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mahius

  • Joined Jun 10, 2014
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Ergo Proxy

Jan 25, 2015

"I think, therefore I am." Sounds like nonsense to you? Ergo Proxy is (in my opinion) a cyperpunk, post-apocalyptic seinen anime that reminded me a lot of the movie Aeon Flux. To put things simply, it is about the journey of self-discovery for the main characters involved and can be very confusing. It isn't explained perfectly well and some things are purposefully left out or made to be vague. The implementation is flawed, yet I enjoyed it immensely. My head hurts now that I've seen it. And I almost fell asleep whilst watching the last few episodes, similarly to my experience with Neon Genesis Evangelion. However, this anime somehow is able to be more complex and contrived than that classic. It may take a while to explain what this anime is, but in short its a psychological experience with a plot about uncovering the truth in a post apocalyptic setting. It's been months since my last review, but this anime is so interesting, I just had to write about it.

Animation

The animation of Ergo Proxy is astonishing for the time it was made in. Both quality and style stand out. And what a unique style. It made me reminisce about western animations and old 80s/90s cyperpunk movies. It even had a section to parody Disney and Disneyland. The designs of the characters suit the grim, aged future setting. Nothing too crazy or obviously anime, besides a handful of things. The dark colours and visual themes may put some people off, which is understandable. Among the few things I didn't like was the initial character design of Vincent, which I'll get on to later. Otherwise well done for the large production values that went into making this a good looking anime.

Sound

The soundtrack to this anime was great. They had great bands like Monoral and Radiohead providing great western-style music for the intro and outro. Granted, it wasn't so amazing that it made me want to download the soundtrack, but that's just my personal taste. The background music played at appropriate times and really added to the scenes. I could ramble on about the high quality music, but I must talk about the other reason for high production values, the voice acting. This anime is available in multiple languages. As well as the original Japanese, I also found there to be English, French and Spanish audio. They went all out on this, as is evident by the high quality of the dub. And that included the voice actors. Pino's english VA Rachel Hirschfield also did the voice of Anita King, a child character from Read Or Die, which is another great anime. The main character Vincent's VA, Liam O'Brien also did Archer and Matou from the Fate series and Ray from GunXSword. So many other big names in the dub business including Yuri Lorenthal as Daedalus, Doug Stone as several characters, Troy Baker, Patrick Seitz as Raul Creed, Michael McConnohie as several ads too.

Characters

The main character of this story is Vincent Law, an immigrant amnesiac man from the Masque dome who seems to be followed by the mysterious beings known as proxies. At the start he is an autorave mechanic. My only complaint about this character is the inconsistent look, especially at the start. I understand the neat combed hair was to fit in as a honourary citizen, but he has the closed anime eyes (like Brock from Pokemon) for a good few initial episodes. It gets better, but perhaps the change in appearance is supposed to say something about this character. How he is restricted within the confines of the dome and he gains freedom outside of it. Psychologically, this character goes through the most, being the main protagonist and all. He yearns to try and recover his memories and to learn who he is. Learn from this guy. There's an episode towards the middle where one can see he is truly at peace with himself, despite any issues. Of course, there is a lot more to this character that can only be revealed by watching this anime.

The secondmost important character is Riel (apparently spelt Re-L, but I cba) Mayer. A woman who is employed by the intelligence bureau in Rondo (again, apparently spelt Romdeau). Whilst investigating the outbreak of the Cogito virus, Riel is seemingly attacked in her home by the mysterious proxies. She becomes curious and joins Vincent in an attempt to find out what these proxies are. Another unique character, curious and somewhat impulsive in her actions, yet also keeping her distance from the other characters. As alone as she seems, she isn't completely unsociable and is very much human in her behaviour and personality. Having grown up as the granddaughter of the Regent, she is amonst the most priviledged, with her own personal autorave catering to her every whim. This does have it's effects later on of course. Speaking of which...

Iggy is Riel's autorave companion. The autoraves are humanoid AIs built to assist humans in their daily life. Iggy's one purpose is to protect Riel, often argueing against his master for her own good, resulting in Riel disabling his ability to converse and therefore preventing further complaints. Iggy is probably the closest thing to family Riel has.

A more important autorave than Iggy however, is Pino. Pino is a very humanlike child autorave, designed to be a substitute for a child, which citizens of Rondo would require permission to have. Her parents are Raul Creed and his wife, who, when they are allowed a human child, essentially discard Pino and she becomes unwanted. Early on, she gets infected with the Cogito virus which gives her a soul. As such, she behaves a lot like child, though occasionally the autorave shows as she copies other people and she has certain enhanced abilities like scouting distance. A very innocent and pleasant character, she is often seen playing with musical instruments and producing drawings, much like a real human child, proving the presence of the soul she shouldn't have. Along with Vincent, she is seen enjoying a carefree life, learning about things in the world and what it is to be a real child. No doubt the name Pino is a nod to the story of Pinocchio, a parallel story.

The other two interesting characters are Raul Creed, who wishes to also find out about the Proxies and Daedalus Yumeno, who has an obsession with Riel and also knows a lot about proxies. Coincidence?

Story

The story is complicated and difficult to explain well (at least I struggle with it), but it does have enough coherence to be worthwhile. Without spoiling too much, the main characters go on a journey of discovery to the Masque dome to find out the shrouded history of Vincent, the proxies and even the truth behind the human race. The post apocalyptic setting has a unique and restricted society, where humans are grown artificially and must fulfill their role as a good citizen of the dome. To abandon the dome means death. As such, the main characters essentially become outcasts. The autoraves who gain souls as a result of the Cogito virus are purged for their unwanted feelings and many aspects come togetherin the conclusion of the story. The plot is rather complex and slowly reveals its confusing mysteries in this anime. It isnt completely coherent since certain sections are left out, therefore those events must be assumed in the mind of the viewer. There are some psychological sequences too, much like the ones in NGE, where characters try and figure out what's happening whilst the viewer becomes ever more confused. There are too many dream sequences and these aren't done too well, since the viewer is unaware that they are dreams right from the start. Some of these could be seen as filler. Overall, I enjoyed trying to piece together the story, despite the flaws and issues that it has. Which I can't really mention without spoiling it. Somethings don't seem to be explained or make any sense at all. Yet it remains coherent enough for one to get a general idea for the storyline. The conclusion was satisfactory, but the very end posed a handful of questions, possibly indicating a sequel that never came.

Conclusion

Ergo Proxy is an anime unlike most other anime and is definitely for everyone, especially those who do not enjoy complex seinen stories like NGE or FLCL. I'd say it's aimed at the older more understanding audience, younger people may have viewed this anime and not enjoyed it. It does have it's flaws with the story, but overall it was more enjoyable than other anime like FLCL which is more confusing than this IMO. Try it out and see if you like it.

Family-friendliness Rating: 4/5 Not because of explicit content, otherwise the score would be 2, but this anime would literally melt children's brains (lower is better)

Overall Rating: 7.5/10 (higher is better)

7/10 story
10/10 animation
9/10 sound
9/10 characters
7.5/10 overall

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