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is a Japanese animated television series created by designer Keiichi Sato and director Kazuyoshi Katayama for Sunrise. The writing staff was assembled by the series' head writer, Chiaki J. Konaka, who is known for his work on Serial Experiments Lain and Hellsing. The story takes place forty years after a mysterious occurrence causes the residents of Paradigm City to lose their memories. The series follows Roger Smith, Paradigm City's top Negotiator. He provides this "much needed service" with the help of a robot named R. Dorothy Wayneright and his butler Norman Burg. When the need arises, Roger calls upon Big O, a giant relic from the city's past. The television series is designed as a tribute to Japanese and Western shows from the 1960s and 1970s. The series is done in the style of ''film noir'' and combines the feel of a detective show with the mecha genre of anime. The setpieces are reminiscent of tokusatsu productions of the 1950s and 1960s, particularly Toho's kaiju movies, and the score is an eclectic mix of styles and musical homages. ''The Big O'' premiered October 13, 1999 on WOWOW satellite television. It finished its run on January 19, 2000. The English-language version premiered on Cartoon Network on April 2, 2001 and ended on April 18 2001. Originally planned as a 26 episode series, low viewership in Japan reduced production to the first 13. Positive international reception resulted in a second season consisting of the remaining 13 episodes; co-produced by Cartoon Network, Sunrise, and Bandai Visual. Season two premiered on Japan's SUN-TV on January 2, 2003, and the American premiere took place seven months later. Following the closure of Bandai Entertainment in 2012, Sunrise announced at Otakon 2013, that Sentai Filmworks rescued both seasons of ''The Big O''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2013-08-10/sentai-filmworks-adds-sacred-seven-big-o-kurokami-more )〕 == Plot == ''The Big O'' is set in the fictional city-state of . The city is located on a seacoast and is surrounded by a vast desert wasteland. The partially domed city is wholly controlled by the monopolistic Paradigm Corporation, resulting in a corporate police state. Paradigm is known as because forty years prior to the story, " destroyed the world outside the city and left the survivors without any prior memories. The city is characterized by severe class inequity; the higher-income population resides inside the more pleasant domes, with the remainder left in tenements outside. Androids coexist with the human inhabitants of Paradigm City; while they are rare, they are sufficiently numerous that denizens of the city do not consider them unusual. Several episodes show inhabitants of Paradigm City practicing some form of Christianity: people congregate in meeting places with crucifixes prominently displayed. The practice appears to be based on custom, because no one clearly remembers any doctrine associated with the practice. A ruined cathedral remains unused, although some elderly people occasionally stand in front of it and sing incompletely remembered hymns. In episode 11, it appears that only Alex Rosewater, CEO of the Paradigm Corporation that runs the city, remembers or observes Christmas. A holiday commemorating the founding of Paradigm City, "Heaven's Day", is observed on December 25. Though citizens decorate with generic Christmas decorations, they are ignorant of their original meaning. Dastun mentions that Rosewater had in his possession fragments of a "Book of Revelation", although neither Dastun nor Roger had heard of it before. Although the textbook definition of memory is a record stored in the brain of an organism, the citizens of Paradigm City use the term more loosely;〔Note the series uses the spelling instead of .〕 can refer to forgotten knowledge, records or artifacts from before The Event, or partial forms of recollection including hallucinations and recurring dreams. The first season is episodic. Each episode (referred to as an "Act") relates a separate instance the resurgence of lost "memories" and how the citizens cope with their collective amnesia. The final episodes introduce elements that come into play during season two, like the discovery of people living outside of Paradigm City, the true nature of the Event, and something obliquely described as "the Power of God wielded by the hand of man". While the majority of the first season's episodes are self contained stories, the second season comprises a single serialized story arc. Alex Rosewater]] becomes a direct antagonist to Roger, and a mysterious group known as "The Union" is introduced, containing agents of a foreign power working within the City. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Big O」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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