Product DescriptionThe broadcast series Ergo Proxy (2006) attracted considerable attention because Radiohead let them use "Paranoid Android" as the closing theme. Detective Re-l lives in the domed city of Romdo, a pseudo-utopia where humans and robots exist under a Big Brother-esque government. When a powerful monster begins attacking the citizens of Romdo, Re-l discovers the word "awaken" scrawled on her mirror; she's attacked by the monster but somehow survives. As she investigates these events, she discovers the inevitable government conspiracy. Ergo Proxy borrows heavily from Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. and Boogiepop Phantom, but the icy Re-l lacks Major Kusanagi's fascination. Director Shukuo Murase employs a monochromatic palette so dark it's difficult to see what's going on. He tries to distract the viewer from the extremely limited animation with camera moves and dialogue, but the hokey, oblique story feels recycled and uninteresting. (Rated 16 and older: violence, violence against women, grotesque imagery) --Charles Solomon - Actors: Rie Saitou (II), Akiko Yajima, Kôji Yusa
- Director: Shuko Murase
- Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
- Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
- Format: Animated, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language (Original Language): English
- Language (Original Language): Japanese
- Language (Subtitled): English
- Region Code: 1
- Release Date: 2006-11-21
- Running Time: 100 minutes
Customer ReviewsReviewed on 2008-02-16 
Dark and moody, but great so far
Ergo Proxy is a fairly dark, slow paced and moody anime with a very cryptic storytelling style. It takes place in a post apocalyptic future in which the main characters seem to be caught up in a plot involving virus infected robots who gain self awareness and the unknown force that seems to be behind it. It sounds simple, but trust me, it's not. It's just a bit hard to explain.
What this title does best is atmosphere. You have a cinematic style that somewhat resembles that of the Mothman Prophecies and a world and music and look that is very similar to an MMO by the name of Neocron. This creates a very rich and dark atmosphere to the anime that mirrors its shadowed plot.
This particular release will leave you with many questions however, the stage is set and a lot of events take place but at this point very little of it is actually explained. We know basically what the characters know and nothing more, a storytelling style that I actually love but might be something to watch out for if it's not a style that interests you. The english voice acting is also quite good as is the sub so both schools should be pleased. The title and ending also have very good tracks, the title(starting on ep.3) is an english song by the band Kiri and the ending is a song by the band Radiohead.
This anime has so much going for it, it's not thick with action and is fairly slow paced but it seems to really be setting up a great story and the cinematic style and atmosphere to it is almost unmatched in the anime world. If the subject matter appeals to you then I highly recommend giving this series a shot. |  | Reviewed on 2007-12-05
Possible Perfection
(This review refers to the series as a whole and contains no spoilers)
First, this is the last complete series produced by the sinking Geneon aniimation studio. Due to internal issues, they have cancelled their current projects indefinately. That aside...
The series begins in Romdo, a Utopian society that borrows heavily from the ideals of Shangri-La and Shamballa that have been wildy popular of late. Humans live side by side with machines (Auto-Reivs). Everything seems perfect, but of course it isn't. Within three episodes you will be gasping in horrific awe as the beautifully gothic artwork sends chills down your spine.
The characters are well portrayed, especially Pino (which is borrowed from both Piano and Pinocchio) the Cogito infected Auto-Reiv (seriously need to watch the show to get all that). The other characters are also marvelously melodramatic and complex. Re-L, Vincent Law, Daedelus, and Raul Creed are all masterfully portrayed by both the Japanese and the English actors.
Music and artwork are both masterfully produced. The music fits in with the various moods, themes, and elements. The artwork, like the music, is also in line with the various moods.
This chief writer was Dai Sato, and if anyone wants to see some great anime, then check out his works (Eureka Seven, Cowboy Beebop, Ghost in the Shell SAC and SAC 2nd GIG, Wolf's Rain, and Samurai Shamploo).
Pros: Artwork, music, characters, story, theme, voice acting.
