is the premier mecha

Mecha

A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...

 of The Big O

The Big O

is a Japanese animated television series created by director Kazuyoshi Katayama and designer Keiichi Sato for Sunrise Studios. The writing staff was assembled by the series' head writer, Chiaki J. Konaka....

anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 TV series, a black megadeus

Megadeus

is the name given to the giant robots of The Big O anime series. Forty years prior to the events of the series, the world was turned into a vast desert wasteland and the survivors were left without memories. The megadeuses are portrayed as remnants of the previous civilization, a lost technology...

 piloted by series protagonist

Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...

 Roger Smith. The robot was designed by series creator Keiichi Sato

Keiichi Sato

is a mecha and character designer born in the Kagawa Prefecture of Japan in 1965.In 1996, Sato met with Kazuyoshi Katayama to begin work on The Big O. Until then, Sato's work consisted mainly of designing characters and supervising animation for anime series. The Big O is the first based on a...

, who also designed the Mazinger

Mazinger

is a long running series of manga and anime featuring giant robots or mecha. The name can also be pronounced "Mazinga", as it is has been known in several countries, including in the United States of America.-Series:The series in order:...

 mechas featured on the Mazinkaiser

Mazinkaiser

is an anime OVA series, inspired by Go Nagai's Mazinger series. The OVA follows Kouji Kabuto, Tetsuya Tsurugi and the rest of the "Mazinger Team" as they fight against Dr. Hell's Mechanical Beasts....

OVA and the mutant creatures of The SoulTaker

The SoulTaker

For the Soul Taker film starring Joe Estevez see Soultaker . is an anime series that focuses on Kyosuke Date who was killed by his mother, and afterward gained the ability to turn into a monster known as "The SoulTaker". The show was Tatsunoko's first attempt at a more adult series.There is a...

TV series.

Design

Big O's design was the creators' way of creating something distinguishable from the Gundam

Gundam

The is a metaseries of anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots called "Mobile Suits" ; usually the protagonist's MS will carry the name Gundam....

franchise

Media franchise

A media franchise is an intellectual property involving the characters, setting and trademarks of an original work of media , such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game. Generally, a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with merchandising and endorsements...

 and the Real Robot

Real Robot

is a genre of Japanese animation. The genre contains mecha robots that are powered by conventional power sources and weapons explainable by real world science, and that use ranged weapons and speed to survive battle situations....

 series inspired by it. Instead of blocky body parts, Sato designed a mecha where the chest and hips were not separate from the rest of the body. That way, the giant's movement would seem sluggish, comparable to the giants of old tokusatsu

Tokusatsu

is a Japanese term that applies to any live-action film or television drama that usually features superheroes and makes considerable use of special effects ....

shows. According to Sato, the name "Big O" comes from the opening theme of Daitetsujin 17

Daitetsujin 17

is a 1977 tokusatsu series created by Shotaro Ishinomori and produced by Toei. It revolves around a giant battle robot commanded by a young boy who fights the giant robots of an evil organization bent on world conquest...

, "Oh! Giant Ironman".

Big O's summoning is an homage

Homage

Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....

 to Mitsuteru Yokoyama

Mitsuteru Yokoyama

was a Japanese manga artist born in Suma-ku, Kobe-shi, Hyogo. His personal name was originally spelled , with the same pronunciation. His works include Tetsujin 28-go, Giant Robo, Akakage, Babel II, Sally, the Witch, Princess Comet, and adaptations of the Chinese classics Outlaws of the Marsh and...

's Giant Robo

Giant Robo

is an original video animation series written and directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa , and inspired by Mitsuteru Yokoyama's manga series of the same name....

. By calling the megadeus

Megadeus

is the name given to the giant robots of The Big O anime series. Forty years prior to the events of the series, the world was turned into a vast desert wasteland and the survivors were left without memories. The megadeuses are portrayed as remnants of the previous civilization, a lost technology...

