I have an utterly unapologetic love for The Big O. Without a doubt my favourite mecha anime. It's got style, got weirdness, a lot of humour (dry or overt) and I just find it a really amusing, surreal slice of entertainment.
Yes, he's one quarter Phil Marlowe, one quarter young inspector Morse, one quarter discount James Bond, one quarter Bruce Wayne. Yes, his companion sleuth is basically a robot Batgirl. He even has a faithful butler and an older pal on the force. And once all else fails and the city needs defending, he blows sh*t up in a towering mecha of mysterious origins. Some of the music is jazz, some inspired by Queen. This should not work at all. And it does, at least for me. I love it. ?
The series is completely nuts at times, but I love it exactly for that reason. It only takes itself as seriously as it needs to, and the homages to older mecha combat anime are very blatant, but actually fit the retro-esthetics of the series world.
They even have a good Christmas-themed episode, which wasn't as snide a take as I expected. Given the season, it's interesting to see an anime that actually adds some heartwarming stuff via the guest characters of that episode.
About the only thing I don't like about the series is the blonde femme fatale thief/spy. She's booooring. Unforgivable in a series with an android lady that never smiles, but is still a lot more amusing and lovable.