Reviews for Ergo Proxy

After watching Ergo Proxy completely and thoroughly, I must say that this is one of the most enjoyable series I've watched yet. The story is so complex and can at times be very agonizing because you are just so clueless as to what is going on. Then, usually, by the end of the episode or by the next episode all of your questions and doubts about what is going on will be answered. Why did I enjoy this series so much? First, this series is a real psychological mind boggling experience. I haven't see too many series that make me question what is going on orgoing to happen until the very end, yet Ergo Proxy did it. Even during the last episode, I was still asking myself the same question as I had been throughout the entire series, "what the hell is going on?!" This kind of experience kept me wanting more and left me trying to fill holes myself, which is exactly the kind of thing that I enjoy. Something that makes me think for myself and makes me WANT to figure out whats going on or say, "Hmm, I wonder what that meant..."

The setting of the story is another thing that made me enjoy this so much, a post apocalyptic world where everyone is being kept in the dark and left wondering whats just beyond their grasp. Theres not much that I can say about this plus for me, it's just something that I enjoy. If you enjoy stories set in this kind of environment, you'll like this aspect of Ergo Proxy.

Ergo Proxy makes use of a lot of different aspects of psychology and history, which is a good thing. I believe it was only the first fourteen episodes, but at the end of each respective episode there would be about two minutes when they would reflect back on things throughout what you had just seen. It was a very nice touch that I felt was something more series should do. It basically would tell you things that the author of the series/story used as a reference or what something that occurred in the episode was based on. I thoroughly enjoy history and psychology so this aspect of Ergo Proxy really appealed to me.

The character development didn't fall short of my expectations either. It was done quite nicely. I wish I could go into further detail about it, but apparently I'm not supposed to say anything to spoil the series and I'm not quite sure how to go about this aspect without doing just that.

The animation was extremely well done. The way some of the faces are drawn may look a little odd at first, but I didn't mind it at all. It matches the show quite well and really compliments everything around it. Everything that was done in this series, animation wise, was completely believable. Sure, there are somethings that you just know can't be true/made from something real, but it just feels true/real with everything else about the series combined.

Oh, don't let me forget Real Mayer. She's one sexy woman. Not sexy in the stereotypical way with an out of proportion body and an annoying voice. She is more real (pun intended), she's not overdeveloped, her voice isn't annoying, she doesn't have any super human powers, she isn't a amazing when it comes to combat, and her feelings/emotions are that of a real woman/girl. It just makes her character so much more believable and real, which is why I love her so.

Overall, Ergo Proxy is the complete package in terms of story, animation, sound, character development, THE characters, and the enjoyment of everything put together. If you don't enjoy this show, then you either aren't human, don't like anime or are too stupid to understand the story.

I hope you enjoyed my review, this is the first one I've ever written. If you like it, then please leave an comment letting me know so I'll be more encouraged to write more. See ya kiddies.

As far as I know, there are no Spoilers or Summaries here. -There is one thing I need to point out about my scoring. The enjoyment of a show is weighed heavily by me. If I can't enjoy a show then what's the point of watching it? Now without further ado. Story: The actual story and plot of the show isn’t bad other then being a bit confusing. It jumps into the plot right away for the first few episodes. The story progresses rapidly at first before coming to almost a complete stop. For about 7 or 8 of the episodes between 10-20,I felt like nothing happened nothing really changed and that the story and plot crawled by very slowly and in some cases made no progress at all. And then at the end when I expected things to pick up and everything to come together like in the movie Fight Club or Donnie Darko. It just didn’t happen. I felt like the ending was throwing answers at me that didn’t add up, like a puzzle where the last 5 pieces don’t fit at all.

In a general wholesome look the plot makes sense. But on a detailed level I felt the story was just pulling ideas out of a hat and tried to make things work that really didn’t. The idea was good but it was executed poorly and fell short of its intention.

Animation:

This is where the show really shines. The visuals in this show are easily some of the best I have ever seen. Many of the visual angles used were unique, fresh, and quite artistic without taking away importance or detail from the scene. The animation was very fluid and realistic. The colors and lightning were also done well. Scenes in bright places were done quite well almost in a blinding way. While the darker scenes did a great job representing the destruction and despair throughout the rest of the world. The art/animation is the best thing about this show. Although there was a lot of dark scenes, so be prepared.

Sound:

Well I’m not much of a Radiohead fan so the ending theme didn’t do anything for me, I skipped it every time. The opening theme didn’t do much at first but it wore on me and near the end I actually started to enjoy it. Although the OP didn’t fit real well, it was to “active” to really relate with the show. As for background music I can’t really think of any of them specifically which I guess means it wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either and did a good job of blending into the scenes. The sound effects were good at doing what they were supposed to, adding to the scenes and the detail of the world. The voice actors did fairly well I felt like for the most part the voices fit each character fairly well. I didn’t watch the English dub so I can’t say too much about that.

Characters:

One of my biggest problems with Ergo Proxy which also greatly lowered the enjoyment as well as overall score was with the characters. I simply did not care about them. The two main characters Vincent and Re-l didn’t do anything for me. I wouldn’t care if they died, or if they fell in love, or if they disappeared never to be seen again. Maybe I might have liked them more if they turned into slugs or something. Re-l’s bright blue eye shadow/mascara whatever it is bothered the heck out of me the ENTIRE series as well. All I wanted to do was wash it away. Also there were a few instances where the producers wanted the viewer to care or get emotional over different things between the characters, all it made me do was yawn.

The one and ONLY character I liked was Pino. Pino was used many times as comic relief and did a decent job of it too. When she dressed up in her costume, it was very cute as well. Although even then, there were times when Pino just didn’t evoke any emotion from me except boredom.

On an objective level the characters were well developed. You get a good understanding of their story. You even occasionally get a good analysis of their psyche and mental stability. They were fleshed out and felt like completed beings. Some of the supporting characters were well done as well. Although some of them were much more unstable than you originally think and act in ways you wouldn’t have expected.

Enjoyment:

To be honest, I did not enjoy this show at all. I frequently thought about dropping it but I told myself to get through it. I was hoping that everything would click in the end and I’d end up loving it, but that didn’t happen.

To put it simply there were a few times that I’d be watching and suddenly start nodding off in the middle of the episode. The next day when I tried to watch the following episode I couldn’t remember what happened and had to re-watch the previous episode a second time. None of the episodes really grabbed me and held my attention like it could have.

My sleeping problem seemed to occur more frequently during some of the middle episodes, 10-20. Some will disagree with this, but I felt many of these episodes were pointless filler episodes. Yes some of them did give a little bit of back-story or history of the world but none of it really had any major impacts on the series as a whole. They could have been reduced to 2 or 3 episodes that could have presented the same information in a better way. Some of those episodes also felt extremely out of place. Many times an episode would start off in a completely different totally unrelated location from anything else in previous episodes. And at the end of the episode you are left scratching your head asking what the hell had just happened. Many times I felt I had wasted 24 minutes of my life which could have been spent on an episode of a different show.

Conclusion:

From some of the other reviews and from the score, I had some decent expectations for this show. I went in knowing that it will require some philosophical reasoning which is fine with me. But nearly everything about the show seemed to fall completely short of what I anticipated. Even after seeing the “surprises” near the end, I was left feeling uninterested, a “So what” expression hanging around me.

Because it is highly regarded by some people I can’t completely say you should stay away from this anime. If you understand that this will be a confusing trip and don’t mind experiences resembling the last two eps of Neon Genesis then it won’t hurt to give this show a try. But if you are like me, and by about eps 8 don’t care about the characters or about the story, just stop before things get really ugly.

In my opinion if you don’t see this show you aren’t missing out either. Although I do think if I re-watched it, I might respect it a little more. But the first time through was miserable enough and I couldn’t watch it again. So if you do plan to watch this you probably should re-watch it to fully enjoy the show. If you cant imagine yourself re-watching it then you should stop where you are and move onto a different show.

Ergo Proxy is a highly experimental show, and just like all shows of that kind it always divides the viewers into two camps: while the ones enjoy its complex story and thought-provoking symbolism, the others fiercely criticize it for "pretentiousness" or simply scratch their heads in perplexity, wondering what this whole thing is supposed to mean. As for me, I firmly believe this is an amazing series with no exaggeration about it, and with this review I'll try to explain you why. Since the anime has a site description you can always read, allow me to skip further introductions and get straight to business. STORY Obviously,the most contentious part of Ergo Proxy. The story and the method of storytelling this anime employs are highly unusual, and that is by far the main reason why quite a number of people dislike it. However, I think this story does not "pretend" to be clever - it is clever indeed. Moreover, it makes Ergo Proxy one of the most clever series I've ever watched.

First of all, the story at the core is a journey of self-discovery, hence the main idea is pretty simple yet great, at least as I comprehend it: you should find your own way instead of being somebody's follower or lower-rank copy ("proxy"); for that you should realize who you are, what you live for and how the real world looks. The anime certainly makes you ask important questions and reflect on your own life, and that always counts as a great quality in my book.

Second, Ergo Proxy is a highly experimental show as it presents a diverse mix of genres: cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi, action, mystery, drama, psychological mindf*ck, road movie and even a bit of comedy, romance and slice of life. Consequently, it results in a very unorthodox narrative full of plot twists & genre switches that many viewers disliked as they felt trolled and confused while watching. Well, I do understand those complaints: it is indeed very unusual, confusing at times and probably not to everybody's liking. Besides, one may argue that the anime goes a little too far with experiments in episodes 15 and 19 which makes them too different from the rest in their style. Perhaps, the show could've done better without those two, as it would've also made the 2nd half of the series more compact to provide better pacing and better build-up for the ending.

Aside from that fairly tolerable issue, the plot is very well-written & coherent despite its complexity, and the credit for that goes to Dai Sato - the author of the original story and one of the best Japanese scriptwriters who also participated in writing scripts for Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. In fact, it still makes me wonder how he and his team managed to weave all those genres and events into one logical & continuous plot. So, not only those swings & changes are very interesting and uncommon but they also don't exist there just for the sake of it - instead, they actually form the story, with each episode adding something brand new to the plot & character development, and that's amazing indeed.

However, the main reason why this anime seems unintelligible to so many people probably lies in its third peculiarity which is the astounding number of symbols & allegories employed: almost every single name & situation is allegoric and requires your interpretation to get the whole story. Moreover, not only those allegories turn out relevant & contributing to the plot but also extremely diverse, referring to Greek mythology, Descartes' philosophy and Shakespeare's plays among other things. No doubt, the high degree of symbolism is what makes the series quite a riddle at times; yet it is in fact a very entertaining and well-thought-out riddle where every element serves its purpose to convey the show's message, and I personally had lots of fun deciphering it.

With all those complex aspects the story never turns into pretentious nonsense or something really incomprehensible because it actually answers most questions, though often in roundabout and not obvious ways. That means it just demands a little more attention than in your average series, and if you pay it, you get it. Well, I don't consider myself an intellectual and yet I understood almost everything from the first viewing. There were a couple of moments I didn't grasp but it took me 3 minutes (!) to use google, click the first link and read an insightful explanation that satisfied me.

And even if you don't get something it's not a reason to dislike the show - it is actually a great motivation for you because this anime is highly rewatchable, and during every viewing there will be new discoveries that will enrich you.

ANIMATION & SOUND

Ergo Proxy's art style is easily recognizable for its omnipresent dark colors and realistic yet unusual character designs that give the series a westernized & very artistic look. The animation quality is great except for a considerable inconsistency in character drawing, and the style fits like a glove although some viewers may need time to get used to its murky appearance.

The music is a number of ambient tracks by Ike Yoshihiro, a U2-esque opening theme by Monoral and an ending song by Radiohead. All the tracks are nicely composed to create the engrossing and mysterious atmosphere of the series, and even those who dislike the show agree that the soundtrack is simply amazing.

The voice-acting is also very well-done as the voices perfectly fit the characters, and the seiyus did a very good job at conveying emotions.

To sum up, the production values are impressive indeed, and the style is memorable & totally appropriate for the show.

