Megadeus

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"Megadeus" (メガデウス, Megadeusu^?) is the name given to the giant robots of The Big O anime series. Forty years prior to the events of the series, the world was turned into a vast desert wasteland and the survivors were left without memories. The megadeuses are portrayed as remnants of the previous civilization, a lost technology few citizens of Paradigm know how to control.^[1] The word is a blend of the Greek Megas, meaning "Great", and the Latin deus, meaning "god".

The robots were designed by series creator Keiichi Sato, who also designed the Mazinger mechas featured on the Mazinkaiser OVA and the mutant creatures of The SoulTaker TV series.^[2]

The Megadeuses are portrayed as semi-sentient beings, capable of acting on their own.^[3] The designs are strange and "more macho than practical."^[4] Unlike the giants of other robot anime, the megadeuses do not exhibit ninja-like speed nor grace or possess voice-activated special attacks; but for what they lack in agility, they more than make-up in power. The robots come armed with old-school weaponry like missiles, piston powered punches, machine guns, and laser cannons.^[5][6]

The nature of the megadeuses is tied to the event forty years prior.^[7] In the final episode of the first season, Roger Smith has a flashback in the form of a nightmare: an army of megadeuses burn down the city as a group of bald-headed children look on. In the second season premiere, he experiences a lucid dream of a town without domes, where its citizens have not forgotten who they are and megadeuses are nowhere to be found. In the final episode, he gets another burst of memories: the city stands in ruins and the megadeuses fight amongst themselves while a winged giant oversees the onslaught.

In the tradition of Japanese monster movies,^[8] The Big O features monsters modeled after conventional or mythological creatures. The series follows the "villain of the week" formula, meaning the protagonist is hired to do a job and by episode's end he must battle a monster using a giant robot of his own. Given the series' style, for some critics the robot battles seem out of place,^[9][10] while others praise the "over-the-top-ness" of their execution.^[11][12] The wildly varied nature of the robots stems from the fact the creators intended to create a toy line based on their design.^[13]

Contents 1 First season 1.1 Dorothy-1 1.2 Eel 1.3 Archetype 1.4 Osrail 1.5 Constanze 1.6 Dagon 1.7 Chimera 1.8 Beck Victory Deluxe 1.9 Eumenides 1.10 Daemonseed 1.11 Big Duo 2 Second season 2.1 Foreign Megadeuses 2.2 Glinda 2.3 Leviathan 2.4 Beck the Great RX3 2.5 Construction Robot 2.6 Bonaparte 2.7 Hydra 2.8 Big Fau 2.9 Behemoth 2.10 Big Venus 3 Manga series 3.1 Charybdis 3.2 Don Juan 3.3 Dantalion 3.4 Vodyanoy 3.5 Gigadeus 4 References

[edit] First season

[edit] Dorothy-1

Dorothy-1 is the first giant robot that Big O does battle with in Act:01 and Act:02. It was built by the same creator of the android R. Dorothy Wayneright, Soldano. R. Dorothy and Dorothy-1 are considered sisters to Soldano, who soon dies after warning Roger about Beck's hijacking of the Dorothy units. Dorothy-1 is initially used by Beck to rob a bank of its mint plates, but is quickly destroyed by The Big O. R. Dorothy and Dorothy-1 are apparently intertwined technologically, as Beck proves capable of resurrecting Dorothy-1 by implanting R. Dorothy into the control unit of her sister unit. Throughout the episode, R. Dorothy displays a subtle synchronization with Dorothy-1 in the form of mimicking movement and sound.

Dorothy-1 is equipped with a pair of claws on each arm from which long metallic tentacles and power drills extend. These tools suggest that Dorothy-1 was built as a fairly benign robot: it excels at robbing banks, but can barely hold its own in combat. The Dorothy units, while seemingly trivial in the scope of the series, are some of the few objects constructed according to memories prior to The Event; the existence of such memories strongly implies that the Megadeuses and other large robots were produced en masse using contemporary Paradigm City technology. The interactions between R. Dorothy and Dorothy-1 also help to illustrate the nature of Megadeus-Android relationships and suggest an even closer technological bond between Megadeus-type units and Androids, especially R. Dorothy. Beck's intricate knowledge of this relationship implies extensive previous experience with Megadeuses prior to The Event on his part. Dorothy 1 bears a resemblance to one of Ultraman's monsters, Baltan.

