Production and Release
Development of the retro-styled series began in 1996. Keiichi Sato came up with the concept of The Big O: a giant city-smashing robot, piloted by a man in black, in a Gotham-like environment. He later met up with Kazuyoshi Katayama, who had just finished directing Those Who Hunt Elves, and started work on the layouts and character designs. But when things "were about to really start moving," production on Katayama's Sentimental Journey began, putting plans on-hold. Meanwhile, Sato was heavily involved with his work on City Hunter.
Sato admits it all started as "a gimmick for a toy" but the representatives at Bandai Hobby Division did not see the same potential. From there on, the dealings would be with Bandai Visual, but Sunrise still needed some safeguards and requested more robots be designed to increase prospective toy sales. In 1999, with the designs complete, Chiaki J. Konaka was brought on as head writer. Among other things, Konaka came up with the idea of "a town without memory" and his writing staff put together the outline for a 26-episodes series.
The Big O premiered on 13 October 1999 on WOWOW. When the production staff was informed the series would be shortened to 13 episodes, the writers decided to end it with a cliffhanger, hoping the next 13 episodes would be picked up. In April 2001, The Big O premiered on Cartoon Network's Toonami lineup.
- Second season
The series garnered positive fan response internationally that resulted in a second season co-produced by Cartoon Network, Sunrise, and Bandai Visual. Season two premiered on Japan's SUN-TV on January 2003, with the American premiere taking place seven months later in the Adult Swim lineup.
The second season was scripted by Chiaki Konaka with input from the American producers. Along with the 13 episodes of season two, Cartoon Network had an option for 26 additional episodes to be written by Konaka, but according to Jason DeMarco, executive producer for season two, the middling ratings and DVD sales in the United States and Japan have made it impossible for further episodes to be produced.
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