History Anime / TheBigO

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In the penultimate episode, [[spoiler:a giant robot twenty times bigger than any of the Megadei is introduced and shown on screen for 3 seconds before it gets [[DroppedABridgeOnHim crushed by a chunk of falling debris]], and is never mentioned again.]]
** [[spoiler: WordOfGod says that this was the Behemoth, the counterpart to the Leviathan activated by Schwarzwald, that was awakened by Vera and The Union in a final attempt to destroy Paradigm City. This was hinted and foreshadowed a little, but no one is gonna blame you for not being able to figure it out yourself.]]

* RealRobot: The Megadei, especially the titular Big O, straddle the line between this and SuperRobot. While shown to be much bigger than reality would allow, they're all incredibly big, bulky, and slow weight the amount of mass they carry. When Big O is knocked over, Roger literally has NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup when it comes to getting him back on his feet, the classic SuperRobot staples are used sparingly. [[spoiler:Big Fau]] is the main mech to have a RocketPunch, and the one time [[spoiler:Big O]] uses [[spoiler:'Final Stage', the chest-mounted WaveMotionGun]], it has to anchor itself into the ground and the pieces of the cannon fall off afterward.

* RealRobot: The Megadei, especially the titular Big O, straddle the line between this and SuperRobot. While shown to be much bigger than reality would allow, they're all incredibly big, bulky, and slow weight the amount of mass they carry. When Big O is knocked over, Roger literally has NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup when it comes to getting him back on his feet, the classic SuperRobot staples are used sparingly. [[spoiler:Big Fau]] is the main mech to have a RocketPunch, and the one time [[spoiler:Big O]] uses [[spoiler:'Final Stage', the chest-mounted WaveMotionGun]], it has to anchor itself into the ground and the pieces of the cannon fall off afterward.]]

* RealRobot: The Megadei, especially the titular Big O, straddle the line between this and SuperRobot. While shown to be much bigger than reality would allow, they're all incredibly big, bulky, and slow weight the amount of mass they carry. When Big O is knocked over, Roger literally has NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup when it comes to getting him back on his feet, the classic SuperRobot staples are used sparingly. [[spoiler: Big Fau is the main mech to have a RocketPunch, and the one time Big O uses 'Final Stage', the chest-mounted WaveMotionGun, it has to anchor itself into the ground and the pieces of the cannon fall off afterward.]]

* [[spoiler:OpeningACanOfClones]]

* ConspiracyTheorist: Schwarzwald, [[spoiler:even though most of what he claims turns out, in least to some extent, to be true.]]

* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:Alex Rosewater is apparently a clone created by Gordon Rosewater's "tomato" project. Alex already has inferiority issues, and goes completely insane when he finds out.]]

* AwardBaitSong: The first season's ending theme, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAg3qLkLPLU "And Forever..."]], is a downtempo male/female duet sung ([[SurprisinglyGoodEnglish in English!]]) over ballad-style piano accompaniment.

* [[spoiler: BookEnds: The first scene of episode one is the last scene of the series. [[GainaxEnding Yup]].]]

* AxeCrazy: Alan Gabriel, who is something of an Expy of {{Batman}}'s Joker.
* [[spoiler:BrokenMasquerade: Near the end of the second season, Gordon Rosewater proclaims that there never were any memories before 40 years ago. Then, Angel starts to delete the world systematically herself...followed by the season's GainaxEnding of a then-cancelled show.)]]

Not to be confused with [[TheImmodestOrgasm the "other" Big O.]] Or [[ZetaGundam The O]]. Or big-O notation as used in mathematics or computer science. Or the tire store. Or the FanNickname for the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Or the common nickname for legendary 1960s NBA player Oscar Robertson. Or BigNo, either. And try not to mistake the sixth DVD, "The Big O: Missing Pieces" for ShelSilverstein's book "The Missing Piece Meets the Big O."

->''He's right, we've been wasting our lives!''
->''To Hell with cartoons! I'm gonna do what I've always dreamed of: I'm gonna write that sitcom about the sassy robot.''

->''"He's right, we've been wasting our lives!"
->''"To Hell with cartoons! I'm gonna do what I've always dreamed of: I'm gonna write that sitcom about the sassy robot."

->''"To Hell with cartoons! I'm gonna do what I've always dreamed of: I'm gonna write that sitcom about the sassy robot." -- '''The Simpsons''', ''episode 4.19 "The Front"''

* TheJimmyHartVersion: The opening theme sounds suspiciously similar to Queen's ''FlashGordon'' theme. To the point that when Bandai remastered the series on DVD, they had to replace it with a new song. Meanwile, the second season's opening, "Respect," never even made it to the first DVD release - it was almost a note-for-note copy of Gerry Anderson's "{{UFO}}."

* LeaderFormsTheHead: In "The Greatest Villain", when Beck and his henchmen form their giant mecha RX3, the part Beck is controlling becomes the head. Watch it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMsESUis4X8#t=5m55s here]].

* CombiningMecha: Jason Beck's custom-made machine, which proves to be utterly useless (taken out by what it essentially Big O's ''side arm'' in ''two seconds'')... [[CrowningMomentOfFunny hilariously, utterly useless]].

* InfanfImmortality: Averted. ''Winter Night Phantom'' makes it clear that a child was at ground zero of a bombing and did not survive.

* ItOnlyWorksOnce: Roger only gets one shot with [[spoiler:Big O's Final Stage]]. [[spoiler: He misses, and the energy output burns the gun to a crisp afterward]].

There is a very Japanese cultural perspective here, in that wherever Roger goes in his investigation of the Monster of the Week, the people he talks to always think it is "a god." Apparently anything strange or inexplicable is attributed to the gods. Each of the giant robots are even explicitly referred to as a "Mega''deus''."

* AveMachina: The humans think that the various HumongousMecha popping up everywhere are gods. The [[MeaningfulName Megadei]] [[DeusEstMachina have a fairly good claim to the title]], being supposedly "Cast In The Name Of God" and sentient to some degree.

* [=~Let's Get Dangerous~=]

*** And considering that this is Big O we're talking about, a third season would likely have ended even ''more'' ambiguously.