[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Ergo Proxy 1-4
A dystopian future, mature sci-fi themes, great music…I wasn’t surprised when I found myself really enjoying this show since it seems to tick so many of the ‘my thing’ boxes. Yep, it’s another cryptic kind of series that most viewers will either love or hate.
A view of the future?
The premise however, for all its intriguing nature and outward cleverness, offers little that fans of the genre haven’t seen before. A utopian city (the irony of ‘utopia‘ originating from a greek phrase that means ‘a place that doesn’t exist’ isn’t lost on this series, it seems) with a large number of robots that help the human population’s everyday lives, a government cover-up, a secret agent going against orders to find out the truth…all of these things sound familiar which makes me cautious about waxing lyrical about Ergo Proxy. Since it’s so cliched then, what kept me hooked?
What the hell’s a proxy?!
I’m ashamed to admit it’s the style. It’s inevitable that I’m interested in what the government’s covering up, or the nature of these strange monster called proxies, and I’m obviously looking forward to seeing the heroine Re-l find out the answers to what’s going on but the visual - and musical - aspects are more than enough to carry it, at least for now. The city of Romdo is in the true Blade Runner-esque cyberpunk vein with neo-topped buildings, criss-crossing streets, cool mecha designs and a stark contrast between the government-controlled city and the pollution-riddled wasteland that lies beyond. The overall aesthetic of Ergo Proxy borrows much from similar shows (the production staff admit to a ‘dark hero’ influence of American comics) - the grimy, textured background style particularly reminds me of Texhnolyze, which may or may not be attributed to the fact that I recently continued watching that so the look and ‘feel’ is fresh in my mind. My only criticism here is that at times it’s too damned dark - strange as it may sound, I think the artwork is actually really beautiful so the gloomy shades make it difficult to discern the events on-screen. Setting your TV up in a dimly lit room is recommended.
The ‘utopia’ of Romdo
The visuals are well supported by a suitably gothic and industrial-themed soundtrack which sounds bleak and sparse, yet strangely haunting at the same time. Having Radiohead’s Paranoid Android (is that song a decade old already? How time flies!) as an end theme is an interesting choice but my overall fave is the opening theme, Kiri, by Monoral: it’s a soulful and soaring rock ballad with a fine vocal performance that reminds me of Chris Cornell - the imagery that goes with it is fantastic too.
Re-L Mayer: I think I’m in love
Because the setting of the show is intentionally short on emotion, it’s an unfortunate side-effect that the characters are rather cold and taciturn. Re-l herself is the centre of things so it’s easier to engage with her situation, but after discovering some interesting details regarding the Proxies, only to find himself back on the outside of the city, the immigrant Vincent will no doubt become an important character as the series progresses. Re-l certainly makes a bold statement with her strong independence, her ability to think on her feet and that great blue eye shadow/black clothed image of hers.In Summary
With a heavy reliance on startling imagery to compensate for what appears to be a somewhat derivative plot, Ergo Proxy makes a bold impression. I know roughly what to expect from this in an overall kind of way from seeing so much similar fare, but it certainly has potential to weave an interesting story so I’m hoping it offers some surprises. I definitely need to see more before I proclaim its awesomeness or dismiss it completely.
Posted on September 1st, 2007 @ 6:45 pm
trust me the plot isnt derivative. hopefully u have no idea what you’re in store for. dont read any forums or any reviews for the show so dont get ruined. ergo proxy is not what you think it is at all. very soon the rug will be swept up from under you. i really loved this show because i never knew what to expect. it reminded me of one of my favorite movies mulholland drive. matter of fact it is scifi/cyberpunk version of mulholland drive. if david lynch were to make an anime, this would be it.
Posted on September 1st, 2007 @ 8:38 pm
Ergo Proxy was an interesting concept, but I felt like the writers kind of lost control of the plot as the story develops. It started off strong, but eventually went off in a bunch of random directions, began to make heavier use of deus ex machina to move the plot along, and failed to really develop the characters.
Nevertheless, if you can get past that, the show does create a great vibe, so sci-fi fans may enjoy it regardless.
Posted on September 1st, 2007 @ 10:29 pm
I really enjoyed Ergo Proxy, but I feel it has one major weakness. That weakness is that it makes use of what I would call “philosophy service”. Essentially much of the philosophy in this show is quite random and while interesting it does not really add that much to the conflict and it seemed to me that they were referencing the ideas as a way of showing how deep it was. But still a very good anime series.
Posted on September 1st, 2007 @ 11:28 pm
@Kauldron26: since you have such good taste I’ll take that on board! I’m hoping the series takes it in an interesting direction since I have a few suspicions but no clear ideas as to what could happen next. It’s funny you mention Mulholland Drive though: I’m a huge fan of Lynch’s style. The atmospherics, music and mystery were enough to make Twin Peaks good viewing so my hopes are still up for this.
@Orion: it’s still early days and I’m too lazy to import the American releases so I’m waiting for the UK R2s and hoping the ‘vibe’ will be enough to keep my interest - mainly because the vibe struck such a chord with me. As a fan of straight-faced sci-fi, it could well be enough.
@aestheticband: your concept of ‘philosophy service’ intrigues me, mainly because I’m a fan of headscratcher stuff in general so I’ll bear it in mind. The idea that Re-L is the granddaughter of the ‘regent’ is interesting in itself - it could well be that the show isn’t as ‘deep’ or clever as it thinks it is, but sometimes cool visuals and music are sufficient to make for interesting TV. This could be a case in point.
Either way, vol #2 is out at the beginning of October in the UK so I’ll find out more soon enough! ^_^
Posted on September 2nd, 2007 @ 9:46 am
Haha, David Lynch is a nice comparison - however, I think that despite everything, the story of Ergo Proxy is actually coherent (even though it might not look like that at first glance), while Lynch’s stories (if you can even call them ’stories’) are not supposed to be coherent at all.
I also agree with aestheticbend: I found the philosophical inserts rather pretentious and stupid rather than enlightening, even though I do expect that the makers of the film have actually read the works and philosophers in question.