History Anime / TheBigO

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

* SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: The ending duet, sung by Robbie Danzie and Takao Naoki, actually sings pretty well in English.

* WhenItAllBegan: Forty years ago.
* WhipItGood: In episode 25 "The War of Paradigm City", Agent 12 of the Union uses a whip several times.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6930acdf_a297_459a_a67f_108c8ae0e816.png]

[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lt/thebigo.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:180:'''[[ByThePowerOfGreyskull BIG O! SHOWTIME!!!]]''']]

* BrokenMasquerade: Near the end of the second season, Gordon Rosewater proclaims that [[spoiler:there never were any memories before 40 years ago, while Schwartzwald independently reaches the same conclusion]]. Then, Angel starts to [[spoiler:delete the world systematically herself... followed by the season's GainaxEnding of a then-cancelled show.)]]

* CharClone: Schwartzwald: masked character with his own agenda, consistent rival to the lead, pilots three red mechs, and they are more maneuverable (three times faster).
%%* CheekyMouth

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

%%* ContemplateOurNavels

* DeadManWriting: In episode 24, Roger receives a letter from Michael Seebach (Schwartzwald), which was to be delivered after his death.

* GiantRobotHandsSaveLives: Roger and Schwartzwald fall into their giant robots' hands and survive several times. Roger has also done this for other people. Thank you, gentle robot friend. At least in the ChristmasEpisode, the victim falls into a pile of apparently soft debris in the hand (even though it popped up from beneath the street), rather than the hand itself.

* HisNameIs: In his final moments [[spoiler:the spirit of Schwartzwald, inhabiting Big Duo as it flies mindlessly upwards]] begins monologuing about the truth of Paradigm City and the nature of the memories, and is about to reveal everything the rest of the cast (and audience) has been dying to know since Act 1... Only to meet an abrupt end when [[spoiler:Big Duo crashes into the massive stage light rigging above Paradigm City]].

%%* LetsGetDangerous

* MegaCorp: Paradigm is both the biggest company and the government.

** Most of the Megadei are massive and cumbersome. Even the flying Big Duo handles more like a heavy bomber than an interceptor, flying mostly in straight lines and needing vast amounts of space to make a turn. The two exceptions are the Archetype, a LightningBruiser which is apparently the stripped-down skeleton of a Megadeus that moves with the agility of a monkey, and Glinda (Another Timothy Wayneright creation).

* MindRape: The premise of the show is that this happened ([[MindScrew or may not have]]) to everyone 40 years ago, giving them amnesia. The problem is that there are objects and people over the city that cause the memories to reemerge, thus mind-raping them once more.

* MysteriousInformant: Big Ear, Roger's information source.

* OlderThanTheyLook: [[spoiler:There are hints that Roger was around forty years ago in some form, despite looking no more than thirty or thirty-five. On the other hand, he seemingly has flashbacks of being a child during the tomato experiment 15 years ago.]]
* OnlyTheChosenMayWield: Megadei can only be piloted reliably by those they judge to be worthy ("Ye Not Guilty"). If someone isn't meant to pilot it, it either won't work, or will punish the one who tries.

** Played with in the manga. [[spoiler:Schwartzwald makes his first appearance in the manga (post-disfigurement) as what may or may not be a drunken hallucination of Roger's. While he makes a physical appearance piloting Big Duo, Schwartzwald continues appearing to Roger while he pilots Big O, pointing out the parallels between the two of them as far as their attitude towards memories go and even giving him the occasional motivating speech.]]

* SuppressedHistory: the City of Amnesia, where nobody could remember anything before 40 years or so. [[spoiler:It turns out nothing existed before then.]]

* TitleThemeTune: "Big O" is sung in the beginning at various speeds.

%%* {{Tsundere}}: Roger is very much the male tsundere. Dorothy and Angel also have some tsundere traits.
* UnCancelled: Thanks to Americans, surprisingly enough.

* MerchandiseDriven: Believe it or not, the anime was originally written to advertise a line of giant robot toys, thus the fact that there are mechas in it ''at all''. In fact, some have commented that the show as a whole would've be far superior if the whole mecha element were to be removed altogether.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Megadeus, the "Big" mechs Big O, Big Fau, Big Duo and Big Venus.

-->'''Norman''': It seems there is an imposter.\\
'''Roger''': So I see...Beck, the would-be criminal prince of Amnesia-ville is at large again...His specialty is exploiting the hopes of the desperate and the memory-challenged. He is a man without conscience or remorse...and he is a '''smoker'''.
* AudioAdaptation: "[[http://www.konaka.com/alice6/big-o/index-e.html Walking Together Down The Yellow Brick Road]]", released between the 1st and 2nd seasons. In it, [[spoiler: Roger reveals his commandership of Big O to Dastun.]]

