The Big O is definitely an anime that has a very unique feel to it, it combines the Film Noir and Giant Mech genres. The mixing of these two genres actually might have you feeling how the giant mech battles actually tend to feel out of place, I actually enjoyed them because of how much it clashes with the Noir feel. This anime without a doubt was inspired by the film Blade Runner and I would say Batman: the Animated Series. The protagonist, Roger Smith, is a private negotiator handling cases while being accompanied by an android named Dorothy and his butler Norman Burg. The main duo (Roger and Dorothy) reminded me a ton of Deckard and Rachel from Blade Runner and the city it takes place in definitely reminded me of that film. Roger the entire time felt like a combination of Bruce Wayne and James Bond. I usually tend to love anime villains but I have to be honest they didn't really make any big impressions on me here, I guess I just liked the protagonists so much that I didn't even care about the antagonists. The only one that made an impression was actually the recurring joke villain, Beck.

The giant mech battles for the most part tend to be very quick and to the point, the animation during the action is incredibly impressive so that does not make them disappointing at all. The focus is more often on the mysteries that Roger is hired to solve and the overall big mystery behind the series' setting. Season 1 starts with a "Mystery of the week" feel while Season 2 actually to carry on a bigger plot with each episode. I actually preferred season 1 over season 2, in the first season I was much more excited to see what new job Roger had to investigate but in the second season I really had a bit of trouble understanding what occurred each time a new clue was unveiled.

Now while I don't dislike the story I will have to admit it is not a story that will make me say it's incredible like there's no tomorrow. It just sometimes had me feeling as if it is mostly a giant merchandise commercial, with a big focus more on visuals than storytelling. But hey I guess you can say that about mostly any anime out there. As the story went on it really became a lot more confusing, if I'm being honest the series finale left me extremely perplexed, I really.....didn't get it. Perhaps it's a series that needs to be seen multiple times to be understood, it is without a doubt left to interpretation. It did a pretty good job reeling me in and having me wonder whatever could possibly be unveiled next, especially with seeing the flashbacks our main hero experiences but in the end I honestly didn't fully understand the Matrix-esque ending that it had.

The humor is pretty good, the fact that those moments appear in a series that has such a serious atmosphere really does a lot in helping it have a big impact. Though Roger does not seem to have as many funny moments in the second season as he does in the first one. Surprisingly this series doesn't really have any adult humor like most anime series tend to have. The soundtrack, with a Noir/James Bond feel to it, was amazing in both seasons. It helped tremendously with building the omninous setting it was going for and hyping up the epic moments.