The golden era of Cartoon Network’s Toonami, and later Adult Swim, introduced a ton of iconic hits for anime fans growing up in the United States. Its best hits became either a pop culture phenomenon, or beloved if occasionally overlooked or even tragically difficult-to-find hits later in their lives. One such case was The Big O, a mecha anime from Gundam and Cowboy Bebop studio Sunrise, airing its series initially on Toonami before moving to Adult Swim later in its cycle. Since its time airing on Cartoon Network’s programming blocks, though, The Big O became increasingly notorious as hard-to-find with low physical media availability or streaming, until now.
Confirmed by Discotek today and available for purchase via mediaOCD’s store page, The Big O: The Complete Paradigm Blu-ray box set will include both seasons in both the original English-subbed Japanese audio and the iconic English dub. It’s a stunning series that holds up rather well today, blending mecha action featuring Roger Smith piloting the Big O, and a growing mystery surrounding its setting of Paradigm City, the “city of amnesia” channeling the noir animation popular with Western cartoons of the era. Now, fans can take it home in its best edition available, to watch on demand without worry.
Discotek Media Presents Definitive Home Release For Classic Cartoon Network Anime
Available now, The Big O was largely unavailable to stream online save for a small handful of countries via Prime Video and incomplete versions of the English dub run uploaded to YouTube. It’s a shame, just due to how enthralling its story becomes over the course of its 26 episodes, and how particularly strong the English dub starring Steve Blum truly was. But now fans can take home the double-audio release in a pretty solid win for media preservation.
Forty years ago, “something” happened that left Earth on the brink of destruction. At the same time, the metropolis known as Paradigm City lost all memories of everything before that event. Having lost their past history and technology, the people strive to rebuild an orderly society using what remains. In this Paradigm City, there is a man known as the top negotiator. His name is Roger Smith.
One day, he accepts a request from a wealthy man named Soldano: to locate his kidnapped daughter. However, the girl Roger recovers from the criminals is not human, but a highly sophisticated robot—an android. Piloting the Megadeus Big O, Roger, together with the android Dorothy, begins to uncover the mysteries of the lost memories of the past.
-The Big O Official Synopsis
Forty years ago, “something” happened that left Earth on the brink of destruction. At the same time, the metropolis known as Paradigm City lost all memories of everything before that event. Having lost their past history and technology, the people strive to rebuild an orderly society using what remains. In this Paradigm City, there is a man known as the top negotiator. His name is Roger Smith.
One day, he accepts a request from a wealthy man named Soldano: to locate his kidnapped daughter. However, the girl Roger recovers from the criminals is not human, but a highly sophisticated robot—an android. Piloting the Megadeus Big O, Roger, together with the android Dorothy, begins to uncover the mysteries of the lost memories of the past.
Fans remember The Big O fondly as one of the best anime to feature on Cartoon Network’s programming blocks, and for good reason. It’s beautifully animated, strikes a fascinating balance of action and intrigue, and ages rather well into the present. Discotek took particular care to mention it went through existing masters for the anime, with season 2 including the 5.1 audio English dub and the promise of an overall clean visual presentation of the original series.
The Big O
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Mitsuru Miyamoto
Enjoying this article? Support our work with a small crypto donation.Roger Smith (voice)
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Akiko Yajima
R. Dorothy Wayneright (voice)
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Emi Shinohara
Angel (voice)
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Gorō Naya
Gordon Rosewater (voice)
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