coldspaghetti

Ergo Proxy. A cult classic in anime for it's crazy good plot, unusual premise, and it's well developed characters exploring themselves and the source of humanity through a dingy dystopic world. Ergo Proxy captures your attention with it's bleak atmosphere, chilling philosphical themes, dismal yet stimulating pyschological motifs, and stunning visual metahpors that all lead you to it's excellent storyline. Expanding on the classic trope in science fiction where the world is in turmoil from climate change causing the advancement of technology (including robots) for the preservation of human kind, Ergo Proxy turns that cliche trope into something worthwhile. We are introduced to our two main characters; Re-L Mayer and Vincent Law. With an abrasively cold exteriror, pierching honesty, assertion, and confidence Re-L comes in as our strong determined female lead. She is the daughter of the Regent of Romdo landing a higher up job as a Citizen Intelligence Bureau Inspector. As if fate lead her here this job causes her to stumble upon the case of Proxy by accident since she had a fateful encounter with one of them almost attacking her. A direct contrast to Re-L by default Vincent Law is a sheepish, apprehensive, and diffident man with a case of amnesia working at the AutoReiv Elimination Unit who wants to escape his status as an immigrant. To do this he has to be a slave to the upper class essentially putting on a facade of kiss ass while maintaining good relationships with Auto Reivs and humans. Unfortunately to hush the existence of Proxy Vincent is set up because of his strange relationship with this “god” causing him to be run out of Romdo and back to Earth. Following him is Pino, a child like companion Auto Reiv who is infected with the cogito virus causing her to gain self awareness and a soul while she acommpanies Vincent in his plummet to Earth. Literally. Re-L being caught up in this by finding a necklace at the site of her fateful proxy encounter that resembles one that hung around Vincent's neck, Re-L decides to follow his descent into no return. From here on we witness the group travel to the forgotten world of Mosk to relive Vincent's amnesia and solve the case of the mysterious necklaces. This journey allowed a lot of character development to happen and for us as viewers to understand the history and background of the world they live in. While Ergo Proxy is a slow burn in it's exposition and character development with confusing background details it's thematic elements, satisfying development of characters, and hidden meanings make up for it. It has incredible depth that you can bask in throughout the show. This anime gave us multiple times where topics like existentialism, morality, absolute truths, finding oneself, and coming to grips with who you are are prominently spread out between episodes. One topic towering above all being absolute truths, "I think therefore I am" cogito ergo sum. Sound familiar? Ergo proxy takes famous Philospher Descartes' ground breaking truth and runs with it. This statement very evident in this show's storyline, being scattered throughout the show little by little. I don't want to give out where this is specifically present because of the spoiling of cool easter eggs and correlation to it's plot, it's way more fun finding them on your own. Even though these topics hold great weight in this anime the character metamorphosis triumphs as one of the best aspects to Ergo proxy. It allowed us to see Vincent become brave and ready for the destruction that awaits him when he recovers his past. His character development being strikingly visible from the change of his character design from a man with a weak smle and closed eyes to a man with a serious face and now opened eyes to take on whatever is ahead of him. On the other hand it allows us to see Re-L become more vulnerable and soft for the audience to recognize that she isn't just some stone cold truth seeker; she has emotions and attachments that impact her. It also allows us to see the transformation of Pino the Auto Reiv (robot) to adapt her own personality, emotions, creativity, and acknowledge her own existence. We see this change into her becoming more human and being able to experience emotions and like Re-L we see her attachments impact her but through a innocent and childlike lenses. All of these characters steal the spotlight for being crafted phenomally, even the supporting cast is amazing. We get to know their attachments, motives, and emotions next to our main cast and how they eventually intertwine. Ergo proxy is unique in itself and is a messy work of art that is free for theories by its viewer towards the end of the show. The information about the fictional world they live in is released slowly throughout the show, peaking the reader’s interest each episode. Even though it takes a couple rewinds or rewatches to fully get and understand the show it still pulls through in my opinion. I actually like that I have to do that. It encourages me to intricately look at the show rather than just watch it mindlessly with no attention to detail. Overall the characters, the plot, the premise, and themes were well executed amazingly with attention to detail and flawless captivation of my attention. Ergo Proxy is a rare find that captured me and was seriously stimulating, I extremely recommend.