The reference to the ‘one truth’ in the anime is a dead give away. Western thought is constructed upon linear thinking. Eastern Thought is based upon circular thinking. In the the east they know that everything is circular having no end and no beginning. This anime reminds me a lot of Gasaraki. It leads the viewer into a narrow corridor and the viewer’s anticipation is due to the effect Western thinking has on the brain believing that ‘we are going to get somewhere.’ A concept touched upon by one of the greatest philosophical minds of the 20th Century Alan Watts. “You are all there was and ever will be.”

If you are upset with the ending it is because you are stuck in a narrow corridor looking for the ending. Everything is a play on words. The matrix literally translates to the word for great mother in the Navajo language. The Native Americans understood this too. People cannot be ‘con’trolled if they know the ‘one truth’ that we are all energy and that energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

Just a little food for thought here as well. The English language is the language of free radicals, so next time you are bored in this thing we call eternity just look for every word that has a ‘con’ in front of it. It will tell what beliefs, ideas, ‘con’structs are false beliefs, etc. I.E. ‘con’stitution, ‘con’sciousness, ‘con’trol—there are no such things in the universival mind (eastern thought or thought of the whole being which is vague) only in the ego of men (western thought or thought of the individual which is very specific but narrow) do such things exist! To understand anime you have to understand yin and yang concepts.

The Ying Yang symbol, like much of Taoism, can be difficult to comprehend for westerners, because western philosophy has its base in platonic duality. In our dualistic system, there is good and evil, right and wrong, left and right, heaven and hell, Jesus and Satan. ‘BIG O and BIG FAU’ So when discussing philosophy, westerners tend to break things down into either/or. Something is either good or evil. Moral or immoral.

Eastern philosophy as a whole is not dualistic. There is no supreme God, nor any ultimate evil. It is a much more organic viewpoint of the universe.

The Yin Yang does NOT represent good and evil. An easterner would tell you that too much darkness is blinding, but so is too much light. However, do not construe this as morally ambiguity, they do not associate light and dark with good and evil. In fact, in Eastern philosophy, the color white is the representation of evil, since white represents emptiness. But white is also the color of purity, which is consistent with the organic nature of eastern philosophy.

The light and dark of the yin yang represent the masculine and feminine. The light is the masculine, which represents reason, logic, intelligence, action, and cold heartedness. The dark is the feminine, which represents passions, emotions, wisdom, non-action, and rage. The Yin Yang represents the ideal harmony between the two, which is complete balance between one’s masculine light and feminine dark.

Taoism may have some folk shamanistic aspects to it, but philosophically Taoism is non-deistic. Without a God that issues moral proclaimations, actions become defined not according to adherence to a canon, but according to circumstance. In Taoist religion, demons are not necessarily evil, they represent playful abandon, which in human action can either be cruelty or joviality. As opposed to Christian dualism, Taoism has much more in common with Aristotilean ethics, which preaches that there is no set in stone laws of ethics, only the ends which the action undertakes to achieve, and the means which one uses to achieve the ends.

Another important aspect of Taoism is action vs non-action. That does not necessarily mean ambitiousness vs laziness; a taoist would say that there are times when action needs to be taken, and there are times when non-action needs to be taken. A proverb in the Tao Te Ching states “The way to settle muddy water is to do nothing”. This also applies to politics, which early Taoist philosophers were heavily involved in. According to the Tao Te Ching: “A poor ruler is someone whose actions are despised by the people. A good ruler is someone whose actions are loved by the people. The best ruler is someone whose actions go unnoticed by the people”. So a taoist might say that Warren Harding’s racket would be an example of a bad leader, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal social programs would be an example of a good leader, and Calvin Coolidge’s refusal to sign new laws and his habit of spending hours of the day in inactivity would represent the best kind of leader. We love Franklin Roosevelt for his actions, but Calvin Coolidge was probably the better president because he did not choose to interfere with the people’s lives.

The concept of non-action as a means of improvement is a central concept to Taoist politics as well as taoist ethics. The wise man carefully weighs when it is time for action and when it is time for non-action, understanding that both action and non-action can lead to either improvement or disaster.

I hope I didn’t get too long-winded, but Eastern Philosophy is radically different than Western philosophy and there are a lot of important differences in mindsets that need to be discussed when talking about the yin yang.

And perhaps in keeping this all in mind you can see that the series BIG O was actually about “you” and your choice just like when Roger is sinking to the bottom and he realizes everything was his choice to begin with. It had nothing to do with the ‘con’structs of his world. This is the ultimate understanding of free will and living in the NOW–infinity. As long as you are guided by choice that adheres to you past or future, belief system, etc. You will always be trapped by the situation that seems ‘real’ The only thing that is real is “you” and “you” are infinite just like the universe around you. The stage in BIG O represents the limitations of your “mind” not the creators of this story. Great Posts to All!

at least i still have lost

The sentient robots are something that quite a few anime authors/artists tend to turn to. It makes it seem more human and more relatable to the viewer/reader.

Initially, the creators had another thirteen episodes in mind after Act 26, but it never got the green light. They were told intentionally by Cartoon Network, who funded the second season, to leave the finale ambiguous in hopes of it being picked up again, hense the confusing ending.

After nearly five years of the seeming break-up of Big O fan militants hoping to fight to bring up a third season, it seems hopeless now. Is there anyone out there that are willing to help save it?

(meh. my original comments all got wiped the first time, lol. i hate it when that happens.)

My memory is hazy, but I remember watching Big-O during the first run and the rough impression that I got was that the megadeuses represented paradigms — philosophies, political movements, religions, belief structures, etc. All paradigms and constructs such as music, literature, organizations, cultures, etc. retain a trace of the “memories,” life experiences, and beliefs of their creators / founders / members.

For example, Shakespeare lives on through his works, as does Jesus, or Hitler, or Gandhi, etc. Each paradigm / construct has a distinctly unique “flavor” / personality / “will” of its own.

To pilot / lead / control a megadeus requires a resonance / empathy between one’s own memories / ideas and the subliminal, collective will of the paradigm that they seek to command (synchronization?). Not everyone is worthy to be a champion for their cause and may be rejected. However, I suppose it is also possible to wrest control by force to some degree and override the Will of the institution, movement, etc. or to cobble one together from different movements.

Along this line of thinking, all things in Creation (including individuals) contain some residual trace of “memories” since the beginning of Time. The Will of the “Creator” and the primordial Chaos continue to drive and permeate thoughout reality — perhaps like a wound spring driving a watch.

I haven’t watched the show in a while, but I believe that in the final episode, Angel was given a choice between the two fundamental, opposing paradigms in the universe — absolute affirmation and absolute negation. Or maybe not. Heh.

Anyway, I never really tried piecing all of the details together. This was more of a “gut feel” kind of thing. There’s so much more that I probably missed, like the whole “free will” thing and the nature of Time, lol. Still, I remember it was fun watching each episode and then logging into the forums to chat about it. Man, great memories! :D

(Sorry about the long comment. Then again, given the complexity of the themes, it’s very hard to keep things short.)