Anime / The Big O

BIG O! SHOWTIME!!!

"Cast in the name of God, ye not guilty."

Paradigm City is a strange metropolis that seems to be a cross between a Film Noir New York and a City of the Future. Forty years ago, its inhabitants were struck by a mysterious case of amnesia that robbed them of their past and sense of self. Yet life continues on, and the people of Paradigm City have adapted to their new lives without a history.

Roger Smith is a "negotiator" living in Paradigm City: part-Private Detective, part-professional go-between, Roger is one of the most trusted and well-paid men in his field. Yet if negotiations break down or a disaster threatens the peace of the city, he has one hell of an ace up his sleeve: the "Big O", a titanic battle robot officially classified as a "megadeus".

After forty years, something is causing the secrets buried within Paradigm to break through to the surface. With the aid of an eclectic group of characters, Roger must fight to protect the people of Paradigm against all manner of monstrous threats while pursuing the truth within the city's lost history.

The Big O was created by Sunrise and premiered in Japan in October 1999. Though originally planned as a 26-episode series, low viewership in Japan meant that production ceased after only 13 had been completed. The series fared better internationally, however, where it received a very positive reception after airing on Cartoon Network in April 2001. This caught the network's attention and as a result they offered Sunrise and Bandai Visual to join as co-producers on a second season, consisting of the 13 unproduced episodes, which started airing in Japan in January 2003 and in August that year the US.

The second season began airing on the revived Toonami block on July 27th of 2013, airing at 3:30 AM and joining the lineup alongside Sword Art Online. Due to its role in funding the anime's revival, Cartoon Network (indefinitely) holds exclusive airing rights to the second season.

As of 2013, both seasons of The Big O are licensed in the United States by Sentai Filmworks.

The series can be described as a Western radio serial done from the perspective of the Japanese. There is a very Japanese cultural perspective here, in that wherever Roger goes in his investigation of the Monster of the Week, the people he talks to always think it is "a god". Anything strange or inexplicable is attributed to the gods. There's a reason each of the giant robots is explicitly referred to as a "Megadeus". At the same time, strong Western elements like Paradigm City's Art Deco visual style or the characters all dressing in fashion from America of the 1950's and 60's abound. These elements contrast each other heavily and provide an intriguing atmosphere and setup, which comes to fruition as the story shifts from a Monster of the Week format to a much more cerebral story about identity, loss, memory, and love.

Now with a Recap Page.

Try not to mistake the sixth DVD, "The Big O: Missing Pieces" for Shel Silverstein's book The Missing Piece Meets the Big O.

The name actually seems to be one of the many religious references (like "Behemoth" and "Leviathan") that appear in the show, in this case to "Alpha and Omega" - the name of the Greek letter "Omega" (O-Mega) literally means "Big O", in contrast with "Omicron" (O-Micron), which means "little O".

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Big O Tropes! SHOWTIME!:

