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The Big O is the title of an anime television series, which also has a manga adaptation.
An excellent example of cultural cross-fertilization , the artistic style of Big O is somewhat based on Warner Brothers' and despite being a Japanese work it has many Christian religious overtones.
The principal character of Big O is Roger Smith, a professional freelance negotiator, but the added twist on the show is the fact that he is also the pilot of an enigmatic giant robot known as a megadeus.
Big O is set in Paradigm City, a domed metropolis with a mixture of futuristic and contemporary features. According to the manga, nothing exists outside the city. Forty years before Roger's time, a mysterious occurrence known only as The Event completely wiped out the memories of the isolated city's inhabitants. There are few clues as to what exactly took place during that fateful moment, and it forced the people of Paradigm to start anew, severed ties and all; this mystery is a central feature of the show. The Event's lingering mysteries still haunt the Negotiator in nearly every case, and don't seem to stop, even after 'we have come to terms'. The Event has been theorized by many and seems to rear its head in every adventure unraveled before Roger, his android housemate R. Dorothy Wayneright, his faithful butler Norman, and the whole of Paradigm city.
One can presume there was some kind of war before the "Event". Pets are a rare luxury, and insects are nonexistent, though they existed before the Event. People sometimes remember small bits before they lost their memories.
Initially there were only thirteen episodes created, abruptly leaving the plot with many questions left to be answered.
On August 3rd, 2003, a second season of Big O co-produced by Cartoon Network debuted on that network's Adult Swim programming bloc. This second season continues the Big O storyline beginning with the last episode of the first season, but there are obvious differences in the style and narrative. Because it had a more western setting and explored western themes the series did not make a huge impact Japan. It aired on a satellite network called WOWOW. But due to the popularity of its American broadcast, and with Cartoon Network funding, the second season was created by the same studio.
The second season contains elements that are explicitly derivative of the classic science-fiction movie, Metropolis. The title of "Negotiator", and the secretive group "The Union" have direct counterparts in Metropolis. Also of interest are the numerous appearances of a red book titled Metropolis which has a mystery of its own, and occasionally seems not to be a book at all but a symbolic representation of Paradigm City or of the lost or collective memories of its inhabitants.
Big O manga is published in English by Viz CommunicationsViz, LLC headquartered in San Francisco, California, is a major American manga publisher. Viz also produces a manga and anime review magazine, Animerica; as well as an English language version of Shueisha's Shonen Jump ( shonen manga) magazine; and Animer.