Anime Review #001 - The Big O (Season 1)

There is a good reason why I decided to use 1K numbering. I've watched around 150 series and barring shortchange in my life expectancy, I could write close to 1,000 reviews before I quit for good. Also, please understand that I don't have particular order in terms of review, I just write something I watched recently. I will wait until the end of the series before I write, since it is well... review.

Title: Big O (1999)
Genre: Mecha/Action/Mystery
Studio: Sunrise
US Distributor: Bandai
Grade:
Video: B-
Audio: C+
Story: B
Dubbing (if Applicable): A+
OVERALL: B (Solid)

When I first saw an advertisement for this one back in 2000, I was thinking, "bleah... another crappy mecha stuff?" Being an anti-mecha viewer, Big O felt shorter stick of the new line up in CN's Adult Swim block (which included Outlaw Star).
After giving a try in few years later, I could see why CN insisted on funding the sequel. As you know, the Season 2 never made to the viewers in Japan due to dismal rating. The creator as well as major casts were all there, just that Big O felt too western for many anime viewers to like it.
It runs something like this. "A negotiator handles his daily duty in this dark city where everyone lost their memories 40 years ago. No one knows how, or why. All they can do for now is to live."
Of course, the lost memory is the underlying foundation which will eventually lead the series to the conclusion. I won't tell you about the ending to spoil the fun.
The visual style is very edge, not unlike the Batman animation series back in early '90s. The creator of the series admitted that he wanted to emulate the feeling of the Batman. Darkness is there, and so is the intriguing story. Only difference is that instead of heroic custume, our main character dons absurdly huge robot to do the good deeds.
For those who are expecting Gundam like mecha battle, you will be sorely disappointed, as mecha is just a part of the series, but not the driving force. To put it simply, this series dodges the shortfall of "battling for the sake of battle". Very smart move, if you ask me.
This is one of few series that are better with dubbing. I tried to watch the sub, but it left me with mixed feeling. Roger doesn't sound masculine enough, nor is Dorothy sounding mechanical enough.
Few years has passed since this series came out, and video suffers big. This series was clearly Sunrise's B-rated offering at the time. But if you can overlook its age and throw out the conventional mecha-driven story out the window, I think you will throughly enojoy it.

New year, and more school work... Ugh.

Where did January go?
Before I knew it, it is already February... and my first midterm is just few days away.
So far, it has been same old in my life, with some minor exception. As you know, I'm still busy hunting for new manga (the one in Japanese text, mind you), as well as agonizing over frequent turnover of the bookstore I used to visit. Perhaps I'm bringing a share of curse with me to them. ^^;;
The life knows how to throw an expensive curveball. Valentine's Day is near by, and so is the midterm. All I could think of is to get a dozen of roses or so, but knowing this evil city, it might be out of my reach... sigh. Job hunting hasn't gone so well, so my budget is as tight as ever.
Enough chattering, I think I'll save some thoughts for later.