• 12-Episode Anime: 13 episodes per season. Notable for being one of the first anime to air in this manner which got a second season, and also an odd example in that it was supposed to be a full 26-episode series before low ratings caused production to be halted halfway through; the second season isn't a new story so much as it was Cartoon Network commissioning the staff to come back and finish what they started after the series performed better in America.
• After the End: Maybe. All of Paradigm is suffering under amnesia, with allusions made to a war involving Megadei, the people reusing traditions they don't understand (Heaven's Day in place of Christmas), and decaying satellites gradually falling out of orbit. Almost nothing is known about the world outside of Paradigm City. Again though, the Mind Screw ending involving Big Venus leaves it ambiguous about just what the hell the deal with Paradigm City really is.
• Animation Bump: The show transitioned from hand-drawn to digital animation between the first and second seasons.
• Animesque: The series is an inversion, being a Japanese anime that takes a lot of influence from the art style of Bruce Timm; fittingly, Sunrise was previously a subcontractor for Batman: The Animated Series.
• Angst Coma: In the first episode of the second season, Roger goes introspectively catatonic as he struggles to figure out just who — and what — he is.
• Arc Words: "The power of God;" "tomatoes;" "the world is a stage;" "Cast in the Name of God." The final few episodes of the second season have a phrase repeated by several characters: "A bird whose wings have been plucked will lose all of its feathers, and turn into the creature that it was before it evolved into a bird."
• Arm Cannon: In the second season, Big O has gatling guns installed in the arms.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The description of Beck in Volume 3 after the fake-Megadeus frees him.
  Norman: It seems there is an imposter.
  Roger: So I see...Beck, the would-be criminal prince of Amnesia-ville is at large again...His specialty is exploiting the hopes of the desperate and the memory-challenged. He is a man without conscience or remorse...and he is a smoker.
• Audio Adaptation: "Walking Together Down The Yellow Brick Road", released between the 1st and 2nd seasons. In it, Roger reveals his commandership of Big O to Dastun.
• Award-Bait Song: The first season's ending theme, "And Forever...", is a downtempo male/female duet sung (in English!) over ballad-style piano accompaniment.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Rocket Punch of Big Fau. It looks cool when it burrows through buildings without stopping. But if destroyed, Big Fau has no arms.
• Axe-Crazy: Alan Gabriel, who is something of an Expy of Batman's Joker.
• Badass Biker: Norman travels around on a motorbike with a sidecar that hides missiles.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Roger's typical attire is a black business attire with a tie.
• Badass Longcoat: Roger sometimes dons a black overcoat or topcoat, as seen in the very first episode when talking to his informant. In Roger the Wanderer, he wears a less badass one.
• Bandaged Face: Schwarzwald and Vera in the last two episodes.
• Battle Butler: Norman again. The guy has a missile launcher in the sidecar of his motorcycle!
• Behemoth Battle: The titular Humongous Mecha battles other robots (called Megadeus) and a few giant monsters over the course of the series.
• Bittersweet Ending: The ending of "Missing Cat". Pero regains his will within the chimera, but destroys himself because he can't continue in his current state.
• Big Applesauce: A zoomed-out shot of Paradigm City shows that it's located on Manhattan island.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: Alan Gabriel can be seen armed with a gold-plated pistol as his personal weapon.
• Book Ends: The first scene of episode one is the last scene of the series. Yup. The only difference is that both Dorothy and Angel watch Roger drive by the second time.
• Bowdlerization: Besides the usual edits for violence, death, some fanservice (one episode edited out Angel sticking a pair of sunglasses into her cleavage), and imitable vices (read: smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol), there were also edits to remove anything referencing God or Christianity (even though that's not a common religion in Japan):
  • When the first season of the show aired on Toonami, the word "God" in "Cast in the name of God, ye not guilty" was digitally altered to "Good." It's one of the very few changes they made to the show, and it doesn't even hurt the show all that much. (This change would be reversed when [adult swim] started airing the series.)
  • Likewise, Paradigm Corp. is merely "church and state," as opposed to "God and state" (which doesn't really make a difference, as it's still a religious reference).
  • They also changed the name of the electric serpent in #3 from "god" to "titan".
  • Episode 10 (Winter Night Phantom) had a crucifix digitally removed from the sequence where a little girl blows up a cathedral with a bomb (which was also edited).
  • Episode 11 (Daemonseed) edited all the Christian comparisons to Heaven's Day being like Christmas (which kills the meaning of the episode).
• Brawler Lock:
  • In "Leviathan", Big O grabs the titular Megadeus's pincers at the wrist during their battle, then wrestles them into Leviathan itself so it will turn itself to dust. It helps that Roger already shot off its head, so it's in no position to struggle.
  • In "The Third Big", Big O does this against Bonaparte.
• Breather Episode
  • "The Greatest Villain", which comes straight after 2 back-to-back dead serious episodes.
  • "Hydra" is a relative breather episode. While it has several important points such as Roger's memory of being in some sort of war, as well as the re-energization of Big Fau, it comes right after the two-parter of "Stripes" and "The Third Big", which includes Big Fau's first appearance and the revelation of the Union and is followed by what is basically the beginning of the Grand Finale.
• Briefcase Full of Money: How Roger negotiates Dorothy's release from Beck in the first episode. When he realizes Beck played him with a robot, he triggers rockets in the case which brings it back to him. Beck's cronies end up shooting the case and spilling the money all over the highway.
• Broken Masquerade: Near the end of the second season, Gordon Rosewater proclaims that there never were any memories before 40 years ago, while Schwarzwald independently reaches the same conclusion. Then, Angel starts to delete the world systematically herself... followed by the season's Gainax Ending of a then-cancelled show.)
• By the Power of Grayskull!: The activation phrase for a true Big, as opposed to a "garden-variety" Megadeus seems to be "Big X! Showtime!"; both Roger and Alex use this with Big O and Big Fau.
• Calling Your Attacks
  • Roger doesn't normally do this, except for the "Final Stage!" It's appropriately spectacular.
  • Not attacks, but it seems to be a requirement to say "Showtime!" and/or "Action!" to start up a Megadeus.
  • In addition, Roger has to call out "Big O!" to get Big O to transport to his location.
  • The specific words "Big O" and "Showtime" may not be specifically necessary, but Roger's voice is. In fact, this is exploited in an episode when Beck somehow manages to craft an animatronic bust of Roger which is a perfect replica of his face and chest cavity, so that it will have Roger's voice (synthetic vocal chords must sound just like the regular kind); he then sets it on a little automated buggy and has it shout "Big O!" into one of Roger's watches, over and over, so that the robot is too busy chasing the bust to come to the aid of the negotiator. Fortunately, once the buggy falls into the water, Big O stops in its tracks, as with no voice command to follow, it has no reason to move, foiling Beck's plans.
