A mind fuckery at it's finest. The first moment this show started on the first episode I knew I would be in for a hell of a ride. Although I do have to give a bit of credit to ZephSilver for suggesting this anime on account of us both being huge fans of Monster and anything mind blowing. I was curious to see what Ergo Proxy would make me feel.
Story:
My high hopes for this was immortal throughout this entire show. After the first episode I was hooked on a rod. The suspense and thrilling rush it gave me, made my nights almost sleepless. The dark, looming atmosphere gave the show it's own unique quality and pulled in the psychological theme and horrific genre into play. Although a few episodes threw up fillers, it didn't leave my vision for this show to be on of the best. These 'fillers' did tie into the plot more than I thought, and even brought in a bit of comedic relief we all love once and a while. The setting was toxic to the point where the geographer in me came out, wondering if our world would ever turn into this. It may not be a perfect 10, but in my eyes, this anime was too beautiful and inspiring not to give the story a 100%.
Art:
Dark and otherwise eerie, the animators didn't hold back to make this gothic anime one of the best. The background style doesn't do justice to mix in with the plot to make the anime even more mind-blowing. The soft, dark tones of the scenes with a hint of a steam-punk sub-genre style really was a cherry on the top. The character designs were absolutely beautiful. Never have I seen such gorgeous styles. Why anime can't be more like this, I will never know.
Sound:
Not only does MONORAL's Kiri set up the anime with an ENGLISH SONG from an ENGLISH BAND, but it creates the uniqueness to the whole thing. I don't think I've ever seen an anime ending and starting with an English song. In fact I was very surprised when I heard Radiohead at the end. Man, was that ever a great thing to hear. But these two songs just set up everything. It gave the watcher an exciting and anxious rush at the beginning and chilling feeling at the end. I never skipped them and fell in love with them both. The voice acting rolls (and yes I watched in dubbed) were prefect! Not only did my favourite VA play the roll of one of my favourite characters, but the other voice were just a barrel in the hole. Absolutely beautiful sounds.
Enjoyment/Overall:
At the end of this show I was sitting on the ground contemplating life for around...an hour or so. If I wasn't rescued by my friend, I would've sat there longer wondering why they didn't make more of this! I can easily say I went through a heavy withdrawal and had to be resolved by a bottle of wine and a medium pepperoni pizza, watching My Sister's Keeper with Cameron Diaz. I needed to cry. As much as I was content with the ending of the anime, the sense of loss was clearly visible. I love shows like these that play with your mind so much that make you bang it against your wall wondering what the difference is between imaginary and reality. This was incredible and I would watch it over and over again.
I give this anime a brilliant 100% on the Proxy scale.
