Timeless first season, but goes downhill in the second.
The first season of Big O is a timeless noir-mech genre blend with a great overarching mystery. The characters and dialogue are witty and funny, the animation is great, the overarching mystery is bizarre and intriguing, but always remains in the background to let the individual episodic narratives shine. The mech battles feel rather out of place, but are well done enough so to not decrease the shows quality.The villains across both seasons are great, Schwarzwald especially.
But things go downhill with the finale. It's far more heavy on the overall mystery, there are revelations left and right, and the entire thing feels like it's ramping up to some climactic conclusion.
And then it just.... ends. Abruptly, no conclusion, no anything. Luckily Adult Swim was able to fund a second season, but, sadly, couldn't get the same crew on board. And this is when the real issues begin.
In season two, the episodic narratives from season one take a back seat to the overarching mystery. The noir atmosphere also seems to be far less present, which is a pity seeing as it was such a large part of the first season.
But, by far the biggest change is the tone and storytelling. The first episode of season two isn't a classic noir mystery or a stylish monster of the week caper, it's a mind bending psychological trip through time and space which explores an alternate version of Roger before the collapse 40 years ago.
It's not bad, but it doesn't feel like the Big O of the last season. Season two feels like they took the title of "Batman but also Evangelion" waay to literally.
Actually, no, this is tripper.
Now, you know what, that's fine. I came to accept it, and hey, the characters and dialogue where just as charming as last season. The mystery was entrancing, and as long as the solution was good I would be happy.
So... you know the dreaded dream twist? When the writer pulls a "IT WAS ALL A DREAM" with no foreshadowing, leaving the viewer feeling unsatisfied and to an extent, betrayed?
Well, technically it's a simulation. But I still feel pissed. I never got to learn what happened 40 years ago, or who the man Roger was seemingly based on was, or what was going or with Gordon, or where the Megadeus came from, or what Schwarzwald found (well, he was killed offscreen, which itself is a irredeemable sin), or why Roger can pilot Big O, or why Norman was waiting for Roger.
I love artsy stuff. I love artsy anime. But when you set up a compelling mystery, characters and a world I want to learn more about, and then pull the rug out from under my feet with a dream twist of all things, I am going to be pissed, no matter what.
But yeah, first season great, second season good, ending can go burn in hell. There's lots of stuff I didn't comment on, like the heavy themes of class divide and political corruption, but I really just wanted to vent about the ending.
Even though the endings bad, the first and some of the second is a timeless masterpiece, so the show is still great in my books.
score 8/10
rassberrymilkshake 23 January 2020
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw5429569/14385
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