• Call to Agriculture: Gordon Rosewater and his tomatoes. He previously ran the city before his son took over.
• Canon Foreigner: In the manga, Beck's gang has a female member in addition to the squat black guy and the Camp Gay guy. It also has Big Four, an alternate version of Big Fau that is piloted by Angel.
• Cerebus Syndrome: A very strange example. The first season starts off simple enough—Roger solving self-contained mysteries—then episode 13 kicks the grand conspiracy plot into motion and season two becomes...weird.
• Chest Blaster:
  • Big O has an array of rocket launchers hidden under the chest armor.
  • Big O's Final Stage, a massive fold-out Wave-Motion Gun hidden in the chest.
• Chromatic Arrangement: The lighting in the cockpits of certain Megadeuses are Red (Big O), Blue (Big Fau) and Yellow (Big Duo).
• Clone Angst: Alex Rosewater is apparently a clone created by Gordon Rosewater's "tomato" project. He already has inferiority issues, and goes completely insane when he finds out.
• Combining Mecha: In his third appearance, Beck has "state-of-the-art" Megadeus created by the developers of the domes. It proves to be utterly useless, getting blasted apart by what is essentially Big O's side arm in two seconds.
• The Comically Serious: R Dorothy, who seems to get most of her humor from her deadpan expression and monotone for everything she does.
• Conspiracy Theorist: Schwarzwald, even though most of what he claims turns out, at least to some extent, to be true.
• Cool Bike: Norman's bike, complete with Cool Sidecar with a missile launcher.
• Cool Car: The Griffon, Roger's personal ride. Bulletproof and has machine guns and missile launchers.
• Cool Garage: Two of these — one was a giant hangar in his mansion that stored the Big O (his giant robot) and his car, and the other was the left foot of the Big O.
• Cool House: Roger's. It was apparently a bank once and now has a defense system that includes machine guns.
• Cool Old Guy: Norman, Roger's butler.
• Cool Shades: Goes with Roger's suit.
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Subverted in the final episode "The Show Must Go On" with this quote:
  Roger: You could've come up with a gentler way to bring me around, you know. Like, mouth to mouth, or something?
  Dorothy: Not with the displacement capacity of my air tank. You're such a louse, Roger Smith.
  Roger: Heh, you're definitely our Dorothy.
• Crapsack World: The citizens of Paradigm City are supposedly the last survivors of the human race, living in a post-apocalyptic world where Paradigm is the only known remnant of civilization that still thrives, with no memory of the world or their own history from before the unspecified cataclysm that nearly destroyed Earth; living in what is in its truest form a corporate police state constantly under threat from the megadeuses, the outsiders who seek to eradicate Paradigm, and finally from the executives who control nearly every aspect of life within the city from behind the scenes to serve their own ends.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: There are quite a few nightmarish deaths in this series, but these stand out:
  • R.D. (from the titular episode "RD"), another Dorothy model, has Roger dead to rights with a gun pointed at his face when suddenly Big O smashes through the floor of the subway, carrying her through the air and smashing her against the concrete between the ceiling and the ground above. There's little, if anything, left of her after that.
  • Alan Gabriel suffers this when Big Duo Inferno rejects him as its pilot, impaling him with wires and ultimately smothering him to death before unceremoniously dropping his mummified corpse out of the cockpit as it ascends into the "sky".
• Cultured Badass: Roger Smith and Alex Rosewater; Beck tries for, and fails at, this.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Big Fau absolutely shreds Bonaparte, getting hit only once in the entire fight (and even then, the attack does nothing).
  • Let's not even get started on Beck's embarrassing Combining Mecha...
• Cut Short
  • Although it's not an overt cliffhanger, the second season was apparently written under the understanding that there would be a third. Unanswered: Angel apparently remade the entire holographic world, but did she keep that power or give it up? Do people remember what happened? Is Alex Rosewater still at large, and is he really the Big Bad? Was the giant dome over the city restored, and if so, won't the lights fall and devastate the city all over again? Above all, why did someone trap a city of people in a giant holodeck with no memories?
  • The finale was set up so it could work both as a conclusion to the series and as a way to set up a third season. In other words, the creators wrote it that way with full knowledge that they might not be able to make any more (which is also how they wrote the season one finale.) And considering that this is Big O we're talking about, a third season would likely have ended even more ambiguously.
• Dead Man Writing: In episode 24, Roger receives a letter from Michael Seebach (Schwarzwald), which was to be delivered after his death.
• Deadpan Snarker: R. Dorothy Wayneright. So very much.
• Death of a Child: "Winter Night Phantom" makes it clear that a child was at ground zero of a bombing and did not survive.
• Diabolus ex Machina: When Roger fights Big Fau, Big Fau suddenly has a Deflector Shield which it did not possess in its last appearance. It just serves to make sure Big O loses the first round, since the episode needs to kill some time for the main plot.
• Disney Death: Most of the show's world is destroyed over episodes 23-26, then undestroyed.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Roger on the in-verse Justification that it's not "gentleman"-like and meta-verse Justification of being based on Batman. Nevertheless, he's a crack shot when the need arises.
• Domed Hometown: Paradigm City has a series of domes that house the wealthy citizens. It's implied, however, that the entire city is under one massive dome.
• Dramatic Chase Opening: The episode "Hydra" begins with a female agent of the Union being pursued through the streets of Paradigm City by members of the Military Police.
• Dynamic Entry
  • Although Big O is a rather slow moving robot, he scores several of these on opponents. In episode 13, Big O rises from beneath the ground to save Roger from psychopath android Red Destiny. Big O does this by smashing said android into the ceiling of the subway tunnel both Roger and Red Destiny were standing in.
  • Additionally, Big O punches through a wall to save Dorothy from a spider-mech in season 2.
  • Beck's "Victory Deluxe" attempts to mimic the Big O's dynamic rising from the ground, but it briefly gets stuck halfway through.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Big Fau is seen in a vision in Episode 13 at least a good six episodes before it would make an official appearance.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In the early episodes, everyone aside from Roger refers to Big O as "Megadeus", as if that was its name, not what it is. Later episodes fix this by having people refer to it as "the black Megadeus".
• Emotionless Girl: Dorothy by way of being a Robot Girl. Maybe subverted, considering she snarks at every opportunity and has no qualms about annoying Roger. She also expresses warmth and fondness for Norman.
• Empathic Weapon
  • The Megadei all have what appears to be a system of judging the worthiness of their pilot. When they turn on, a display says "Cast in the Name of God, Ye Not Guilty" if the robot accepts its pilot. They also turn off several times throughout the series in response to the pilot's emotional state. The Megadei even seem to be able to move of their own volition in a limited fashion. Pilots are frequently caught in the hands of their Megadeus before they get in the cockpit. Big O goes so far as to punch through a wall to protect Dorothy even though it wasn't being piloted. So obviously they can think and act on their own if their owner is in danger or in need.
