Ergo Proxy

I am not a fan of this Anime.

The show starts out with great promise. The Artwork is beautiful, the world is atmospheric and the characters seem full of potential. However very quickly the story begins to take an unfocused long path toward an ever weakening storyline, slowely revealing each character to have almost no depth beyond their basic neurosis. Even the art style weakens only a handful of episodes in.

This Anime includes some pretty painful filler, some full episodes but even more offensive are some of the episodes that contain one or two moments of "main story" plot, but are mainly filler in the form ... of characters rehashing old ideas or questions we the viewer has already figured out the answers to.

The show spends a lot of time dabbling in questions of existentialism and theology, this comes off as simplistic and childish as the characters indulging in these ideas are so one dimensional and unfleshed out that the viewer ends up with no interest as to what conclusion they come to.

By the end of this anime, i found myself watching just to be able to say that i hadn't given up on it, i no longer cared about any of the characters, and i no longer cared about the out come.

my advice is to give this one a miss

The Ancient Greeks created their own religion. Characters -- or rather, Gods -- were made based to human feelings as both: representation of what these feelings look like and what the characteristics and behaviors of these metaphors would be like. It didn't stop there. They created lore, past-stories and character potray to all of them, and decided that these Gods live on top of the Mount Olympus. And even today, 3000 years later, some geniuses go and ask "why did they never bother to climb on Mount Olympus and check if the Gods are there?" Because it wasn't the point of the story at all, ... and they knew it was just a made up story created by humans. Gods not being there was self-explanatory to all. That's why.

What does this has to do with 'Ergo Proxy', then? 'Ergo Proxy' is made by, and made for these exact people who still keep wondering why Ancient Greeks never bothered to check if their Gods are real. This time it is about philosophical POV's which are apparently purposely misunderstood and misinterpreted by the creators of this work, and then further mistaken by its viewers for an actual anime series about these famous existential questions. I can agree that this work is thought-provoking, but the references in it are fallacies and every in-depth analysis over-analysing of not what is there, but what one believes is there. It chooses the same path as later Freudian literature which was altered by his daughter based to what she thought Freud meant rather than writing the exact thing Freud said. As a conclusion in case my point hasn't been made clear yet: 'Ergo Proxy' is not a work of philosophy, it is a work of its creators interpretations of famous philosophies. This series is not a study nor can it be seen as a reference, it is nothing but a preach by someone who thought they have understood what our great philosophers "really", I mean REALLY meant. To me, their interpretations are no different from those people who ask why Greeks didn't climb the goddamn mountain.

To actually talk about this anime outside is hideous content, it quite literally sucks ass. The directing is a mess, the pacing is so dreadfully slow one has to wonder why the fans of this series consider themselves smart for liking this spoon-fed "deepness". At least Anno, the creator of Evangelion admitted he just threw bunch of religious references in the mix to make it look smart and make people hyped for it being 2deep5anyone and everyone to understand. While I am not sure if the creators of 'Ergo Proxy' are lacking self-awareness or simply never cared to admit that their work is bunch of baloney: it surely is doing an impressive job convincing masses to think that it isn't. They went as far as put bunch of obscure references in the background art, such as faces of these philosophers they claim to imitate because apparently the point of their ideas and philosophies is the best captured by an AD HOMINEM."The essential part of what was said is what the face of the person who said it looks like." Like really, how subtle and how well I can prove my intelligent by liking this.

Now the second attempt to talk about content outside the philosophies. Real is the only interesting character in the series. Most of the others feel more of a try-hard attempts to capture something completely different than personalities, which alone is a respectable idea considering the nature of the series. Still, all of them come out rather uninteresting and content-lacking. If comparing to the same Greek Gods, our characters here are rather empty shells. One could say that this makes it great, other say they deliver as much as any harem girl. Pino, on the other hand, is simply annoying.

The series does contain lot of good as well, they are mainly hidden and short scenes such as a quiz that leads to the OP song to play. Great ideas in not so great series. The opening itself is an everlasting meme. Real creates most of the other interesting scenes and situations in the series, but ultimately leave me wish she was a character inside a better anime.

As a conclusion: Ergo Proxy is not a very good series for those who want something more from anime outside simply "getting it." Getting Ergo Proxy is not by any means any harder than "getting" Sword Art Online. Both can be overanalyzed to the grave by anyone who doesn't know what occam's razor is. To those who are interested in philosophical anime, watch Serial Experiments Lain, GITS SAC, Digimon Tamers, Wolfs Rain, Kino no Tabi (1st season), even the first Pokemon movie (in Jap dub). Watch Ergo Proxy and find not much more than pretentiousness as the series target audience consist of people who saw the meme "The door is red. The author uses the color red to express his anger." and thought this is what all symbolism should be like, regardless if it is intended by its creator or not.

