- Messages
- 2,326
- Reaction score
- 791
- Trophy Points
- 123
The Big O (1999 + 2003)
This is a Japanese animated series that ran for 2 seasons of 13 episodes each. What looks at first blush like any other kids' cartoon designed to sell toys, the show quickly reveals itself as a heightened, artistic blend of genre films like Crime Noir, Sci-Fi, and Mystery. Often, it's a pastiche of the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, Gigantor, and the '60s James Bond films.
In something similar to Dark City, the story takes place in a city where nobody seems to truly remember who they are, or indeed, anything from more than 40 years ago. It has an anachronistic blend of technology, with retro-futurism of the '60s allowing for cars with rocket launchers, androids, and video phones, but the city itself has an art deco-inspired design, cars and clothes more fitting to the '30s or '40s in the US, and an emphasis on slinky jazz, '60s surf rock, and an often old-fashioned standing on manners, politeness, and ceremony in speaking. Fans of The Prisoner or The Saint will find style elements to love.
The early episodes quite often feature the standard Giant Robo confrontations of Japanese mecha shows though, making for an odd Eastern TV injection into what is otherwise a very Western-influenced production. Indeed, most of this seemed to go over the head of Japanese audiences, who didn't love the show. It was revived for a 2nd season to air on "Toonami" since it was more popular in Western countries. For this season, writer Chiaki J. Konaka took charge.
The show had been conceived and written originally by Kazuyoshi Katayama who'd directed Appleseed and Doomed Megalopolis, but many of the style elements were drawn up by famed director Keiichi Sato. The first season is their vision, and while occasionally a bit silly, it's very cool and a lot of fun. However, as Konaka took over, he started adding in many more philosophical elements, ultimately turning the series into something more akin to his Serial Experiments: Lain, questioning the nature of reality itself.
It's honestly an unhappy marriage. While I adore Lain, Konaka's ideas are at odds with the earlier characterizations on the show, turning every minor character into someone with deep significance to reality as we know it. The show ends up seeming like a failed copycat of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but one with poorly-realized religious elements and an ending that is less psychological than simply undercooked. He tries to take the series' ample use of English words like "negotiator" and redefine them in Japanese, and it just comes off like a show with an identity crisis...one that's unfortunately never resolved.
I now understand why this show has kind of been lost to time and swept under the rug, despite it being in constant rotation the first couple years when it came out. The core ideas and presentation is amazing though...it's ripe for a remake.
This is a Japanese animated series that ran for 2 seasons of 13 episodes each. What looks at first blush like any other kids' cartoon designed to sell toys, the show quickly reveals itself as a heightened, artistic blend of genre films like Crime Noir, Sci-Fi, and Mystery. Often, it's a pastiche of the legendary Batman: The Animated Series, Gigantor, and the '60s James Bond films.
In something similar to Dark City, the story takes place in a city where nobody seems to truly remember who they are, or indeed, anything from more than 40 years ago. It has an anachronistic blend of technology, with retro-futurism of the '60s allowing for cars with rocket launchers, androids, and video phones, but the city itself has an art deco-inspired design, cars and clothes more fitting to the '30s or '40s in the US, and an emphasis on slinky jazz, '60s surf rock, and an often old-fashioned standing on manners, politeness, and ceremony in speaking. Fans of The Prisoner or The Saint will find style elements to love.
The early episodes quite often feature the standard Giant Robo confrontations of Japanese mecha shows though, making for an odd Eastern TV injection into what is otherwise a very Western-influenced production. Indeed, most of this seemed to go over the head of Japanese audiences, who didn't love the show. It was revived for a 2nd season to air on "Toonami" since it was more popular in Western countries. For this season, writer Chiaki J. Konaka took charge.
The show had been conceived and written originally by Kazuyoshi Katayama who'd directed Appleseed and Doomed Megalopolis, but many of the style elements were drawn up by famed director Keiichi Sato. The first season is their vision, and while occasionally a bit silly, it's very cool and a lot of fun. However, as Konaka took over, he started adding in many more philosophical elements, ultimately turning the series into something more akin to his Serial Experiments: Lain, questioning the nature of reality itself.
It's honestly an unhappy marriage. While I adore Lain, Konaka's ideas are at odds with the earlier characterizations on the show, turning every minor character into someone with deep significance to reality as we know it. The show ends up seeming like a failed copycat of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but one with poorly-realized religious elements and an ending that is less psychological than simply undercooked. He tries to take the series' ample use of English words like "negotiator" and redefine them in Japanese, and it just comes off like a show with an identity crisis...one that's unfortunately never resolved.
I now understand why this show has kind of been lost to time and swept under the rug, despite it being in constant rotation the first couple years when it came out. The core ideas and presentation is amazing though...it's ripe for a remake.