  • In the one instance where a Megadeus deemed its pilot particularly unworthy, it flashed the words "Ye Guilty" on the display. Then it proceeded to "eat" him.
  • Episode 21 had Big Fau, the Third Big, respond to Alex's screams that he was its Dominus with "Cast in the name of God...Ye Not."
  • The Big units also appear to be able to recognize other Big-type units. In episode 21, all it took for Big O to subdue Big Fau, who was going berserk while being piloted by Alex, amounts to a silent Get A Hold Of Yourself Man gesture and little talk from Roger, at which point it shut itself down.
• "End of the World" Special: Angel, in the finale.
• Enhanced Punch: The titular robot's standard finisher is to punch an enemy Megadeus and fire a piston in its forearm on impact, dealing massive damage and usually obliterating whatever part of the enemy robot it hits.
• Epic Fail:
  • In "Beck Comes Back", Beck's "Victory Deluxe" Megadeus attempts to make a big entrance to challenge Roger and the Big O—only to get stuck halfway rising up. And even when it does become battle ready, its missiles and lasers prove to be utterly useless against the Big O, which promptly decapitates Beck's robot.
  • In "The Greatest Villain", Beck gets his giant combining robot destroyed in seconds by the Big O before it can even attack. By one of its weaker side-arm weapons, at that!
• Eva Fins: Schwarzwald's Big Duo has them, Big O too.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: An Amoral Attorney hires Smith on behalf of his mother to find the corpse of the White Sheep of the family, and is annoyed at the thought of Roger potentially tricking her into thinking he's alive.
• Every Episode Ending: "We have come to terms" or "No Side." Probably in reference to the fact that Roger is a negotiator with a life and friends. Whenever his social interactions result in him or his friends winning or benefiting it says "we have come to terms," but whenever it is a draw or nobody truly wins or benefits it says "no side."
• Evil Laugh: Schwarzwald and Alan Gabriel.
• Evil Plan: Alex Rosewater is doing something sinister with Big Fau, Alan Gabriel has his own agenda, and the Union is up to something but due to the Mind Screw it's hard to tell what. Beck has the much more straight-forward 'make lots of money illegally' deal.
• Evil Twin: Red Destiny is this for R. Dorothy; she appears for a grand total of one episode.
• Exact Words: Dorothy, a Three Laws-Compliant android, is being attacked by the Ambiguously Robotic Alan Gabriel and making no move to defend herself. In a bit of mid-fight banter, she asks Gabriel if he's human or an android like her. Gabriel mockingly replies that "I'm the boogeyman!" Dorothy takes his statement at face value, concludes that he has just admitted to not being human and therefore fair game according to her programming, and proceeds to effortlessly take him apart. (Word of God later revealed that Gabriel is in fact a cyborg.)
• Expy:
  • Roger was deliberately designed to resemble Bruce Wayne. Norman is essentially Alfred. With ordnance...well, okay, more ordnance.
  • Alan Gabriel is the Joker with a drill hand.
  • They even have a Jim Gordon! With shades of Harvey Bullock, as Dastun is less-than-thrilled about Roger solving what the police aren't able to (which is almost everything).
  • Beck
    • ...is the Riddler, more or less.
    • Unrelated to Batman for once, Beck is meant to be a parody of Lupin III.
  • And Angel would be Catwoman. Really, we could go on and on.
  • They also appear to use a very specific version of the Batman Mythos for inspiration. Gotham and Paradigm are designed with very similar "Dark Deco" styles, Roger is an anime version of Bruce's redesign for The New Batman Adventures, Angel is blonde just like Selina Kyle in the animated series (in the comics she has black hair), Norman is just Alfred with an eyepatch, and Dorothy's red hair and relationship with Roger seems inspired by both Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson except Dorothy is just better, and as mentioned before, Dan Dastun is a combination of Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock (Batman: TAS is where Harvey Bullock first saw mainstream success). In fact, Sunrise worked on animation for Batman: The Animated Series prior to the creation of The Big O.
  • Big O's face is basically Robot Keiji K's. No, really! ...made better with R. Frederick O'Reilly's appearance later on, who strongly resembles Robot Keiji K in everything but the face.
  • Let's take it a step further: Since the premise of this show involves a city without memories, it's very possible that all of these people are just the citizens of Gotham... just kidding.
    • Given the many hints that Paradigm City is what remains of New York, this is technically confirmed.
  • Alex Rosewater is more of a subversion — rather than being based on anyone from the Batman mythos, he seems very much modeled after Lex Luthor. DC themselves may well have acknowledged this — the scene from Superman: Doomsday where Lex watches the brawl between Superman and Doomsday is almost a shot-for-shot remake of Rosewater watching Big Duo battling Big O.
• Eye Beams: The Big-type Megadei all have them, as do some of the other Megadei.
• Eyepatch of Power: Again, Norman. Especially in the manga, where he has to face down a group of armed, arsonist youngsters in a church. He covers the one remaining eye of a goddess statue with his eyepatch, picks up a firearm, tells the punks, "THIS is how you use a machine gun," and shoots a perfect outline of the group in the wall behind them. He succeeds in leaving Dorothy speechless and wide-eyed. Then they go home and he makes dinner.
• Facepalm of Doom: The eponymous mecha's signature attack (Sudden Impact) can work like this, grabbing an opponent's head and using the pressurized pistons inside the arms to decapitate it. Its power seems to be adjustable. When Roger did this to Beck's Megadeus, it completely separated the head and cockpit from the rest of the body. When he did it earlier against Beck's van, however, the van and its occupants were largely intact and merely shaken up.
• Fake Memories: Played completely straight with Angel, but largely inverted with the apparent fake amnesia the entire city suffers.
• Flawed Prototype: The "Archetype" Big found buried beneath the subway systems. It is called the "prototype" for the Big series. While powerful (and surprisingly maneuverable/agile), it lacks the armour and sheer firepower of other Bigs seen in the series. While it certainly was formidable, it was quickly dispatched by Big O.
• Fantastic Noir: A lot of the series's style comes from this.
• Five Rounds Rapid: A staple of Paradigm's Military Police. They accomplish something on occasion, but it's the exception rather than the norm.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The newspaper clippings in the intro sequence are a mix of English and German, and include multiple pieces about jazz festivals and performances, including an announcement of the death of Lester Young (an actual famed jazz saxophonist who died in 1959). Of course, catching this with the spinning black shadows of various objects from the show in front of said clippings is impossible without pausing.
• Frequently-Broken Unbreakable Vow: Though Roger would prefer negotiation, the Big O sure is used a lot.
• Gadget Watches: Roger's wristwatch, which can summon Big O, control his car, detect missile lock-ons, and has a grappling hook and a laser-powered cutting torch. It never gets used to tell the time, but it does appear to have hands for that purpose in the form of a triangle and a circle.
• Gatling Good: Big O's Arm Cannon added in the 2nd season consists of the forearm opening up into a multi-barrel rotary beam cannon.
• Gainax Ending: Though it may not have originally intended to be one.