CHARACTERS

Well, Ergo Proxy is an anime about self-discovery, hence its primary focus lies on the characters and their development. The main difference from other shows of this kind is that the story for the most part doesn't emerge from characters' actions & choices - rather, the characters are put into an already crafted plot full of twists & symbols mirroring their inner conflicts, and they receive development while going through this labyrinthine plot & unraveling its mystery step by step. As a result, you get a story-driven series with strong emphasis on the characters, which looks paradoxical on paper yet works surprisingly well in reality, being one of the most original aspects of the show.

The other interesting aspect is how the characters don't feel overblown in any way. Unlike many other series that endow each character with one or two exaggerated features (extreme cuteness, extreme coolness etc.), often at the cost of everything else, Ergo Proxy successfully avoids that common pattern by presenting a trio of very well-balanced protagonists in Re-l Mayer, Vincent Law and Pino:

- Re-l is a confident, no-nonsense investigator with very good analytical and shooting skills which, however, don't exceed the capabilities of a trained person and thus don't make her an invincible action hero or an omniscient genius. At first, she acts rather cold towards others (Vincent in particular) because she's a bit spoiled by her social position and because the circumstances demand her to be on guard all the time. However, as the show goes on Re-l changes quite a bit, and it becomes evident that she's a perfectly normal girl with normal human emotions. Also, she's very attractive but not oversexualized which is indeed an extreme rarity for this medium;

- Vincent lost his memories and a huge part of his identity with them, so he feels an obvious lack of confidence... and yet he knows how to repair things, how to hold a weapon and shoot, and despite acting very shy at the beginning he embarks on a dangerous & often bewildering journey of self-discovery and gradually develops into a completely different person by the end of the series. So, he ain't some useless angsty teenager typical for anime - rather, he is a very kind and helpful guy who wants to learn the truth about himself. His angst never feels overblown to the point where it gets annoying, and his development throughout the story is truly one of the most fundamental I've ever seen;

- as for Pino, she's an autoreiv that accompanies Re-l & Vincent, providing some nice examples of man & machine interaction as well as some lightheartedness to compensate for the grim & serious setting. She is an awesome & very lovable character who at the same time never gets sickeningly moe because she acts like a normal girl of her age and not some typical loli you often see in anime.

Also, the show has one more protagonist i.e. Ergo Proxy, but the identity & role of that guy is a huge spoiler so I can't tell you anything about him - you'll have to learn it yourself.

Overall, I would say that the right balance in characterization and the natural step-by-step development is what makes the protagonists very realistic, and while there may be people who don't like it because they find the characters "boring" (or not extreme enough in comparison to other series) I really enjoy this approach. What I enjoy no less is that the supporting cast receive a great share of development as well, with Raul Creed, Daedalus, Hoody and Iggy being the most outstanding examples.

So, in general the characterization is great, and even if you don't find the cast that interesting at first, just give them some time and see it for yourself.

OVERALL

Perhaps, the story could do better without a couple of questionable episodes, and the character drawings could be more consistent. Therefore, I can't really call this show a flawless masterpiece. However, I will easily give it an excellent rating and with lots of pleasure take it to my personal top-10.

My final advice for possible newcomers is simple: if you look for some lighthearted entertainment with J-pop, sugoi, ganbatte, tomodachi, squealing voices and bright haircolors, stay away from this anime as you will only waste your time. The same is if you look for an action-driven series because action is not the focal point of Ergo Proxy.

However, if you look for a compelling story, if you are not afraid of a certain intellectual challenge, if you are open-minded and able to keep attention for 23 episodes, I highly encourage you to watch this show. Of course, I can't guarantee you will like it as much as I do, but I'm pretty sure you at least won't regret it.

- - - - [ Ergo Proxy :: Episodes - 26 ] - - - - [ Could contain minor spoilers. Sorry.. ] Ergo Proxy. When I first saw that title, I was curious. I knew what a proxy was, on Internet and in real life. But I didn't know what Ergo was. So I got the series, mostly out of curiosity. I didn't expect much at first. The main female character, Re-L (Lil, Real, or any variant. Depends of fansub) has a freaky face with blue mascara, and wields a shotgun. I expect an all-out gun action series, with some mecha. But I was wrong! ErgoProxy is a great series, definitely worth seeing, and has even made it to my favourites list. Beware, there are not much humour or laughs in this series. It's a deep, dark and philosophical series. But trust me, definitely worth seeing.

- [ Animation ] -

One thing that amazed me since the start of the series, till the very end is the quality of the animation. They combined modern and traditional to make a very good blend. The producers have been successful in creating a dark/moody atmosphere when needed. The light effects were amazing. They pointed out details wherever needed without flaw. The motion of the characters was very fluid, while maintaining the complexity of the backgrounds. If I may include a small spoiler here, the desolated lands pictured a bit later in the series are well made. You really get the feeling of sorrow and despair creeping in. However, although it may only be from my point of view, but in long-shots filmed from afar, you sometimes see the characters' features distort. Eg. an eye is above the other or toes seem strange. Can't expect much details from long-shots anyways but an eye above the other? Weird! Another dark point is that sometimes, the scenes are excessively...dark! You can't discern details easily. Apart from these, there are no major flaws in my opinion. Again, I should point out that the animators took some time to work on the scenes and have created beautiful and detailed backgrounds. Not overly detailed that you get the impression that you are in live-action, but just enough.. or just a bit not enough sometimes (dark scenes specially). Very little frame-reuse or even no frame-reuse if you ask me, just something nice to note.

- [ Sound ] -

As I said, I usually don't pay much attention to sound in animes. It's just there, nothing special. But here, it's different. The OP was great! The music suited my tastes entirely. Even the ED was very well made! The music really accompanied the moody and dark story. Just a side-tracking here, but I really like the way the ED credits is presented: A new, slanted type of presentation. Innovative if you ask me. The atmosphere sounds were well done, and did well in enhancing the moods and feelings of the Ergo Proxy. Not much in-series music available though. However, the OP and ED music don't seem to really fit in the quiet, dark and suspense-oriented Ergo Proxy. It's just too... lively. The music was great though!

- [ Story ] -

First, let me say it straight here itself: Ergo Proxy's story can be very very confusing and difficult to understand sometimes during some episodes, a bit Evangelion-like if you want i.e. Complex! But unlike Eva, most mysteries are eventually cleared, except for some. It's a series that you will want to go through once, get all the explanations, then go back and rewatch it just to appreciate the way the mysteries are introduced and pay particular attention to the minute details.

Another thing that adds confusion is that some episodes seem really out of place and do not seem to have any meaning at first. In fact, they are here to explain the details of Ergo Proxy in a non-intrusive and non-flagrant way. Be on the lookout for those and pay attention. They clear a lot of mysteries. Hint: Pay attention to the episode with the Quiz! :P Just like I said, some episodes seem out of place. Often, you are led on an episode with a very different story, only to find that one of the characters was dreaming or whatever like that. Sometimes, it's just too puzzling. You finish the episode and tell yourself "What the hell just happened?".

Now, on with the main story which is about Re-L Meyer, grand-daughter of Donov Meyer - the administrator/head counciller of Romdeau Dome city and Vincent Law, an ordinary employee of the Autorave Division. At some point of time before the scene, Earth's environment became very polluted as a result of a Methane Hydrate layer combustion. This may be considered spoiler but it doesn't really affect the plot to know it. Anyways, 85% of Earth's population was wiped out as a result. The survivors now live in Dome Cities such as Romdeau, since the air outside the domes is nearly unbreathable. Later, you are explained the significance of WombSys and Amrita Cells. I can't reveal what these 2 things do without going into spoilers. However, Anikimeiski provided an elaborate explanation of Ergo Proxy's plot-line. If you require help after watching it, refer to his explanations. Google it to find out about the site.. (If you do not mind major spoilers)

Re-L, working with her assistant Vincent Law, is investigating something known as Cogito (Cognito) Virus which allows Autoraves (robots that co-habit and help humans) to gain something with resembles emotion. So, they tend to become unpredictable and need to be eliminated. However, the real plot starts early as episode 2. During one of these investigations, Re-L is attacked by a monster (guess what it was! Pr... *spoilers*) which is very agile and quick. It leaves a hand print on the crime scene. Wanting to get more details, Re-L goes to her grand-father Donov Meyer to get answers but none is obtained. The story starts from here and quickly evolves into something unpredictable, after Vincent Law leaves the Romdeau for the Outside World. Excuse me if I introduced a number of spoilers, but it was required to make the scene clear.

The story is very well presented, with a good pace, neither too fast, nor too slow. The action scenes, however, are fast-paced just as expected. There are no major loopholes, except for some later in the series. Refer to Conclusion for more details. The story is holds the viewer in suspense, and after watching an episode, it's difficult to resist watching the next. Until the end, the series maintained the suspense and mystery, spoon-feeding answers along the way as required. Nothing more to say here, I guess. It's a good plot-line, which kinda reminds me of George Orwell's 1984. Here too we got a seemingly perfect society but with severe flaws.

- [ Characters ] -

The characters in Ergo Proxy is what amazed me most! Every one of them and their backgrounds are well explained, leaving no details unexplained. Often, the characters have whole episodes to explain their past and their current self. This is awesome! I can't complain about lack of details regarding characters. with Ergo Proxy. They are all well developed into the story, and fade out as required. The main characters stay till the end, of course! What do you expect? If all main characters faded out, then there won't be any Ergo Proxy! :P

The characters each have well-defined emotional traits, strengths and weaknesses. Just to take an example, Re-L is very selfish at the beginning, caring only for her little self and not having any remorse regarding anything. She neglects everybody, included her Autorave Iggy and Vincent Law. However, as the series progresses, you can slowly see her change and evolve. Similarly, she is a very good fighter and observer, but fails to express feelings and be emotive enough, unlike Vincent Law, who is excessively emotive and weakling-like at first. Again, he'll develop his strengths as the story progresses. Amazing! Every character has his or her own motivations for what he/she's doing, whether good or evil. Sometimes, their actions seem wild or illogical, but it gives us an explanation of what the characters are actually feeling, whether it's love, hatred, duty or utter want for destruction.

As with series or movies that include robots and mechas, there is an emotion issue, that is human feel emotions and robots cannot. Here, even robots can feel after being infected by Cogito, but are in a way denied the right to feel emotions. That's what I was saying in the beginning, the stuff about philosophy. The Cogito virus introduces a very nice turn in the story, pushing the character development even furthur. Ergo Proxy explores such things as loyalty, denial of love, seeking acceptance, betrayal, friendship, companionship, split personalities, the good and evil side of oneself and such. It's pretty elaborate sometimes!

- [ Value / Enjoyment ] -

I'll keep this part short. There is not really enjoyment in Ergo Proxy since it's kinda dark and moody. However, it definitely has a good value for me and definitely earns a rewatch to clear up some points. Not much action, but if you want a good sc-fi type of suspence, mixed with action and spicy twists and turns, go watch Ergo Proxy. I definitely enjoyed Ergo Proxy which successfully maintained the suspense and surprises till the end. You won't be skipping episodes often here. However, the story can be kinda slow sometimes, which kinda annoys you.

- [ Conclusion ] -

Personally, I really liked Ergo proxy. You don't find many series with such depth and with enough elaboration and complexity to keep you glued. However, as I mentioned earlier, there are some dark points that are not solved, the biggest one being the statement made by Vincent Law in the last episode. Maybe there will be an Ergo Proxy 2 or a second season. Maybe an OAV at least. If not, then it would have a very cheap ending! But I hope there will indeed be a good and proper ending to this marvellous series. Go watch it. It's definitely worth it, if you like the genre. Thanks for reading! Was kinda long this time.. Gomen! And I rarely give perfect mark 10! :P Ergo proxy may earn it however. It deserves it, but I am too miserly to see 10 given! :P

Ergo Proxy might just take the cake for being the most frustrating series that I've ever seen. Not only because of what it does wrong, but because of what it does right—it's based on a great idea, and it features some great art and music, but unfortunately it doesn't know how to capitalize on any of these qualities. The most immediately inviting aspects of Ergo Proxy are definitely the technical ones. It's set in a post-apocalyptic future in which mankind lives in self-contained cities (“domes”). The main city of Romdo, portrayed as a maze of slummy apartment buildings and burned-out streets that contrast with the cleanand orderly buildings inhabited by the government, is a fitting setting that's clearly built with great care and deliberation. The use of shadows and atmospheric lighting is generally excellent. The outside world, an endless plane of ice and rock, isn't exactly a beautiful sight, but it's carefully rendered and features reasonably detailed background art.

