Ergo Proxy
| Ergo Proxy | |
|---|---|
 Re-l | |
| Original Manga | (none) |
| Director/Artist | Shukou Murase |
| Format | Anime (TV) |
| Made By | Manglobe |
| Episode Length | 22 minutes |
| # of Eps/Volumes | 23 |
Contents
Genre
Sci-Fi, Drama, Mystery, Psychological
Sum it up in a Sentence:
A strange creature is spotted in Romdeau (one of those sci-fi city-enclosed-in-a-dome things), and various androids in the city go crazy and kill some people.
Main Description
Re-L Meyer and her android partner Iggy are part of Romdeau's super-awesome security force. One day, when checking on a mechanic and soon-to-be-legal immigrant named Vincent, shit hits the fan as Re-L finds herself dealing with strange monsters called Proxies and Cogito-infected androids (Auto Reivs) attacking her. When Vincent jumps out of the city with a somewhat sentient robot girl named Pino, Re-L ends up going after him, and the three find themselves on a journey to discover the truth behind Proxies, the world, and various other things.
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Personal Opinions
Dan a man
I've only watched the first two DVDs of this show, so I might update this if I ever get around to renting the rest of the show, but I can't fully recommend this series. It seems to have a lot of promise when it starts. You've got a city contained within a dome that's run by a mysterious conspiring government; there's a couple of mysterious creatures that pop up from time to time and cause trouble; there are androids that start going crazy; and you've got Re-l trying to figure the whole mess out. However, after the first several episodes, the events that occur don't really seem that exciting. Not to mention that many of the episodes end up focusing on a man named Vincent who ends up leaving the dome city, and as of the episodes I've seen, his side story is somewhat boring.
araeris
Heavy on philosophy, easy on natural sunlight. Starts off slow, but picks up steam as it goes along. It gets off into the weeds a bit on philosophical introspection, but there is sufficient action in most episodes to keep things rumbling along. It does have some strange episodes that explore the characters and provide comic relief from the barren dystopia. Things happen quickly at the end, but there is some form of resolution, however sudden and confusing it may be, that doesn't involve a main character sitting in a folding chair. The DVD releases are quality Geneon, although not quite as sharp as the native broadcasts. Recommended for people that like the dark, dystopian genre.
Lets Fuck Bro
Ergo Proxy has one of the most inconsistent narratives I've seen. For nearly the whole show it watches like a detective mystery / scifi thriller. It's really great stuff for that part, a lot of the show reminded of Blade Runner. Interspersed throughout these are some pretty weird filler episodes that don't really fit what's been going on before or after but they aren't really to the show's detriment since they're generally interesting. There are a ton of obscure academic references to pick up on, everything from the scientific to the literary to the historical to the mythological, and it's fun to point them out. Unfortunately the last couple episodes devolve into meaningless drivel, typical dense anime psychobabble, if you think the last episode of Evangelion you have the right idea. I can see that there's a good story there, and the writers are trying to tell it, but it's like they wrote 20 episodes of filler with little hints of the greater story strewn throughout and then realized "Oh shit, we were supposed to answer all those questions we created... well whatever let's just cram half the plot into the last ten minutes of the last episode." This has the effect of making the plot-related content somewhat boring, since by the end we've more or less forgotten to care about the main story. Ergo Proxy is an awesome journey - I can't overstate how satisfied I am with the first part of the show - with a terrible ending. If you like your shows to resolve all their plot threads by the end don't watch this, but other than that I enjoyed it.
The show wins extra style points for great art direction and animation (Real's character design in particular is very striking) and well-chosen music (the ED is Paranoid Android by Radiohead, among other good music).
WMain00
Should have been far better, but in the ends get bogged down by weak philosophy babble and absolutely weird episodes that never fully convey just what the hell is going on. Funnily enough if you were a fan of Evangelions psychological moments, you'll probably absolutely love this. Episodes can range from a dobbelganger trying to kill and take over the lives of Vincent and Re-L, to an episode set in a fort constantly at war with mysterious creatures, to Vincent becoming trapped in Re-L's mind. It's all good stuff if you enjoy this sort of madness, but if you attempt to find a reason why all this is happening you'll be pretty disappointed. The ending is a rushed experience that resolves just enough, but still left me feeling pretty confused. It's not helped either that the art can be pretty uninteresting at times; Vincent and Re-L travelling through shades of grey and brown. It tries to offset this by keeping the camera close on the awkward feelings both mentally and sexually Vincent and Re-L are feeling. It does this reasonably well, but by the end of the show I didn't really care for any of the characters.
The music was good though.