• Genius Ditz: Beck is a total moron at being a villain, but he's practically an idiot savant with neural AI technology. Sadly, his smarts are mostly used in pursuit of his villain aspirations. Maybe justified in that Beck's skills may come from his own awakening memories.
• Genre-Busting: It's a Film Noir, Science Fiction, Giant Mecha, Detective story, Psychological Mind Screw, sprinkled with post-apocalyptic elements and garnished with Batman overtones.
• Giant Robot Hands Save Lives: Roger and Schwarzwald fall into their giant robots' hands and survive several times. Roger has also done this for other people. Thank you, gentle robot friend. At least in the Christmas Episode, the victim falls into a pile of apparently soft debris in the hand (even though it popped up from beneath the street), rather than the hand itself.
• A God Am I: Eugene Grant, the Mad Scientist who engineers humans into animals.
• Gone Horribly Right: Alan Gabriel wanted to combine with his Megadeus. He got it.
  Cast in the name of god, ye guilty
• Grand Finale: More like a Final Stage.
• Gratuitous English
  • English words and phrases meshed awkwardly with Japanese, as well as one episode where a phrase in gratuitous French acts as Arc Words, and some grammatically incorrect German and Latin.
  • American viewers need not worry about this, obviously, especially since the dub's quality is excellent.
  • Though if you listen to the opening's lyrics closely...
• Gratuitous German: Michael Seebach a.k.a. Schwarzwald (named after the famous mountain range in Germany) assaults the ears of the Japanese viewers with really, really poor attempts at speaking German. Anyone listing to the English dub is spared from this. They also misspell Seebach's name (they spell it with an "Z" at the beginning).
• Greater-Scope Villain: Big Venus, which has the power to alter people's memories and even reality itself and is responsible for erasing the memories of all of Paradigm's citizens 40 years ago.
• Guns Are Worthless: For the most part, Big O's most effective weapons are its piston powered fists. Despite its many ranged weapons, the solid missiles and cannons never ever work, and the energy weapons also usually don't. To the point where an energy blast is less effective against a meteor falling to the city than punching it right before it hits.
• Heroic BSoD: The Cliffhanger of the episode "Stripes", with Heroic Error Windows popping up throughout the series.
• Heroic RRoD: Inverted in the final episode, where Alex Rosewater allows Big Fau to integrate completely with him; the Memory Core behind him turns sideways and becomes a red hourglass.
• His Name Is...: In his final moments the spirit of Schwarzwald, inhabiting Big Duo as it flies mindlessly upwards begins monologuing about the truth of Paradigm City and the nature of the memories, and is about to reveal everything the rest of the cast (and audience) has been dying to know since Act 1... Only to meet an abrupt end when Big Duo crashes into the massive stage light rigging above Paradigm City.
• Humongous Mecha: The title robot, and other robots he faces.
• Hypocritical Humor: When Dorothy first shows up at Roger's place looking for protection, Roger muses that Norman must be going senile to have mistaken her for a human (he's not in the room). Dorothy is quick to point out that Roger was also fooled until he got a close look, so he changes the subject.
• Inner Monologue: Roger tends to open each episode with a recitation of the nature of the city and whatever he happens to be doing at the time.
• Intimidation Demonstration: "The Greatest Villain". Before Beck fights Roger Smith he does some fancy maneuvers with a giant boomerang-like weapon his Megadeus created. Roger then shoots him with Big O's Arm Cannon, trashing the whole thing in two seconds flat.
• Introductory Opening Credits: The opening credits of the second season list each character by their occupation within the team, before cutting to monochrome clips of them from the show with their name underneath it.
• Invincible Hero: While by no means the protagonist, Dastun goes through all manner of what can only be described as "serious shit" and always comes out in one piece.
• It Only Works Once: Roger only gets one shot with Big O's Final Stage. He misses, and the energy output burns the gun to a crisp afterward.
• Kaiju: Big O fights several giant monsters.
• Karmic Death: Alan Gabriel gets done in by the very Megadeus that he's piloting.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Beck tries to retreat in his Beck Victory Deluxe when faced with the Big O, knowing his robot won't win. Roger doesn't make escaping easy, though, so Beck has to stay and lose.
• Land, Sea, Sky: Big O, Big Fau, and Big Duo respectively.
  • Big O is incredibly heavily armored and has a plethora of weapons, as well as chain anchors meant to secure it to the ground or buildings to help hold it in place when using its heavier ordinance, but has limited mobility options.
  • Big Fau has its wrist screws, which in addition to being used like some sort of wrist-mounted chainsaw, can be used for aquatic locomotion, its rocket punch calls to mind torpedoes, and its head bares some resemblance to a submarine's conning tower.
  • Big Duo can turn its hands into propellers and use them to fly, while neither Big O nor Big Fau have anything resembling the ability to fly.
• Laughably Evil: Jason Beck has funny hair, a Riddler like demeanor, and is the butt of jokes.
• Leader Forms the Head: In "The Greatest Villain", when Beck and his henchmen form their giant mecha RX-3, the part Beck is controlling becomes the head. Parodied, since Beck's rocket car is hilariously out of proportion with the leg and chest units, being smaller than the actual head part that catches it.
• Left Hanging: Several episodes, including the finale.
• Long Pants: Roger is sometimes drawn like this. Wearing all black helps.
• Machine Worship: The humans think that the various Humongous Mecha popping up everywhere are gods. The Megadei have a fairly good claim to the title, being supposedly "Cast In The Name Of God" and sentient to some degree.
• Mad Scientist: Eugene Grant.
• Meaningful Name: The term Megadeus transliterated means something along the lines of "giant god." And everything bearing the name is huge and powerful.
• A Mech by Any Other Name: No, Big O isn't a mech. He's a Megadeus. And so are all the other mechs.
• Mech vs. Beast: Several episodes have Big O fight a giant monster instead of a Megadeus.
• MegaCorp: The Paradigm Corporation is both the parent company of practically every commercial business and utility provider in the city, and the city's government.
• The Men in Black: Roger Smith mainly, due to him nearly ALWAYS being shown wearing a black suit and tie (sometimes with matching shades), even in the heat of battle. This is expanded upon by Roger's rule that everyone living in his home must wear black as well (though Dorothy finds a loophole by wearing a very dark red blouse on at least one occasion). Even Roger's car and the series's titular mecha are black. As for the "memories" and "Conspiracy" and "Government Agent" parts....see Mind Screw. It Zigzags all over the place.
• Merchandise-Driven: Believe it or not, the anime was originally written to advertise a line of giant robot toys, thus the fact that there are mechas in it at all.
• Merry Christmas in Gotham: The Christmas special starts out grim as usual. We have a blind girl whose lover is a garbageman by day and musician by night. They are starving, barely able to afford food at all. Then a mad scientist leaves a biological weapon in the boy's tip jar, and it turns out the "weapon" is a massive self-growing Christmas tree made to teach people to love nature and each other. While the tree grows, everyone hears the boy's music, Roger and Dorothy exchange presents and have an impromptu dance party, and it snows.
• Mighty Glacier
