I can imagine the initial pitch now... "We'd like to do a show like BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, however we're going to throw in some huge robots like GIANT ROBO. I doubt THE BIG O could escape from the comparisons, and would almost count on the fanbase of those shows to at least take a look at what they produced.

THE BIG O is exactly that, a stylized show that mixes together these genres to create an overall enjoyable and cool series. For more background on the show, be sure to take a look at our review of the import release. The following article is primarily a look at the three episodes in Volume 3 (a DVD only release), although I will avoid revealing any major spoilers.

To recap up to this point, the story takes place in Paradigm City, a city whose residents lost all their memories by some unknown incident decades in the past. Although the people have recovered somewhat, there is much in unknown technology and unexplained superstition. Also, the city is run by a secretive corporation with a mysterious objective, somehow related to gaining "memories" lost from that day. Roger Smith has a strong grudge against them, but also for reasons unbeknownst to the viewer as of yet.

Roger Smith, THE BIG O's main protagonist, is still Paradigm City's top negotiator. His playboy lifestyle has taken a noticeable hit by the acceptance of the android R. Dorothy Wayneright into the Smith household, who retains a lot of spunk while repaying Roger as a maid. And Roger still has control of the powerful Megadeus "Big O", which he uses when negotiations get really out of control.

The stories in this volume help set the stage a bit more, giving a look at the people who really run Paradigm City. "Missing Cat" reveals a bit more of Dorothy's human side, as she takes in a stray cat from the street. This causes no end of grief to Roger, but they soon find out that there is a lot more to this cat once the owners come to retrieve it.

"Beck Comes Back" is exactly that. The almost comic Beck is sprung from jail (after Roger helped put him there in the first volume), and he quickly returns to his dirty tricks. This time he's kidnapped a wealthy man's son, and when he discovers Roger has been hired to negotiate, things take a turn for the worse.

"Winter Night Phantom" is a departure from the normal, and mostly stars Officer Dan Dastun (Roger's former boss and rival/friend). Dan is haunted by memories from watching a movie as a child, but the fantasy starts to enter reality while he tracks down a series of terrorist assassination bombings against Paradigm leaders.

Each episode is relatively episodic in this volume, but does a good job in flushing out the characters and players in Paradigm City. I still really like Dorothy, whose attitude and chemistry with Roger is refreshing and good entertainment. If I had to name something I did not like about the show, I would probably say it is the artificially placed big robot ending fight of every episode. However, I find this to be minor and more due to personal taste, as I could see this series having enough strength without needing to include the giant robots and "Big O".

The video quality, print transfer, DVD mastering, and so on are standard high quality. I quite liked reading the second half of the interview with the creators of THE BIG O included on the disk, and there's the standard small production sketch gallery and Bandai trailers. While I primarily watched the Japanese track with its excellent voice cast, I found the English dub to be decent as well.

I don't know yet how well things will wrap up in the next volume, and if the series continues as well as it has beyond this point I will probably wish there was more. I quite enjoyed THE BIG O, primarily due to the style and great characters, and the setting of Paradigm City has an interesting mystery to it. The whole package combined is a solid show that should not be missed by fans of BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES, GIANT ROBO and all those in-between.