' name into his wristwatch, Roger informs the giant it is "Showtime!" and it comes to its master's side. The boot sequence ("Cast in the name of God, Ye not guilty") is a design of series director Kazuyoshi Katayama. Katayama first learned of the phrase through a magazine article on John Milius

John Milius

John Frederick Milius is an American screenwriter, director, and producer of motion pictures.-Early life:Milius was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Elizabeth and William Styx Milius, who was a shoe manufacturer. Milius attempted to join the Marine Corps in the late 1960s, but was rejected...

 and the Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian

Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...

series. According to the article, the phrase comes from the swords of executioners in the 17th century. A variation of the phrase ("Suffer no guilt ye who wields this in the name of Crom") is engraved in Conan's sword. Katayama liked the sound of it and decided to use it as the robot's call to arms.

Characteristics

The black megadeus makes its first appearance on the show by the end of "Roger the Negotiator", when it is summoned by Roger to foil a robbery. It is established early on this is not Big O's first appearance in Paradigm City; onlookers, including Chief of Police Dan Dastun, cheer him on, distinguishing the hero from the villain. Beyond Paradigm, it's a different story. When Big O shows up in "Electric City", the locals don't know what to make of it; and during "The Call from The Past" a local fisherman fears it, believing the metal behemoth to be a . The first season finale suggests Big O and several other Big-type megadeuses played a part in the cataclysm that destroyed the world when Roger's nightmarish vision shows the megadeus as one of the giants burning down the city.

Big O is slow, lumbering, and heavy compared to more agile and lighter mecha featured in other series. However, it is at least capable of breaking into a run, and its movement speed is more or less directly related to the pilot's own reaction time.

Big O's cockpit is located in its collar area. The actual pilot console is enclosed in a glass dome on a raised pedestal to protect the pilot from harsh environments, and Roger is able to see through the large orange window on Big O's neck. When entering/exiting the megadeus, the entire collar portion raises up on hydraulic pistons.

At times, Big O appears to have a mind of its own. When Roger is in danger of being killed during the last episode of the first season, the megadeus goes to its master and stops the assassin. Roger is in the habit of talking to it, even though Big O is never heard talking back. During the fight with Bonaparte in "The Third Big", Big O locks itself and lets Roger out because R. Dorothy is in danger. In "Enemy Is Another Big!", Schwarzwald suggests that Big O may have chosen Roger, not the other way around; while the killer android R.D. implies those who pilot a megadeus respond to a higher power and have a great mission to accomplish. In the middle of a hallucination during "Roger the Wanderer", The Negotiator remembers how Big O was waiting for him. Big O, like other Big-type megadeuses, is able to fuse with its pilot via a series of prehensile cables designed to attach to the pilot's spine. It attempts this process in the final episode, but Roger convinces it otherwise.

Features

The Big O possesses a varied array of weapons. Unlike other mecha series, where the robot's weapons come from specifically designed equipment or spiritual energy, the creators of The Big O took an old-school approach. The cockpit includes an assortment of pedals, levers and buttons that control the giant and the weapons are hidden within the giant itself, so only by displacing certain parts of the megadeus' armor can the pilot make use of them.

The Big O's main weapon is the . It works by retracting the pressurized pistons inside the arms and subsequently releasing them. In "Roger the Negotiator", the combined strength of Big O's punch and the Sudden Impact explodes a hole in Dorothy-1's chest. In "Beck Comes Back", the released gust beheads the Beck Victory Deluxe; while in "Enemy Is Another Big!", it goes through three skyscrapers. The Sudden Impact can also be used to propel Big O through water and is a key component in the Final Stage.

The is first used in Act:03. It is a concentrated energy beam fired from Big O's crown. The weapon is charged when Big O points its forearms upward and continues charging until Big O slams its fists together in front of it, at which point a beam fires continuously until the megadeus' hands separate. The beam can be sustained for a long time ("Day of The Advent") or fired in short continuous bursts ("Hydra"), though its output grows weaker the longer it is sustained. The material that makes up Big O's head ornament and cockpit viewport can deflect beams ("Beck Comes Back") but it can also crack under pressure ("Enemy is Another Big!"). Big O is also capable of shooting laser beams out of its eyes called the , first seen in Act:05.