Cons: Not much to complain about, a few episodes have less stellar animation (obviously sent to cheaper Korean studios for those few episodes), the series was rushed to completion before Geneon cancelled everything (its only 23 episodes not 26). | | Reviewed on 2007-07-10
Finally Some Great Sci-Fi "Horror"
I broke down and bought the first three volumes of Ergo Proxy (the first volume was in the box-set that has the Bonus Volume), even though I swore to myself I was going to wait until I finished completing Tokko and then got Heat Guy J and The Last Exile in my collection.
I knew I was going to love ergo Proxy, and I was right, From the very beginning I was stunned by the artwork and animation - and the computer animation surrounding is absolutely gorgeous. I actually started Episode One over and watched it in Japanese without the subtitles just so I could look at the animation and not let the story get in the way - this didn't spoil much because the first episode is basically set-up anyway.
I rewatched the first episode two more times - once in Japanese with the subtitles and then in English. Though the English voicework is capable, it should be noted that Re-L's personality is a lot different in Japanese than in English. If you watch the scene where her auto-reiv Iggy is driving her to work near the beginning of episode one in both languages, you'll see. In English, when Iggy tells Re-l that her grandfather thinks of her as his 'little princess' (or something akin to that), she agrees with her andro-chauffeur; In Japanese however, Re-l responds by giving Iggy a small warning by saying his name in a chastising tone... she knows that Iggy is just a machine and treats him as such. "I can't take it anymore!" she cries, growing quickly tired of the upgrade that auto-reiv's have that makes them chit-chat about recent events, weather, etc. Installed to make them seem more human, Re-l doesn't seem too thrilled with the component so tells Iggy to disable the program for the rest of their ride.
Though I generally only watch anime in the language it was born with, I always watch my DVD's in English too (if I pay for something I want to get all that I can out of it!) and sometimes the voicework is on par to the original (like Azumanga Daioh, Fulmetal Alchemist, and even Eureka Seven) but in Ergo Proxy, the Japanese version is far superior, because Re-l simply has a darker, more pessimistic tone to her voice. This fits in with the amazingly bleak world this anime is - it's as if a Dickensian ironworks factory went and swallowed up modern-day Los Angeles. But having said that, the English voice actress Megan Hollingshead is still very good (and light years better than the English voice actress in Ghost In The Shell, who makes me want to jam kabob sticks in my ears), as are most of the others in the cast (at least so far -I just finished episode three).
The big flaw of the DVD though is that the subtitles are sometimes up for like 1/4 of a second and you need to go back and pause the episode in order to read what was being said. That's just inexcusable and a rookie mistake - hopefully they get that fixed in future volumes.
All I can say now is that if you've been waiting for another dark and dreary - yet comfortable and fascinating - universe to immerse yourself into, then this is it. It's just amazing to look at, and Re-l makes for one hell of a guide. She's beautiful, mysterious - and tough as hell while still being feminine.. and unlike the Major in Ghost/Shell, she doesn't need to dress like a porn star. Re-l has an innate femininity that shines through without being obvious. And a big plus is that the episodes can be seen several times without boring you - Seeing the first few episodes two or three times, I discovered things that I had missed, learned more from parts of the dialogue I hadn't understood the first time through, and also quickly became more comfortable and familiar within the world of Romdo. Even though I'm still early on in the strange story that makes Ergo Proxy, I dread the moment that it comes to an end. Worth every penny - and worth getting a few months before I planned to! | | Reviewed on 2007-01-27
A techno-noir cyberpunk masterpiece
"Ergo Proxy" is one of the most beautiful anime ever made. It's also very complex, filled with allusions mysterious and even more mysterious, obscure, opaque, a story about the search for self and meaning in a bleak post-apocalyptic world of domed cities, androids ("autoraves"), warfare, and death. The heroine, Real Mayar (also Re-l Mayer), is stunningly beautiful as she undertakes to unravel the mysteries of a killer freak as she befriends an oddly lonely immigrant named Vincent Law.