  • The Big O itself is the most obvious example. Unlike contemporary mecha shows where increasingly even the real robot-type machines show increasing agility, the Big O is massive, plodding, unsubtle, and destructive. When it's shot from a distance, it's shown that it can actually move quite quickly (like a car with low acceleration but high top speed), but it's so heavy that it can't stop on a dime, and it's not exactly graceful. Of course, it's got tremendous amounts of firepower, with even its weakest weapons blasting tremendous holes in skyscrapers. Its Final Stage cannon blows away most of a city the size of New York. Its defensive aspects are even more formidable; most of the various monsters and robots the Big O fights have a variety of special abilities that gives them a versatile edge over the mecha, but almost every single one lacks an answer to the Big O's most common strategy of simply turtling up behind its massive arm guards and moving forward. In many ways, this unstoppable defense is the Big O's greatest strength. One of the only mecha to ever break through the Big O's armor was Glinda, which was a noted Glass Cannon. This says more about the Big O's defenses than anything else could.
  • Most of the Megadei are massive and cumbersome. Even the flying Big Duo handles more like a heavy bomber than an interceptor, flying mostly in straight lines and needing vast amounts of space to make a turn. The two exceptions are the Archetype, a Lightning Bruiser which is apparently the stripped-down skeleton of a Megadeus that moves with the agility of a monkey, and Glinda (another Timothy Wayneright creation).
• Mind Screw: Oh boy, where to begin:
  • Try and explain the ending. Go on. Try. We'll be here waiting.
  • Considering the show was written by Chiaki Konaka, the man who brought us Serial Experiments Lain and Digimon Tamers, this is probably to be expected.
  • There's also episode 14. Watch it.
• Mind Rape: The premise of the show is that this happened (or may not have) to everyone 40 years ago, giving them amnesia. The problem is that there are objects and people all over the city that cause the memories to reemerge, thus mind-raping them once more.
• The Mirror Shows Your True Self: Roger and Dorothy near the end of episode 14.
• Monster of the Week: Each episode has Roger inevitably fighting off a giant something with Big O.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Angel has one when she realizes she was willing to allow Alan to kill Dorothy, since she believed Roger cared for Dorothy more than her.
• Mysterious Informant: Big Ear, Roger's information broker.
• Never Bare Headed: Taken to the extreme with Beck's minions in the manga. All three of them wear hats of some kind in all their appearances - the female member also wears a showercap when she's introduced bathing with Beck. Though she constantly changes outfits, it's easy to recognize her given her...eccentric snail-shell hairdo and the fact she's always wearing a hat.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: In a mecha to mecha example, Beck pits his new RX-3 against the Big O, showing off a boomerang weapon with some fancy moves. Roger activates Big O's Arm Cannon and trashes the RX-3 in a few seconds.
• Not a Morning Person: Roger, often shown waking up after 1 PM to hilarious effect when Dorothy plays a run down on the piano in order to wake him up.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Schwarzwald has this look in Episode 12 when the tables turn on him.
  • Alan Gabriel gets his own later.
    "Ye Guilty."
• Older Than They Look: There are hints that Roger was around forty years ago in some form, despite his age being 25 according to official reference materials. On the other hand, he seemingly has flashbacks of being a child during the tomato experiment 15 years ago.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Megadei can only be piloted reliably by those whom they judge to be worthy ("Ye Not Guilty"). If someone isn't meant to pilot it, it either won't work, or will punish the one who tries.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Beck towards Roger (who considers Beck a common thug and really not worth the time or attention); this ends up being a plot point in the Grand Finale, however...
• Ontological Mystery: What happened 40 years ago to make everyone lose their memories?
• Overt Rendezvous: Roger always meets with his street informant Big Ear in a bar.
• Parody: Beck's Combining Mecha is a very blatant one of Super Sentai and more 'traditional' mech anime. Big O obliterates it before it can land a single hit.
• Pile Bunker: Big O has enormous pistons attached to its elbows. They retract to absorb air, then release it in a compressed burst through vents on the wrist. The resulting blast can punch a hole through nearly anything.
• Plot-Based Photograph Obfuscation: The old, torn picture of Gordon Rosewater and... ...Roger?
• Police Are Useless: Generally justified, as the only times Roger normally finds himself dealing with criminals are negotiating hostage situations where calling the police would endanger the captive, and Humongous Mecha attacks that the police are understandably unprepared for.
• Precision F-Strike: Just about the only swearing in the series is Norman, faced with robot insects, opening fire with twin machine guns with a yell of "Sons of bitches!"
• Pretty in Mink: A few fur coats in the background, and one or two of Angel's outfits have them.
• Private Eye Monologue: Roger does this almost every episode, especially in the first season.
  Roger Smith: My name is Roger Smith. I perform a much-needed job here in this city of amnesia...
• Psycho for Hire: Alan Gabriel.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Alex Rosewater, especially when he gets possession of a Megadeus.
• Punch Parry: During the fight between Big O and Big Duo in episode #24.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Beck's golden Megadeus against Big O.
  Beck: ...The beam just bounced off...
• Ransom Drop: Roger Smith delivers ransoms on several occasions. He presents a Briefcase Full of Money, which is armed and also rigged to fly away with the money if he subsequently finds that the ransomed person is a fake. And if attacked by the kidnappers, he's backed up by a Humongous Mecha.
• Rays from Heaven: In episode 14, "Roger the Wanderer". At the end of Roger's hallucination he rediscovers his sense of purpose and finds himself back in Big O. After he knocks down all three of the foreign megadeuses, rays of sunlight shine through the clouds above as he prepares his final attack, which disables his opponents and saves Paradigm City. Watch the sequence here.
• Real Robot: The Megadei, especially the titular Big O, straddle the line between this and Super Robot. While shown to be much bigger than reality would allow, they're all incredibly big, bulky, and slow with the amount of mass they carry. When Big O is knocked over, Roger literally has No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup when it comes to getting back on his feet; the classic Super Robot staple attacks are used sparingly; Big Fau is the only mech to have a Rocket Punch (and firing them means it's permanently lost its hands and arms); and the one time Big O uses 'Final Stage', the chest-mounted Wave-Motion Gun, it has to anchor itself into the ground, and the energy output is so great the weapon destroys itself in the act of firing.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Big Duo gives the shortest one on record to Alan Gabriel and proceeds to absorb and kill him, since he is an insane sadistic motherfucker and thus not worthy of piloting a Megadeus: "Ye Guilty."
• Reconstruction: Of Humongous Mecha anime.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Several examples in the episode "Eyewitness".
• Red Herring: Episode 13 makes it looks like that R. Dorothy or Angel is the serial killer. It turns out to be Dorothy's Evil Twin.
