Sorry folks, the rest of the GLORIO crew is still pretty busy these days so it’s up to me to bring you guys your weekly dosage of OP/ED Op-Eds: 90s Edition. This week’s feature is a bit of a borderline case, being a 1999-2000 show, but what the hell, I’m including it anyways. Prepare your eyes and ears for the gloriously bombastic OP “Big-O!” from the equally glorious show, The Big O!

Taking place in a dystopian future 40 years after a cataclysmic event that left humanity with collective amnesia and living in giant geodesic domes, Roger Smith is a negotiator, tasked with, well, negotiating things. In reality, he’s basically anime Batman with a giant robot. He even has a badass butler with an eyepatch and a cute redhead android girl! If that’s not awesome, nothing in this bleak universe of ours ever will.

The Big O takes a bunch of inspiration from a variety of sources, ranging from Western comic books, detective noir fiction, and most importantly the band Queen. After listening to Big O’s OP, you can’t tell me you hear anything but Queen’s wonderfully over-the-top song “Flash.” It’s an OP that doesn’t hide its influences and instead gladly shouts them at anyone willing to listen.

Accompanied by zany visuals (that conveniently hide the show’s somewhat limited budget), Big O’s OP is as striking as the show itself. It leaves an impression, both its visuals and its amazingly self-indulgent song proudly telling you that it’s nothing like your average anime OP.