** "Hydra" is a relative breather episode. While it has several important points such as [[spoiler: Roger's memory of being in some sort of war, as well as the re-energization of Big Fau]], it comes right after the two-parter of "Stripes" and "The Third Big", which includes [[spoiler: Big Fau's first appearance and the revelation of the Union]] and is followed by what is basically the beginning of the GrandFinale.

-->'''Roger''': You could've come up with a gentler way to bring me around, you know. [[KissOfLife Like, mouth to mouth, or something?]]\\
'''Dorothy''': Not with the displacement capacity of my air tank. You're such a louse, Roger Smith.\\
'''Roger''': Heh, you're definitely our Dorothy.

** Alan Gabriel suffers this when [[spoiler: Big Duo Inferno rejects him as its pilot, impaling him with wires and ultimately smothering him to death before unceremoniously dropping his mummified corpse out of the cockpit as it ascends into the "sky".]]

** The Megadei all have what appears to be a system of judging the worthiness of their pilot. When they turn on, a display says "Cast in the Name of God, Ye Not Guilty" if the robot accepts its pilot. They also turn off several times throughout the series in response to the pilot's emotional state. The Megadei even seem to be able to move of their own volition in a limited fashion. Pilots are frequently caught in the hands of their Megadeus before they get in the cockpit. Big O goes so far as to punch through a wall to protect Dorothy even though it wasn't being piloted. [[spoiler: So obviously they can think and act on their own if their owner is in danger or in need]].

** They also appear to use a [[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries very specific version]] of the Batman Mythos for inspiration. Gotham and Paradigm are designed with ''very'' similar "Dark Deco" styles, Roger is an anime version of Bruce's redesign for ''The New Batman Adventures,'' Angel is blonde just like Selina Kyle in the animated series (in the comics she has black hair), Norman is just Alfred with an eyepatch, and Dorothy's red hair and relationship with Roger seems inspired by both Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson [[spoiler: except Dorothy is just better]], and as mentioned before, Dan Dastun is a combination of Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Batman: TAS is where Harvey Bullock first saw mainstream success). In fact, Sunrise worked on animation for ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' prior to the creation of The Big O.

* HisNameIs: In his final moments [[spoiler: the spirit of Schwartzwald, inhabiting Big Duo as it flies mindlessly upwards]] begins monologuing about the truth of Paradigm City and the nature of the memories, and is about to reveal everything the rest of the cast (and audience) has been dying to know since Act 1... Only to meet an abrupt end when [[spoiler: Big Duo crashes into the massive stage light rigging above Paradigm City]].

* 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]].

** The Big O itself is the most obvious example. Unlike contemporary mecha shows where increasingly even the real robot-type machines show increasing agility, the Big O is massive, plodding, unsubtle, and destructive. When it's shot from a distance, it's shown that it can actually move quite quickly (like a car with low acceleration but high top speed), but it's so heavy that it can't stop on a dime, and it's not exactly graceful. Of course, it's got tremendous amounts of firepower, with even its weakest weapons blasting tremendous holes in skyscrapers. [[spoiler: Its [[WaveMotionGun Final Stage]] cannon blows away most of a city the size of New York.]] Its defensive aspects are even more formidable; most of the various monsters and robots the Big O fights have a variety of special abilities that gives them a versatile edge over the mecha, but almost every single one lacks an answer to the Big O's most common strategy of simply turtling up behind its massive arm guards and moving forward. In many ways, this unstoppable defense is the Big O's greatest strength. One of the only mecha to ever break through the Big O's armor was Glinda, which was a noted GlassCannon. This says more about the Big O's defenses than anything else could.

* PlotBasedPhotographObfuscation: The old, torn picture of Gordon Rosewater and... [[spoiler: ...''Roger''?]]

--> "My name is Roger Smith. I perform a much-needed job here in this city of amnesia..."

--> '''Beck''': ...The beam just bounced off...

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Big Duo gives the shortest one on record to [[spoiler: Alan Gabriel and proceeds to absorb and kill him, since he is an insane sadistic motherfucker and thus not worthy of piloting a Megadeus]]: "Ye Guilty."

* RedHerring: Episode 13 makes it looks like that R. Dorothy or Angel is the serial killer. [[spoiler: It turns out to be Dorothy's EvilTwin.]]

* RocketPunch: [[spoiler: Big Fau.]]

** Played with in the manga. [[spoiler: Schwartzwald makes his first appearance in the manga (post-disfigurement) as what may or may not be a drunken hallucination of Roger's. While he makes a physical appearance piloting Big Duo, Schwartzwald continues appearing to Roger while he pilots Big O, pointing out the parallels between the two of them as far as their attitude towards memories go and even giving him the occasional motivating speech.]]
** [[spoiler: And in the final chapter, Angel gets one as well...in the form of Beck.]]

