Big O

Publisher
Viz
Writer
Hajime Yatate
Artist
Hitoshi Ariga
Country of origin
Japan
Year
1999

Big O V. 3 & 4

By David Rasmussen
12th Feb 06

Big O the Anime may be over, and while there’s this “dispute” I heard just recently about (thanks to dajackal) about the end of the Anime we’re nowhere near the end of the story in the manga version.
Well, by now we must be close, but for the sake of this review we’re still muddling through the first 13 episodes worth of story as of this review. So, without further ado, let’s get to it and return to Paradigm City for another review of The Big O.

Big O V. 3
Once again, just so you know, we’re working from the original $3.50 a pop issues once again so if there are any extras on the collected volumes I’m not aware of those. Sorry. New stories so let’s get right down to it.
We start off with the return of Beck, and this time he has his own faux Big O to get one over on Roger Smith… for the few pages it lasts before he’s put in his place that is.
Then we come to a rarity in Big O stories, a R Dorothy tale. In this rare story we see a day in the life of R Dorothy, and how a “simple” request from Roger could cause her to become the unintentional “angel”, and focus of much attraction and attention, of a litterly starving artist who has dubbed R Dorothy his new muse.
After that Dan Datsun is hospitalized while investigating some strange happenings, which leads to the discovery of a powerful bio creature and it’s robotic “mother” figure.
Finally the cast gathers at some old guy’s place outside the city limits who seems to be surrounded by “memories” for a tried and true “let’s get as many main characters together in a room and see what happens next” situation! And that’s it.

Big O V. 4
This volume is darker in tone than the previous, and it all starts off with a little taste of a barely remembered memory of Roger Smith. Something concerning a woman he can barely remember yet doesn’t want to forget. Next we have a pair of nutty scientist who (besides trying to revive the popularity of the spiky Yugi Motou hairstyle) are draining people outside of the domes in an attempt to uncover memories of 40 years ago. They run into Roger, try their machine on him, and are shocked by the results.. Especially when he destroys the machine with the power of his memories… apparently William Shatner isn’t the only one capable of killing machines without resorting to physical means, though at least Roger Smith didn’t talk the machine to death. Finally the two parter which features the battle between Big O and Big Duo (Schwarzwald).
The apparent suicide of an up and coming female singer, and the song of hope she sang, draws out Beck who tries to capitalize on her death by using her song as a gimmick to sucker people out of their money (making her music a kind of “religious” experience). Too bad Beck isn’t in on the full monty of the deal because he soon finds himself on the short end when he “prophesizes” the coming of an angel and gets Big Duo (in dramatic manner). Yeah, true to form Beck and his indestructible henchpals somehow survives the incident, but Schwarzwald… well, let’s move on. Breakdown time.

Big O Breakdown the 3rd & 4th
What’s Hot?
Well if you are a fan of The Big O you already know what’s hot, no need to bring that up.
If not? Well it’s hot because it’s solidly done, and it’s one of the few titles I enjoy reading over and over. Nice work on Mr. Ariga’s part, and a nice series overall in my opinion. And hopefully when Mr. Ariga tackles the end of the series he’ll do a better job than the Anime did since… well… it didn’t go well.

What’s Not?
I don’t seem to have any real complaints about the manga, so… nothing.

Moments to Remember?
Volume 3 - The R Dorothy tale is most memorable.
Volume 4 - The finale featuring the head on collision between Big O & Big Duo.

What to Ignore?
Nothing yet. And if I’m lucky this doesn’t change with future reviews as we leave the first half of Big O and start seeing mangas delving into the second half of the series.

Overall?
Bottom line? I still have good words about the manga, and if you haven’t checked it out yet then now is as good a time as any to check out The Big O from VIZ.

-- David Rasmussen 12th Feb 06