I want to state a few things up front. I'm a former philosophy major and I still enjoy learning about academic philosophy. Pretentious is my first, last and middle name. I'm more than willing to defend the likes of Metal Gear Solid 2, Finnegans Wake and Beyond the Black Rainbow. You can't reach my levels of pretension if you tried. The depths of my tepid intellectual masturbation and pseudo-intellectualism have very little if any bounds. My inner fedora can't be breached by mere mortals. In my head where I am already a massive intellectual superstar they call me "the sophist with the most wits." If ... I had enough courage to leave the house, I'd be one of those guys that puts on a suit with a bowtie and reads large non-fiction books at Starbucks and stares pensively at the air through my square frame glasses and I would order coffee with no accoutrements so it can be black like my soul. That's my level of pretension kids. So let me say up front my problem with this show isn't that I got confused, I'm not the kind of person who gets confused by big words and unneeded complication I live for it. I mean I've read books by Hegel and Heidegger. You can't get much more needlessly complicated than that. I'm also not averse to a little pretension in my media, I tend to be more forgiving of this than most people, especially if the art or media in question has other merits. I have a kinship with intellectual failures like myself and fake gotta recognize fake yo. I also didn't mind the so called "experimentation" in fact as you'll come to see it would be hard for me to dislike it as I never really "found" it to begin with. I like experimentation in media a lot, if I'm asked to choose between two musical acts for instance I tend to choose the one that takes more risks with experimenting and genre mixing as a rule. So if this show lived up to it's common perception, it should be 10/10 IGN for a chap like me self, but it's not really like the negative stereotype of what it is and it's not really what the fans think it is either. I'm going to argue in the rest of this review that this show is just a basic action show with a weak story.
For those not in the know, Ergo Proxy (EP) is a show about a post-apocalyptic future where a woman gets in a tussle with her robotic protector and some guy, then they go on a journey to some ruins and the story ends after they come back for the final boss fight. This is exactly how it happens, don't dispute it, just compute it. Some philosophy and psychological stuff is thrown in that we will go over later and some action happens in between.