[edit] Eel

A monster located near Electric City, the product of genetic research by a resident scientist. The Eel, believed to be a deity of the lake, fed on electrical energy and was in a slumber under the lake until Angel reactivated the dam's turbine systems and reawakened the creature. The "Water God" could fire an electric shock from its mouth. It was blasted to bits by Big O's Chromebuster. The monster's remains were eventually gathered by the Paradigm Science group for a big project.

[edit] Archetype

The Archetype is introduced in the Act:04, "Underground Terror", buried amidst the ruins of a technological expo beneath Paradigm. The unmanned robot lacks the armor and faceplate worn by other megadeuses and appears to be in complete ruin. Upon contact with the android Dorothy Wayneright, the Archetype is revealed to be functional and aggressively seeks to either capture or crush both Dorothy Wayneright and Roger Smith.

The Archetype makes a brief appearance in Roger's dream in Act:14, as a character in a comic strip. In Act:17, it is revealed the Paradigm Corporation salvaged the megadeus as part of their effort to reconstruct the Big Duo Inferno.

[edit] Osrail

Osrail, who makes its appearance in Act:05, is a mysterious megadeus hidden beneath the sea, which activated to rescue a fallen police officer. It was capable of generating a fog and holographic ghost, and its primary weapons were large balls of fire. It was defeated when Big O's radar revealed its true location to Roger and he used the Chromebuster to destroy it.

[edit] Constanze

Featured in Act:06. Constanze is piloted by the android R. Instro, after realizing that his late father's supposed legacy was a weapon made to destroy the city. Constanze produces sound waves capable of cracking Big O's armor and acting as a shield. It was defeated with the help of Dorothy's piano playing, which distracted Instro long enough for Roger to destroy its arms with missiles.

[edit] Dagon

The megadeus featured in Act:07, The Call from The Past, is named after Dagon, the sea deity of H. P. Lovecraft's short story of the same name. In the episode, the local fishermen stopped fishing out of fear of it. Without a pilot to control it, the titan goes on a rampage above water before it is defeated by Roger and the Big O.^[14][15]

Dagon's servants are the "frog-men" who scared the fishermen into not going out to sea. They are actually a Paradigm investigation team wearing scuba-gear, hired to search for Memories in the South Sea. Their design is inspired by the Deep Ones, the frog-men worshippers of Dagon in Lovecraft's The Shadow Over Innsmouth novella.^[16][17]

[edit] Chimera

Featured the Act:08, "Missing Cat". It is revealed that in Paradigm City, a cat or dog is worth a lot of money, since most animals were wiped out during or shortly after the event that occurred forty years ago. A man named Eugene had been conducting experiments to bring back these types of animals using genetic research, funded by Paradigm until he back-stabbed them and started to created mutated versions. One of his creations was Pierrot, a cat created from the tissue of a boy named Roy Ferry. Pierrot found itself in possession of R. Dorothy until Eugene kidnapped her to retrieve him. When Roger arrived at Eugene's lair, he encountered a large cat-like beast with tendrils on its back and a chest-mouth - a mutated Pierrot - but its memories of R. Dorothy allowed it to kill its creator before entering the burning laboratory to die.

[edit] Beck Victory Deluxe

Featured in Act:09, the Beck Victory Deluxe is designed and assembled by Jason Beck. Its inferiority to the Big O is highlighted when it attempts to rise from underground, similar to the Big O, but gets stuck halfway.

[edit] Eumenides

The robot featured in Act:10 is named after the creatures of Greek mythology, the Eumenides. It is a large-scale model of the toy-robot bombs used throughout the episode.^[18][19] Eumenides is the first megadeus of foreign origin to attack Paradigm City. It is controlled by "Phantom" (ファントム, Fantomu^?), the woman who carries out the bombings.

[edit] Daemonseed

Featured in Act:11, on Heaven's Day Eve, the seed grew into a massive Christmas tree that threatened to destroy the domes but Roger and Big O fought it off until it stopped growing.

[edit] Big Duo

Big Duo is the second Big found in the series, piloted first by Schwarzwald. Schwarzwald planned to use the megadues to destroy Paradigm, using its flight capability to attack the domes, or "false skies" as he calls them.