• Rejected by the Empathic Weapon: "Cast in the name of God, ye not guilty" seems to just be a stock part of Big O's Activation Sequence, until late in the second half of the series when other Bigs are introduced and demonstrate that it is in fact the Megadeus judging its current pilot: petulant Psychopathic Manchild Alex Rosewater starts up Big Fau simply to show off that it supposedly doesn't need a "core memory" to function because he himself is sufficient, whereupon Big Fau declares "ye not" and deactivates about a minute later, while psychopathic murderer Alan Gabriel at the controls of Big Duo is outright rejected with "ye guilty", whereupon circuits and wires in the cockpit devour him.
• Replacement Goldfish: R. Dorothy to the real (deceased) Dorothy.
• Retractable Weapon: Glinda has a retractable sword which it uses against Big O. Played somewhat realistically in that, while it should never have been able to fold as it does, the sword is actually fairly weak. A slashing attack manages to damage Big O's arm shields, but a thrust attack meets Big O's fist and the sword crumples like paper.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: The Union wants to break Alex Rosewater's hold on the world (and recover the memories they believe he's hiding) by destroying Paradigm City.
• Rocket Punch: Big Fau.
• Rogues Gallery
  • The reappearing Beck, Alan Gabriel, and Schwarzwald. This makes even more sense when you think about the possible allusion to another Rogues Gallery...
  • The three of them arguably split elements of the Joker. Beck has the manic personality and base criminal desires, Alan is a sadistic killer, and Schwarzwald is a crazed sociopath whose actions only make sense to himself.
  • The differing chunks of similarities seem played with when Alan Gabriel is rejected by Big Duo; Schwarzwald, despite being quite deceased for half the series, seems to manifest through Big Duo to actively berate Alan's gleefully pointless killing as being unworthy compared to his own motivations. Alan may have had the killing down, but it takes more than killing to make you worthy of being the Joker expy of the series.
• Ruder and Cruder: Surprising but true, in the case of the second season. The first season had no swearing whatsoever, even in the uncut version. After having a second season greenlit and co-produced for [adult swim], everyone is suddenly swearing up a storm.
• Rule of Cool: When the plots run shoestring thin in terms of making sense, giant robots fighting each other is the glue that holds everything together.
• Running Gag: R. Dorothy waking Roger up by playing the piano.
• Ruins of the Modern Age
  • Though never said out loud, it's made damn clear that Paradigm City is built on top of New York City. To drive the point home, every instance of a notable New York landmark showing up, generally shows that landmark (and everything around it) destroyed.
  • In Episode 5, it's mentioned that a man fell into the Hudson from the George Washington Bridge.
  • Several track titles on the Original Sound Score II album allude to actual Manhattan streets and locations.
  • Several key storyline events happen in Grand Central Station.
  • A JFK Mark is mentioned, almost certainly a reference to New York's JFK Airport. The airport itself is seen (in ruins) in the same episode. It's later implied that Big Duo was found here.
  • Mad Scientist Eugene Grant's lab appears to be based in the American Museum of Natural History.
  • In the episode "Leviathan", Coney Island and its famous roller coaster, Cyclone, are visible in the wastelands just outside the city.
  • Roger likes driving across the Brooklyn Bridge, fully visible in the 3rd episode. It is one of the few New York landmarks that isn't destroyed.
  • There's also the fact that Alex Rosewater has an account at Bank of America◊, though this one is more likely just a case of Gratuitous English.
    • Then again, in the first episode, Roger hands the Big Ear what looks like American Federal Reserve Notes (a roll of 20s to be exact), so this might not be so gratuitous...
• Saharan Shipwreck: On one side of Paradigm city is an endless desert, with beached tankers among the ruins.
• Sand Is Water: The "Leviathan" is bigger than Big O, but it's freaking fast in the sand. Possibly justified since it appears to disintegrate any solids on contact, maybe it makes the sand mushier or something. When air is pumped into sand, it behaves like a fluid. Sand (and things like sand) also react this way to intense vibration (like sound); any powerful agitating force that could disintegrate solid matter would cause sand to act just like a liquid.
• Sand Worm: In episode 17 "Leviathan", the titular Megadeus is a giant mechanical version.
• Scannable Man: The "tomatoes" (clones) have barcodes appear in their eyes whenever they realize what they are.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Episode 18 "The Greatest Villain". Beck's glasses have this trait while he's showing off his hostage Roger Smith.
• Schizo Tech: Lampshaded, and possibly connected to the Ontological Mystery.
• Self-Deprecating Humor: The Megadeus Smith defeated the fastest was the Japanese model (one shot and it was toast).
• Self-Parody: Does a little of this in episode 18, the funniest one in the series.
• Ship Tease
  • Several, but the most memorably hilarious one comes from episode 18, where Dorothy declares her love for Roger...just joking.
  • The entire "Heaven's Day" episode was a ship tease between Roger and Dorothy, from people commenting on how they make a cute couple, to going out of their way to get gifts for each other. Norman helps push Roger into it.
• Shout-Out
  • Many to Batman (presumably intentional, as Sunrise did animation for Batman: The Animated Series), as well as some memorably hilarious nods to older Super Robot shows in "The Greatest Villain", specifically Getter Robo with its Combining Mecha.
  • In the final seconds of the episode "Eyewitness," two◊ intrepid reporters show up to interview Dastun. Notice how even Roger seems surprised!
  • Also, the practice of using "R." as an honorific for androids is a Shout-Out to R. Daneel Olivaw in The Caves of Steel, and some of Asimov's other robot stories. The "R" stands for "Robot," of course.
  • Norman's bikeplate is M*ASH.
  • In "Eyewitness," Angel's car is parked next to a pink version of the (Animated) Batmobile.
  • In fact, Eyewitness is chock full of them, Dastun and O'Reilly's dynamic is plucked straight from Isaac Asimov's Elijah Bailey novels and Reilly's design is based on Robot Detective K
  • The specific choice of genetically-engineered tomatoes as Gordon Rosewater's metaphor for artifical humans likely stems from George H. Scithers's trope-naming use of the phrase Tomato Surprise.
  • The opening credits for the first season use the same animated background effect as the opening for Ultraseven.
  • In episode 20, Angel and Alan Gabriel are referred to by Vera Ronstadt as Agents 340 and 271 respectively, referencing the Agent code numbers of Ultraseven and Alien Dada.
  • The manner in which the joined Megadeuses combine from several flying machines to one mech is similar to that of King Joe.
  • The portrait of Dorothy that Roger paints in episode 9 is in the style of Amadeo Modigliani.
  • In the episode "Roger the Wanderer," two gargoyles briefly appear that resemble Brooklyn and Broadway from Gargoyles.
  • The two Howitzer teams that come to Big O's aid in the final episode are the Anderson and Roddenberry Teams.
• Silicon Snarker: R. Dorothy Wayneright is noted for her snark to Roger Smith, from criticizing his fashion sense, to her chastising him for using her to draw fire, since, as a robot, she can withstand it, leading to the dawn of her Catchphrase:
  R. Dorothy Wayneright: You are a louse, Roger Smith.
• Sinister Subway: Though the residents of Paradigm City believe this is true about their own subway, they are apparently very safe and are used by Roger Smith to transport his robot, though it should be noted that Roger has only mapped out the basic system (and has yet to explore what is beneath the subway).
