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| Ergo Proxy | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 5 2009, 01:55 PM (233 Views) | |
| NeuralClone | Jun 5 2009, 01:55 PM Post #1 |
Resident Tachikoma
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Ergo Proxy Released by FUNimation (originally released by Geneon) Rating: 16+ (Blood, violence, language, mature themes) Runtime: 600 minutes Genre: Sci-fi, Cyberpunk, Supernatural, Psychological Thriller, Horror, Fantasy, Spiritual Story: 7 Animation: 9 Music: 7 Overall: 6.5 (not an average) Pros: Gorgeous animation; dark, drab, bland color palette really conveys a strong sense of loneliness/lack of purpose in life (perfect for a cyberpunk setting); musical score really adds a lot to the atmosphere of the series (see cons below); lots of meaning behind many of the episodes; very little violence; one of the best opening themes/intros I've ever seen for an anime series Cons: Starts out with a fairly compelling universe/story and quickly devolves into an incoherent, abstract mess of a story; 3 episodes are complete and utter filler that do nothing to service the plot or the characters; story could have easily been told in 1/2 the number of episodes (probably less); with the exception of the opening theme, the music in this series is rather simplistic and muted most of the time even though it does add to the atmosphere; despite spending lots of time delving into the psychology of the characters, we hardly know anything about any of them by the time the series ends; abstraction taken so far that it becomes incomprehensible at times unless you can read the minds of the writers (and honestly, given how frakked this gets, that's one place I'd rather not go) or know in advance what it is they're going for; Serial Experiments Lain is easier to follow (I think that is pretty telling...) Bottom line: Ergo Proxy had tons of potential. I was delighted when I originally heard about another cyberpunk series. So I had high hopes for it, especially after reading that Dai Satō, a writer I've come to love in series such as Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell: SAC, Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd GIG, Wolf's Rain, and Samurai Champloo, was the chief writer. However, what I should have paid more attention to was the director, Shukō Murase. I absolutely hated Witch Hunter Robin (again, lots of potential but horrible, repetitive execution, complete with a cop out ending). But my love of good cyberpunk and sci-fi blinded me. And with Dai Satō involved, surely he would have balanced him out? Alas, I was wrong. Boy was I wrong. Ergo Proxy starts out incredibly strong and seems to be headed somewhere, only to start dropping off into new, more confusing levels of abstraction in the second half. Once you hit episode 19, it actually becomes painful to watch (if you can actually make it through episode 19 without wanting to blow your brains out, you deserve a medal). If you like cyberpunk or other types of science fiction, this series may be incredibly tempting to check out. But be warned: the stark, futuristic setting is barely explored and merely serves as a backdrop for a supernatural story about god-like beings with a mysterious and mostly unexplained origin. The world is populated with bland, uninteresting characters that are never developed, the societies introduced merely serve as plot devices for the supernatural story/a psychological look at the characters, and it never really amounts to much of anything that couldn't have been revealed 10 episodes sooner than it was. In short, if you like cyberpunk and sci-fi, do yourself a favor. Go rewatch Ghost in the Shell: SAC or Serial Experiments Lain or your other favorite sci-fi anime series. I guarantee you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of it and won't be left scratching your head wondering why you just wasted the past 600 minutes of your life. If you insist on checking this series out to draw your own conclusions, don't go into it expecting actual cyberpunk or science fiction since that isn't the point or focus of the series. ------------------------------ What do you get when you take a cyberpunk-style "utopia," robots, Jekyll and Hyde, science fiction, Buddhism, Hinduism, a nuclear winter, the supernatural, magic, and combine it with an animated Amy Lee from the band Evanescence (add in a small dose of Highlander and a war amongst gods for good measure)? That's right. Ergo Proxy, aka an incoherent mess of an anime that never seems to know just what it wants to say or how to say it. And therefore mostly fails on every level as a result. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before I continue, however, here's the opening credits of the series, which is by far my favorite part of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IhWLWg79-g Note: Massive series spoilers follow. If you intend on watching this series and don't want to be spoiled, I strongly recommend that you not continue beyond this point. You have been warned! Ergo Proxy takes place eons in the future at an undisclosed/unknown point in time. Presumably the planet is Earth but even that is never fully spelled out. But it's implied in a few throwaway lines that may or may not have been accurate. A world-wide ecological disaster occurred at some point in the past (likely thousands of years) and the entire planet is in what appears to be a nuclear winter. Anyway, the series starts out in the domed, self-sufficient city of Romdo, one of the last remaining human cities in existence. It's a utopian society where humans and robots, called AutoReivs, co-exist in a supposedly perfect harmony. In order to become a model citizen in Romdo, you must put emotions aside and you must never question your existence or the government. Citizens that escape Romdo are continually hunted by patrolling robotic surveillance units. Those that are discovered, are terminated. Once you leave Romdo, there's no going back. Once your status as citizen is revoked, that's it. There's no way to regain it. Inspector Re-l Mayer (aka as "Real" and is pronounced "Rielle"), who is effectively a Japanese, animated Amy Lee from the band Evanescence mixed with a minor dose of Major Motoko Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell, is a "model citizen" and is the granddaughter of the Administrator. AutoReivs have recently started to become infected with a mysterious virus known as Cogito. Once infected by this virus, AutoReivs drop to their knees, look upward, and appear to be praying. They then turn on their human masters. Or in some cases, gain real feelings and possibly even sentience. Re-l, who works for the Citizen Intelligence Bureau, is assigned to investigate a series of AutoReiv murders. These murders have begun to upset the delicate balance in Romdo and are causing the society to break down. Vincent Law, an immigrant from the domed city of Mosque, has been working to become a model citizen by working in