The Big O
Episode 11: “Daemonseed”
The streets are filled with shoppers as “Heaven’s Day” quickly approaches. Dorothy shops for a gift, while Roger expresses his usual disdain. The pair crosses paths with a street musician, a saxaphonist, whose later encounter with a creepy Santa look-a-like who intends to bring Paradigm City down, will give Roger an occasion to call upon Big O.
In the city of lost memories, it’s no surprise that the Christmas celebration isn’t exactly what one would expect. Taking place on the same date, but now called “Heaven’s Day,” Christmas has become a celebration of Paradigm City’s founding. Shoppers still shop; carolers still sing; showowners still decorate Christmas trees; but the meaning of the holiday is lost – that is, to all but Alex Rosewater. He reveals near the end of the episode that “Heaven’s Day” is really a commemoration of the day in which “God’s Son was born.” Strangely enough, in this mystery, noirish show we have one of the few occasions that a Christmas episode of an anime series mentions Christ; another off-kilter example would be Ken Akamatsu’s fanservice-filled, My Santa.
Christmas is an unnecessary vehicle to further the plot of the show, but the mention of Jesus, the gift exchange between Dorothy and Roger for Christmas and the android’s supposed birthday, and the gigantic, consuming Christmas tree are nice touches, nonetheless. The couple of mentions of Christianity near the end of the episode also help to deepen the mystery around Rosewater, who goes on to play a major role in the second season. If nothing else, episode 11 gives viewers an idea of how awesome this series is. Oh, and Dorothy steals the episode, as usual.
Christmas Spirit Score
1 Santa Kero out of 4
If This Episode Was a Christmas Song, It Would Be…
That classic, “Paradigm City,” by Magadeuses and Roses, of course!
Take me down to Paradigm City
Where there’s geodesic domes and the gynoids are pretty
Take me home
No?
How about “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” which aptly tells the reason for the holiday, which none but Rosewater apparently know (and which has a tone that somehow fits into the feel of The Big O):
God rest ye merry gentleman,
Let nothing you dismay,
Remember, Christ, our Savior,
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan’s power
When we have gone astray
O tidings of comfort and joy
Tomorrow’s Forecast
Does it matter? Get ye to a a church to worship the LORD on Christmas Day…or at least a convent.
On the eleventh day of Christmas, anime gave to me …a gynoid giving gifts,
nostalgic Christmas parties,
Ami and Taiga singing,
love changing a boy into a man,
three homeless heroes,
a widow knitting scarves,
Rin’s charming grins,
Naru looking pretty,
knitting for a crush,
a Paper Sisters birthday,
and friends for a former emperor.
[…] the twelfth day of Christmas, anime gave to me … Azmaria’s first Christmas, a gynoid giving gifts, nostalgic Christmas parties, Ami and Taiga singing, love changing a boy into a man, three homeless […]
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