Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

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brokentorpedo
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Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

Post by brokentorpedo »

Just find out about this show last year, and fell in love with it. I was never a fan of giant robot, to me the only giant robot that's not too silly to me are the Metal Gears from MGS (expect for the one in MGSV).
I love the "the Big O" for its style, its atmosphere, and especially the music, the giant robots don't bug me as much here either. Though the second season left much to be desired, especially the ending.

And I found out that while the first season was written by a few writer but the second was all done by one. do you guys think that had the series got continued right after season1 ended, season2 would not had be as confusing?

I kinda give up trying to figure out what the ending means already.

Also, I kinda wish SFDebris would one day review and maybe shone some light on the series, but the request has been limited for a while.
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phantom000
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Re: Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

Post by phantom000 »

If i had $650 to play with i would give it to him and ask him to review it if only to see what he thinks of the ending. I love this anime because it is just amazing, the setting, the characters, the animation, the music, wow! The story really has its ups and downs but I would argue there are far worse stories out there and that there are far better stories that aren't presented nearly as well as this.

From what I have gathered off the internet, the first seasoned bombed in Japan, big time so they axed the show almost at once. The sold the rights to Cartoon Network and the show did much better in America, so much so they decided to make a second season just so they could sell it to CN. I don't know if a third season was planned but the ending feels less like a conclusion than a set up for the next season. It answers a lot of the questions but in such a way to make you start asking new ones, which is perfect if you want to keep the show going.
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CharlesPhipps
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Re: Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

Post by CharlesPhipps »

Dorothy R. Wayneright is my first crush on a cartoon robot.

:)
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brokentorpedo
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Re: Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

Post by brokentorpedo »

phantom000 wrote: Tue Dec 18, 2018 11:41 pm From what I have gathered off the internet, the first seasoned bombed in Japan, big time so they axed the show almost at once. The sold the rights to Cartoon Network and the show did much better in America, so much so they decided to make a second season just so they could sell it to CN. I don't know if a third season was planned but the ending feels less like a conclusion than a set up for the next season. It answers a lot of the questions but in such a way to make you start asking new ones, which is perfect if you want to keep the show going.
They didn't sold the right, it's that the show did so well in America that the CN asked them to make another season and was welling to found it. So CN became a co-producer of the second season, still far from owning it though.

But the season 2 ending was not well received that CN decided to pull the money out, that's why there's no season 3
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Re: Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

Post by Admiral X »

I think it wouldn't have ended much differently than it did had it gone on as planned in Japan and not been cancelled. There's a lot open to interpretation, but my take is that everything is essentially a product of their minds, and that their world simply resets itself as one of them gains awareness of it and wishes to start over again. Which is exactly what happened 40 years ago.
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Re: Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

Post by clearspira »

I remember watching it on Cartoon Network/Toonami back in the early noughties. Back then I hadn't seen much Anime (like most people in Britain I think) and I enjoyed how it looked and felt compared to Western cartoons. Going from Simpsons to this was a welcome culture shock. I then remember thinking that the ending was a confusing mess but by then CN had started showing Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star which are two of my favourite animes of all time so I kind of forgot all about it.
TL;DR good show, bad ending, overshadowed by other shows of the time.
We used to argue whether Star Trek or Star Wars was better. Now we argue which one is worse.
Independent George
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Re: Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

Post by Independent George »

I thought it was a great cybernoir setting with some memorable characters, but ultimately a story that made no sense and went nowhere. It was stylistically great, but I felt like the writers kept promising to peel back the layers of a grand mystery, then panicked when they realized they couldn't pull it off (hmmm... that sounds an awful lot like Lost, BSG, and Alias; was there something in the water in the mid-2000s?).
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phantom000
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Re: Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

Post by phantom000 »

Independent George wrote: Wed Dec 19, 2018 9:17 pm I thought it was a great cybernoir setting with some memorable characters, but ultimately a story that made no sense and went nowhere. It was stylistically great, but I felt like the writers kept promising to peel back the layers of a grand mystery, then panicked when they realized they couldn't pull it off (hmmm... that sounds an awful lot like Lost, BSG, and Alias; was there something in the water in the mid-2000s?).
Actually the big reveal at the end works. It explains quite a lot and it doesn't feel like a cheap way out, like its all a dream, or something stupid like some mad scientist thought everyone would be happier without their memories. My only complaint is that it works better as a third season setup, rather then the big finishes.

The Union which were at the center of the story are basically hand-waved off and the Behemoth machine, which was teased at throughout the season is reduced to a 12 second cameo before it is practically defeated off camera.
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yamiangie
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Re: Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

Post by yamiangie »

I think I'm the only one who ships Roger and Angel.

I always find the first episode of the second season odd. Because they decide to fall back on Roger having a existential crisis because they need to reintroduce anything. Way to under cut your first season ending. I guess they really don't want us walking in an rain without an umbrella.
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brokentorpedo
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Re: Anyone here ever watched "the Big O"

Post by brokentorpedo »

yamiangie wrote: Sat Dec 22, 2018 6:00 am I always find the first episode of the second season odd. Because they decide to fall back on Roger having a existential crisis because they need to reintroduce anything. Way to under cut your first season ending. I guess they really don't want us walking in an rain without an umbrella.
As much as I like that episode and think it's very well made, I have to agree, when you watch it back to back with the previous one there's a emotional discontinuity.(I had the same problem with the last episode of 11th Doctor in Doctor Who.) I'd still say it's because of the difference with the writer team.

As for Angel, I just have no love for this type of character, I don't really know why.
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