This series, by the producers of Samurai Champloo, is set in a futuristic utopian (read: dystopian) city, Romudo, where humans and robots (called autolaves) coexist and where peace and harmony are ensured through a system of central management that essentially discards emotion from society. However, a homicide shatters the regulated peace of the society, and Lil Meyer, a young and ambitious investigator from the Citizen Information Board, is assigned to unravel the mystery behind the murder, and as she uncovers more and more information, she stumbles upon a secret that threatens to change Romudo forever.
Description: shinsengumi
Anybody but me come to the realization that animes that revolve around future Earth are always depressing? We're either under attack from aliens or have completely destroyed civilization as we know it. I guess anime takes a page from American cinema a la Mad Max and just figures that the future is going to suck. Well here we go again with Ergo Proxy.
Through mankind's actions, black skies and barren wasteland is all that is left of the Earth. All remaining humans have all taken up residence in the last beacon of civilization; Romdo. Romdo is a society completely controlled by it's government. The government controls the destinies of its citizens from their place in society all the way to birth rates. Romdo is a dome that houses not only humans but AutoReivs, the servants to humankind. AutoReivs aren't like normal robots but are instead assigned by the government for certain tasks. There are ones for defense, maintenance, companionship and ones known as Entourages which are nothing more than personal sidekicks. Romdo slowly starts to fall apart as a virus known as cogito begins infecting AutoReivs. The cogito virus essentially gives the AutoReivs a soul and free will. Since this usually ends up with AutoReivs going rogue, they are usually killed soon after contracting this virus. But even that isn't the worst of Romdo's problems. The Proxy they held in captivity has escaped.
Follow the lives of Re-l Mayer and Vincent Law. Re-l is the granddaughter of the current leader of Romdo and a member of the Citizen Information Bureau. She has been tasked with solving the mysterious murders that have recently been going on. After finishing her days work, she is confronted in her home by the escaped Proxy. She starts to investigate but finds that the government isn't too keen on her snooping around. Something much more sinister is going on. Enter Vincent Law. Vincent is an immigrant from a land outside of Romdo. Because of that he is known exactly as that, an immigrant. Immigrants must work for the government doing any kinds of tasks to gain "fellow citizen" rank. While Vincent is trying to achieve that status, he finds himself constantly being chased by a Proxy himself. What is the connection? What is the government hiding? What are the Proxies?
After reading those two paragraphs you may be scratching your head. When watching Ergo Proxy that isn't an uncommon reaction. The show tends to presume that you are easily keeping up with the random and all out confusing plot that it is trying to shell out. You don't get straight up story telling but instead get a labyrinthian story that you need to somehow figure out how to navigate. The point of the story is to go to Vincent's home town, figure out what the Proxies are and figure out his past. It could be that simple. Instead we get episodes with a game show that you either score 1,000,000 points on or you die or an episode of a city that is a giant amusement park where you smile from birth til death... uhh what? I'm sure they were trying to make some kind of point with this but it ended up being distracting more than anything.
Initially I loved the show. It has a fantastic atmosphere and a very interesting story. The potential of finding out what the Proxies are, how the world is outside of Romdo, the true nature of Vincent and Re-l... they all seemed intriguing. But once the main characters left the city on their journey to find those answers, that's when it went south. A confusing plotline and at times dreadfully boring doomed this series not long after. Even in the end I still felt a bit confused and felt as if it was all a bit anticlimactic.
Rating:
Review equipment: 29'' Sony Bravia LCD HDTV and Sony Playstation 3. DVD upscalled to 1080i.
I remember wanting to see this show because it was being touted as the first anime ever filmed in HD. High definition anime... oh finally my TV purchase will be justified. Thankfully, Ergo Proxy pulls through big time in the animation department. The first thing that should be addressed is the character animations. Humans characters are all animated in a very lifelike manner. There are no crazy hairstyles or colors. No gravity defying breast physics. Very dark hair and skin untouched by the sun is the norm here. Basic character designs on the whole are quite plain and not that of the typical anime, which works for this kind of atmosphere. AutoReivs animation varied based on the type and the age, which was a nice touch. Newer models were less distinguishable from human beings while older ones were obvious to be robots. But, the thing that stands out most is the background animations and the few action sequences. All backgrounds gave you feeling of that hopeless and virtually lifeless world. Lots of grays and blacks were used in creating that sterile, futuristic atmosphere. The world outside of Romdo was much like looking at an endless dried up lake where no life is thriving.
Is Ergo Proxy worthy of a 10 in animation... not quite. I do have one minor gripe with an overall superb presentation. Character detail and definition really suffers when not shown up close. When a character is shown in a full body shot and away from the camera, they lose almost all detail. Faces become barely distinguishable aside from a poorly drawn mouth, eyes and nose.
Rating:
The music in Ergo Proxy can best be described as, appropriate. The opening and closing songs are both English songs which fit quite nicely and do a great job setting the atmosphere. The opening is "kiri" by MONORAL and the closing is "PARANOID ANDROID" by Radiohead. While instrumentally they both fit well I think the opening suffers a bit with it's overly redundant lyrics. Aside of that, the background music is quite good although very infrequent. There are only a few BGM's that ever play and they don't play all that often. They are really only used when there is a tense scene or an action scene. They do the job well but for the most part you have to depend on character interaction for your ear candy.
