Ergo Proxy

Information of Anime

In a domed city called Romdeau, there exist a world where humans & androids called Auto revis exist.  Controlled by the government, the lives of the people are monitored carefully.  Recently, a virus called Cogito is affecting the Auto revis & are killing people.  Real Mayar, along with her Auto revi Iggy, are from the Citizen Information Bureau & are assigned to solve this case.  One night, Real sees the words "Awakening" on her bathroom mirror & is assaulted by a mysterious monster.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

After being attacked by a strange monster, Real tries to find out what it was.  However, it seems no one knows what she is talking about.  It is as if she was imagining it all up.  We later discover that the governing council is preventing people from telling Real about the monster which is called Proxy.  By order from the governing council, Raul Creed is doing some research on the Proxy.  At the same time, we are introduced to Vincent Law, an immigrant working for the Citizen Information Bureau division who is trying to become a model citizen.  However, he would later be accused of treason after a run with a Proxy that was chasing & trying to kill him in a shopping mall.

Wanted by the law, Vincent gives up hope of becoming a model citizen as he plans to leave the dome & return to his homeland, Moscow.  Along the way, an infected Auto revis named Pino follows him around & escapes with him.  Technically, Vincent isn't wanted for treason.  Raul wants him because he knows something about Proxies.  Real also wants him as she feels that Vincent knows something as well.  Also, she suspects that he was in her bathroom during her assault.  Raul wants Vincent arrested a criminal, Real wants Vincent to be innocent & is willing to protect him.  However, it's too late as Vincent & Pino escapes.

Outside the dome, we learn about the outside world as Vincent & Pino live with ex-Romedeau citizens.  Being caught on camera by a regular patrol unit, Raul orders a massive cleanup outside the dome & get Vincent back.  Real, meanwhile, goes out of the dome & tries to bring Vincent herself & promises his safety.  After seeing the truth outside the dome & being affected by the outside air, Real also starts to realize that Vincent isn't normal.  Because of her condition, Vincent sends her back to Romedeau. 

After recovering, Real starts to look for the truth from the governing council & her grandfather, the head of the council.  During her investigation, she learns about Proxies & how life inside the dome is run.  Also, she realizes that Romedeau is starting to fall.  Because of her knowledge of the truth, she runs into trouble as she gets killed.

Meanwhile, Vincent & Pino are travelling to Moscow.  Why he's heading there is to find out about his past.  Along the way, he starts to understand himself more as he meets other Proxies along the way.  Talking to other Proxies & searching within himself, Vincent realizes that he is Ergo Proxy, a Proxy of death.  Also, he realizes that he has no past memories & is assumed that he passed most of his memories to other Proxies that he killed.  This is a possible reason why he doesn't remember anything when he transforms into a Proxy.  Now the show switches views as we see Real again, who is actually alive, as she prepares herself in searching for Vincent & later finds him.  From here, Real discovers from her own eyes that Vincent is a Proxy & is determined to follow him to Moscow.  However, the distance between them is quite far as Real is afraid of Vincent since he is a Proxy.  But as the show progress, we see Real becoming more close to Vincent & Pino as well with some comedic bits.  Afterwards, we learn about the mystery about Vincent's lost memories & the shocking truth about Real.  More of it is revealed when the trio returns to a corrupted Romedeau as it falls apart.

In Romedeau, the truth of the city & Vincent is revealed as Ergo Proxy created Romedeau after Proxies were given orders from the Creator to destroy the human race again to start anew.  After Vincent battles his other self & wins, Real-2 tries to take him after to the sky to leave humans to their death beds.  However, Vincent refuses & returns to Romedeau; to Real & Pino.

The story ends with Vincent recovering his memories & beginning his journey to fight the Creator.

My Personal Review

Ergo Proxy is quite a dark show.  It's mysterious & leaves you hungry for more as you try to understand these Proxies & why Vincent is the key.  Plus, the story shifting is well done.  Although I would recommend watching this show, it's quite bloody.  It's not very graphical, but it has a large amount of blood on the screen.  Plus the areas being slashed & stabbed can be a bit disturbing.  If you can't stomach this, I would suggest staying away from this.

