The Big O
The Big O is set in the fictional city-state of Paradigm City (パラダイム・シティ, Paradaimu Shiti). The city is located on a seacoast and is surrounded by a vast desert wasteland. The partially domed city is wholly controlled by the monopolistic Paradigm Corporation, resulting in a corporate police state. Paradigm is known as "The City of Amnesia" (記憶喪失の街, Kioku soushitsu no Machi) because forty years prior to the story, ""The Event" (何か, Nani ka, lit. "Something") destroyed the world outside the city and left the survivors without any prior memories.
The city is characterized by severe class inequity; the higher-income population resides inside the more pleasant domes, with the remainder left in tenements outside. Androids coexist with the human inhabitants of Paradigm City; while they are rare, they are sufficiently numerous that denizens of the city do not consider them unusual.
Several episodes show inhabitants of Paradigm City practicing some form of Christianity: people congregate in meeting places with crucifixes prominently displayed. The practice appears to be based on custom, because no one clearly remembers any doctrine associated with the practice. A ruined cathedral remains unused, although some elderly people occasionally stand in front of it and sing incompletely remembered hymns. In episode 11, it appears that only Alex Rosewater, CEO of the Paradigm Corporation that runs the city, remembers or observes Christmas. A holiday commemorating the founding of Paradigm City, "Heaven's Day", is observed on December 25. Though citizens decorate with generic Christmas decorations, they are ignorant of their original meaning. Dastun mentions that Rosewater had in his possession fragments of a "Book of Revelation", although neither Dastun nor Roger had heard of it before.
Although the textbook definition of memory is a record stored in the brain of an organism, the citizens of Paradigm City use the term more loosely; "Memories" (メモリー, Memorī) can refer to forgotten knowledge, records or artifacts from before The Event, or partial forms of recollection including hallucinations and recurring dreams.
The first season is episodic. Each episode (referred to as an "Act") relates a separate instance the resurgence of lost "memories" and how the citizens cope with their collective amnesia. The final episodes introduce elements that come into play during season two, like the discovery of people living outside of Paradigm City, the true nature of the Event, and something obliquely described as "the Power of God wielded by the hand of man".
While the majority of the first season's episodes are self-contained stories, the second season comprises a single serialized story arc. Alex Rosewater becomes a direct antagonist to Roger, and a mysterious group known as "The Union" is introduced, containing agents of a foreign power working within the City.
=== Ending ===
The series ends with the awakening of a new megadeus, and the revelation that the world is a simulated reality. A climactic battle ensues between Big O and Big Fau, after which reality is systematically erased by the new megadeus, an incarnation of Angel, recognised as "Big Venus" by Dorothy. Roger implores Angel to "let go of the past" regardless of its existential reality, and focus only on the present and the future. In an isolated control room, the real Angel observes Roger and her past encounters with him on a series of television monitors. On the control panel lies Metropolis, a book featured prominently since the thirteenth episode, with the cover featuring an illustration of angel wings and gives the author's name as "Angel Rosewater". Big Venus and Big O physically merge, causing the virtual reality to reset. A white flash subsides, and the first scenes of the first episode of the series play out. New versions of Dorothy and Angel watch Roger drive down the street as he delivers again his first speech of the series ("My name is Roger Smith. I perform a much needed job here in the City of Amnesia"), although he is a little hesitant this time. The ending title card, "We have come to terms," appears, and the credits roll.
suspenseful, neo noir, murder, haunting, sci-fi