The character and mecha designs are also eye-catching. Re-l, whose pale face and bright blue eye makeup form an essential contrast with the dark world, quickly became an icon of the series, and with good reason; it's a truly striking and unique design. Most of the cast is slightly more earthy and realistically depicted than the norm, with the character art generally steering clear of the round-faced round-body designs that have become typical. The vehicular and mechanical art is also of high caliber, with great models for the robotic companions (“AutoReivs”) that feature prominently in the series, as well as the flying airship on which a large part of the story takes place. There are occasional lapses in artistic quality, mostly noticeable in the form of inconsistent detailing on the faces and limbs of a few key characters, but for the most part, this is a visually strong production.

Further augmenting the technical side of the show is a superb soundtrack, ranging from low key electronic atmospheric noise to full-fledged techno rock that, while not always completely original sounding, is well-made and appropriate for the series. The tracks sometimes feature an element of chanted vocals that befit the slightly religious overtones of the series and the general feeling of impending apocalypse. The combination of the dystopian art and the solid musical score gives Ergo Proxy the kind of atmosphere that would make most entries in the “dark sci-fi” category jealous: It gives us the sense of a world on the edge, pushed to its limit, where something is about to break. It breeds suspense and curiosity.

Ergo Proxy is also possessed of a story that, on its own merits, isn't bad at all. Re-l, an investigator for Romdo's Intelligence Bureau, is pursuing a fugitive named Vincent Law, who is sought in connection with criminal activity. At the same time, she notices that high ranking members of the city's government are trying to cover up the existence of monsters called “Proxies,” and decides to investigate the matter on her own authority. As the show wears on we eventually learn a bit more about the nature of Proxies and the nature of the world itself. A futuristic mystery that slowly leads to revelations about the world? Sounds like, with proper execution, this could be turned into an excellent story.

Unfortunately it's the “proper execution” part that can make the difference between great and not-so-great works of fiction, and it's for this reason that Ergo Proxy ends up comparable to a great athlete with a broken leg: Full of potential, but incapable of going anywhere. The first third or so of the series is promising. It moves along at a brisk pace, gradually raising questions and answering them where appropriate, advancing the mystery at a brisk speed. However, after this initial success, the story enters a slump from which it never recovers.

The most noticeable flaw in storytelling is the inclusion of several episodes that have little (if anything) to do with the plot. These episodes generally feature the characters in strange situations that are clearly meant to be mind-boggling or confusing, such as playing on a game show, having a chat in a hellish bookstore in the middle of nowhere, or interacting with strange creatures in a Disney Land-esque theme park. It's abundantly clear that these episodes are here only for the cheap thrill of making the audience think “what the hell is going on?” On rare occasions they give us pieces of information about the characters and the state of the world; however, that alone is not a sufficient reason for the existence of a large lump of material that is essentially irrelevant, and this information could have been conveyed through dialogue, discovery, or any other basic facet of storytelling.

The other major flaw in Ergo Proxy's method of storytelling is the presence of an overwhelming amount of dialogue that strains to be philosophical but is ultimately repetitive and meaningless. Get ready to hear people say things like “this is the ultimate truth that all organisms strive to obtain through self-examination,” or “you think, therefore I am” on a regular basis. There seems to be an underlying theme of personal identity and finding one's reason for existence, and it's conveyed with all the subtlety of a ball-peen hammer to the face. Symbolism, simile, metaphor, repeated themes/motifs, and other standby elements that clever writers use when presenting an idea to the audience—pretty much none of them are in play here, and they've been crudely replaced with line after line of inarticulate pseudointellectual drivel that gets an extremely disproportionate amount of screentime in the course of the series.

Character-wise, the series is split pretty evenly between duds and strong cast members. Re-l, the female lead, is the granddaughter of a government official. She's an interesting lead because she's emotionally detached, extremely competent and strong-willed...but at the same time, her privileged upbringing means that she's used to having others doting on her, giving her a bit of a spoiled side. Watching her develop as the series progresses is a rewarding experience. The male lead, Vincent Law, is of the dud variety; he doesn't really have a whole lot of character attributes other than “kind,” “optimistic,” and “confused,” and while he does eventually learn a little bit more about himself, his personality remains pretty one-note. Perhaps the biggest example of wasted potential in the series is Pino, a young female robot who receives a soul due to a virus that affects robots (yes, that's really the explanation). She does have some strong character moments, but is mostly used as adorable comedic relief throughout the series. Now, imagine that: The show is supposed to be making a statement about identity and self-realization, and here they have a cast member who is both a robot that suddenly has emotions and the ability to think for herself, and a young girl who is coming of age and learning about life and death. It doesn't take a lot of thought to realize that she would be a PERFECT character to develop in order to convey these themes artfully and elegantly, but instead she ends up wearing a bunny suit and cracking jokes for a majority of the show. It's really too bad; they had the proper tool sitting right in front of them, but they didn't know how to use it.

The result of all of the aforementioned flaws is that Ergo Proxy pretty much writes the book on everything that's wrong with the recent trend of “deep” (I use that word sarcastically) media directed at teens: It repeatedly uses dry and overly complicated dialogue to explain relatively simple concepts, repeatedly resorts to the use of plot contrivances like amnesia and multiple personality disorder to explain events, and repeatedly puts its characters into strange “is-this-a-dream-is-this-not-a-dream” situations, to the point where the whole thing becomes laughable, which I'm sure is not the intent of its writers. While not entirely devoid of strong attributes, Ergo Proxy is ultimately an example of a good idea gone to waste.

I am not a fan of this Anime. The show starts out with great promise. The Artwork is beautiful, the world is atmospheric and the characters seem full of potential. However very quickly the story begins to take an unfocused long path toward an ever weakening storyline, slowely revealing each character to have almost no depth beyond their basic neurosis. Even the art style weakens only a handful of episodes in. This Anime includes some pretty painful filler, some full episodes but even more offensive are some of the episodes that contain one or two moments of "main story" plot, but are mainly filler in the formof characters rehashing old ideas or questions we the viewer has already figured out the answers to.

The show spends a lot of time dabbling in questions of existentialism and theology, this comes off as simplistic and childish as the characters indulging in these ideas are so one dimensional and unfleshed out that the viewer ends up with no interest as to what conclusion they come to.

By the end of this anime, i found myself watching just to be able to say that i hadn't given up on it, i no longer cared about any of the characters, and i no longer cared about the out come.

my advice is to give this one a miss

There is some excellent production in this cyberpunk thriller/road trip set in an eerie utopian futurescape filled with robots and starring a female protagonist in the vein of Ghost in the Shell's Motoko. Except Ergo Proxy's Re-l Mayer has sexy eyeshadow. And she's petulant to a degree that she mirrors today's shallow socialites. Ok, so she's absolutely nothing like the strong-willed, decisive and intelligent Motoko. But hey Mayer's young, she's got makeup and dresses alternative style. Yes, you can see where the animators' priority lay with this production. Things get even more ridiculous when a girl in a pink bunny outfitappears and sticks around.

This feels like a more accessible version of TeXhnolyze, although unlike that excellent anime, Ergo Proxy falters too much and ultimately the story feels ponderous with its lack of pace, drive and purpose. It has a po-face the entire time, trying to fool you into thinking its a serious grand epic vision with some amazing revelation that will shock you to your core and hail it as the toppler of all cyberpunk titles before it. Needless to say it fails on all counts. It falls flat on its mascara-ridden face.

TeXhnolyze had the same face, lacking make-up, but backed it up with substance, it really did shock you with its revelations in the latter half of the series, and when the crap hits the fan for many characters, you feel something, because they're portrayed as humans. In Ergo Proxy, everyone is seemingly made of wood and is as lively as a plank. I do find it interesting how obnoxious the main protagonist Mayer is in this show though, its a refreshing change in a way, being that anime's main leads are usually goody two shoes, but instead of being an interesting character with a flawed personality, she's just plain obnoxious all the way through.

The series however does reach a particular zenith with episode 20 which revolves around the theme of multiple personality disorder, successfully mindhumping the viewer in an entertaining fashion. There are meaty topics and ideas thrown around this show, I mean with a title like Ergo Proxy it would be a crime not to have characters spouting painfully obvious commentary on mainstream philosophical theories, but whats actually a crime is to have no one interesting or empaphetic and nothing compelling or engaging occuring on screen. The show is lifeless, which is deeply ironic.

The show's end credits have Radiohead's Paranoid Android, it gets points for that at least.

The Ancient Greeks created their own religion. Characters -- or rather, Gods -- were made based to human feelings as both: representation of what these feelings look like and what the characteristics and behaviors of these metaphors would be like. It didn't stop there. They created lore, past-stories and character potray to all of them, and decided that these Gods live on top of the Mount Olympus. And even today, 3000 years later, some geniuses go and ask "why did they never bother to climb on Mount Olympus and check if the Gods are there?" Because it wasn't the point of the story at all,and they knew it was just a made up story created by humans. Gods not being there was self-explanatory to all. That's why.

What does this has to do with 'Ergo Proxy', then? 'Ergo Proxy' is made by, and made for these exact people who still keep wondering why Ancient Greeks never bothered to check if their Gods are real. This time it is about philosophical POV's which are apparently purposely misunderstood and misinterpreted by the creators of this work, and then further mistaken by its viewers for an actual anime series about these famous existential questions. I can agree that this work is thought-provoking, but the references in it are fallacies and every in-depth analysis over-analysing of not what is there, but what one believes is there. It chooses the same path as later Freudian literature which was altered by his daughter based to what she thought Freud meant rather than writing the exact thing Freud said. As a conclusion in case my point hasn't been made clear yet: 'Ergo Proxy' is not a work of philosophy, it is a work of its creators interpretations of famous philosophies. This series is not a study nor can it be seen as a reference, it is nothing but a preach by someone who thought they have understood what our great philosophers "really", I mean REALLY meant. To me, their interpretations are no different from those people who ask why Greeks didn't climb the goddamn mountain.

To actually talk about this anime outside is hideous content, it quite literally sucks ass. The directing is a mess, the pacing is so dreadfully slow one has to wonder why the fans of this series consider themselves smart for liking this spoon-fed "deepness". At least Anno, the creator of Evangelion admitted he just threw bunch of religious references in the mix to make it look smart and make people hyped for it being 2deep5anyone and everyone to understand. While I am not sure if the creators of 'Ergo Proxy' are lacking self-awareness or simply never cared to admit that their work is bunch of baloney: it surely is doing an impressive job convincing masses to think that it isn't. They went as far as put bunch of obscure references in the background art, such as faces of these philosophers they claim to imitate because apparently the point of their ideas and philosophies is the best captured by an AD HOMINEM."The essential part of what was said is what the face of the person who said it looks like." Like really, how subtle and how well I can prove my intelligent by liking this.

Now the second attempt to talk about content outside the philosophies. Real is the only interesting character in the series. Most of the others feel more of a try-hard attempts to capture something completely different than personalities, which alone is a respectable idea considering the nature of the series. Still, all of them come out rather uninteresting and content-lacking. If comparing to the same Greek Gods, our characters here are rather empty shells. One could say that this makes it great, other say they deliver as much as any harem girl. Pino, on the other hand, is simply annoying.

The series does contain lot of good as well, they are mainly hidden and short scenes such as a quiz that leads to the OP song to play. Great ideas in not so great series. The opening itself is an everlasting meme. Real creates most of the other interesting scenes and situations in the series, but ultimately leave me wish she was a character inside a better anime.

As a conclusion: Ergo Proxy is not a very good series for those who want something more from anime outside simply "getting it." Getting Ergo Proxy is not by any means any harder than "getting" Sword Art Online. Both can be overanalyzed to the grave by anyone who doesn't know what occam's razor is. To those who are interested in philosophical anime, watch Serial Experiments Lain, GITS SAC, Digimon Tamers, Wolfs Rain, Kino no Tabi (1st season), even the first Pokemon movie (in Jap dub). Watch Ergo Proxy and find not much more than pretentiousness as the series target audience consist of people who saw the meme "The door is red. The author uses the color red to express his anger." and thought this is what all symbolism should be like, regardless if it is intended by its creator or not.