Lets talk about what people say they like about this show and first I will discuss experimentation. The first and most fundamental way a piece of media can be experimental is to fundamentally change the format of the story entirely. By format I mean the basic framework around the story and the way you present it, outside of it's actually story content. Well this show doesn't really do anything concerning experimentation with this, in fact it's a straight linear line A to B plot. A show "experimenting" might tell things out of order, it might go extremely minimalist, it might go the opposite, it might try to transcend it's own media and or genre etc. It's hard to describe the lack of something and the positive of something vague like experimentation. That is the thing about experimentation, it's hard to describe on it's own but it's one of those things that "you know it when you see it." I gave tangible examples but I recognize that in some ways these are already mundane and limited in their own sense and might be a bit clichéd by now in their own right. The main point I want to make is that EP doesn't really do anything with it's plot or format that warrants calling it "experimentation."
You know what this entire show is exactly like down to mundane details of it's plot, the way the story is told and look of the characters? The Big O. Oh I mean "BIG O, BIG O, BIG O, BIG OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!." Only I never heard anyone call that show "experimental." You have a mysterious domed city, with an outside that's mostly pollution, garbage and Sword Art Online DVD's. A mysterious pale female character that looks and acts like a robot with la faux geisha makeup at the same time. A male character who is strong and mysterious in his own way. If you paint the butler in Big O silver you also have the robot character, they're both even servants by nature. It's Big O without the mech and a lot of exposition. I think the easiest way to explain how mundane the format is, if I told someone to give me a plot outline of the story the way they lay it out wouldn't be any different from how the actual show laid things out, showing how easily digestible all the information and lack of so called experimental barriers to entry there are here. To finally nail down this point lets compare this to another show that has been called experimental as well and deals with similar themes and ideas Serial Experiments Lain.
You have two shows that talk about the good aspects and the potential dangers of technology and philosophical concepts. Both attempt to delve into psychology and peoples sense of self to varying degrees of success. I don't think Lain is a super deep show either, but what I can say about it that I can't say about EP is that by the end of the series the show hardly looks like the same show that is was from episode 1. At some point in the mid series things go way off the rails and the shows animation and editing attempt to reflect some of the concepts they're trying to get across here, without just stating them outright through exposition. The format changes a lot in Lain and I can't say they just told me an A-B story. It also leaves a lot more to interpretation, due in part to it's more heavy reliance on imagery rather than words but also just from the way it's told. EP by contrast looks, is edited and has the same mid paced action animation all throughout the show. It makes no attempt to tie it's animation to the concepts it's trying to get across, unless fists equal philosophical arguments. Well in fairness to Ergo, I did want to punch a few people upon hearing their philosophical beliefs, but I wouldn't say this translated into my own argument unless I was arguing might makes right. I guess Thrasymachus missed his calling as an Anime creator. So the editing isn't experimental, the animation isn't experimental, the way the story is told is not fundamentally different from most shows, so what is? I would like to know that myself.
You wanna know a little secret that isn't that much of a secret about getting people to care about what you write? You include a little sex or violence. Totem and Taboo, Survival and reproduction. We instinctually feel an importance for this stuff because we're walking talking cell machines that feel the need to survive long enough to make copies of ourselves. So anything that involves danger or potentially doing the nasty makes us care because we want to learn to avoid one and get a lot of the other, I'll let you choose which. What If I didn't want to be cheap though, what if I wanted to engage people in intellectual ideas in a way that was new and yet still exciting? Well the first thing I wouldn't do is make it an action show, because we have seen that a million times before. I definitely wouldn't call a show that did things this way experimental in fact I would call it rudimentary for it's time and place. There are two essential basic defaults for anime right now as I see it, la tranche de vie and le show d'action. These are the first person shooters of anime and by that I mean they're the type of thing made most because marketing trends and ease of understanding dictate that this is what consumers want you to give them to imbibe like drone bees circling the hive cluster. Action ticks off that survival part of our brain and makes us feel an immediate emotion, so it is easy to make and its easy to get people to feel good about it and engaged. I'm saying all this for two reasons one is to illustrate that making this show action oriented detracts from the idea that it is "experimental" by virtue of the fact that action is an extremely easy and common genre to appeal to mass audiences with and two, to set you up to ask a question. Strip away all supposed psychological and philosophical window dressing from this show for a second and ask yourself this: Is this show fundamentally different from just a plain action show without these pretenses? Can you find anything about it that really warrants you saying it is more "experimental" than other shows of this genre? For my part I saw these as fundamental questions for this review and my answer was "no" to both of them. There is nothing about EP that makes me think it's any different from the hundreds of other action shows out there. Couple this with the fact that a lot of anime shows have similar post apocalyptic and science fiction leanings that are much better utilized. I would argue that this show and others would actually be more "experimental" if they went the more common route and made a slice of life anime about deep psychological and philosophical things. There have already been a lot of action shows that dip into these themes but the amount of slice of life shows that attempt to be experimental and thought provoking can be counted on one hand or less. At the end of the day most if not all of these shows are a product to sell figurines and make you feel good for an hour or so, but even when faced with the dichotomy of the two most common shows to appeal to the lowest common denominator viewer EP zagged hard and fast towards the easier more tread upon genre to do this with. So in going action it dilutes it's so called experimentation even that little bit much more.
People say this show mixes genres, but I don't really see it. It's essentially post apocalyptic sci-fi and in that genre its a pretty standard unimaginative use of the tropes and cliches therein. In it's slight defense it's kind of hard to mix genres when your baseline is post apocalyptic sci-fi, if you try to mix in any genre that isn't primarily about depressive atmospheric and heightened negative emotions you end up with a bad muted tone that nerfs what's appealing about this kind of fiction. In other words you wind up with a Bethesda Fallout, when I'm trying to make something serious like New Vegas. While we're on the subject of this show and it's genre, I would like to note that this show is pretty scant on the "science" in the science fiction equation. It doesn't really introduce any kind of cool technological innovations or ideas we haven't seen before and it doesn't have scientific concepts at the core of it's story telling. I mean I'm a philosophy fanboy but you have to have some of this in your Sci-Fi show kids.
So maybe in lieu of that you're probably hoping the content of the story is experimental. Yeah... Not so much. Everything is pretty easy to understand. It's complicated the way things like "Inception" are complicated in that if you don't listen to every piece of stated exposition with a little bit of brain power you might get lost. If you don't listen to what the people say because you have your cellphone out or you're playing sex VN's in another window, you'll be confused. Everything in this show is so spelled out that I find it really hard to believe anyone actually had a hard time following this. I'd like to use this review as a soapbox and show my humongous epeen knowledge on philosophy and how this show gets it wrong with all of my "ACTUUAAAALKLLKYS" but the reality is that the references to philosophy are window dressing at best and just nonexistent for most of the show. Some talking statues are named after philosophers... I'm not exactly sure why, they never really do anything philosophical. I mean one scene where they do logic tables, have a Socratic debate or use hermeneutics would have done wonders and saved this show... Ok so in all seriousness. I didn't really expect them to do that kind of stuff. I think they were trying to imply these AI statues were like philosopher kings, but at least a few of the philosophers listed had no political thought to speak of and a lot of them would not advise the things done by the shows society. In some cases it would be much better and much worse. I'd like to see how a Late Wittgensteinian society would contrast with an early Wittgensteinian society. Yeah actually animators would just go the lazy route and make the early stuff all about an extreme rules governed society like Chinese Legalism but worse. Or how a Derridean society would look like prior to his later romance with Marx and after. One can only imagine such a glorious anomic end to the dialectic of "free trade." I mean wouldn't we all like to see what a Foucauldian society would look like? I can just imagine the non-stop Bacchanalia and the glorious never ending bath houses. Power would truly be radiating out of my every pore and other bodily openings, now that's what I call bio-politics... Alas we get nothing close to this small amount of imagination. It's a standard futuristic society with some marble statues and stuff here and there.
Let's look at the characters and the perception that they have psychological depth. Psychological depth can mean a few things in fiction. The most obvious thing it can mean to me is that the creators are trying to emulate the findings in current or past psychological movements and infusing their works with them like Freudianism in Hitchcock films, Jungian in Kubrick, mild parodies of behaviorism in Kurt Vonnegut, Existential-psych in French New Wave films ETC. Maybe you want psychological realism in the actions of your characters like Yasujiro Ozu or maybe you like heightened fairy tale archetypes like Akira Kurosawa. Have I dropped enough names yet? Well anyway, the point of all these examples is that generally when I hear something has psychological depth I tend to think of examples like this where the creators gave their characters depth by having specific types of psychology or ideas in mind when making them, they may even include a mix of some of these things. Like maybe one character represents a classic Freudian outlook on life and the intrigue comes from them making contact with someone with a more modern take on psychologies outlook like through evolutionary psych or cognitive behavioral. I think I belabored the point enough on this definition and you can basically get what I'm saying now the characters can have or be used to represent these psychological ideas in their basic makeup. Ok, so good onto the next definition. The second definition is the more common one, that I assume most people praising this show think of when they talk about it and that definition is something akin to "they have a long back story therefore I think them interesting." To be charitable to this definition it can also mean that they have interesting tidbits and tadbits to their characters shown in the past, like a linear psychological bread crumb trail of trauma, pain, good times and angry stuff here and there. I can like stories that engage in either definition and most literature is a combination of both, but I don't really think EP fits either well. I don't really find these characters interesting at all. They have about as much depth as a Naruto character, but with a heavy facade blanketed over them to give the appearance that they matter more. They go through formulaic arcs and commit clichéd action after clichéd action. I mean I have a whole section just dedicated to that right here:

If I'm allowed to make one bold assumption here about peoples high estimation of this anime and what I think is their false impression that this is an "unorthodox" show is that it seems like and this is where the assumption comes in friendos, that a lot of anime fans are insularly only into this one thing. Anime and mango seems to be an all encompassing hobby and in a lot of anime communities here and elsewhere I have noticed a tendency for people who are into it to not be into most other types of media. Some of this seems to be snobbery but there is also a basic fact of reality, not everyone is a loser like me who can sit and take in tons of different crap from different types of media, so people naturally stick with what they're interested in. If I can give this a generous spin I would say most of you are specialists and not generalists. Well I'm the opposite I'm the jack of no trades and I can't review things in isolation, I see things as so interconnected that I can't quite stop myself from thinking of other media in reference to each other ever.
FOR INSTANCE gals and guys, people like to play up this shows "dream sequences," but having seen a lot of western shows and they seem pretty standard for television as a media. A lot of shows have an episode that essentially doesn't connect to the plot in a direct way but hints at it and points towards future developments within context of a dream. The most famous example I can think of is the ending of the 4th season of Buffy, a lot of episodes of Scrubs, a few Doctor Who's and countless Star Trek episodes where characters realize they were hung up on a dream. This isn't really experimental it's damn near a cliche that just hasn't been coined yet. How about "dreamsposition?" In fact this review is a dream sequence, a hallucination, brought on by drugs and your own self hatred. I'm your inner nagging doubts, now you just need to spout some vague exposition to me so we can move the plot and this review forward.
In reading other reviews I saw one phrase over and over and over and that was "this anime explores what it means to be human." I no joke heard a Hallmark movie described the same way in a commercial once, for those who don't live in the states Hallmark movies are just slightly above a soap opera in overall quality and I've said the phrase "it's Hallmark tier" to describe the low quality of a film before. I'm not surprised people use this phrase though, because exploring "what it means to be human" is one of the criterion of something being Literature. Which also means that like everything else in this section, it's been done before <History of writing here.> Yeah I really don't feel the need to cite single examples on this one as it is done so much that it would actually be easier to list things that tried not to do this while still telling a story in some way. I think what people specifically mean with this phrase in reference to this show is that the contrast between machine people and regular people is compared a bit here, but even when I narrow it down to that level the absolute deluge of stuff that exists also doing that and doing it better pours in hard and fast. I just want to toot my own horn a bit that this review is an exploration of what it means to be human and by that I mean myself and through me all humanity. It is a mado to my psyche and further a fenetre to the worlds soul.
Another way in which I think this plays out is in peoples constant citing of the "you're your own worst enemy" trope as some kind of deep revelation in this. I think the first time I ever saw this trope in action was in a really famous Manga called the Holy Bible. Not to be confused with the more popular anime adaption Bible Black. Jesus realizes on the cross that his own inherent selfish desires and sin are what might mire him in hell for all eternity if he can't escape his own predilection towards temptation. In other words he is his own worst enemy. Lilith is best girl by the way. In a little obscure film series called STAR WARS, a character named Luke in a galaxy far far away has to go through "training" by Yoda to learn about his force sensitivity. Some of this training involves a cave, at the end of his small journey in this cave one of the most famous scenes in cinematic history occurs and he realizes he is his own potential worst enemy. In the David Bowie song "The Man Who Sold the World" I gotta spoiler to lay flat on you here, he is the villain in his own song and the titular man who sold the world. He slowly realizes this after the years and years that he roamed and then it came as some surprise he is one and the same his savior and his own worst enemy. At least two Twilight Zone episodes, The Shelter and The Monsters are Due on Maple Street have this same message. In my own lifetime I remember seeing this idea as early as Zelda 2: An Adventure of Link. We have met the enemy ladies and gentlemen and it is us and are easy cliches. I think the Bowie example is the best illustration that this idea isn't that deep, but even in just a four minute song, he managed to do a lot more with than this show did with an entire television show. Thus was the power of the late great Ziggy Stardust. Like a neko from Japan, oh he could lick 'em by smiling. You know, I'm writing this when I could be doing more important things with my life, I eat all the wrong foods, I procrastinate at a level previously not believed possible by mere mortals and I never try to fix any of the major problems with my life. I just realized I am my own worst enemy, I was the villain all along. It was me who caused my own unhappiness all these years. My god how am I going to live with this revelation? I'm literally and figuratively hyperventilating right now, I think I might be having a heart attack. Someone call an ambulance.... OMG I... I-i close my eyes and seize it, I clench my fists and beat it, I light my torch and burn it, I am the beast I worship!

.....

Actually, I already knew all this, back to the review. So the last clichéd arc is a character conveniently having amnesia and we have seen this a thousand times... Well I forgot what I was going to say so lets move on.
This isn't really a cliche but... People like to cite this shows use of Blade Runner's ideas as ground breaking as well, but I also see this as pretty standard in eastern and western media. Pretty much everything science fiction tries to be Blade Runner and if they aren't it's probably because they're trying to be 2001: A Space Odyssey. Pretty much everything tries to be Akira and if they aren't it's probably because they're trying to be Neon Genesis Evangelion. Pretty much everything tries to be Ghost in the Shell if they aren't it's probably because they're trying to be Serial Experiments Lain. Pretty much everything tries to be Bubble Gum Crisis if they aren't it's probably because they're trying to be Paprika. Pretty much everything tries to be Snatcher if they aren't it's probably because they're trying to be Xenogears. Pretty much everything tries to be Synthwave if they aren't it's probably because they're trying to be IDM. Pretty much everything tries to be- Sorry I got stuck on a tape loop there for a second, but I'm sure you get the point. I think specifically in Akira's case you can argue it was trying to be both Blade Runner and 2001 at the same time, while juggling it's own themes, ideas and other influences. Much like how this review is a dream sequence, an exploration of humanity and I realized I'm my own worst enemy within it's confines, it is also a cyberpunk neo-noir thriller. The reviews soundtrack was made by Vangelis. I'm a special police officer that might be a cyborg who is sent to track down rogue replicant anime reviewers from the MAL corporation who escaped the offworld forums. We are tasked with capturing them and if necessary to execute them. This is not called execution, as they had no life to begin with. We call this special police unit knife sprinters. My robotic girlfriend looks like a sophisticated Bettie Page and I dream of My Little Pony unicorns and electric rams when I sleep. Wake up, time to cry.
You may have got annoyed from me inserting all these cheap plot points haphazardly into this review and to that I say "good," because that is how I felt the entire time watching EP. Absolutely sick of every bad cliche, lame plot point and cheap character arc being inserted into the wrong places limply like a shaky hand on a first date.

