0
0
Year: 2006
Genre: Cyberpunk, psychological, suspense
Episodes: 23
Rating: 3 out of 5
What would you do if you lost your memories? Would you search for them and try to remember who you were? On this journey, you start to realize that the memories you once lost are ones that show you were indeed a being not of this world. Would you still search for them, or would you stop and tell yourself to forget it and start a brand-new life?
Ergo Proxy is an anime that came along a will confuse the mess out of you. One that will leave you scratching your head and almost wonder what you actually saw. Ergo Proxy is that anime. An anime that is set in the very, very distant future. A future that is very bleak and depressing. An anime with unique characters, a strange storyline, and the search for the truth about a person.
Overview
Set in the futuristic city called Romdeau. The last remnants of human civilization reside in the doom after a global ecological disaster a thousand years before the show. The government is divided between several entities: The Intelligence Bureau, the Health & Welfare Bureau, and the Security Bureau. All three are under the control of an Administrator who is referred to as the “Regent.” Yet, the Regent answers to the grandfather and a committee of three. Life in the doom inhabits both humans and androids. The androids are known as AutoReivs, and they live peacefully with the humans under a management system. Life in the dome isn’t perfect as robots have been murdering humans as they become infected with the Cogito virus (which causes them to become self-aware). In secret, the government has been conducting experiments on powerful and mysterious humanoids called “Proxy.” The Proxies are beings that are described to be almost god-like.
Ergo Proxy follows the story of Re-l and Vincent Law. Re-L is a Romdeau citizen, along with her AutoReiv partner named Iggy, who is tasked with investigating some of the murders by AutoReiv. Re-l encounters two unknown and highly powerful creatures and later learns that they were Proxies. While investigating, she runs into an immigrant named Vincent Law. Vincent wants to become a citizen but seems to be harboring a dark secret. During a massacre at a shopping center, Vincent decides that the best thing to do is escape Romdeau and search for his birthplace for answers and recover his lost memory. Re-l quickly follows and joins him on his quest. As they venture further out, Vincent soon comes face to face with the truth he tried to forget.
Review:
Ergo Proxy is one of the strangest, confusing, sometimes entertaining, and head-scratcher anime that I have seen in a very long time. It is one of those anime series that will leave you way more confused than anything else. I don’t know what the hell was going on after a while. I just don’t know about this anime sometimes. One minute it was very entertaining, and the next it was, HUH?
Ergo Proxy actually starts off really well. We learn the main characters as in Vincent Law and Re-L and some essential items like first, the world has been reduced to almost nothing from a global disaster. Second, humanity lives in this dome-like structure with androids that can get a virus and become self-aware. During the first two episodes, it was quite entertaining. First, trying to figure out the creature that burst through Re-L home and then the one trying to kill Vincent as he ran through the mall and pretty much killed a few people had me hooked.
The anime seemed to fail majorly when Vincent escaped the dome and went on some journey to find the truth about himself. Rather than just having a set journey, it became confusing over and over again. What was the deal with the whole game show episode? That entire episode was a waste of time. There were some episodes that I didn’t even pay attention to because they were either too boring or too strange. Some examples are the episode where the wind dies down, and Re-L and Pino do everything they can to find entertainment.
Now I will say that they were actually outstanding when the episodes seemed to progress the story. Every episode that dealt with the proxies’ existence and what Vincent actually learns about himself was excellent. The episode when Vincent meets up with a blonde man who knows about his past and who he is is excellent. The show’s ending was actually good, but the middle parts could’ve used some major work.
Now the overall tone and feel for this anime were right up its ally. It had that dark, depressing tone. It actually made the anime really good. If humanity lived in a giant dome and the outside world was just messed up beyond belief, it should be depressing. Yet, I like how the color schemes changed. The outside world was a little bit brighter and seemed calmer. The color scheme and tone are probably the only highlights of this anime.
For the characters, there are three that the story revolves around. First, there is Vincent Law. Vincent is a pretty okay protagonist. His character development was pretty spot on. When we are first introduced to Vincent, he seemed like this weak man who just wanted to be a citizen. As the story progresses and he learns about himself, he seems to change into some a beast. What is nice about his character development is how the overall appearance of Vincent changes. His eyes remain closed in the beginning, hair was slicked down with a large cowlick, and he appeared short. As the series progresses, he opens his eyes to show that they are bright green eyes, seems to give up on making his hair look okay and, and carries himself like a boss.
Re-L is a character that you will either love or hate. She is a 19-year-old kid that has a no-nonsense personality. She is somehow an inspector of the Citizen Intelligence Bureau and in charge of investigating crimes that the robots have done. One thing is she is the grandfather of the man in charge of the dome. Actually, she is a spoiled brat. With her grandfather as the head honcho, she has the privilege stick up her butt and demands respect. She wears only dark clothes and some massive amount of blue eye shadow.
Then there is Pino. Pino is quite a strange character. She is a cute little girl, but in reality, she is an AutoReiv. She was initially owned by Raul Creed and his wife. Once the family had a baby, they were going to destroy her. She is obedient until mayhem killed the Creed family at the hands of a proxy, which infects Pino with the Cogito Virus and becomes self-aware. This changes Pino into an always happy, childlike person who does some crazy stuff. She seems to always wear this rabbit costume.
Ergo Proxy is one of those shows that you either love or hate. It is a bizarre and weird show to follow. The overall tone and characters are the show’s highlights, but besides that, it pretty much falls off. Some episodes are entertaining, while others are just all over the place.