"In a world where humans and robots live together..." Sounds generic, no? This opening line to the description of the anime is rather misleading. I strongly advise you to take a second look at this before dismissing it out of hand as unoriginal. Ergo Proxy stands out from among other stereotypical anime shows because of its ability of *not* resorting to these oft used plotlines. What this anime focuses on is the development of a few main characters in a world erupting into chaos. While the viewpoint of the show does not originally show it, a great deal of Ergo Proxy is centered around ayoung man's self discovery and acceptance of who he is, learning to interact with others, and to remain true to himself.

This show reminded me most of all of the anime Evangelion. If you, the reader, have ever seen Eva, you may recall the rather deep scenes near the end, wherein the main character attempts to resolve numerous internal conflicts, ultimately resulting in a moment of revelation. Now, as far as I understand it, the director of Ergo Proxy did *not* have a nervous breakdown like the director of Eva, but the depth of the introspective episodes were very similar.

As for the anime itself, I enjoyed the radical variance in the story of each episode. While the settings of the story remain very similar - a city, a shanty-town, and a wasteland are the preeminent landscapes – the actions in the episodes defy prediction. Whereas in some animes’ episodes you seemingly have a cycle of events that repeat over and over again, Ergo Proxy remains unique every time.

On a slightly less approving note, I will say that some of the scenes were truly very, very random, and only upon serious retrospection will you note that they have anything to do with the core plot at all. No spoilers here, however.

Also, while in some episodes you will be given background history about the show in a natural, conversational manner, there are points where the show simply comes out and presents the information to you. The impact of this is that at those moments it seems less that you are watching a naturally unfolding story than that you are reading a fact sheet about the show.

Despite these few setbacks however, the anime still stands at a strong ‘9’ on my list. I enjoyed the viewing of the anime all the way to the end, which continues the suspense and unpredictability. The plot is written wonderfully here at the finish as well, leaving the future unresolved and unexplained, leaving it up to the viewer to imagine what happens.

I will invite everyone who enjoys a thrilling, action-packed, and very emotionally and psychologically deep story to watch “Ergo Proxy.”

Rating: 9/10

Note: Spoilers for Ergo Proxy. Written for people who have watched the show and want an analytical review. You have been warned. An echo, a heartbeat pounding in the eye of the storm, Centzontotochtin sails over the earth, and the pulse of the awakening signals the beginning of the end. Ergo Proxy aired over ten years ago and to this day remains an enigma to many. Its creative thought experiments and questions about our purpose in life have been just as mesmerizing as they have been easily dismissed. But whether it’s thoughtfully ambiguous or frustratingly obtuse, what’s consistent is Ergo Proxy’s mystique beneath its decrepit and artificiallandscape, a captivating blend of the real and the surreal that reveals how easy it has become for us to mistake the double for the authentic.

Throughout, we are presented with illusions, smoke and mirrors, dream worlds, and nightmares, where reality and truth has been distorted by the agents of a lost civilization. Think of supple fingers curved in Shakespearean fashion or a bookstore of forgotten memories. As the Proxies roam their respective domed cities, searching endlessly to satisfy their raison d’etre, what tethers us to reality are Vincent and Re-L. They are equally confounded by the mysteries they confront in their quest for answers about the Proxies.

We are led to believe that outside the dilapidated dome cities and noxious caves, aboard Centzontotochtin in a vast swath of desert and frozen seas is the real world in the aftermath of some environmental catastrophe. Here is where Re-L spends her time logging her experiences, taking dutiful care of personal hygiene, and complaining about an upright toilet seat. It’s where Vincent and the AutoReiv companion Pino play in the snow and act unsuspectingly of the dangers ahead. Here, in the supposed real world, with nothing but dead landscape and a chilling wind on the horizon, is where our characters can introspect and consider the world as it is.

Yet, for all their artificial and mundane characteristics, the domes appear much closer to a tangible description of human reality. Be it Romdeau and its aristocratic bureaucracy, the empty residential fields populated by outdated AutoReivs still performing their quotidian responsibilities, or a commercial shopping mall home to a mad doppelganger, many of these domes symbolize and, more importantly, simulate some element of human culture. It is necessary to note that these are all images of what Earth used to look like, which systemically break apart without order. Still, these last vestiges of a biologically engineered society engender that moment in time; it precedes the reality of the outside world. The artificial, in other words, has become the real, and to the good citizens of Ergo Proxy, indistinguishable from reality. The outside world has become in, Jean Baudrillard’s words, “the desert of the real itself.”

In The Precession of a Simulacra, Baudrillard also references Jorge Luis Borges’s “On Exactitude in Science.” An empire, so attuned with the art of cartography, produces a map of exact size and scale of itself. Succeeding generations, less enthusiastic of the map, discards it to the west, where it now lays in tatters. In similar fashion, the Proxy Project begins with a mass engineering of a worldwide experiment, which recreates pockets of human civilization in its old image. Inevitably, however, the very creators of the domes, many of them unsatisfied or driven by madness and self-loathing, discard their own works, where they now decay against the harsh winds of the wasteland. And thus, much like Borges ingrains in our memory not the empire, but rather the bizarre and ruined map of its territory, the domes of Ergo Proxy in all their systemic imperfections occupy our understanding of the end of civilization. They are, quite literally, proxies for reality.

There are two things to draw from this interaction of the real and the double. The first is to see how Ergo Proxy merges conceptions of dreams and reality to one meaningful abstraction. The second is to see how this relationship drives the show’s search for purpose and existence.

There is a pervasive motif about dreams or dreamlike sequences, where characters are ensnared by a Proxy’s powers. Many of the dreams feel real, and their contents often translate to the real world, as seen by the books in Anamnesis aboard the Centzontotochtin and the dome holding the animated characters from Pino’s dream. On one hand, Ergo Proxy uses these dreams to elucidate the consciousness of the characters. For Vincent, it’s his ontological question of who he is and if he exists in the world. For Pino, it’s whether she possesses a soul and a capacity for morality. For Re-L, it’s her timidity to approach the truth, in fear that it will upset the balance of her orderly existence.

On the other hand, these sequences attempt to break down the characters’ tenuous relationship with reality. The experiences of their dreams can overcome the experiences of the real. Vincent’s admission of his identity as a Proxy is only cemented after his ethereal travels through the misty City Lights Bookstore. Pino’s intuition from her dream overrides her companions’ needs to stop for supplies. In both cases, these dreams, initiated by Proxies, have merged the surreal with the real to become a new sort of reality. Many within the world of the Ergo Proxy do not see any meaningful distinction between reality and a simulation of it precisely because the two have become one.

An exception to this is Re-L, who identifies her own dream as such. In Ophelia, Vincent is in a seemingly never ending cycle with a Proxy taking on every appearance but its own. Vincent is grateful that in the end, Re-L is capable of telling apart the impostor from himself. However, he quickly discovers that Re-L manages to differentiate Vincent from his double because she identifies that the impostor does not possess a shadow. For Vincent, however, this lack of distinction highlights his inability to come to terms with his identity. This slippery grasp of reality is a central conflict in Vincent's mind and is culminated in the final dream of the series, where Vincent is able to identify a fake world from the real, thus confirming his existence and place on Earth.

This dynamic between the bizarre and the normal, the dream and the real, and how they merge and separate is what gives Ergo Proxy’s search for a raison d’etre such a powerful poignancy. The reason is because inevitably we discover each of our main characters are themselves doubles of an original. Vincent and Re-L are copies of Proxy One and Monad, respectively. Pino is an alternative for a child. In addition, all three are failures of their original intention. Vincent never lives up to his potential as a model citizen, Re-L rejects the boring order of her grandfather’s city and is cast aside for another clone of herself, while Pino is replaced by a newborn child.

Even so, each character transcends his or her original place and assumes an agency over their own destinies, which allows them to overcome the destruction of Romdeau. They reject the artificiality of the order, and in doing so, also reject the simulated reality forced upon them thousands of years ago, when the desert of the real first came into being.

It is therefore fitting that those who survive to face the progenitors of Old Earth are dysfunctional copies, never meant to survive in the original system of waste and good citizenry. In a world completely artificial, here we have three souls: an amnesiac, a clone of a goddess, and an orphaned child, all of whom abandon their original duties to discover their reason for existence.

The word ergo is Latin for “therefore,” while proxy refers to one who may stand to represent something. As the dark clouds recede from the heavens, and the light of a never before seen sun scorches Daedaelus’s crafted wings, Vincent Law looks up and remarks that “this is the world that faces us, a world called ‘reality.'” He declares himself Ergo Proxy, an Agent of Death, and therefore, a representative for a new humanity.

Ergo Proxy, it's a darker show that makes you think. Don't fall asleep for a second watching this show or you'll miss something important. Every little detail matters in some way. You know what... I LOVE THIS SHOW! I will do my best to keep my fanboy attitude towards this show aside to make for a more professional review. STORY: Ergo Proxy takes place in a post apocalyptic setting where mankind must live inside domed cities. They are all assisted in their everyday lives by AuroReivs which are autonomous robots. In the city of Romdo there is a virus infecting the AutoReivs that cause them to becomeaware of their own existence. It is called the Cogito Virus. Re-l Mayer is the lead investigator of the infected AutoReivs. During her investigation she encounters a monster called a Proxy. Also in Romdo, a man named Vincent Law is running about and is suspected of having a connection with the Proxy. Re-l and Vincent then though a series of events begin to travel in in the outside world searching for answers.

Sound confusing? Good you should be confused, but it is also a great setup for a story. Right off the bat you are introduced to a new world, and in that world you see problems that need to be solved. The plot starts off right from the get go which I like. It grabs your attention; however, sometimes the pacing can get slowed down, but the amount of things you are learning about the world makes it seem like the writers aren't just writing filler even though that's exactly what it is. This story is a work of art. Ergo Proxy is the example of how to setup a world and maximize the potential that is in said world. It was also depressing as hell at sometimes and made me want to sit in my room and be sad. Now I mentioned confusing at the beginning, and it's true the story can be confusing, but I never felt lost during the show which is good and there was a reason for me not being lost...

CHARACTERS:

Our main Protagonists are Re-l Mayer, a police detective/inspector and Vincent Law, an immigrant/nobody. Oh and Pino who is an AutoReiv infected with the Cogito Virus. The characters are what make this show's story less of a nightmare to understand. They ask all the questions that you want to ask. Personally I think that Re-l is by far the best character in the whole show. Her world has be turned upside-down and she has to tag along to find answers with Vincent. Vincent to be honest has a crap life, he can't remember who he is and was run out of Romdo. He is searching for who he is. The chemistry between these two is what really makes them stand out as characters. They aren't all buddy buddy like many shows. Re-l didn't trust Vincent at all at the beginning and Vincent wanted to just be around Re-l. Pino is hard to talk about without spoiling some plot but her purpose to me is making the viewer ask "What does it mean to truly be alive?"

ART:

The art is good. Nothing that just blows you out of the water but it does a very good job at bringing you into the atmosphere of the show. I loved the character designs in this show too. Their aren't very many action scenes in the show but when their are they are done very well. I have no complaints about the animation.

SOUND:

OHHH MY GOD THAT OPENING!!!! "Kiri" by Monoral is absolutly PERFECT for this shows opening! I've bought that song and no joke I listen to it every single day it is that good! I loved it. I'm also a fan of Radiohead so I liked the ending. The music during the show I actually didn't notice at all.... that's kinda bad but I also never remember the show being silent so that's good. The dub for this show is outstanding. I have no idea how Megan Hollingshead doesn't have more lead roles. She did an outstanding job as Re-l. Liam O'Brien also deserve high praise as well for his job as Vincent. At the beginning I actually thought he was Sam Riegel, but then Vincent got mad an I thought "Yep that's Liam." His angry voice is very good as is his regular voice. I actually thought that Pino was voiced by a child, but nope it was Rachel Hirschfeld... yea never heard of her but DAMN is she good! I mean seriously GIVE HER MORE ROLES!!! This dub is one of the best I have ever heard, on par with that of Death Note.

