Moody and highly stylized, "The Big O" sets up with inventive charm what is dismantles with sophomoric pandering to a completely fictional demographic. Even kids can peer through the colossal gaps in this otherwise fanciful creation.

Stirring like a trapped fisherman under arctic ice, the narrative intensity thrashes about devoid of oxygen waiting for director Kazuyoshi Katayama's to rescue it from asphyxiation.

The high point of this promising offering from Sunrise, the design elements emblazon the screen rendered with all of the satirical charm of Gotham City.

David Lucas, Spike from "Cowboy Bebop," voices Roger Smith with the same swaggering inflection but ultimately pulls off the buffoonish elements of the character with finesse. ZRO Limit Productions, responsible for the aforementioned 'Bebop' dub, scores again, though with far less meaty material, something that doesn't affect their efforts in the slightest.

A text interview with the director and character designer reveals how "The Big O" series was actually the bastard child of an attempt to get Bandai to make a toy of Big O. But unedited as it is, and translated with optimum directness, it drones on with very little factual interest. The rest of the DVD navigates well.

Veiled sexuality and Smith's predatory instincts race up the banter. And some violence may scare younger children, as might some images of ghosts.

A classic antagonistic relationship between the government and Big O (a la Spiderman and, well, Batman) clearly casts the government in the role of narrow-minded clogs. However, considering that every time Big O appears it destroys a city block, all sympathy for the Maverick is reduced to, "you destroyed my home you metal lug."

The directionlessness of the piece derives some of its character from the same kind of sophistication that pre-teens messing around back stage at an opera might have.