However, I did in fact start this analysis saying, “ Big O could’ve gone down in history…” and I mean it. While this style of storytelling-the neo-noir, mystery/detective style of a succession of standalone plots supporting a larger plot-can work incredibly well if executed properly (such as in Cowboy Bebop), Big O was too cluttered to execute it as well as it should have been.

90% of the characters appear in only one or two episodes most individual or standalone story-arcs support the broader plot and themes, but are much more self-contained and the philosophical themes of the story can never agree with each other on what questions they ought to be asking. The plot of NGE builds and stacks itself, like the stories of a tower, where Big O schizophrenically assembles the disparate and thinly-associated pieces of a broad puzzle.

Big O just has too much going on: too many sub-plots, too many mysteries, too many revolving-door-characters and standalone story-arcs. Neon Genesis was able to wedge its characters and the central plot into our minds almost immediately, then develop the characters, plot and themes at a perfect pace (until, of course, the very end). It’s difficult to even know how one should feel about it.Īnd, as one final critique, Hideaki Anno is simply a better story writer. Where Neon Genesis had a solid structure, a solid core to it (albeit a structure/core that was difficult to articulate at times, but was at all times clearly felt), Big O feels unstable, loose and uncertain. Where Neon Genesis never felt like it was trying to be anything other than Neon Genesis, Big O felt like it was trying to be Kafka, Huxley, Orwell, Joyce, Bradbury and Asimov all at once.

The problem with Big O was that it was too scattered, too schizophrenic and too self-aware. Big O spread itself out across too many themes.īoth shows ran for 26 episodes, both were unique takes on the giant mech genre, and both were incredibly ambitious-delving into depths many “deep” anime only scratched at.

And here, we can begin to see how Big O inevitably failed where an anime like Neon Genesis succeeded. Underlying this neo-noir, Modernist dystopia are questions of existentialism: free will, purpose, meaning, the relationship of the individual to society and the universe, the nature of being.

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