ENDING:

If you've seen my reviews you know what I do here. Does Ergo Proxy seal the deal at the end? Or does it leave massive plot holes? Nope. It ends perfectly in my opinion, I was very satisfied with the ending because it left the viewer with an idea of what the characters will do after the series, but it also makes sure to wrap everything up nicely. It ends well which is what I like to see anime do.

OVERALL:

Ergo Proxy as of December 27, 2013, is the greatest anime that I have ever watched. If you have not seen Ergo Proxy, you have to see this anime. It truly is a masterpiece, a modern classic. Ergo Proxy is a show that can not be missed no matter what your preferred genre of anime is. Ergo Proxy is one of a kind. I give it a 100% recommendation. Ergo Proxy is a work of art.

Ah, Ergo Proxy - an anime so promising, the only thing greater than its potential was its downfall. Anime that could have been among those few elite series that just leave you stunned with their superb quality and sophistication, turned out to be just... "good". And if there's a thing about a show that I can't stand more than poor quality, it's a waste of potential. But enough of this preface, let's dive into "Ergo Proxy" P.S. I feel I should warn you that if you don't like reading long reviews, you should drop this one right now. As a very pedantic and analytical person,I tend to write almost obnoxiously long reviews.

P.P.S. I shall also write several spoilers, for its hard for me to thoroughly review the story without giving some things away, especially when discussing the plot. But I promise I will warn you each time a significant spoiler is incoming.

"Ergo"'s greatest potential turned out to be its greatest weakness. You must have already read the synopsis, so I won't repeat it here.

I came across Ergo Proxy on this very site, and the premise of the show had me so intrigued, so much interested, that I downloaded all 23 episodes immediately, impatient to see more of it. And the very first episode had me hooked up completely. The quality of the art and music, the interestingly designed characters and the environment, the show's dark and stylish visuals, and most of all, its on-the-edge-of-your-seat plot brimming with mystery and suspense... I couldn't wait to start the next episode. The second and the third episode were just as brilliant, as the story brought more and more ( but still not too much ) mysteries, and the plot captivated me completely. And it continued to be good, albeit paced a bit slower, until episode 7. This is where the show lost it, and even though it tried from time to time, never managed to find it again.

Apparently, the Manglobe's producers of the show approached the director Shukou Murase with "bare-bones vision for a futuristic detective thriller, which included the title, a plot outline for episodes 1-3 and a design concept for Romdeau." And, unfortunately, they allowed him to do as he pleases from there.

What did Murase do? He threw the concept of a "futuristic detective thriller", that could have challenged Death Note for the title of the best suspense series, and decided to make it a more "philosophical" show. This forfeiting of the already established genre and plot, and opting for something else altogether would be disastrous in itself, but the story might have survived, had the replacement been better ( or, a cynic inside me would say, good at all ).

Now, many people who have reviewed this show praise it for its "philosophical issues" and its "depth", and good for them if they see any depth in this series, but I, and I flatter myself to be a very rational and objective person, can see none. Make no mistake, Ergo Proxy is no "Ghost in the Shell" ( and I'm talking about Mamoru Oshii's feature film, not the S.A.C. series ). The philosophical "questions" are neither new, well presented or debated, or have any real depth. We have Vincent's search for his memories and finding his real self, but apart from ( SPOILER ALERT ) his nature as both a human and a Proxy, it's nothing new or particularly mind-stimulating. ( END OF SPOILER ).

The director also tried with the symbolism and metaphors about Romdeau's slow decay and final demise, but it ends up more confusing than though-provoking, and is not built upon enough. There are many more "metaphors" and shallow symbolism present throughout the series, but the problems with them is that they aren't elaborated enough and that the show tries too hard to show you how "deep" it is, whereas the golden rule is that the depth is in subtlety, and this show doesn't have as much as it should, given all the questions and issues it tries to address.

Probably the only highlight of the "philosophical aspect" of the show is Re-L's search for the truth; her determination to seek and face the truth no matter how ugly it might be adds a lot to her character, and she does advance the "plot" more than most other characters, and I give the show the credit where it's due. Unfortunately, this isn't enough to save the overall story.

After episode 7, the plot became incoherent and confusing, with the show refusing to ( at least partially ) solve its already established mysteries, instead piling up more and more of them, and had neglected its existing plot lines ( like the origin and spreading of the Cogito virus ).

There were also several completely unnecessary mind-fuck episodes that did nothing to advance the plot or develop the characters, as well as a couple of episodes that went beyond conventional mind-fuck, and just left you asking: "What the hell is going on? I mean, what the hell is going on?!!" I'm talking, of course, about the ( SPOILER ALERT ) episode no. 15, the "Quiz-show episode", and the ep. no 19, the "Disney episode" ( END OF SPOILER )

In the end, the show tried to redeem itself by pulling a Deus-ex-machina that was supposed to tie up all the loose ends, but ended up opening more questions than it answered. The ending scene(s) is epic, though.

Overall, I find Ergo Proxy's cast of characters satisfying.

Re-L Mayer, one of the two main characters, is the granddaughter of Donov Mayer, the regent ( or, as his official title is, Administrator ) of Romdeau. She's bored with the sterile utopia that the city is, and sometimes wishes for the city to come to an end, just for the sake of breaking the routine of her life as an inspector for the city's Intelligence Department.

She's portrayed as somewhat of a loner, barely communicating with anyone except her Entourage, Iggy. Hand in hand with this comes her independence, individualism and strong will. She also possesses great emotional strength, displayed in her determination not to run from the reality, no matter how harsh or dark it might be. On the other hand, as a granddaughter of the regent, she's quite spoiled and arrogant, and has little concern for the emotions or the needs of the others. She's also something of a badass, being quite handy with guns, especially the shotgun, her trademark weapon.

Vincent Law is also quite a good character, albeit not as interesting as the Gothic princess Re-L. He's much more realistic in that regard, having very little impressive skills or extraordinary psychological traits. He's inner struggle to come to terms with his past and ( SPOILER ALERT ) double identity as both Vincent and Ergo is psychologically convincing and interesting, but could have been less drawn out. ( END OF SPOILER )

His character changes a lot over the course of the series, from being a timid man ( and, if I may say, a bit of a coward ), always bowing his head down and obeying, to become a determined individual that comes to terms with his nature and realises that it's who he is now, and not who he had been prior to losing his memories, that defines him.

Pino, a self-conscious Autoreiv and arguably one of the cutest anime characters ever ( especially considering the realistic style and animation of the series, with no chibi ) could have been way better developed, and used to explore the concept of a machine gaining a heart much deeper. She does little for the plot after episode 3 when she helps Vincent escape from Romdeau, and is basically there only for the cuteness and keeping Vincent company on his journey.

Raul Creed is one of the most interesting characters in the story, and the one that changes the most over the course of the series. A law abiding model citizen of Romdeau, he's the new Chief of Public Security at the beginning of the series. Pino was his surrogate daughter, and his wife was also given a human baby by the city's authorities. ( SPOILER ALERT ) In the ep. 2 both his wife and baby are killed in the shopping mall by Monad Proxy while chasing Vincent Law, and Pino is infected with the Cogito Virus. ( END OF SPOILER ) After that, he gradually becomes obsessed with Vincent and the Proxies, and simultaneously becomes destructive and strives to break the humanity's shackles of dependance on the Proxies. He wants to see humanity free of any gods determining their fates, and conspires with doctor Dedalus Yumeno in order to biologically enhance humans in Romdeau so that they can survive in the outside world, thus no longer being dependent on the Dome created and sustained by the Proxy.

Dedalus Yumeno is the Chief of the city's medical center and Re-L's personal physician. He's supposedly a child genius, appearing to be only 14-16 years old, but already a renowned doctor and scientist. It is gradually revealed that he's obsessed with Re-L, and wishes to posses her. He's also quite a schemer, changing sides when it suits him best and repeatedly withholding information from people if it doesn't serve his interests. He's also revealed to be psychologically unstable and destructive, and is ( SPOILER ALERT ) later manipulated by Proxy One into destroying the dome protecting Romdeau ( END OF SPOILER )

There are three categories that, combined, give a final score for the visual aspect of any animated series: style, graphics and animation.

The style alone gets a full score of 10. The beautiful style is one of Ergo Proxy's highlights, and its mostly thanks to great character designs and, most of all, interesting and meticulously drawn post-apocalyptic environments and cities.

Character designs were clearly given much thought and work, and all of them are unique and memorable, especially Re-L, with her resemblance to Evanescence's leading singer Amy Lee.

The graphics don't get the same high score as style. While they are top quality for most of the time, especially for the show that was only meant to be released on DVD, every now and then the graphics are strikingly sloppy and cheap, lowering the otherwise high visual quality of the show. Normally highly detailed characters and backgrounds can get downgraded to being painfully simplified and plain, with most of their features and clothes barred to the bones, not to mention getting anatomically incorrect and/or inconsistent ( mostly it's the angle and the length of the nose, shape of the face etc. ) So the graphics get 7/10.

The animation is somewhat better than the graphics, but still not worthy of a straight "A" like the style. Again, it's fluid and high-quality for the most part, but the motions occasionally get a bit weird or unrealistic. The show is a bit static, but seeing as it's a suspend, and not an action series, it's not relevant to the animation's final score of 8/10.

P.S. The opening for this series is one of the best ones I've ever seen, combining the staggeringly detailed images with well-chosen music in what can only be called visual art.

The soundtrack is very good, serving its relatively limited purpose of setting the mood, due to the lack of more epic scenes. It achieves this with a combination of haunting vocals and modern instruments to paint the both grim and sterile world of Romdeau and desolate wastelands outside of it. Combined with stylish and dark visuals, the music delivers the almost sublime feel that really gets you immersed with the post apocalyptic world of Ergo Proxy.

The opening and ending theme songs are both great; the OP is "Kiri", a song in English performed by the Japanese band "Monorail". I was surprised to find out that the band is Japanese - the singer's English is that good ( far from your typical "Engrish" ). The ending theme is a popular song "Paranoid Android" by "Radiohead". Both songs suit the opening and ending, as well as the series as a whole.

Voice-acting is very good in both the Japanese and English version. Both the seiyu and the voice actors in English do a great job and each voice feels like it's made for the character. The greatest achievement of the voice acting, though, is Pino, who manages to be cute without having the annoying high-pitched voice those types of characters are usually graced with.

I could go on with each category ( and add some more ) and go into more detail, but that would require lots of spoiling and besides, I think the review is long enough as it is. So I'll wrap it up. Ergo Proxy had the misfortune to be assigned a director that was probably high for the whole time the series was made, and screwed the story that could have propelled it the prestigious club of anime classics. Instead, much of the show was pure mindfuck that left me almost angry at it for wasting my time. Does that mean Ergo Proxy is a bad anime? Of course not. There was still enough good bits of the plot ( mostly in the first 7-13 episodes ) for viewers to get some top-rate suspense, as well as high-quality visuals ( for most of the time ) and a number of great characters who just had the misfortune to finding themselves in such a shit-storm of a plot. Overall, Ergo Proxy gets a median rating of 6,4.

Would I recommend this anime to you? Not really, at least not watching all of the episodes, because if you're a reasonable person with a capacity for critical thinking ( unlike the people who gave his show 10/10 ) you won't enjoy the show because of the awful plot. Sci-fi and cyberpunk fans could like it ( to a degree ) and should give it a try, and as for everyone else, stay away from it.

Ergo Proxy is basically another puzzling, post-apocalyptic view of the future, which had the potential of being a superb show but there was way too much talk in this dreary show. The first couple of episodes have a "Ghost in the Shell" feel to them, where only the setting is explained and not much is given away, forcing you to figure it out yourself. This show does a terrible job in it's explanations as it force feeds the viewer with so much jargon and it's only the illegal fansub version that will help it all make sense, with their notes. Beyond this problem there is a brilliantstory that focuses on three main characters: Vincent (an immigrant with a hazy past and something special about him), Re-l (a detective in search of the truth) and Pino (an infected auto-rave). It isn't long before these three superb characters are thrown into a journey of self discovery and the stuff they discover is interesting and does a great job in revealing the link between Vincent and the title of this show "Ergo Proxy". In the midst of all this there are some spectacular action sequences however this occurs so rare that the show tends to get boring.