* SuppressedHistory: the City of Amnesia, where nobody could remember anything before 40 years or so. [[spoiler: It turns out nothing existed before then.]]

* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Roger ([[spoiler: Or is he?]]). WordOfGod says they wanted Roger to avert the "KidHero" trope so the protagonist would be someone kids could look up to and, for the older viewers, someone they can relate to.
* WorldLimitedToThePlot [[spoiler: An extreme example, where this fact is central to the plot.]]

** Though as mentioned above, [[spoiler: this [[EpilepticTrees possibly]] applies to [[MindScrew Roger]] as well.]] {{Invoked|Trope}}.

** In the final seconds of the episode "Eyewitness," [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lois&Jimmy_jpg.jpg two]] [[IntrepidReporter intrepid reporters]] show up to interview Dastun. Notice how even Roger seems surprised!

** [[spoiler: And in the final chapter, Angel gets one as well...in the form of [[http://www.mangareader.net/the-big-o/6/159 Beck.]] ]]

** Though as mentioned above, [[spoiler: this [[EpilepticTrees possibly]] applies to [[MindScrew Roger]] as well.]] [[InvokedTrope Invoked.]]

'''"We have come to terms"'''

%%* NotSoDifferent

* RealityEnsues: The killer tree in episode 11. A gigantic, fast-growing plant cut off from any meaningful nutrients will not be able to grow for long.

* NietzscheWannabe: Schwarzwald. Also a Thomas Hobbes Wannabe; compare his narration in the episode "Leviathan" with Hobbes's book of the same name.

** Many to Franchise/{{Batman}}, as well as some memorably hilarious nods to older SuperRobot shows in "The Greatest Villain", specifically Manga/GetterRobo with its CombiningMecha.

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". Anything strange or inexplicable is attributed to the gods. There's a reason each of the giant robots is explicitly referred to as a "Mega''deus''".

* TwelveEpisodeAnime: 13 episodes per season. Notable for being one of the first anime to air in this manner which got a second season, and also an odd example in that it was ''supposed'' to be a full 26-episode series before low ratings caused production to be halted halfway through; the second season isn't a new series so much as it was Creator/CartoonNetwork commissioning the staff to come back and finish what they started the first time after [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff the series performed better in America]].

* AnimationBump: The show transitioned from hand-drawn to digital animation between the first and second seasons. [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks Whether this constitutes a "bump"]] is a matter for the [[BrokenBase base]].

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: There are quite a few nightmarish deaths in this series, but these stand out [[NightmareFuel for obvious reasons]].

* KudzuPlot: ''It's like a friggin' [[VideoGame/KatamariDamacy katamari ball]] went through an EpilepticTree orchard''.

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

** "BIG O! FINAL STAGE!", which makes the Chrome Buster look like a pea shooter. [[spoiler:He missed - possibly due to Roger being a TechnicalPacifist.]]

Not to be confused with [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam The O]]. Or big-O notation in mathematics or computer science. Or the name of the head of [[Series/OddSquad all Odd Squad precincts worldwide]]. 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 Music/RoyOrbison. Or TheImmodestOrgasm. Or BigNo, either. And try not to mistake the sixth DVD, "The Big O: Missing Pieces" for Creator/ShelSilverstein's book ''The Missing Piece Meets the Big O''. The name actually seems to be one of the many religious references (like "Behemoth" and "Leviathan") that appear in the show, in this case to "Alpha and Omega" - the name of the Greek letter "Omega" (O-Mega) literally means "Big O", in contrast with "Omicron" (O-Micron), which means "little O".

* FunnyAfro: Beck and his gang sport this in episode 18 after a lightning strike frazzles them.

Not to be confused with [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam The O]]. Or big-O notation 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 Music/RoyOrbison. Or TheImmodestOrgasm. Or BigNo, either. And try not to mistake the sixth DVD, "The Big O: Missing Pieces" for Creator/ShelSilverstein's book ''The Missing Piece Meets the Big O''. The name actually seems to be one of the many religious references (like "Behemoth" and "Leviathan") that appear in the show, in this case to "Alpha and Omega" - the name of the Greek letter "Omega" (O-Mega) literally means "Big O", in contrast with "Omicron" (O-Micron), which means "little O".

* {{Parody}}: Beck's CombiningMecha is a very blatant one of Power Rangers and more 'traditional' mech anime. Big O obliterates it before it can land a single hit.

** Most of the Megadei are massive and cumbersome. Even the flying Big Duo handles more like a heavy bomber than an interceptor, flying mostly in straight lines and needing vast amounts of space to make a turn. The two exception is the Archetype, a LightningBruiser which is apparently the stripped-down skeleton of a Megadeus and moves with the agility of a monkey and Glinda (Another Timothy Wayneright creation).