Before I move on here, I want to anticipate a potential defense of this show and the criticisms I have leveled at it so far. After reading all this someone might scream "Simpsons did it" implying I don't know that most ideas are not new and that everything has been done before. Every idea is a package of other ideas that already exists. Nothing is invariant or comes wholly out of nowhere. I don't believe in divine inspiration or intervention, so ideas can only come from already known human sources, filtered through our collective knowledge. This is all true, but my problem isn't just that this stuff has been done before, it's that it ultimately doesn't culminate into anything interesting or worth watching. This show is just a muddled mess of ideas and influences and far from doing something interesting with them it just kind of tosses them all into a vat without properly mixing it or wondering if any of the stuff should go together in the first place. The philosophy is badly strewn window dressing, the characters aren't that deep upon any kind of critical examination and there isn't really anything that distinguishes this from any other action anime.
I also bring all of the above up to slowly erode the idea that this show is more "experimental" or thought provoking than other shows like it.
I also want to consider something before moving on and explain how I really want to be fair to something like this even though it might not seem that way given my review. I can only really know my own enjoyment and level engagement with something, but I also try like most people to imagine a fairer third person viewpoint when possible. Maybe this isn't "deep" enough or whatever for me but is it a good slick entry level piece of fiction concerning the ideas for others? My answer to that is also no, it doesn't really engage or lay out the ideas in a way that would give the viewer a good idea of philosophy or psychology. I think even Full Metal Alchemist does a better job explaining the fictional practices of alchemy better than this show does the real life practice of philosophy. Let's consider for a moment though that this show was a good representation of Phil and Psych 101 ideas. I wouldn't write up a review like this for the anime equivalent of Sesame Street, Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer and laugh about how people who watch these don't even know basic arithmetic and reading skills. I MEAN WHAT ARE THEY CHILDREN OR SOMETHING? A SONG ABOUT READING A MAP HOW DUMB ARE YOU? I'm cruel but I'm not unkind. If I thought this show was good for it's own sake and a fairly accurate depiction of the ideas within, I would simply say "it's not for me" and move on. I'd hope people learn from it and feel entertained and engaged enough to further research the ideas, but I wouldn't feel a need to review this my self. The problem is the show isn't billed as some introductory work to the subject nor is it aimed at lay watchers and it's defended by people as if it's one of the intellectual heights of anime. So that is why I feel a need to tear this down and also because I'm just a jerk with too much time on his hands.

The animation is just about average for it's time. It looks a lot like other shows of it's era only with more shadows and darkness/dark colors added in. To give it some credit the action is pretty good for what it is. The female lead is nicely designed and she is used well for what the show tries to get across. Her face in particular is nicely crafted and interesting for it's own sake, she shows more emotion than a lot of anime characters in shows like this, so her minimalist design wasn't completely without merit. I also like the robots unique design. I guess I can also say that this show doesn't go extremely cheap in the sex department at any point, all the characters look the way they should given the context they're in and there isn't any obvious cheap fanservice stuff I can remember. I think in general while it's animation isn't anything to write home about it has the highest peaks of quality out of all the shows assets.
This is another show I'm reviewing where the music went in one ear and out the other and I don't really have anything of note to say about it or the voice acting. I'm always kind of amused at how much people seem to care about voice actors in anime and how they generally don't leave any impression on me at all. I'd like to say it's a cultural thing but I've seen a lot of Japanese films and I generally think they are tied with the UK for having the best live actors. So I'm not sure that's it. Hmmmmmmm, something i have to think about I guess. Anyway, I just don't really have anything to say about the sound in this show.

You know this show reminded me of a deeper disappointment I have with film as a media but animation in particular. I think animation could be employed well to illustrate some intellectual ideas that aren't well described with words. The closest I have seen to what I'm trying to describe are terrible movies like Baraka and Koyaanisqatsi, where images and music are employed to try and get across a bigger intellectual idea without words. The only problem is the few times this is attempted the ideas they get across are as shallow as a wading pool. OMG NATURE CONTRASTS WITH HUMAN CIVILIZATION? DATS CRAZY DEW... I NEVER THOUGHT OF IT LIKE DAT. If only I hadn't been spoiled with that incredibly deep message with Fern Gully when I was five. Granted these films have other merits like the moving forward of filming techniques, editing and cinematography. The point is I'd like experimentation and intellectual motifs to go much much further than what I have seen in most animation. Go really abstract and off the wall. I mean beyond FlatLand levels. Like the Talking Head's I want you to stop making sense and start making abstract and creative choices that go far beyond what we have today. I didn't get any of this with EP, I got a bland action show. So I said this review was influenced by Blade Runner so here it's only fitting I end this like a true cyborg cut down before his time... *Rain falling everywhere.* I've imagined animation you people wouldn't believe. Anime warships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've seen "glistening" figurines in a neckbeards estate. All these inane complaints about media will be lost in time now... Like poorly animated tears.. In the rain...

There is some spoilers into this, there is also me telling you that watching this is not worth any of your time.

Ergo Proxy is one of these promising series that your friends tell you to watch and declare as "masterpiece."

It was one of the series i expected to love the most, i thought it was going to be consistently good, and the first episode kinda told me that my friends were right, it had a lot of potential to it, it was promising, it had a touch of atmospheric space that got you into it, but what made this series so appealing in ... the first episode fastly changed for some The Room Avant-Garde crap. I mean, i compare The Room to this, but i can give the credits to Wiseau atleast, for even trying.

Trying to immerse yourself into a toilet world where babies shit frootloops and babies give birth to adults, is more easy than to immerse yourself into that piece of crap that is Ergo Proxy.