The production quality of the anime is way above average with animation so great you wouldn't want to blink. The artistry is amazing having a mix of 2D animation, 3D modeling and CG that go so well together. The action sequences are what show the full effect of the amazing animation where so much detail is put into every frame and what makes it even better is the slow motion effect. The only issue can be crowds, as the character models tend to degrade in quality when dealing with a lot of people.

The music is basically a compilation of alternative music that goes well with the eerie, moody atmosphere. For people who are fans of bands like Linkin Park will definitely like the opening and ending theme that will get you involuntarily humming the tune.

Overall this was a great show which had so much potential but with the lack of action, the superb animation does feel a bit wasted, plus there's all the winding talk. The 1st half of the show was done well but it did go downhill a bit in the 2nd half, where times when it's hard to tell if something is real or some kind of dream. There were also some incredibly stupid and weird episodes that attempts to be original but fails miserably. The show ends with some very confusing three episodes, which require a lot of thought to make any sense. So this anime is really just for people smart enough to understand its very obscure story and doesn't expect much from the action department.

^_^

Title: Ergo Proxy Manga, Anime: Ergo Proxy does have a two-volume spinoff illustrated by Yumiko Harao, the final volume of which was released on February 19th, 2007. What it's about, I'm not sure, as there's not a lot of information about it. It has yet to be licensed Stateside. Ergo Proxy is a 23-episode series that was created by Studio Manglobe (also famous for their work on Samurai Champloo) and directed by Shukuo Murase (famous for his work on Witch Hunter Robin). It ran on Japanese TV from February 26th to August 12th, 2006. Ergo Proxy has been licensed Stateside by Geneon (nowdefunct), and its sixth and final volume was released Stateside on September 25th, 2007.

Story: This is going to be a doozie.

Ergo Proxy kicks off in the domed city of Romdeau (possibly Engrish for London?), a city-state whose citizens are under a system of complete micromanagement, focusing on Re-L (or Lil, or Real, it depends on who you talk to, really) Mayar, an inspector for the government, and her Autoreiv (more or less robot) partner, Iggy. Re-L is tasked with investigating murder cases that have to do with the Autoreiv virus Cogito (which more or less makes them self-aware and has varying effects), which leads her to recent immigrant Vincent Law, and Pino, a companion-type Autoreiv. At about the same time, she is attacked by an unknown, monstrous, humanoid-like creature called a Proxy, after she finds the word "Awakening" written in red on her bathroom wall. All of this combines to draw her further into the case and further into the mysteries of Romdeau and the outside world.

...Honestly, it's hard to write a review for this show. I finished it at the end of last month, and I've been holding off on reviewing it, mainly because I've been struggling to find the right things to say about it.

The story started out good. The characters were intriguing and tolerable (except in the case of Re-L, who was something of a bitch, but still, you could stand her), and Pino was the cutest damn thing I've ever seen, and you wanted to see what was up with them. There were mysteries and they were intriguing, and you kept watching to find out what the hell was going on, and things were revealed that only begat more mysteries that were intriguing that you wanted to know more about. And it was all good and well.

Then, after the halfway point, Ergo Proxy began to fall apart.

Before this point, the writers decided to have many episodes take place in peoples' heads, so that you couldn't tell whether the entire episode had actually happened or not, or whether or not it actually had any bearing on what was going on. I thought this was just a phase, but that turned out to not be the case. You really couldn't tell what was going on during these episodes -- I had a friend who was, shall we say, not sober watching this with me, and even he couldn't figure out what the hell was going on (up till then, he had been able to do it). It really frustrated me, because this felt like a waste of the show's amazing potential.

Meanwhile, the show did what I always fear might happen in this situation, and pulled a Rozen Maiden, refusing to address any of the mysteries it had spent so much time building up, and kept on building up more and more mysteries.

And the story was depressing enough already, but then it took turns into just plain creepy, and that didn't help its case at all.

By the end of it all, it rivaled Rozen Maiden for the things it left untouched, and Nishi no Yoki Majo: Astraea Testament for the way it rather clumsily concluded things.

Overall, the second half of the show left a really bitter taste in my mouth. And it hurts to say that, because this show had SO much potential, and came so highly recommended to me by people on here who I really respect, and mainly for the story, too.

Looking at my favorite episodes for this series is really telling, as of the eight that I really liked in this series, seven of them came before the halfway point (about episode fourteen or fifteen), and only one came from after that.

However, it does win some points back for its use of obscure references to literature and mythology and several other things. And for Pino, who is the cutest damn thing ever, without being annoying.

Art: The art for this series is absofuckinglutely beautiful. The animation is amazingly smooth, and the 2D merges beautifully with the 3D, to the point where it's difficult to differentiate between the two. The character designs are absolutely amazingly and beautifully done, especially (and for the record, I maintain that Re-L's design is based off of Amy Lee of Evanesence). There's overwhelmingly darker, bleaker tones used here, but it works really well with the story.

Also, props for them getting the style right in a later episode, which is more or less a parody of Disney, and closely mimicks Disney's animation techniques.

No problems here.

Music: I honestly didn't notice the background music for this series. I'm currently in the process of finding the two OSTs, so I may update this later.

However, I'm really happy with the OP and ED. The OP was done by a Japanese rock group, sung in all English, and really good English, too. The ED is Radiohead's "Paranoid Android". If you don't know this song, you are a failure to the human race and need to go and find it and listen to it. NOW.

Seiyuu: Sanae Kobayashi (Eleanor Campbell in Victorian Romance Emma and Lucy/Nyuu in Elfen Lied) has a role in this, which was really nice. Otherwise, no other voices that I recognize, and good acting, all around.

Length: I honestly think that Ergo Proxy could've done to cut out maybe four or five episodes. Perhaps some of the mind-fucks that didn't really serve to do anything besides screw with your head. Either that, or rework those episodes so that they at least take care of some of the mysteries.

Any longer and I probably would've dropped it.

Overall: An amazing story that starts out good, but falls apart by the time the end comes around, whose length probably could've been toyed with, but, to its credit, has beautiful animation, solid seiyuu and a good OP/ED.

Story: 7

Art: 10

Music: 8

Seiyuu: 9

Length: 7

Overall: 41/50; 82% (B )

There is some spoilers into this, there is also me telling you that watching this is not worth any of your time. Ergo Proxy is one of these promising series that your friends tell you to watch and declare as "masterpiece." It was one of the series i expected to love the most, i thought it was going to be consistently good, and the first episode kinda told me that my friends were right, it had a lot of potential to it, it was promising, it had a touch of atmospheric space that got you into it, but what made this series so appealing inthe first episode fastly changed for some The Room Avant-Garde crap. I mean, i compare The Room to this, but i can give the credits to Wiseau atleast, for even trying.

Trying to immerse yourself into a toilet world where babies shit frootloops and babies give birth to adults, is more easy than to immerse yourself into that piece of crap that is Ergo Proxy.

Story - 2 First episode had structure, but it threw it fast away to try to be experimental, but you don't get experimental much with the biggest clichés in mystery storytelling. Ergo Proxy makes you fall gradually into an abyss of boredom. Episode 16 is probably the most boring and monotonous episode i have ever seen in an anime. Period. Episode 4 and 5 were a boring redneck vibes, monotonous piece of audio visuals that made you think more about what you're doing with your life than the child who just got killed, at this episode 4 i knew i f*cked up. Forever after come with what has already been done in the past, but way less ambitious and just... hahh.

Art - 4 Ergo Proxy succeeded in being interesting until episode 3, where you could clearly see that the structure was collapsing, and that the universe stopped being rigid, complete, real, unique to itself. It just became some trashy decor you'll see in an amateur movie with no skills for backgrounds whatsoever. The background, the environment was lacking in realism, it was lacking in everything it had no wish to make you immerse into it. It made you feel like they were trying something, while trying nothing at all. The visuals in it kept degrading like everything else.

Sound - 5 Sound was okay, sometimes it went off from what was happening on the screen, but i mean, this came out in 2006, and you can't expect the sound to save your background, your script, storytelling, you can't. Sound was probably the best thing about this show, it was mediocre but way better than the show itself, i would have listened to an album of the OSTs of Ergo Proxy instead of the show itself, if only i knew back then.

Character - 1 Characteristically speaking, Ergo Proxy had nothing to offer, neither Re-l or Vince had any depth, substance, or any characteric traits that made them interesting in the first place, nahh, it was the contrary, they never helped to try to keep that show alive and interesting, they were one of the core of why Ergo Proxy was painful to watch. Re-L could only complain and cute cute fanservice while being a complete dumbster while Vince was one of the most shallow and dense character in anime history.

Enjoyment - 1 Kill me, kill me please, it's probably what i was feeling deep inside. Why i am watching this while i could just rewatch Tokyo Ghoul first season, which is way more well executed and thoughtful than this thing, which is just edgy in the irritating sense. Edgy to be edgy. It tells you a lot when you remember something for how bad it was.

Overall - 4 This thing clearly has Velvet Underground and Lou Reed vibes to it, poor Lou Reed, i hope he is not associated with this, because it would only

be a shame to link a legend with this stuff that was so bland and empty,

it was just like watching nothing at all. It would just be an utter insult to Lou and his works. This show is a 4, first three episodes were watcheable, after it's just a downfall in a pool of garbage crap that never ceased to smell. I really wished i could get back the time i spent on it,

but it's too late, unfortunately.

Ergo Proxy. Wow. This one’s tough to review. Ergo Proxy is not your typical cyberpunk anime. For more, it doesn’t rely on heavy gun-fighting action scenes to grasp viewers’ attentions instead it uses mind-break and a very intriguing strange and dark atmosphere in a post-apocalyptic world. Though a post-apocalyptic world is something that is not new or could even be said overused, Ergo Proxy’s is fluid and very well thought out. Ergo Proxy stands out among other cyberpunk anime as this one is a truly original and is very unique as it takes on René Descartes’ very famous philosophical statement which is “cogito ergo sum” andviews it on different perspectives. “Cogito ergo sum” means “I think, therefore I am” is basically the main theme of the anime. The whole world of Ergo Proxy itself is based on this theme while questioning and taunting the said philosophical statement. Everything was built along with those lines while the story revolves around the characters who were searching for self-actualization over the course of 23 episodes.

Ergo Proxy has a very fast pacing which could indeed get you hooked for about 10minutes into the show. It started off with Re-l Mayer investigating cases of “AutoReivs” (Android-like companions) being infected with a virus called “cogito.” This “cogito” virus is a dangerous virus for humans as this “AutoReivs” once infected with the virus comes to a realization that they too have a heart thus leading to human-like emotions which could in turn lead to trouble as they now tend to act on how they feel but not on how their masters command them to. After some investigations, while at home, Re-l saw a word written in blood that stated “awakening” and was approached by an entity called a “PROXY.” A lot of these intriguing scenarios will be shed light upon as the story progresses. Interesting right? See episode 2 as I’m sure you’ll instantly get hooked.

Ergo Proxy presents different but very realistic problems including politics, ways of life, beliefs, and the search for one’s true self. Treading along the anime, these issues will be faced with subtlety and precision without ever being dragging. Though its pacing is very fast, some might be surprised as at the middle of the anime, somewhere past around 13 episodes, it went to a complete halt as it now focused on the changes that are happening with the characters. We now see Pino’s journey for self-actualization, Vincent’s search for the truth, and Re-l’s changing feelings for the ones around her. These episodes are not entirely focused on the characters though; some contains bags of clues about the reality of Ergo Proxy while some are just placed there to add to the length or simply called fillers. Though these episodes might be fillers, you wouldn’t immediately recognize that they are, as these fillers have a knack of making your brain burst out leaving you thinking for hours about what really happened; but even if you’ve managed to solve what was the episode about, it wouldn’t change anything as these fillers were totally irrelevant to the main point of the story.