Which brings us to characters. Primarily you will hear three voices; Re-l, Vincent and Pino. Re-l is voiced by Rie Saitou and does a spot on job portraying the conflicted Re-l. Ranging from outright BeeItch (clever eh?) to conflicted, Rie makes Re-l an interesting character to follow. Vincent is voiced by Kouji Yusa, a name I don't recall ever hearing. Vincent ends up sounding much like an older version of Shinji Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion for the uninitiated) in that all he likes to do is whine to others and argue with himself via internal monologue. Kouji voiced the character well, even if the character kinda sucked. Pino... oh Pino. Pino was voiced by Akiko Yajima and proved to be the light that shined through the darkness. Pino was a cogito infected AutoReiv that escaped with Vincent and traveled with him. She is a young companion type AutoReiv just acting like an innocent child and discovering the emotions that come with her new soul. She's always playing hide and go seek, throwing snowballs and coloring. Her innocence and playfulness brightens up any scene and Akiko makes that happen.
Rating:
When watching Ergo Proxy you'll find yourself going through three phases:
1. "Oh that was cool!"
2. "Umm, what the hell just happened?"
3. "Oh now I get it... I think... wait, no I don't"
Needless to say it's confusing throughout. I'm sure there are some reading this who are thinking I'm an outright idiot, which is fine. But I personally enjoy coherent story telling with twists and confusion throughout that all come together nicely in the end. I don't want psycho babble and episodes that just seem to exist for no other purpose than to extend the life of the anime. There was a good story hiding in there somewhere, but the dear creators hit it over the head with a shovel and buried it deep within the Earth. You get great animation, good music and a few great scenes here and there, but the overall experience just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
Normally I try to recommend this to a certain type of group, but I can't this time. Honestly this show is going to be a craps shoot. Some will love it, some will hate it... it's just hard to tell where everyone falls on this one.
Man this one was hard to write...
Rating:
6.0000 (average)
Reviewed by shoujoboy, Jan 08, 2008
First of all, I'm surprised you picked this one, 'cause aren't you the shoujoboy? XD This one seems rather dark.
I've seen previews and promos for this and have been curious about it (since the few scenes I saw reminded me a tiny bit of Witch Hunter Robin), but I don't think I'd enjoy a complicated and twisted/random plot much (even Noir confused me >__> ) ^^;
What are the fight scenes like? Is there lots of action in this series compared to character/plot development?
The only reason I watched this was coz Real Mayer was so hot. :D
A very nice review. Thanks for that. I absolutely love this series! No bad taste in my mouth after all episodes. Liked every minute of every single episode. Maybe I am bit biased ;) ?
Quote by MapleRoseFirst of all, I'm surprised you picked this one, 'cause aren't you the shoujoboy? XD This one seems rather dark.
I've seen previews and promos for this and have been curious about it (since the few scenes I saw reminded me a tiny bit of Witch Hunter Robin), but I don't think I'd enjoy a complicated and twisted/random plot much (even Noir confused me >__> ) ^^;
What are the fight scenes like? Is there lots of action in this series compared to character/plot development?
The plot is very deep and confusing at first. I watched the series twice until I began to absorb the plot, although after episode 12 things begin to clear just a little bit.
I am very impressed with your speculation, since Ergo Proxy carries gloominess of "Witch Hunter Robin" a lot. Even the Melancholic notion seem to hang in the air all through the series. There's no light in it until the very last seconds of its ending.
I don't know about your action and fighting preferences, but I cannot call the action scenes that harsh. They are moderate. There are blood scenes and brutality in fights as are needed and character's personality allows it. Nevertheless, there are also occasions where they have completely dismissed the fight presentation and simply sticked with the outcome of fights. Hope that that could help you.
________________
@shoujoboy
Thanks for the review. It's detailed and over all nicely done and very informative. :) I specially liked the way
you explained the Plot and Characters.
And again, sorry for the mistake. In fact I was a bit confused when I read your Art Review and accidentaly looked at the rating above (!) X-P instead of looking down.
How exactly can you rate the art section much higher? I gave it a '9', so much higher isn't even possible. There are a few things in your comment that makes me scratch my head as I really don't know what you are getting at or where you drew your conclusions from.
perhaps the creators made a good story seemed nothing but a fraction of trick
i should say it's beautiful
i just love the visual shock it brought to me which is just unique
as shoujoboy said,the BGM is rarely used in this anime
but when it appears.it comes with a little shock
i downloaded the OST just to find it's really awesome
i think the theme of the story Ergo Proxy telling is something about philosophy
but i'm not so sure
just like shoujoboy
i don't recomend this anime to anyone that goes for things interesting
as i konw this anime is not something interesting but frozen
I've just finished watching Ergo Proxy. The last episodes were excruciating. I totally agree with your review. Its animation is great (the design of Ergo Proxy, Real Mayer...they were wonderful, the gray background), but when fully presented they are poorly drawn. It starts in a great manner, just makeing you sooo curious but after watching Deus Ex Machina (last ep.) I'm like..scratching my head and saying....what? Ok so I get it: they wanted to make it deep and interesting and original (I didn't even minded The quiz ep. and Smile Land ep., not to mention the episode where Vincent dreams he's Real and Real is Vincent and whatever)...but it came up messy, complicated, overpretentious, stiff...Again a brilliant idea ruined. Not to mention the boredom: I was begging for a finale...And the explanation: oh, come on! I'm a bit mad. It could have been great...
thanks for the review. this show sounds awesome.
very good review,thanks
this show is weird xD
Good review.
Thanks for the review!
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