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The Big O (Vol. 2)

The Big O (Vol. 2)

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Product Info Reviews

Features:
  • Color


Description:

The designs in this mecha detective series have a minimal, vaguely art deco elegance that sometimes overshadows the series' lack of plot and characterization. The action unfolds in Gotham-esque Paradigm City, 40 years after a mysterious "incident" caused its citizens to lose their memories. Roger Smith is officially a Negotiator who handles difficult situations for the police, but he's really a crime fighter in the Batman tradition. When the going gets rough, he summons the title character, a giant mecha suit as a sort of deus ex machina. In "Bring Back My Ghost," Roger has to find an honest military policeman who was murdered a year earlier. The man didn't really die and has been using a robot to create specters that kill corrupt officers. When they meet, the man confesses to Roger he doesn't know how he learned to operate the robot, and the story falls apart. The viewer never finds out who's dispatching the frogmen Roger battles or the identity of the mysterious woman known as Angel in "The Call from the Past." Many of the scenarios were written by Konaka Chiaki, who was also one of the writers on Serial Experiments Lain, and the storytelling is similarly fragmented and opaque. Like Warner Bros.' animated Batman, The Big O looks better in stills than it does in motion. Rated 13 Up for minor profanity, occasional suggestive humor, and mild violence; alcohol and tobacco use. --Charles Solomon
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