Roger Smith (The Big O)

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For living people and characters by the same name, see Roger Smith (disambiguation).

Roger Smith from The Big O.

Roger Smith is the main character in the anime television series and the manga, The Big O. ^[1] He is voiced in original Japanese production by Mitsuru Miyamoto, and is voiced in the English dub by Steven Blum.

1 Character
2 Background
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Character

Roger Smith is Paradigm City's top negotiator, and lives in the Illegal Residential Sector in a former bank with his butler Norman Burg and R. Dorothy Wayneright.^[2]

He is the Dominus, or pilot, of the Big O, a giant robot known as a Big-type "Megadeus". When negotiation fails or danger threatens the city, he summons Big O by calling him through his watch. ^[3]

Roger has two rules which those in his house must follow. One, is of that everyone in his house must wear black, with no exceptions. He himself follows this dress code. The only episode which departs from this is Act 7, "The Call from the Past", in which he wears a t-shirt and slacks rather than the usual impeccable black suit -- and this is only so he will not get his black suit dirty. His second rule is that females must be immediately allowed into the living room, whereas males should wait outside. ^[4] Because of this, both Angel and R. Dorothy Wayneright refer to him on separate occasions as a "louse".

[edit] Background

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Roger's past is an enormous enigma in the series, even more so than that of the rest of Paradigm City ^[5]. It is known that he used to be a member of the Military Police, but resigned due to conflicts with the corrupted government of Paradigm City.

He met Norman while entering a mysterious abandoned bank. Norman welcomed Roger although this perplexed him because the two had never met before. Norman claims though, that although he can't remember why exactly, he knows that it was his job to wait for the Dominus of a massive black Megadeus, which he called "Big O". Although Roger at first has reservations over such a bizarre occurrence, he eventually makes his home and business in the bank and pilots the Big O for no other reason other than the gut feeling that he's supposed to. ^[6]

The second season offers an enormous amount of mysteries concerning Roger Smith. The three most especially ominous details is the sight of a factory "mass producing" Roger Smith-like robots, the sight of Roger in a World War II-like pilot's uniform dead in Big O ^[7]; and finally most ambiguous of all is a picture of Roger Smith shaking hands with a young Gordon Rosewater. Gordon is the founder of Paradigm City, and its construction can clearly be seen behind the two. The mystery is that the picture was taken 60 or more years ago, yet Roger doesn't look a day older and has no memory of this whatsoever.

Several times Gordon Rosewater implies to Roger that he is an artificial clone of a human being, while at other times (such as the Roger-robot factory scene) it seems that he might be a robot. At other times, the question is raised that perhaps everyone in Paradigm City is a clone or a robot. Rosewater revealed this to Roger using the allegory of genetically-engineered artificial tomato crops he was growing on his farm, telling Roger that if the artificial tomatoes were grown in the ground for several generations like the others, it would make the tomatoes real as well. ^[8] The meeting leaves Roger shaken with the possibility that he is a "tomato".

However, at other times Roger is presented with evidence that Rosewater may be lying. Gordon himself tells Roger near the end of the series that he is not one of his "beloved tomatoes", ^[9] or other times he is given solid evidence that he is a real person.

The nature of these mysteries, however, may never be resolved since the show was cancelled. ^[10]

[edit] References

^ Adult Swim. Cartoon Network. Retrieved on 2006-09-04.
^ Summary of The Big O. DVDVisionJapan. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
^ Character Profile: Roger Smith. Absolute Anime. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
^ Roger Smith. AnimeNfo.com. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
^ Roger Smith section of the Big O review. x111. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
^ Norman Burg character profile. Absoluteanime. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
^ Roger the Wanderer Recap. TV.com. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
^ Stripes Recap. TV.com. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
^ The Show Must Go On Recap. TV.com. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.
^ Big O Not to return to Toonami for now. Anime News Network. Retrieved on September 4, 2006.