What A Cartoon! - The Big O "A Legacy of Amadeus"
Added 2018-07-23 07:00:01 +0000 UTCCowboy Bebop isn't the only Western-influenced anime series to make waves on Cartoon Network in the early '00s. Just a few years before Spike Spiegel blew the minds of American cable viewers, The Big O emerged as an ultra-stylish and enigmatic series that blended the look of Batman: The Animated series and Japanese giant robot shows from the '60s and '70s. And, thanks to its infamous cliffhanger ending, Sunrise's series kickstarted a trend of Western funding that continues to this day. This week, Cartoons 101's Matthew Jay joins us to discuss the classic The Big O episode, "A Legacy of Amadeus."
Comments
After hearing Bob and Henry lambaste the low production quality of the opening video sequence I wondered if it too might also be an 'homage' to the Flash Gordan movie, just like the song itself. After viewing both back to back I would say that is probably the case, for better or worse.
Kyle
2018-07-28 02:12:26 +0000 UTCYeah, Imagawa is pretty notorious for his love retro mecha stuff, G Gundam probably being the other obvious example.
Sadie Carter
2018-07-25 23:05:42 +0000 UTCI love Frontier as well, it's pretty underrated
Zeether
2018-07-25 16:59:41 +0000 UTCTetsujin 28 even got an anime from Imagawa (director of the Giant Robo OVA) and it's coming out again from Discotek
Zeether
2018-07-25 16:58:57 +0000 UTCYeah Im probably exaggerating a little there. I liked the one where the kids were digimon though its ep count got slashed and it fell apart at the end.
Jenny Ibrahim
2018-07-25 00:21:25 +0000 UTCI disagree with it being the only good season, but it's far and away the best and most consistent.
DareBear
2018-07-24 23:43:51 +0000 UTCIn addition to the Batman TAS and western influence this show, and to a much more explicit extent, Giant Robo, are deeply referential to the works of seminal manga artist Yokoyama Mitsuteru. His two most famous mecha manga, Tetsujin-28 and (of course) Giant Robo, were detective/spy series were the main character and villians just happened to also have giant robots, much in the same vain. He is often noted for his more no nonsense, noirish manga. The Giant Robo OVA is basically a giant cross over of all his most famous creation. That said, this episode also feels very, how the French say, Astro Boy-esque. The design and name of Instro and the story of humans trying to misuse robots for evil feels very Tezuka influenced.
Sadie Carter
2018-07-24 23:10:06 +0000 UTCThe Flash Gordon rip-off theme was actually the reason I started watching the show in the first place! And I know animation wise the intro is a little sparse, but it really got me pumped up to watch the show. Also, the full song goes even further into an "homage" to Queen. I love it: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA7Xl5CtHRM" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA7Xl5CtHRM</a>
Adam Fitch
2018-07-24 16:52:22 +0000 UTCHaving never seen this show before (as with every anime covered so far), my first thoughts were about how the show must've been influenced by Batman: the Animated Series (and the Batman mythos in general) in some capacity, because design-wise it looked like it could practically fit right into late 90's WB programming. This might actually be my favourite new-to-me cartoon I've watched as a result of this podcast, so I'm glad to get the prompting to experience some shows I otherwise wouldn't even know about.
Dylan (batmanboy11) Freitag
2018-07-24 01:52:36 +0000 UTCGreat episode, guys! My apologies if you already received responses to this effect elsewhere, but as amateurish as it is, the scrolling silhouette blob parts of the intro are a direct reference to the Ultra Seven opening: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCuz2D7br78." rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCuz2D7br78.</a> I was also shocked to discover recently that the upbeat lounge song you used for one of the breaks, Respect Upper West Side, is an "homage" to the opening of the British TV show UFO: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd2Kn4Pxbdk&t=94s" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd2Kn4Pxbdk&t=94s</a> Stuff like this always makes me wonder just how many other references there are that I'm missing out on, but so it goes. Looking forward to the next episode!
mosesplan
2018-07-24 01:34:43 +0000 UTCI unironically love the old intro and it sucks they had to replace it because of the legal stuff
Zeether
2018-07-23 15:33:02 +0000 UTCYou guys are right that the original intro is technically terrible but I love it so much. It is beautifully terrible.
Kevin Schiavoni (thepenguin55)
2018-07-23 15:31:29 +0000 UTCTotally agree with Bob about Giant Robo. There's a freaking 4K Blu-ray of it out now in Japan and I'm still so annoyed it's been 5 years and nobody's gotten it here again! Media Blasters is still around, BTW. They're not doing much now because they lost pretty much all their licenses, last thing I remember hearing them doing was a Blu-ray of Yamibou (a weird as hell anime that plays out backwards) but basically they just occasionally pick up something and that's about it. Roger's watch is also likely a shoutout to GR too because the main character in that (and the original series, which had a tokusatsu version localized as Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot) summons the robot using the same device. The Japanese Cartoon Network talk reminded me that I went digging around and they have shown several anime that have never been on TV in the US on top of the usual CN lineup, including Macross 7, School Rumble, and Slayers. There's legit an ad where they promo Macross 7 and the title and Basara (the main character) are shown in the Cartoon Cartoons format with the same font and background. It's wild. Oh, and the Japan remaking stuff thing reminded me of Space Battleship Yamato 2199, which has people who worked on it that are related to the original crew (Shoji Nishizaki, the son of the original creator, and Akira Miyagawa who I believe is the son of the original music composer Hiroshi Miyagawa). They even got Isao Sasaki back to sing the original theme!
Zeether
2018-07-23 15:26:24 +0000 UTCThe third season of Digimon is the only good season of digimon. It explores a lot of complex themes the series never goes back to.
Jenny Ibrahim
2018-07-23 11:27:24 +0000 UTC