• Sissy Villain: Eugene, in the dub.
• Spell My Name With An S: Almost certainly by accident, R. Dorothy Wayneright has a very similar name to a character on Yes, Minister, Dorothy Wainwright. Go on and guess what the "Wayne" part refers too...
• Spirit Advisor
  • Played with in the manga. Schwarzwald makes his first appearance in the manga (post-disfigurement) as what may or may not be a drunken hallucination of Roger's. While he makes a physical appearance piloting Big Duo, Schwarzwald continues appearing to Roger while he pilots Big O, pointing out the parallels between the two of them as far as their attitude towards memories go and even giving him the occasional motivating speech.
  • And in the final chapter, Angel gets one as well...in the form of Beck.
• Stock Footage
  • Spoofed/homaged in a Combining Mecha's transformation sequence, which fades out exactly as if transitioning to stock footage, despite the fact that it only appears in one episode.
  • Also played completely straight with a variety of car driving scenes that get repeated throughout the series - Roger passes a certain compact no fewer than five times on the highway.
  • Spoofed with episode 18 where Dorothy imitated the driving scenes with a bike.
  • Dorothy's piano playing from episode 6 became this in season two. Made even more obvious due to its older style of coloring, as opposed to the digital coloring of season two.
• Super-Senses: It would seem that Roger can hear pedestrians talking and shouting to him from the midst of a Megadeus battle, because Big O can hear that well.
• Suppressed History: the City of Amnesia, where nobody can remember anything that happened or who they were before 40 years ago. It turns out nothing existed before then.
• Take Our Word for It: Dorothy seems to have a beautiful singing voice, but she only hums and plays the piano.
• Technical Pacifist
  • Roger. He refuses to carry a gun or commit an act of violence against a woman. This does not prevent him from using Big O's arsenal of Gatling cannons, lasers, pile driver punches (which usually blow through nearby buildings after holing their target). The local police often dread the destruction caused when Big O shows up.
  • Again, this is par for the course in the long line of Batman shout outs; Bats himself refuses to use a gun but has no problem arming his various cars, motorcycles, jets, and other equipment with enough ordnance to completely level a small country. He has also shown himself as perfectly capable of wielding a gun.
• Telescoping Robot
  • Big O and the other Megadei. Not so much as to be unbelievable in terms of mass and volume, but in overall context...
  • Final Stage pushes it, though. Even if it assumes that the "barrel" of the gun is hollow, it pushes the mass of Big O to extremes.
• That Man Is Dead: Schwarzwald, and later referred to in a dialogue between Roger and a Paradigm Group Executive.
• This Is a Drill
  • Gabriel's prosthetic hand.
  • And later, Big Duo's hands, when - appropriately enough - being driven by Gabriel.
• Three Laws-Compliant: Androids are supposed to be unable to harm humans. Other robots, however, are fair game.
• Timm Style: A rare Anime example, as the character designs take a lot of cues from Bruce Timm's art style, and Roger himself greatly resembles Bruce Wayne. Fittingly, Sunrise was a subcontractor for Batman: The Animated Series, the most well-known example of the trope and a major influence on the series.
• Title Theme Tune: In the show's original title sequence song (which was replaced in 2007 for all broadcasts and home media releases due to potential copyright conflicts), "Big O" is sung at various speeds.
• Trash the Set: By the end of Season 2, the destruction reaches a point where no amount of off-screen repair can fix it. First Central Dome and the heart of Paradigm Corporation thanks to a Union robot and Big Fau run amok. Next, Roger's tower is invaded by a Robot Army. Then, a Union attack force begins bombing Paradigm City. And finally, a literal example when it's revealed that Paradigm is a giant stage complete with spotlights, before it's all deleted and reset.
• "Truman Show" Plot: A spotlight falls from the sky and tells it like it is.
• Tsundere: Roger is very much the male tsundere. Dorothy and Angel also have some tsundere traits.
• Un-Cancelled: Thanks to Americans, surprisingly enough, the show got a second season.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: Played straight in the Episode "Underground Terror" in a fight between the "Archetype" Big (prototype) and Big "O" (upgrade).
• Vehicle-Based Characterization: The two Megadeuses that Beck pilots demonstrate how inflated his ego is. The first one, the Beck Victory Deluxe, is plated gold, and has a ridiculous-looking crown on its head. The second one, Beck the Great RX3, is a gaudy-looking Combining Mecha that wouldn't look out of place in a Super Robot setting. Both are easily destroyed by Roger's Big O with little effort.
• Wave-Motion Gun
  • The Chrome Buster is Big O's most powerful conventional weapon, firing a sustained beam from the crystal structure on the head.
  • "BIG O! FINAL STAGE!", which makes the Chrome Buster look like a pea shooter. He missed - possibly due to Roger being a Technical Pacifist. Still, even a glancing shot from this weapon completely disintegrates a large portion of Big Fau, and all of the city behind it.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In the penultimate episode, a giant robot twenty times bigger than any of the Megadei is introduced and shown on screen for 3 seconds before it gets crushed by a chunk of falling debris, and is never mentioned again. Word of God says that this was the Behemoth, the counterpart to the Leviathan activated by Schwarzwald, that was awakened by Vera and The Union in a final attempt to destroy Paradigm City. This was hinted and foreshadowed a little, but no one is gonna blame you for not being able to figure it out yourself.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Roger (Or is he?). Word of God says they wanted Roger to avert the "Kid Hero" trope so the protagonist would be someone kids could look up to and, for the older viewers, someone they can relate to.
• World Limited to the Plot An extreme example, where this fact is central to the plot.
• The Worf Barrage: Usually played straight, but subverted hilariously in "The Greatest Villain" — Beck's robot appears to block it, then falls apart a second later, resulting in an extremely short fight. Even mentioned in Super Robot Wars Z where its encyclopedia entry notes: "It did not get any fight scene."
• Worf Had the Flu: The killer tree in episode 11. A gigantic, fast-growing plant cut off from any meaningful nutrients will not be able to grow for long.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Roger.
• You Mean "Xmas": Heaven's Day which is pretty blatantly Christmas under another name. Even Rosewater points it out near the end of the episode. Justified though due to the mass amnesia; except for some old people regaining Memories of singing carols in an abandoned church, Heaven's Day is just the day that Paradigm Corporation gives food to the poor.
• Younger Than They Look:
  • Dorothy. It's never lampshaded, despite the romantic interest that seems to develop between her and Roger; on the other hand, maybe this is normal in a city where androids and humans coexist as equals. However, being an android Dorothy is technically ageless and is more than equal to the characters of the series. Being technically ageless and having been designed to be who she is, her lifetime time since her activation is irrelevant and it's really a nonexistent problem.
  • Though as mentioned above, this possibly applies to Roger as well. Invoked.

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"We have come to terms"

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