This show is so amazing, the episodes on this disk are so enthralling, I must urge you, the reader, not to watch them.

I mean it. Honest. Spare yourself the agony. Don't buy this DVD and don't bask in the splendor of these installments in the BIG O storyline. Don't let what happened to me happen to you...

Oh, who am I kidding? If you've heard anything about this incredible series, you probably know that it features intriguing characters and intense giant robot action. You've undoubtedly been told about its evocative BATMAN-meets-GETTER ROBO animation style and its brooding, mysterious plot centered around the mystery of why and how everybody in Paradigm City lost their memories.

However, did anybody warn me that this disk was the last volume of BIG O? No. And did any friendly reviewer happen to mention that the series ends on a sweeping, majestic cliff-hanger that would leave me gaping wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the screen, frantically pressing my DVD remote control looking for more? Of course not. Nobody was so kind, or so cruel.

Yet, that's the warning I have to give you before you watch any more BIG O.

The first episode "Daemonseed" is a holiday interlude, where the people of Paradigm City are celebrating "Heaven's Day" until Roger and the Big O are confronted with the most terrifying Christmas tree imaginable. "Enemy is Another Big" is the title of the next episode, which features the appearance of the powerful "Big Duo" piloted by Roger's least favorite mummified former journalist Schwarzwald. And the final episode, "R.D.," will bring you right up to the brink of revealing the secrets behind Paradigm City, behind Roger and the Big O, even behind the enigmatic and adorable R. Dorothy.

But BIG O will leave you hanging off that edge, because the funding for the program dried up before the second season could be produced. The final moments of this impressive show nearly seem to mock the rapt viewer with the words "To Be Continued," when, in fact there is no continuance to be found.

This is a real shame, and a painful reality that this review has tried to shield you readers from. However, in the end, these episodes are truly worth watching; so long as you're sure you can handle the sadness that will follow when you realize the show is over without ever having ended.