Animation

The character designs aren't your typical anime designs.  They have some of that American touch to it, especially when you look at Real.  She has that goth look.  However, the designs will differ along the way.  Take Vincent for example.  When we see him for the 1st time, he has thin flat hair & no eyes almost.  Later on, he gets a sudden change in appearance.  He went from plain to cool with wavy messy hair & small-medium open eyes.  It's like he's a totally different character.  Also, Real without her makeup really looks weird.  Her natural eyes are much smaller compared to her goth ones.  It's really strange.  Deeper in the show, she would really lose that appeal as she gets drawn very poorly.  Aside from faces, their limbs are thin when we see them from a distance.  It changes the dark image that the anime has of the show.  Plus, for some reason, it seems the show's animation quality goes down a bit when we go deeper into the show.  Again, Real is a good example of it.

The backgrounds are pretty good; inside & outside the dome.  They are quite simple, but eye-catching & fancy.  There isn't a lot of heavy CGs here & it's pretty nice.  The only complaint about this is the colour toning.

The colours are very dark.  It was hard for me to watch the show on my 17" LCD monitor.  Night or day, light or dark, it was hard to see most of the time when the show is set at night or some dark area.  I really need to go a bit closer than usual to watch.  Although the colours didn't clash with the background & the characters, it was still hard to see.

The animation movements are pretty realistic.  However, there are a lot of superhuman movements during the fight scenes.  Mainly quick movements & insanely high jumps.  They make the fight scenes interesting to watch.  Also, they sometimes have you leaning on the edge.

Sound

The sound effect are good.  No silly sound whatsoever.  Also, they are clean & clear.  No complaints here.

The seiyuus for this show aren't bad.  They play their characters well.  Plus, the projection is clear.  However, sometimes I couldn't stay Real's voice as she sounds like a spoiled brat which she is.  But, I managed to get over it as I watched more of the show.

The music isn't too bad.  It's quiet most of the times.  The only music that I can recall from the show are the opening & ending themes, which suits the show very well.  Other than that, hardly any of the music sticks to my head.

Story

I'm pretty impressed with the story really.  Initially, I thought the main character was Real until she gets killed early in the show.  From there, everything was focused on Vincent.  From a viewer's standpoint, it makes sense to view Vincent as the main character since all this Proxy stuff is centered around him & Real was just investigating about it.  She's really a supporting character.

As for the surprises, it's not something you can't solve easily.  It was pretty much known to me that Vincent is a Proxy when Real found his pendent in her destroyed bathroom.  Most of the time they are dead giveaways.  What keeps the story interesting is how all these Proxies come to play & how Vincent is a key in knowing all this.  However, the show does feel slow with a lot of talking & thinking involved.  The story is really geared to a mature audience since it's pretty deep.  Right now, the pace is actually not bad at this point.  At the episode 15 mark, things get silly for some reason as it goes from a serious show to a comedy almost.  I'm not sure if it's a change of pace or something, but it continues to run the show well.  When it reaches to the part where the trio reaches Moscow, light sheds on the mystery & opens up with the truth about Real.  From there, a lot of confusing stuff comes up as the trio travels back to Romedeau.  Not only are they confusing, but they seem to be fillers as well.  But when they arrive to Romedeau as it falls apart, a lot of information gets spitted out to us.

In the final couple episodes, all of facts about Romedeau & Vincent gets thrown at us very quickly.  In fact, it got pretty confusing when Vincent met his other self with the "You are me & I are you" bits.  The idea of it was simple to grasp, but the facts behind them was quite complex.  Luckily, it was understandable to the point of the story's ending.  Although it was open & felt incomplete, it tied the show ok.  It wasn't the best as it felt rushed, but it made its point.

Overall Conclusion

Ergo Proxy is another dark anime show that appeared from the Spring 2006 lineup.  Because of it's complex mysterious & graphical violence, the show is gear towards a mature audience.  Also, the show does feel slow & may not be for everyone.  Also, the ending was a bit of a letdown.

Ergo Proxy gets an eight out of ten from me. The story is very well written as it shifts to between characters fairly well until the two main characters start travelling together.  Problem with the show is the pace & the amount of words involved.  Plus, when it was wrapping up, too much information seem to be thrown at the viewers as the truth gets revealed.  It would have been great if the show added one more episode to explain it a bit better.  Also, the show isn't action based, but mystery based.