After some episodes that contain complete mindfuck which in turn made the story stagnant, Ergo Proxy now picks up on what it has left for the grand finale. If there was anything that I could really complain about Ergo Proxy, it would be the ending. For a total mind-breaking anime, I couldn’t ignore that some loose ends were still loose and some missing links were still missing. It actually felt like the anime was saying that it’s up to the viewers to figure out what happened about this or that; well for a total mindfuck anime, maybe it is really trying to do that. But still, it doesn’t hinder the thrilling rollercoaster ride I got from this anime.

What I absolutely find fascinating in Ergo Proxy is the gradual development of our three main characters. As I’ve said, Pino is in a journey of self-actualization and being infected by the cogito virus, this slowly transforms Pino from an emotionless companion-type AutoReiv to something that is more if not, realistically human. Vincent on the other hand, is in search for his true self as it was stated that he was brainwashed and is now on his way looking for answers. At first, I honestly thought that Vincent was a major wimpy guy, but he turned out to be one of the coolest male leading characters out there. As the story goes along, he gradually changes as the truth about him are unveiled. Lastly, Re-l is not your typical bad-ass girl who wields dual pistols and can shoot anyone with her eyes closed. No, she is your normal snobbish lady who gets scared, weak and is worth protecting; only thing is she’s really courageous or more like stubborn. After some realizations and some great revelations, you will notice her gradual change of heart regarding everyone around her. All of these traits make them look very real as humans which made me really admire Ergo Proxy as this is a hard one to pull off considering that the setting is in a post-apocalyptic world.

I believe that the production value of this anime is high as the animation was fluid and the backgrounds were simply amazing. From the desolated wastelands to the deserted cities, all were done with accuracy. Sometimes though, I think the lighting is somewhat of a bother as it tends to be too dark that you’ll have difficulty seeing what’s really happening. Character designs however were very human-like and if you’ve seen Witch Hunter Robin, it is very much the same. But there were also inconsistencies as sometimes, when looked from afar, the facial structure of the characters becomes distorted. Nevertheless, the animation was really good leaving you wanting for more.

Pino’s character design however was so adorable and lovely that no one could ever ignore her cuteness. Though this is not a comedy anime, sometimes you’ll find yourself smiling and even touched for the cute things she does. Often too that Pino’s character is matched with the dramatic scenes of this anime that you could even feel a small aching on your chest.

What made this successful was Pino’s seiyuu Akiko Yakima. She portrays her lines very well which fits the cute attitude of Pino. And I’m not saying that Pino has the only voice acting that was good, in fact all of the voices behind the characters were astounding. Not to mention that the opening and ending song were very good which weren’t J-pop but rather alternative English songs. The opening song (kiri) sets a thought-provoking environment while the ending song (PARANOID ANDROID) finishes what the opening has brought forth. The background music during scenes is good in setting the mood if it is meant to be thrilling or meant to be dramatic. And who could ignore the amazing use of background silence? Rarely could you see an anime that uses silence and be excellent with doing so.

Overall, Ergo Proxy is a very unique anime that could give you one hell of a ride all the way through. If it weren’t for the unneeded fillers and a much clearer explanation of things, then this would be something phenomenal. It is a true brain-twister that will leave you puzzled for hours just because of some certain events. If you’re into mentally challenging anime, then this is definitely for you. I certainly enjoyed it and much likely that you will too.

Just to summarize things:

Ergo Proxy = MINDFUCK.

Overview: Have you ever seen an art house film? Perhaps a film by David Lynch or Cronenberg? Perhaps you have heard of the film Solaris by Tarkovsky (not that garbage remake)? Solaris combines an interesting science fiction plot with realistic characters, existentialist themes, and of course mind bending WTF moments. What if you brought Tarkovsky back from the dead, flew his ass to Japan, and made him direct an anime? The result would be Ergo Proxy! Story: 9/10 The story takes place in what appears at first to be a utopian future, but soon we see the truth is somewhat darker. Everyone is born with a given purpose.People are artificially grown and have long lost the ability to reproduce naturally through sex. People are ruled very closely by a council of intelligent super computers and their decisions are made for them. Androids act as servants for mankind, but are beginning to gain artificial intelligence due to the "cognito" computer virus and starting to rebel. The Earth's environment has been so completely destroyed that people are forced to live in domed cities, that they are born in and will almost certainly die in without ever knowing what's outside. It is unknown in the main city how many other domed cities are left out there, but it is said that a war took place a few years before the start of the story between 2 of them. The most mysterious creatures of this world are the Proxy, which have immortality like Gods due to having cells with no Hayflick limit that can divide infinitely without telomere shortening or other problems. The Proxy also have superhuman strength, speed, and powers, but little is known about them. Most denizens of the dome called Romdeau are unaware that Proxy even exist. A police investigator named Re-L pronounced "real" (did I mention this was an existentialist series), is sent to investigate a mysterious murder and encounters 2 Proxies. She then meets an unusual man named Vincent Law who claims to have come from another dome city, but has lost much of his memory. Together the 2 must find the secrets of this twisted world and most importantly, what are the proxies and why do they exist?

Characters: 9/10

Re-L is a no nonsense, strong female protagonist and a highly competent detective. Although she can act spoiled at times, and can be quite unintentionally funny. Re-L seems cold and heartless at first, but she learns to care for Vincent and the adorable Pinako and does actually have a strong sense of justice. Vincent is about the 5,000th anime main character to suffer from amnesia, but we will cut him a bit of slack. He is actually a fairly interesting character the more we learn about him and his past. Pinako is an android in the form of a little girl. She provides much the comedy in this series and pretty much all of the awww how adorable moments. I'm surprised Rena from Higurashi didn't invade out of left screen and run off carrying Pinako. There are other characters too including the fabulously gay Raoul, and the ever creepy scientist Daedalus. Is Daedalus a man or a woman? I'm not sure we will ever know. Even Freeza was less gender ambiguous.

Art: 8/10

Ergo Proxy looks great in its character designs, backgrounds, and animation. The often haunting and surreal visuals are a huge part of this series.

Music: 9/10

Radiohead FTW!

Enjoyment: 8/10

Remember in the overview when I compared it to Solaris? That was a movie where the director intentionally made the first 20 minutes as boring as possible so in his own words: "all the stupid people will leave the theater". Ergo Proxy is kind of like that. It has some VERY slow portions and you will also HATE this series if you demand everything make sense right away. Ergo Proxy loves above all else to fuck with the viewer's mind. Your brain will probably explode at least a dozen times watching Ergo Proxy, so I am not sure if its healthy to watch in one binge. This anime has more mind fuck moments than any anime I have ever seen. It makes Eraser Head look like a normal everyday popcorn flick.

Overall: 9/10

This is a VERY different and unique series that I would highly recommend checking out. I mentioned in my Mushishi review that Ergo Proxy is more similar to Mushishi than anything else I have seen, but distinctly different at the same time. Mushishi doesn't want to mess with your mind so badly and each episode actually makes sense the first time you watch it. However, the artsy, serious, somber, and philosophical nature of both shows so far removed from fan service, harems, and other anime cliche's are quite similar. I personally liked Ergo Proxy more than Mushishi, but I am aware that I am in the minority on that one. Ergo Proxy doesn't have any characters quite as charismatic and popular as Ginko. What it does have is more of plot with a lot more to tease your brain and make you think.

PS. you can also play the Ergo Proxy drinking game. Every time someone name drops a famous philosopher take a drink. Every time a scene references a famous movie take a drink. (take 3 vodka shots if its Battleship Potemkin). Every time Raoul appears on screen dressed fabulous take a sip. (you don't want to die of cirrhosis). Every time you here someone scream VINCENTO RAW take a sip. Every time something bizarre and totally random happens take a drink. You thought the "Withnail and I" drinking game was bad? You haven't played this one.

Oooh, Ergo Proxy. This is going to be an interesting series to talk about. Ergo Proxy is probably one of THOSE shows if you get what I mean. It’s a series that is very complicated yet interesting in terms of how it sets up its own story structures. It’s never meant to be relatively easy to understand but from the looks of it, it can create twists and/or have characters explore around while they develop their own ideals. Sure, it’s going to take a little longer given its moderate runtime but it might still tell you how its story will go. In theory, this israther pleasing. But even then, is it going to be good enough to hold up until the end? Well, let’s jump into the talk, shall we?

Before we explain how the series goes into practice, what is Ergo Proxy? Ergo Proxy is about reality being forced to replace humans with mysterious creatures named, you guessed it, Proxies. Both humanity and the Proxie have a visceral relationship with one another and the latter wants to reign supreme. In our main location, the domed city of Rondo, where the remaining humans live, we have our main detective named Re-L and she will investigate the vile mysteries happening along with the help of the companions called AutoReivs. Ergo Proxy has a lot of interesting ideas, to say the least. As mentioned, the premise behind it is very complicated but it still has distinct elements we can explore. The whole humanity vs Proxy thing is crazy and we could still make it more enticing.

The start of this series is pretty decent in my opinion. We first get to see some humans and their robot companions experimenting with what a Proxy is capable of. As we all know, Proxies are very strong and aren’t really something we can easily experiment with. That’s where our main detective, Re-L, comes into play. Re-L is hired to investigate the Proxies around and her goal is to take them down before they can cause any more trouble. And even she isn’t that strong to take on them on her own. She needs to develop more strategies in order to make things a little easier. Initially, we get to see some pretty compelling characterization around this one. On the surface, this is pleasing. Showing us what Proxies are capable of and how they clash with the human race is pretty good.

‘ahem’ On the SURFACE

After the start of the series, you’ll notice that something’s off with the story. That is sadly where this series goes downhill. The issue with the series is how it tries very hard to be serious. I get it, you want to be very serious. That’s totally fine. Do that as you wish. It’s just that it constantly wants to be smarter than it really is by throwing a shit load of philosophical monologues around. Now, philosophical monologues are not even bad on their own. They’re actually good if you connect them well with the story and/or character(s). That’s something Ergo Proxy fails to recognize. The monologues could have been a lot better if the story didn’t just spit them out and put them on the floor, probably never to be touched ever again when another episode comes into play. The best way to describe the story is that it’s pretentious. No, really, it’s pretentious in the sense that it tries to be deep when it’s surface level at best.

Another problem with the series is how much potential there is thrown away. The relationship between humanity and the Proxies is actually great. We could have seen more from it if the series hadn’t treated that idea as a poor cat on the streets. All we have left right now are a bunch of concepts we can observe for a little while before we move on without realizing how they reach their maximum potential. Let’s face it, we can headcanon how those concepts go better than this show. Those concepts, as I said earlier, could have been explored more if the series didn’t waste its time trying to appear smart. This leads to not only confusion (and not in a sense that could elevate the story higher) but also frustration. It’s head-scratching to see how we get to see SOME buildup happening and afterward, they’re abandoned as if they’re grocery stuff we don’t need on our list.

This also applies to symbolism, by the way, and it’s more frustrating than ever. Symbolism is an interesting beast in Ergo Proxy where it may give you hints on how mysteries happen, especially with how Proxies originated. There are some hints pointed out but other than that, almost all of them are also wasted. Like the monologues, symbolism is just thrown out just so the series can appear smarter. Symbolism in general shouldn’t really be used all the time, to begin with. What do I mean by this? Let’s take a little look at Serial Experience Lain where that show doesn’t use its own symbolism countless times but it properly uses them when it carefully creates either a twist or a slow buildup to convince audiences what’s happening. Yes, I’m aware that both SEL and Ergo Proxy are different shows but even then, the principal stands. My point of this contrast is that symbolism isn’t a toy you can play with all the time. Symbolism is something that gives you a hint/idea when you create a figurative story. That’s something that, again, Ergo Proxy fails to understand.

Lastly, and I’m surprised that not many people point this out but I can’t stress to you how bad the filler is. It seems like Ergo Proxy occasionally runs out of ideas when trying to be serious so to “compensate” for that, it creates episodes that are comedic yet have nothing to do with the plot. Here’s an example, there’s this episode called “Nightmare Quiz Show” (episode 15, to be exact) where the characters play a quiz. Now this may bring in variety but it leans too much on what the episode is about and not what the overall story is about. Basically, it just leans on comedy for the vast majority of the episode’s runtime. A similar case can be said with some other episodes like “Eternal Smile” (episode 19). As we keep needing to come back to it, it adds nothing to the story and just leans on comedy. Ergo Proxy isn’t supposed to be an anime to do this kind of thing, since it’s about seriousness and mystery-solving. But we have those happening anyway.