Story - 2 First episode had structure, but it threw it fast away to try to be experimental, but you don't get experimental much with the biggest clichés in mystery storytelling. Ergo Proxy makes you fall gradually into an abyss of boredom. Episode 16 is probably the most boring and monotonous episode i have ever seen in an anime. Period. Episode 4 and 5 were a boring redneck vibes, monotonous piece of audio visuals that made you think more about what you're doing with your life than the child who just got killed, at this episode 4 i knew i f*cked up. Forever after come with what has already been done in the past, but way less ambitious and just... hahh.


Art - 4 Ergo Proxy succeeded in being interesting until episode 3, where you could clearly see that the structure was collapsing, and that the universe stopped being rigid, complete, real, unique to itself. It just became some trashy decor you'll see in an amateur movie with no skills for backgrounds whatsoever. The background, the environment was lacking in realism, it was lacking in everything it had no wish to make you immerse into it. It made you feel like they were trying something, while trying nothing at all. The visuals in it kept degrading like everything else.

Sound - 5 Sound was okay, sometimes it went off from what was happening on the screen, but i mean, this came out in 2006, and you can't expect the sound to save your background, your script, storytelling, you can't. Sound was probably the best thing about this show, it was mediocre but way better than the show itself, i would have listened to an album of the OSTs of Ergo Proxy instead of the show itself, if only i knew back then.

Character - 1 Characteristically speaking, Ergo Proxy had nothing to offer, neither Re-l or Vince had any depth, substance, or any characteric traits that made them interesting in the first place, nahh, it was the contrary, they never helped to try to keep that show alive and interesting, they were one of the core of why Ergo Proxy was painful to watch. Re-L could only complain and cute cute fanservice while being a complete dumbster while Vince was one of the most shallow and dense character in anime history.

Enjoyment - 1 Kill me, kill me please, it's probably what i was feeling deep inside. Why i am watching this while i could just rewatch Tokyo Ghoul first season, which is way more well executed and thoughtful than this thing, which is just edgy in the irritating sense. Edgy to be edgy. It tells you a lot when you remember something for how bad it was.

Overall - 4 This thing clearly has Velvet Underground and Lou Reed vibes to it, poor Lou Reed, i hope he is not associated with this, because it would only
be a shame to link a legend with this stuff that was so bland and empty,
it was just like watching nothing at all. It would just be an utter insult to Lou and his works. This show is a 4, first three episodes were watcheable, after it's just a downfall in a pool of garbage crap that never ceased to smell. I really wished i could get back the time i spent on it,
but it's too late, unfortunately.

Most Ergo Proxy fans tend to discredit other people who couldn't appreciate this "masterpiece" as either filthy casuals or plain stupid. I get that viewers sometimes need to put effort in understanding the concept of the show and I certainly have no problem doing just that. The thing is, if such effort is required to comprehend what is being conveyed due to the myriad of heavy and "deep" philosophical references and symbolism slapped in it every ten seconds, then maybe you have taken your humongous piece of convoluted fluff one step too far.

If you are unwilling to delve further into this review, I'll give ... a short explanation as to why I'm rating it this low: Ergo Proxy's story lacks cohesiveness with a lot of pointless meandering, underwhelming characterization, bleak presentation, and terribly slow pacing. It tries too hard to be deeply philosophical that it's painful.

Ergo Proxy tackles a lot of really interesting themes: self-discovery, mental illness, doomed Utopian city, etc. The thing is, it presents them in the most uninteresting, borderline comprehensible way possible. It's the type of show that raises new questions almost every episode and you're lost just about half the time. Sure, those questions are eventually answered in the last 2 or so episodes, but for a near 10-hour investment, I genuinely feel it wasn't worth it. It's slow-paced with a lot of randomly baffling scenes, most of them don't actually contribute to the plot and were just haphazardly slapped in there to make it even more confusing. It would have been much more tolerable had it been 10 episodes less than its actual count.

I care so much about how the story is presented as much as the story itself. Ergo Proxy is an experimental anime meant to be complex. It doesn't spoon-feed the audience and it requires them to think—something that I do appreciate. Ergo Proxy just struck a different cord for me. As I previously mentioned, it tries too hard to be deeply philosophical, but is ultimately just a huge clusterfuck with its disjointed narrative and concepts. It didn't properly establish the setting and whatever questions about how Romdeau came about were touched upon in a weirdly placed game show episode in the middle of the series like it was some kind of an afterthought. The Cogito virus wasn't also explained properly even though it's one of the most influential aspects in the story. But hey, it was probably intended to be "mysterious" right? Come on.

Then there are the characters. One of the most common comment I've seen on the boards is how the characters are extremely well-written and "unique." To each his own I guess, because I honestly found both Re-l and Vincent Law as equally dull as the show's atmosphere. Vincent Law, who actually is the central character of the story, doesn't have any particularly gripping characteristic besides the mystery that encapsulates his life. Even then I didn't find that mystery compelling and because it's made apparent in the beginning that he is the Ergo Proxy. Set that aside, Vincent is too plain, too basic, too ordinary for me to be invested in. In short, he is forgettable.

What's even worse is that the story is dedicated to an entire journey for the sole purpose of finding out who or what exactly is Vincent Law, and I guess that's the reason why this show almost bored me to death. While there should be a lot of intrigue in that premise, I simply couldn't connect with his character. He never really gave me a reason to, so why should I care? Re-l, on the other hand, acts as an edgy, spoiled brat for the most part. While I couldn't care less about Vincent, how she treats him during their voyage was extremely annoying and almost abusive considering that he was nothing but good to her. Even in the height of the climax up to the conclusion, her treatment of him had very little improvement. Pino and Raul Creed are honestly the only ones I can stand and found to be far more intriguing than the main characters. The rest of the cast are uninteresting weirdos that are as forgettable as Vincent is.

