuces; there are people in Paradigm such as Rosewater who seem to want to profit off the memories.

Dorothy is an android whose appearance is based off a man’s daughter/grandaughter (cant remember exactly) who died. She also carries the dead girl’s memories. She is, however, still an android but like Data in ST:TNG, she is trying to become more human. There seems to be a subltle romantic interest among Roger and Dorothy, which is a bit oogy since one: she looks about fourteen years old, and two, she’s an android. Roger rescued her in one of the earlier episodes and she proved useful in many instances (she is amazingly strong; in one episode she got reprogrammed and almost crushed Roget to death by hugging him)

The Military Police Captain Dan used to work with Roger Smith. See, in the past, Roger worked with the Military Police but then quit for unknown reasons to become a Negotiator.

The batman-esque villains have an interesting role. See, everyone DID lose their memories 40 years prior, and they are somehow hidden away, but some people get their memories back. People with dangerous kinds of knowlege, like terrorism, or mad science, simply revert to how they were before the catastrophe. Some villans retained memories of other people, like their superiors or family members.

Paradigm city is in fact not the only surviving city on the planet. However Paradigm wants people to THINK that they are. They have a powerful agenda of keeping the population amnesia maintained, probably having to do with the circumstances in which everyone lost their memories in the first place. But Rosewater (the head of Paradigm) makes it clear in one episode that there are in fact other civilizations, I’m guessing the catastrophe cut communications and other cities were just convinced they were the only ones left. The domes represent a rift between the upper and lower class citizens. Upper class people live in domes; it could be postulated the role of the domes is to keep the lower class people/crime/problems out.

Good one Incubus!

About Roger Smith and the series:
http://www.mokuzen.net/roger/

One of those technologies is the Megadeus: Big-O.

I noticed that on Nausicaa of the valley of wind, the ancient giant robots that where in the end were not monsters, but judges and executioners and they were called “God Warriors” (Deus: God), they had in their programming a command similar to Gort from The day stood still: to seek injustice and deal with it, if necessary, by deadly force.

Here is a Dorothy page:
http://www.rdorothywayneright.com/intro.html

Thanks, all this helps. I feel strange for being drawn in by this series, given my age, but oh well.

How can a 288lb being be a size 3?

I don’t know the show in question, but is missing it really a bad thing? My experience is that Cartoon Network butchers all anime to a frightening extent.

You can really have fun summarizing this series, which seems to try hard not to make much overt sense.

-People talk about memories as if they were physical objects. There are several points in the series where someone points to vague glowing light and says “look! memories!”
-Roger Smith is gonna get with a fourteen year old girl. But it’s okay, because actually she’s only two years old. And a robot.
-There is a huge conspiracy designed to cover up the existence of the French.

Well, you’ve spoiled the show for me. Whatever else is going on, Don Rumsfeld is obviously behind it.

I read somewhere that Cartoon Network hired the original animation company to make a season 2 since there were no previous plans to continue the show. Sorry, can’t find a cite right now. I think this is the first time CN has done this and I for one am glad. The cliffhanger ending just wasn’t enough!

Off topic but I just wanted to mention they’re airing FLCL and one other anime at the same time. FLCL is definitely worth checking out for the anime fans (new AND old).

When does season 2 premier?

I tried a website with the info, but it was so poorly designed I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

Because she’s made of metal?

Have you ever watched Adult Swim? They don’t edit out nearly as much. In fact, I believe Big O is completely uncut on Adult Swim.

I think it’s likey been cut up, because many parts of the show are pretty choppily edited, which contributes to how confusing the show is.

Hold on, I’ve got to go: I see some feelings out my window and I’m going to go check them out… IN MY GIANT ROBOT.

For the record, it’s easy to be a bit lost. There’s very little background in the show, and most of it comes in the last episode or two.

They did the same for Reboot, actually, though I NEVER GOT TO SEE THE NEW ONES. Darg Fing Blast. Not that I’m bitter or anything. The show was finished to begin with, it just got canceled. Same thing almost happened to Cowboy Bebop, belive it or not, though it was finished on video. Sunrise seems to be deliberatly aming for the western audience . . .

Hope it works out better for them then The Sentnels did for USA Gold.

There’s a site SOMEWHERE that obsessivley lists all the cuts CN makes. Now if I could only remember its address or name . . .

If I remeber correctly, most of them were parsing out the word ‘God.’ There’s really not much blood and no nudity in the show.

At the same time? Won’t that get confusing? :slight_smile: As if FLCL wasn’t confusing enough . . .


‘I recognize those curves . . .’

So what they’re showing now is still season 1? I swear I keep seeing Big O, Season 2 all over the place when I’m watching it and it was confusing the heck out of me.

And on to the hijacks…

How, exactly, are they doing FLCL? Part of the Friday night adult swim for a month or so, a one-week event, or are they just going to loop them in rerun until all regular viewers have gone insane/gotten eaten by their TVs?

Somebody?

Anybody???

Toonzone is the place to go. Go to the stickied “Adult Swim Schedule: July - August” and enjoy. They put up the schedule every month.

Big O is moving to Sunday and is starting the line-up. For me it’s at 9pm. For you it will be different.

Adult Swim also has the schedule. I just like Toonzone’s more though.

Fern Forestneither of those links tell me when the new season begins.

The listings do not specify if the episode is Season 2 or not.

Sorry, it’s August 3rd. Here’s a link which says so, TV Tome. Boy I sure seem to link to them a lot. Great site though. They got almost everything there.

Hmm, upon further review Incubus mentions it in the 2nd post and Marley23 quoted him as saying so.