The character writing is also subpar. Let’s start with Re-L, the main detective, Vincent, the immigrant, and Pino, the main AutoReiv. Starting with Re-L, she’s a passable character, I guess. She has this cool no-nonsense personality and she does her job. But she isn’t fleshed out enough for me to care about. Moving to Vincent and oh boy, there are so many wrong things with his character. Now, he is a very important character but the series made him as if he shouldn’t exist in the first place. The nail in the coffin of his character in my opinion is when he’s revealed to be the Ergo Proxy which, again, seems cool but the whole thing is rushed which leads to yet another line of pretentiousness. Lastly, Pino is just there. She isn’t a remotely bad character also but she doesn’t have much personality to show. Yeah, she’s a main companion but that’s basically about it.

The side characters kind of suck. Yeah, they have their purposes as well but they still aren’t really properly executed characters, to begin in, even if they’re supporting ones. They only exist just so they can push the plot forward in case the writing for the main cast isn’t “enough”. There isn’t much to say about them honestly.

Now, the final important element to cover is the ending. Now, this is arguably the most controversial part of Ergo Proxy but I actually think the ending is pretty decent and is the best part of the show. It’s not too amazing all things considered but it ties up most of the plot points quite nicely and isn’t rushed, even if some others are still left in the dust, unlike the rest of the story. It does at least address what happened in the series.

It’s a shame with how Ergo Proxy’s writing is resulted because the visuals are actually great. They’re not too simplistic but not too complicated either. The details are executed well, especially with character designs, and the animation flows very nicely. The soundtrack is amazing and my personal favorite part of the show. The same goes with the voice acting and of course, how can we forget about Megan Hollingshead as Re-L in the English dub? Still the best voice acting in the show. That said, both the Japanese and English voice-acting are equally great in their very own rights.

And those are my opinions on Ergo Proxy. There are a lot of interesting things we can observe but most of them are never used properly by the show and it leads to not only unnecessary confusion but also blatant frustration on top of it. There are ways the show can handle complexity well and yet, it doesn’t even realize that from left to right. Now, that isn’t to say don’t watch this series. I’m not trying to be objective with all these points. If you have a high chance to enjoy or love this series then go for it. I have nothing against it. But if you manage to read all of what I just said, you at least heard my two cents.

Most Ergo Proxy fans tend to discredit other people who couldn't appreciate this "masterpiece" as either filthy casuals or plain stupid. I get that viewers sometimes need to put effort in understanding the concept of the show and I certainly have no problem doing just that. The thing is, if such effort is required to comprehend what is being conveyed due to the myriad of heavy and "deep" philosophical references and symbolism slapped in it every ten seconds, then maybe you have taken your humongous piece of convoluted fluff one step too far. If you are unwilling to delve further into this review, I'll givea short explanation as to why I'm rating it this low: Ergo Proxy's story lacks cohesiveness with a lot of pointless meandering, underwhelming characterization, bleak presentation, and terribly slow pacing. It tries too hard to be deeply philosophical that it's painful.

Ergo Proxy tackles a lot of really interesting themes: self-discovery, mental illness, doomed Utopian city, etc. The thing is, it presents them in the most uninteresting, borderline comprehensible way possible. It's the type of show that raises new questions almost every episode and you're lost just about half the time. Sure, those questions are eventually answered in the last 2 or so episodes, but for a near 10-hour investment, I genuinely feel it wasn't worth it. It's slow-paced with a lot of randomly baffling scenes, most of them don't actually contribute to the plot and were just haphazardly slapped in there to make it even more confusing. It would have been much more tolerable had it been 10 episodes less than its actual count.

I care so much about how the story is presented as much as the story itself. Ergo Proxy is an experimental anime meant to be complex. It doesn't spoon-feed the audience and it requires them to think—something that I do appreciate. Ergo Proxy just struck a different cord for me. As I previously mentioned, it tries too hard to be deeply philosophical, but is ultimately just a huge clusterfuck with its disjointed narrative and concepts. It didn't properly establish the setting and whatever questions about how Romdeau came about were touched upon in a weirdly placed game show episode in the middle of the series like it was some kind of an afterthought. The Cogito virus wasn't also explained properly even though it's one of the most influential aspects in the story. But hey, it was probably intended to be "mysterious" right? Come on.

Then there are the characters. One of the most common comment I've seen on the boards is how the characters are extremely well-written and "unique." To each his own I guess, because I honestly found both Re-l and Vincent Law as equally dull as the show's atmosphere. Vincent Law, who actually is the central character of the story, doesn't have any particularly gripping characteristic besides the mystery that encapsulates his life. Even then I didn't find that mystery compelling and because it's made apparent in the beginning that he is the Ergo Proxy. Set that aside, Vincent is too plain, too basic, too ordinary for me to be invested in. In short, he is forgettable.

What's even worse is that the story is dedicated to an entire journey for the sole purpose of finding out who or what exactly is Vincent Law, and I guess that's the reason why this show almost bored me to death. While there should be a lot of intrigue in that premise, I simply couldn't connect with his character. He never really gave me a reason to, so why should I care? Re-l, on the other hand, acts as an edgy, spoiled brat for the most part. While I couldn't care less about Vincent, how she treats him during their voyage was extremely annoying and almost abusive considering that he was nothing but good to her. Even in the height of the climax up to the conclusion, her treatment of him had very little improvement. Pino and Raul Creed are honestly the only ones I can stand and found to be far more intriguing than the main characters. The rest of the cast are uninteresting weirdos that are as forgettable as Vincent is.

I'm not exactly sure what a "deep" anime is supposed to be like, but I sure know Ergo Proxy is certainly confusing. My problem with it isn't the intricate symbolism and heavy philosophical elements. It's the narrative, the often lack of continuity in it, and uninteresting and bland main characters. This review is as much as what I personally feel about it. And what I feel about Ergo Proxy is that it is the most bleak, meandering, convoluted journey to truth and self-discovery I've ever seen. I did not find it enriching nor entertaining in the least bit.

Ergo proxy, for me, started off as a completely unknown story which I came across while randomly searching for interesting anime to watch. The anime remained on my PTW list for a while until someone mentioned how cool it was and they definitely would recommend watching it soon. So, of course, I had to check it out. My only thought when I began was, “the girl with the blue eyeshadow,” but after watching the first episode, I was very intrigued, especially with the entrance of two strange beings known as Proxies. Story: 8/10 Like many anime, they throw you into the main story, introducing the main characterslike the female inspector, Re-l Mayer, who is the granddaughter of the Regent, and Vincent Law, an immigrant from another city who is trying to gain citizenship in the “paradise” city, Romdeau. The people of Romdeau may strike you as strange but only because they are made to become ideal citizens and function by the city’s schedule. The city exists within a dome, isolated from the outside world, a harsh world which was destroyed many years ago by a large scale chemical disaster. Within the city, a virus known as the cogito virus becomes an escalating problem. It is capable of infecting their personal robot assistants, Auto-Reivs, causing them to gain human-like traits and thought patterns. This becomes a problem as they begin rebelling against their masters, and in some cases, kill them. The being known as a Proxy, is shrouded in mystery as their exact purpose is kept hidden from society until one day, Re-l is attacked in her apartment by a masked Proxy. From then on, she develops a strange attraction and curiosity towards the Proxy and decides to investigate their reason for existence.

At the same time, the immigrant, Vincent Law, is accused of being involved with cogito virus after being attacked by another Proxy which has a strange attraction to him. He flees after being targeted by the Security Bureau of Romdeau and escapes from the dome and along with an infected child-like Auto-Reiv named Pino. Together, they discover that the outside world is not as desolate as they were led to believe… Anymore and this may just become spoilers.

This story may not be for those who prefer simple and straight forward shounen. It is not about the ‘power to protect’ or ‘loyalty to nakama’. As it is a seinen anime (though not mentioned on MAL), it is much more serious and complex. The series is extremely psychological to a point where the thoughts of the main characters begin affect their reality and it requires the viewer to be capable of certain level of understanding. Once you understand it though, the story is amazing to watch unfold.

Art: 8/10

The art can only be described as dark. Anything other than gray tones and deep, dark colours would detract from the story’s theme. The world itself, in the story, is somewhat dark so the anime’s art fits it perfectly. One note is that at some points, the facial features of the characters seem weirdly distorted. It make not affect the story but can but somewhat distracting.

Sound: 8/10

The opening theme used for the entire series was "Kiri" by MONORAL. In my opinion, I would say that it was well suited to the story. It created a mood which I still can’t describe but nonetheless kept my interest in the anime. "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead was the ending. Both the instrumental and actual song was used to good effect also. The OSTs were neither corny nor overdramatic and helped set the mood for the anime’s events.

Character: 9/10

I have to say that the main characters, who all seem so different, actually mesh well once they begin to interact. Each of them is very relatable in terms of how they deal with various events in the anime. Their abilities and personalities are not unrealistic to a point where they are so strong, that no one can stop them. Also, their designs do not scream 'fanservice' since anything of the sort would just ruin the show.

First off, there’s Re-l Mayer, the strict, military-minded investigator. To her grandfather, as well as the Security Bureau, she is seen as a rebel. She goes out of her way to investigate anything she deems suspicious, even against advice of others. She considers Romdeau as a “boring paradise” until she is confronted by a Proxy. When she discovers the outside world, she becomes a bit obsessed with idea of people surviving outside the dome. At times, her vulnerability is evident but generally, she creates a wall between herself and those she interacts with. She comes off as a spoilt brat for most of the first part of series due to the fact that she is sort of royalty in Romdeau, with her grandfather being the Regent. After meeting and traveling with Vincent and Pino, her personality takes a turn for the better.

Vincent Law, the immigrant from another dome city, met with Re-l to get assistance on becoming a citizen of Romdeau. Their personalities clashed immediately. He, unlike Re-l, is caring and worries most of the time. This is due to the fact that he has amnesia and often finds himself in situations which he cannot explain. He is also infatuated by Re-l and seems kind of stalker like. Through his thoughtfulness, he is able to befriend others like Pino and eventually, Re-l. Most of his part in the show revolves around his journey to recover his memories.

Pino is a Companion-type Auto-Reiv designed to assist with household activities and was given to a rich family in Romdeau. After crossing paths with a Proxy who was in pursuit of Vincent, she became infected by the cogito virus. She developed an attraction to Vincent and followed him outside the city’s dome. Just like her appearance, her personality after being infected, is that of a child. Initially, she acts by mimicking others around her. Later on, she does learn to think for herself and becomes more of an individual. She provides support to Vincent on his journey to his home city. Her actions intrigued Re-l when they meet and she spent much of her time observing Pino. Pino is usually the one who would instigate comedic moment within the story, causing Vincent to become involved, and Re-l to be annoyed.

Other characters include Re-l’s personal “entourage,” the Auto-Reiv, Iggy, who takes care of her everyday needs but is also used to observe her actions when she goes on investigations. There is the young scientist, Daedalus Yumeno, who seems slightly obsessed with Re-l but is still her friend; Raul Creed, who is the appointed Director of Romdeau and the Regent, who is Re-l’s grandfather and the man controlling Romdeau from behind the scenes.

There are also the Proxies of which little is known. They are strong beings and are associated with spreading the cogito virus.

Enjoyment: 9/10

This series became one of my definite favourites after completing it. Every aspect of the show had me interested. I watched this anime out in two days despite having exams. Yes, I know I should have been studying but it was that good. If you enjoy shows that tax the brain, then this is for you.

Overall: 8/10

Being one of my favourites, I give this a 8/10. I definitely recommend it as it has a bit of everything within the plot. It’s a great ride with a satisfying ending though by the end, you’ll be wishing there was a second season. Yes, there are many who would say that the anime’s creators were trying too hard to come up with something unique and are pretentious. Others might have dropped the series because of its complex plot. To those, all I can say is that they may not have the ability to recognize a great story and are just out there to criticize anything unknown to them. Hopefully, this review will get you interested so that you will go watch it and become a fan like I did. And if you liked my review, you can always stop by my profile and drop a comment to let me know. Thanks for taking the time to read this review.