I'm not exactly sure what a "deep" anime is supposed to be like, but I sure know Ergo Proxy is certainly confusing. My problem with it isn't the intricate symbolism and heavy philosophical elements. It's the narrative, the often lack of continuity in it, and uninteresting and bland main characters. This review is as much as what I personally feel about it. And what I feel about Ergo Proxy is that it is the most bleak, meandering, convoluted journey to truth and self-discovery I've ever seen. I did not find it enriching nor entertaining in the least bit.

Ergo Proxy feels like one of the biggest pranks in anime history second only to Endless Eight arc from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Three times I tried to watch it only to be left staring at ~8.0 rating, wondering how the hell this got above 3.0 average. Some say Ergo Proxy is one of those series you either love or hate. I certainly fall into the latter category.

The story is practically non-existent. All that we get after two or three set-up episodes is one filler after another filler after another with an impact on the story varying from bare minimum to basically none. But ... wait! The story is hard to understand and filled with subtle, smart symbolism, they say. They lie. The story is actually quite simple, symbolism is painfully obvious to the level of being cringeworthy. And as for smart… Well, I honestly don't understand how citing "cogito ergo sum" a few hundred times and telling obvious things (e.g. "To write a book you need to know the language") like some sort of revelation is considered to be smart.

Characters are dull and unmemorable with little to none development over the whole entirety of 23 episodes (thanks to the overabundance of filler episodes). I kid you not, I watched Ergo Proxy three times over the last five years and I can barely name one, maybe two characters by names, let alone say few things about them.

Art-style and animation is actually cool… for the first 3-4 episodes. After that, the quality becomes… let's say, a bit turbulent. Around episode 10, jumps in quality become so abrupt (even in the span of one episode), I literally burst into laughter each time I see it. It's like one shot was drawn by a decent in-house animator and the other (a few seconds away) - by an underpaid freelance intern.

I got it, Ergo Proxy tries to be different and experimental, which is not a bad goal by any means. But it tries so hard that it loses all redeeming qualities while achieving nothing. And still, people like it. Year after year they praise painfully simple story obscured by stilted wording as "smart" and "thought-provoking". Year after year it will go on probably till my grave. But well... to each their own, I guess.

I was pumped to watch this anime as I know it's generally highly regarded and the box art and back of box description seemed very cool and right up my alley. Furthermore, it had one of the very best opening episodes I've ever seen in any anime, so I quickly had sky high expectations. In the end, I watched a hard to follow, convoluted, disjointed mess with huge pacing issues and a bigger picture message repeatedly force-fed down my throat.

Art-

I'd give the art high praise. The direction of this anime was solid with numerous professionally executed camera tricks. The dark, bleak art style perfectly suits ... the tone and message of the anime and the animation is smooth throughout. No qualms here.

Sound-

Solid voice acting, believable sound effects and a solid, though not overly memorable after the fact, soundtrack. I liked the opening and closing songs for sure and there were some creepy and tense background songs too at appropriate moments.

Character-

The characters and the story are where this anime craps the bed. The plot is absolutely all over the place, convoluted, disjointed, confusing, hard to follow and has major pacing issues. It felt like the anime was divided as follows- 3-4 "beginning" episodes, 16+ "middle" episodes and 3 "ending" episodes. The middle part felt like it really dragged on for a long time. Also, there were random episodes where completely out of nowhere the characters were on a game show or in an amusement park, which definitely didn't do it for me.

The plot has a bigger picture message or two it wants to give you and it's not remotely subtle about it. It's absolutely shoved down your throat over and over again, especially near the end. Throughout this anime, and even after its conclusion, I found it really difficult to follow what was going on and to connect all the dots. I felt the story, though it tried to go for something deep, was largely just a mess.

Enjoyment-

If we're being honest, I didn't particularly enjoy this anime. I didn't hate it, but the middle section felt overly drawn out and at times boring- there were more than one "do nothing" episodes- and it was really hard to truly get into it and get invested when I spent most of my viewing experience confused and not knowing what was going on. As stated above, while I think the CONCEPT of the plot was solid, I think the execution was quite poor and it ended up a convoluted mess.

Overall-

I wanted to like it and I was super hyped after the first episode, but ultimately I felt wildly let down and disappointed and felt the execution of its concept was done rather poorly.

+Deep concept
+Solid direction and voice acting throughout
+Visually nice

-Pacing issues
-Convoluted, disjointed, confusing, hard to follow plot
-"Bigger picture message"/"Moral of the story" absolutely shoved down the viewer's throat

Overrated and meh...

OBJECTIVE RATING- 5 Very average in all honesty
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- Strong 4 Weak 5

This series has too many flaws bringing it down. The art direction and filler episodes are in particular worth criticizing.
The art direction is grim-dark, undersaturated, brown and edgy. It's very 2006-looking and that isn't aging well at the moment. Overly dark lighting occludes for the sake of adding mystery where the story has plenty of mystery already, and the colors really limit scenes where there could have been a stronger contrast to the brown wasteland world.
The filler episodes are harder to talk about without spoilers, but at least 5 episodes would be improved by reading a paragraph of backstory instead. Seriously, just skip 11, ... 14, 15, 16, 19, and 20. 15 will make you hate your eyes and ears while 16 will just make you hate Re-L: the flawed hero who overcomes her pettiness by... being increasingly petty? At least 19 isn't horrible, it just doesn't fit in the series at all.
The last 3 episodes are actually good and should be watched together. Honorable mention goes to the dub which was just fine. The sound and music was completely unnoticed through the show's whole run, unless you like Radiohead.

Initially, I felt pretty sure this would become one of my favorites: great art, good setting, interesting plot-hooks.