Romdo's AutoReiv Control Division. After a strange creature with supernatural abilities, called a Proxy, escapes and goes after him, with over 40 people being killed or injured in the process (none of which appear to have been killed by him), Vincent becomes a wanted man. He teams up with a Cogito-infected Companion type AutoReiv named Pino (think Pinocchio), who has the personality of a little girl. Together, they escape Romdo and end up in the cold, harsh outside world. Events lead Vincent and Pino, along with several others, to start out across the frigid surface of the planet in a wind powered ship to get away from the shadow of Romdo. Along the way, everyone around Vincent dies, and with the exception of Pino, he's completely alone. He decides that he's going to journey to Mosque in an attempt to try to regain his lost memories. Vincent is a rather simplistic, caring individual that has an almost childlike innocence to him. So his natural attachment to Pino makes sense. He's not terribly good at anything and he's constantly being self-deprecating. Eventually, Re-l ends up traveling with him since she wants to know the truth about the mysterious Proxies and how they're connected to Vincent. Along their journey, Vincent discovers that he is in fact a Proxy himself, and a very powerful one at that. He had such a traumatic past that he either erased his memories or is repressing them. He's Ergo Proxy, the Proxy of Death. How they get "Proxy of Death" out of that name is beyond me. Proxies are mysterious creatures that all seem to have different special abilities and are given different traits. They can shapeshift, move at inhuman speeds, enter people's minds to control them, have super strength, are immortal, etc. Basically, they are gods that are walking the planet. When his life is in danger, Vincent will transform into Ergo Proxy and kill anyone that is threatening him, especially other Proxies. But he fears this transformation and does everything in his power to continue behaving as a clueless human. There's a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde vibe to this part of the story. It's hinted that humans originally created Proxies (there were originally 300 of them) but it's later said by Proxy One, the first Proxy and the Proxy that Vincent is based on (this is all very complicated and I won't explain why that's the case), that Proxies are Proxies of the Creator, which effectively makes them angels/demons. Their destinies are predetermined and there's no escaping their fate. Vincent rejects these ideas. Then the series craps itself. What all seemed to be setup for exploring the world and characters in more detail ends up becoming Adventures in Dreamland and Obscurity. Many of the episodes in the second half of the series are incredibly abstract and are difficult to follow. Sometimes there are entire dream sequences that seem like reality and then a character wakes up or stops daydreaming. Supposedly, these trips into the subconscious are exploring the psychology of the characters in question but the execution is flawed. These episodes feel as if they are building toward something but they end up resulting in yet more questions about these characters we know next to nothing about. Entire episodes go by where nothing happens to advance the plot. And then there are the filler episodes. The first filler episode is episode 14. What starts as the characters exploring an abandoned/empty dome ends up becoming an exercise in absolute pointlessness. Like with the rest of the series, exploring the universe this takes place in isn't a priority. Then we get to episode 15 and it turns the series into a mock game show where Vincent is the clueless contestant that needs to obtain a specific score or he'll die. At first this episode seems like it's another dream sequence that one of the characters is experiencing. But then the Chief of the Security Bureau picks up a satellite transmission of this game show back in Romdo. None of this is ever explained but the events of this episode obviously happen since flashbacks to the questions asked on the game show happen frequently in following episodes. The episode isn't entirely pointless since it reveals a little bit about the world (e.g., humanity built a massive ship that served as an ark to escape destruction and abandon Earth). But there are FAR better ways to reveal this kind of information. The next all filler episode is episode 19. The best way I can describe this is that the whole episode is a drug trip. It introduces these bizarre and "funny" animated characters that interact with Pino. I couldn't get through five minutes of this mess and had to skip it. The problems I have with this series are far too great for me to mention here without recounting the entire plot. On one hand, it feels like the series is far more intelligent than I'm giving it credit for. It delves deeply into spirituality and many aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism, with a bit of Aztec thrown in for good measure. Maybe a deeper understanding of Buddhism would help me understand just what it is this series is trying to get at. Or maybe not. I really don't know. But on the other hand, it comes across as a pretentious mess that only thinks it's being intelligent when what it's really being is an incoherent mess with poor pacing and a lackluster plot (FYI, the finale is called "Deus Ex Machina"). It gives the impression that it's going to be a science fiction series with science fiction themes. But it's actually about the supernatural and is about a war between imperfect god-like beings. Despite my harsh comments about this series, there are many things to like about it. The animation, VA work, setting, tone, style, Pino is a really cute character and is generally a lot of fun (except for her Smile Land episode...), etc. But the many strengths of the series quickly get overshadowed with the incoherent plotting, the war amongst the Proxies, and countless other unexplained elements of the story. This series is often compared to Serial Experiments Lain, and while that comparison is valid on some level, it's also very deceiving. The two series are incredibly different in style and execution, and I think that Lain actually does a far better job at taking what seems to be an incoherent plot and turning it something quite brilliant and thought-provoking. Ergo Proxy, on the other hand, just keeps asking more and more questions and tends to get less coherent as it goes. In short, I was horribly disappointed with what this series actually turned out to be and how the second half was executed. It could have and should have been so much more than it was. (Note: I've been told that if you let this series sit for a while and then rewatch it that it works a lot better. So if I end up rewatching at a later date, I'll return and make changes to this review, assuming my opinion changes.) Edited by NeuralClone, Jun 5 2009, 03:22 PM.
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2:11 PM Jul 30