It was found by the former reporter in a hangar to the south of Paradigm City, as revealed in a flashback in ACT:17. Roger is able to defeat Big Duo by grounding it and crushing its head. However, Big Duo still moves without a head or a pilot, and as a final act it reaches towards Paradigm City's center, suggesting a link with the Domes or another potential pilot in the area; R. Dorothy investigated the nearby area and found traces of Angel's presence. Big Duo is the only megadeus possessing the ability of flight, with the possible exception of Big Venus.

Alex Rosewater salvages the wreckage of Big Duo, seen in ACT:13. Using the salvaged remains of the Archetype, Rosewater is able to modify Big Duo into Big Duo Inferno, now with its face and differen hands with sharp red and white claws that enable it to drill. Rosewater gives the megadeus to cyborg Alan Gabriel as payment for his services, with the cyborg hard-wired directly to the controls. Alan uses the Big Duo Inferno on Roger, who realized the MegaDeus is different when commenting "However, that isn't the Megadeus's original form"^[20]. Alan almost managed to kill Roger, Big Duo Inferno suddently attacks Alan with wires after displaying the message "Ye Guilty", implying Alan was not worthy to pilot the Megadues as he was seemingly killed by Big Duo's wiring before being efected out. Schwarzwald's image appeared and his thoughts were heard by Alan as Big Duo rejected the mummied cyborg. Big Duo Inferno finally explodes when it collides with what appears to be a gigantic stage light, miles above Paradigm City.

[edit] Second season

[edit] Foreign Megadeuses

Introduced at the end of Act:13, the foreign megadeuses come from beyond the sea of Paradigm to attack the city. One possesses a sound attack similar to that of Constanze, and another bears drills upon its arms. They are revealed to be vessels designed to deliver the components of Big Fau to Alex Rosewater. The discarded parts are reassembled to form Bonaparte.

[edit] Glinda

Featured in Act:15, Glinda is a feminine robot constructed by Dr. Wayneright at his private estate as a security measure. Activated only once during an investigation of Wayneright's manor laboratory, it was easily destroyed by The Big O. Its extremely sharp sword is the only weapon in the series capable of penetrating The Big O's arm shields. It was quite agile, however, able to jump extremely well for a megadeus. Its fingers were also made into claws, and could be used for a stabbing attack similar to punches, although this doesn't even faze Big O. It possessed a green laser that overheated metal, causing a whole line of tanks to explode.

Like Dorothy, Glinda shares its name with a character from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a work Chiaki Konaka occasionally references in his scripts.^[21]

[edit] Leviathan

Featured in Act:17, and most likely activated by Schwarzwald, the Leviathan's four claws can be energized and turn anything that it touches into sand. It was defeated when Big O turned its own energized claws against itself.

The megadeus is named after the biblical sea monster Leviathan, and thus a counterpart to the Behemoth.

[edit] Beck the Great RX3

Beck the Great RX3 (ベック・ザ・グレートRX3, Bekku za Gurēto Āru-Ekkusu-Surī^?) is featured in Act:18, "The Greatest Villain."^[22] Commissioned by Beck, with the purpose of finally humiliating Roger and Big O, and constructed by Yoshifura-Yakamoto Industries, in a ploy for lucrative contracts with the Paradigm Corporation.

The megadeus is an pastiche of mechas from "Super Sentai" and "Super Robot" series. Piloted by Beck and his two henchmen, three vehicles combine into the giant robot. The combination (合体, gattai^?) sequence is started by the command "Final Together" (ファイナル・トゥゲザー, Finaru Tugezā^?).^[23] The image then fades to black, as if cutting to stock footage. T-bone's trailer transforms into RX3's lower body. In a move reminiscent of Gekisou Sentai Carranger's RV Robo, the blue vehicle's performs a bootleg turn to form the legs and waist. Dove's construction vehicle makes up the upper body, pulling itself up onto the blue lower half. The torso sprouts hands from a drill and a pincer, as do Getter Robo's Getter-2 form. Beck's sports car jumps off a nearby ramp and dives into a recess in the head to form the cockpit, in an homage to Mazinger Z, completing the sequence. After this display of bravado, Roger and Big O destroyed it in a single blast of O Thunder.