The problem is that after a few episodes it throws every appeal out. You think it will be a sort of Aeon-Flux with more demons and film noir intrigue, instead trek out into the wasteland to power up and fight the monster of the week.

The show eventually comes full circle, but by the end it felt like there was mostly filler. You are always waiting for more characterization, only to have exposition dumped on you in the 11th hour. This is NOT how you get people invested in ... the story.

Good twists enhance your enjoyment on repeated watching, but the characters are still dead flat, it is impossible to watch a second time much less recommend a first viewing.

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." - Elon Musk

After consuming mass amounts of literature and medium, this piece of fiction simply just doesn't encapsulate my attention and in my humble opinion, is a waste of time. This narrative depicts a story of a post-apocalyptic utopian future where humans and AutoReiv androids coexist peacefully until a virus gives the androids self-awareness, causing them to commit a series of murders which is fundamentally rudimentary and has been told countless amounts of time and superior than this anime has. For example, it has taken the worst parts ... of the popular and of higher quality anime called Doraemon and has put it all into a badly written and and substandard animation quality and overall a inferior copy of the original. Overall this has been a horrible watching experience and I hope Dai Satō stops plagiarizing concepts from popular and superior shows and making them badder. :(

Really confusing bad exposition, bad pacing, didnt know what was going on for 3 episodes, I have better use for my time
The art looked ok idk, didn t really get to see if the sound is ok, the characters weren t interesting at all. Now animelist says this review has to be longer so i guess i m gonna talk about how the pacing is really just : ZOMBIIIEESS, REL is loved by his grandpa, zombiiiies but they arent actually zombies, weird cereals scene then rel comes over to search for anomalies. She sees that weird creatures the creature comes to her bad bad abdabadbab

I once said that Samurai Champloo has a female protagonist that is combination of all qualities, men hate in women.

Well this show beats Champloo on that one. Lil is the worst anime character ever created, at least from what I have seen.

That is partly because she is very unambiguously written. There is no room for interpretation of her character's motivation.

For example for Himari and Penguin-hat in Peguindrum is less clear: it could be that Himari is a simply a victim for mysterious neural parasite hat, that makes Kan and Sho do stuff for her to get their sister back, or it could be that ... Penguin-hat is simply an act by Himari to sneakily get what she wants. Regardless Himari is very different with and without that hat.

Back to Lil and Ergo Proxy. Lil is a privileged girl that has everything person could dream of in the world she lives on. I wish I had all that for myself. However wanting this for yourself and appreciating a person who has it is two different things. Especially if that person is female. Kaiji for example wants to be rich and own a Merc, but cuts tires and steals badges from other people's Mercs out of spite, that makes a lot of sense to me.

Instead of enjoying what she got, Lil 'suffers' from boredom. Because of that she gets herself involved with all sort of trouble, complete the opposite of what I would have done in her place. Her privilege prevents her from suffering any consequences from actions she takes, which makes her even more emboldened to just do whatever she pleases at any given moment.

These boredom driven actions and motivation, as well as lack of consequences makes her so completely reprehensible and abhorrent in my eyes.

Not even her saving male protagonist could redeem her character, since that also was done out of boredom.

I also seen another female character before I dropped, a diver one. That one is also very unlikable. Shows is full of reprehensible females.

Since Lil takes so much screen time, it is hard to judge or watch the show while completely ignoring her.

World of Ergo Proxy is a sort of totalitarian futuristic dystopia, without anything likable going for it. Kind of techno North Korea. It has a hint of some bigger idea in the plot.

I dropped the show before this could get to any reasonable development or resolution, therefore I gave it 3 as average. Good plot resolution could have lifted it 5 while bad drag all the way to 1. Unlikable characters cuts the remainder of the score.

You do not want to see a spoiled rich privileged female on a privilege trip after all.

Ergo Proxy has a lot of issues. It's hard to know where to start. One of the main problems is that it's too similar to Ghost in the Shell: Innocence. Both stories are weak and are mainly there to distract from the flaws with dazzling visuals. It starts off well but quickly becomes tedious and slow. It tries too hard to be intelligent and ends up being annoying.

The first episode is excellent, and it looks amazing. It hooks you in, but unfortunately, the rest of the story is slow and doesn't have much momentum. There are too many episodes where one character just talks to ... themselves about their identity, and this drags on for too long. The plot is revealed in unrelated episodes, which is confusing. The ending raises more questions than answers.

The characters are not developed well enough. The relationships are explored, such as Vincent's struggles and his dynamic with Re-l, but they feel rushed. Pino provides comic relief, but her dialogue can be annoying.

The animation is the best part. It looks great, especially the cyberpunk and gothic elements. However, the characters' designs are inconsistent, which can be distracting, and the secondary male characters look too similar.

The soundtrack is unusual and fits the show's aesthetic, but it's repetitive, and the same few songs are played throughout.

Overall, Ergo Proxy is a disappointment. The first episode is good, but the rest is not worth watching. The animation and soundtrack are commendable, but the story and characters are weak.

1- This anime look 'smart' but mostly only looks like it, there are some philosophical references and all yet they don't really explore the subject they bring on, no conclusion and if the goal was to make you the viewer think about it the characters don't even seem to try to understand anyway so you're not really stimulated.

2- Some scenes are sad which is good since it makes you feel something but they are too few and it doesn't really have visible consequences on the characters and sadly end up forgettable, there was potential.

3- The drawings are very pretty, especially Lil she is very ... pretty and has an original face and every character feels original in their appearance, the animation though is just correct not bad not good so it doesn't feel like an "artistically" awesome anime, they could go crazy with action scenes and they didn't, they could show really detailed insides of robots while they break but they didn't, they didn't do bad but it's not enough to be good.