Hidden in the megadeus' abdominal area are 18 missiles, used for an attack known as first seen in "Underground Terror". The upper chest houses six machine gun barrels for an attack known as , first used in the fight with the Mummy in Act:12. Big O's hips hide rocket-propelled anchors called the , attached to the megadeus by chains strong enough to support the robot's weight ("Enemy Is Another Big!"). During the second season opener, it is revealed the waist is actually made up by two rows of eight anchors each. The anchors may be guided from the cockpit, as seen in "Twisted Memories". Also, it appears as though there are multiple anchors and chains in each launcher. This is seen on several occasions when Big O has fired off an anchor, detached the chain, and another anchor appears in it its place on Big O's hip. Other features include arm shields, a radar, a communication device and a station to keep the Griffon located in either foot. ("Stripes").

Big O's original design included interchangeable weapons for the robot's arms. While this feature is not displayed in the TV series, it was implemented in the manga incarnation. Some of the weapons featured in the manga are an electric attack arm, drill arm, a rocket-propelled mace and an upgraded Sudden Impact.

New weapons were designed for the show's second season.

The first one is the , a pair of gatling-style guns contained within Big O's forearms, first used during "Negotiations with The Dead". Once activated, the armor covering the forearm opens exposing four gun barrels. The rotating barrels fire energy volleys at high-speed, while generating a ring of energy that explodes on impact.

The is used for the first time during the "Hydra" battle. In the middle of the fight, Roger gets a vision of himself fighting a similar monster during "The Event". In the vision, the other Roger activates the weapon by stepping on a button in the cockpit's floor. The armor on Big O's shoulders and forearms opens, revealing the static shield generators. Roger utilizes the generated energy to decimate the Hydra.

During Big O's fight with Big Fau, the latter utilizes some kind of energy shield, which may be its own Plasma Gimmick.

The is used during the final episode. Big O's inside and outside are transformed and a massive cannon emerges from the giant's chest. The hip anchors are deployed to withstand the gun's recoil

Recoil

Recoil is the backward momentum of a gun when it is discharged. In technical terms, the recoil caused by the gun exactly balances the forward momentum of the projectile and exhaust gasses, according to Newton's third law...

 and the Plasma Gimmick is activated to protect the momentarily incapacitated megadeus during the Final Stage. Final Stage is started by R. Dorothy. The cannon has enough destructive force to destroy an entire dome in one shot, and is discarded immediately after firing. For unknown reasons, the Sudden Impact pistons in both arms are fired straight ahead immediately before the cannon fires.

Super Robot Wars

Big O is featured in Super Robot Wars Destiny

Super Robot Wars Destiny

Super Robot Wars D is a video game for the Game Boy Advance, an installment of Banpresto's Super Robot Wars franchise. It is the fourth game to appear on the Game Boy Advance system, preceded by Super Robot Wars A, Super Robot Wars R and Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation.-Series Featured:The...

for the Game Boy Advance

Game Boy Advance

The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...

. In true Super Robot Wars fashion, the megadeus is super deformed

Super deformed

Super deformed or SD is a specific style of Japanese caricature where characters are drawn in an exaggerated way, typically small and chubby, with stubby limbs and oversized heads, to make them resemble small children...

, while its pilot stays in his regular full detailed form. Only the first season is covered as well, and it replaces the myseterious cataclysm of 40 years ago with the release of Getter Energy from Shin Getter Dragon in Getter Robo Armageddon

Getter Robo Armageddon

, often simply referred to as Change!! Getter Robo in Japan, is an original video animation released in 1998 by Bandai Visual, based on the manga and anime series Getter Robo, created by Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa...

. Several attacks which were not named in the series are given names in this game, though the canonicity of said names is unknown.

Big O is also featured in Super Robot Wars Z, and covers both seasons. If the player chooses to stay in Paradigm City, the storyline leads to a bad ending in which The Event happens once more, complete with an army of Bigs overwhelming the player's forces.