But, a warning: if you want cartoons that spell out all the details a la "Hamtaro" or "Cinderella", you will be bored witless and irritated by "Ergo Proxy." The premise is that the *viewer* also participates in Ergo Proxy's search for self and meaning. It is distinctly intellectual, in the sense of thoughtful: the viewer is *expected* to ponder over meaning, especially the meanings of identity and memory. Entire scenes exist solely to create analogies between what Real and Vincent do and the viewer's consensus (although false) beliefs about reality. "Ergo Proxy" operates in the interstices of such realities, in sepia, gray, and icy blue images of radical incompleteness.
Visually, Ergo Proxy has only rarely been equaled in animation. It has a hard-to-describe kind of lyrical bleakness offset by Real's beauty - which is just one of the contradictions that suffuse the story. If you want everything telegraphed by the middle of episode 1, watch something else. But for a depiction of what used to be called "existential" search, "Ergo Proxy" is superb - vivid, gorgeous, lots of action scenes, all in a world that we recognize as our own.
| | Reviewed on 2006-12-27 
Good, but not great.
Ergo Proxy is very stylish, very well drawn, and features a wonderful soundtrack and beautiful voices. This anime continues the growing trend of hiring English dub actors who can actually act, and the result is a dub easily on par with Ghost in the Shell or Fullmetal Alchemist. Character design and general production design is drop-dead gorgeous, with a wonderful use of color and just enough stylizing to be distinct, but not garish. It's just refreshing to see an anime that does not follow the trend towards bland homogeneity in character design (as seen in Scrapped Princess, Mai-HIME, and so on) these days, so right there it has an edge over most of the other anime being released Stateside these days.
So where does it go wrong? What keeps it out of the pantheon of Great Anime, where it would stand beside the likes of Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Mainly, the problem is with the characters and their ability to support the story. I'm only 4 episodes in, which isn't enough time to start making firm judgments about either, but it the show certainly gets off to a rough start as far as writing is concerned.
The main character, Re-I Mayer, is not badly written, she just seems flat. Her dialog is strong, and she shows some refreshing vulnerability under stress, but so far almost nothing has been revealed about what her personal life was like before the events of the series begins turning it upside down. Who are her friends? Did she join the Intelligence Bureau because she wanted to, or because of family pressure? Her grandfather is the Regent of the city (which is sort of like being mayor, but a lot creepier), but we don't know anything about her parents. Because she only interacts with other humans in a professional capacity, we have not yet seen her in an unguarded moment. She is shown to be bored and dissatisfied with her life before she stumbles across the Proxy case, but why this drives her so strongly to investigate the Proxy, even to the determent of her career, isn't made clear. We can see that she has a very strong motivation, but it is difficult to understand what it is.
The other primary character so far is an immigrant to the city named Vincent Law who is struggling to get accepted as a citizen. His motivation is much easier to grasp, but a lack of screen time in the first volume means his backstory hasn't made much of an appearance yet. Towards the end of the volume he displays some intriguing promise to develop further as the series goes on with a flash of unexpected aggression. Hopefully the story will slow down enough for him to show some emotional state other than professionally repressed, cringing in terror, or confused and delirious.
The weakness of the characters is not unforgivable- certainly they are no worse than Ghost in the Shell, and there is plenty of time for them to grow and gain depth- but right out of the gate they just don't grab me as strongly as some other series I've seen. The main reason this problem sticks out is because the story- so far- is interesting, but not anything special or unique. It's a dystopian future with plenty of economic inequity and hints of a grand government/corporate conspiracy, complete with a military research project gone horribly wrong. Stories with robots gaining self-awareness, corporate police states, and ecological catastrophes have all been done before. This story doesn't break any new ground, but it does go over already-known territory very, very well.
Again, I stress that with only Volume 1 out at this time, final judgments about the series cannot be made. I certainly enjoyed the episodes I've seen, and I'll pick up Volume 2 as soon as it comes out. It is generally a high quality show, and lacks a lot of distinctive anime weirdness, making it one of the most accessible series to mainstream audiences to be released in years.
Bottom line: Volume 1 was quite good, but Ergo Proxy isn't a classic yet. | |
|