[edit] Construction Robot

Featured in Act:19. A robot taken over by the Union for use in obtaining memories from advanced androids such as R. Dorothy. It is destroyed by Big O with a single punch.

[edit] Bonaparte

Built from the remains of the three foreign megadeuses after Big Fau's parts were extracted from them. It began its rampage through the main dome in Act:20, while Big O attempted to stop it, only for Roger to abandon The Big O to save Dorothy. It was destroyed by Alex Rosewater and Big Fau.

[edit] Hydra

The Hydra is an advanced triple-headed version of the Eel from Act:03. When the Eel's remains were recovered by the Paradigm Science Group, they used their genetic know-how to create a mutated albino clone. The Hydra was used by Paradigm's systems until Vera detonated the creature's holding cell, letting it loose on the city. The research team's original intention was to use the Hydra's bio-electricity to reactivate Big Fau, which they achieved by extending a lightening rod and syphoning off the Hydra's electricity, allowing Roger Smith and Big O the opportunity to kill it.

[edit] Big Fau

First appearing in Roger's memories of "The Event" in Act 13, and first seen in action during Act 21, aptly titled "The Third Big", Big Fau is the third and final "Big" found in the series which had a certain importance and was piloted by Alex Rosewater. Considered by the Union and Alex to be the most powerful "Big". The parts for Big Fau were transported within the three foreign megadeuses that fought Big O offshore of Paradigm City at the end of the first season and the beginning of the second season. After the foreign megadeuses were disabled (but not destroyed), they were recovered by the Paradigm science team and Big Fau's parts were salvaged and re-assembled secretly under the supervision of Alex, but lacked a memory core. Despite missing this vital component, Big Fau was activated and piloted by Alex Rosewater. Judging by Big Fau's streamlined appearance, its ability to travel effortlessly through the water, its conning tower shaped head, and the flexible periscope-like laser cannons on its back, it is likely that the Big Fau units were used primarily for naval combat, functioning as heavily armed amphibious craft, and providing ocean-based combat support for land- and air-based megadeuses.

During its maiden battle against the Union Megadeus Bonaparte, Alex could completely control the Big, allowing him to tear Bonaparte to pieces before finally destroying it with Fau's dorsal beams. Once Bonaparte was vanquished, however, Big Fau's dorsal beams disobeyed Alex's orders and began to assault the domes. In response to Alex's claim that he was Big Fau's dominus, Big Fau displayed the message "Cast in the Name of God... Ye Not" before shutting down. Later, Big Fau was jerry-rigged into working by Jason Beck using R. Dorothy's Memory Core, finally completing Fau and allowing it to declare Rosewater "Not Guilty." The Big Fau is the only Megadeus in the series to defeat the Big O after a challenge from Roger Smith. Fau is also the only known Megadeus to fuse with its pilot, Rosewater, via a series of cables plugged into the pilot's back, although Big O attempted to do the same with Roger. Big Fau was eventually disabled by Big O's Final Stage at the end of the Act 26 and removed by Big Venus. Big Fau may be a reference to Frankenstein's Monster because of its long head and bolt-like ears, as well as the nature of its reconstruction.

[edit] Behemoth

The Behemoth, named after the creature mentioned in the Book of Job, appears at the end of Act:25. It is many times larger than the other megadeuses, and bears large drills on its shoulders and a quadruped design. The Behemoth is activated by Vera Ronstadt, the leader of the Union, and is only seen for a brief time. As Big O lifts it into the air it is crushed under the weight of debris falling from above the city.

[edit] Big Venus

Big Venus appears briefly in the series finale after Angel realizes her role in Paradigm City and transforms into the megadeus. Venus' design is almost identical to Big O, with the exception of a redesigned, albeit similar, face and a pair of wings it is shown to have in a flashback to the Event. When it appears in the present day, its colours are negatives of Big O.

The name "Venus" alludes to the "morning star" and the fallen angel of Christian mythology, Lucifer.^[24][25]

[edit] Manga series

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (November 2007)

[edit] Charybdis

Charybdis looks like a ghost ship.

[edit] Don Juan

[edit] Dantalion

Dantalion hibernated underground until unearthed by a scientist looking for memories.

[edit] Vodyanoy

[edit] Gigadeus

Beck piloted this three-legged, three-headed monster.

[edit] References

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