Ergo Proxy(23 episode series)This is an amazingly well done series. The artwork and soundtrack are beautiful, the story is intriguing, and the characters actually have some depth to them.
Technology as presented here is pretty interesting. Everything is obviously pretty high tech, and yet it all has a kind of art deco look to it that seems to hearken back to the 1920s view of the future, actually kind of mixing modern and past visions of the future. For instance, while there are androids (referred to as AutoReivs), they look nothing like the tin can versions or ridiculously human versions seen in other sci fi. Instead, they manage to look both interesting and creepy, looking more or less human in shape, but with faces that look more like porcelain masks and bodies that seem to resemble canvas. About the only exception to this are AutoReivs that resemble children, like Pino.
Taking place in a post-apocalyptic future, it seems that earth's environment has been devastated, ironically in an attempt to create a clean energy alternative. Most of the story is focused around a domed city called Romdo, which could almost be a city from the TV movie adaptation of
Brave New World. People are grown in artificial wombs and programmed to serve a particular function within this artificial, dystopic city. They're also constantly encouraged to spend and buy new things, while throwing out all things. Outside the dome, people eek out an existence off of Romdo's scraps in the desolate landscape while dodging Romdo's many robotic patrols. There were also obviously other domed cities at one point, but they are either empty of human inhabitants or destroyed.
This series has two protagonists who share the focus fairly evenly. The first is a man named Vincent Law. An immigrant from another failed city, he works as an AutoReiv disposal worker. AutoReivs have started getting a computer virus that makes them become self-aware, and the disposal unit basically hunts these down and kills them. Romdo is a very structured place, so people and Auto Reivs that don't fit into their pre-determined place in that society are basically just hunted down and killed. Vincent, though, has something of a mystery surrounding him, and soon after we meet him he ends up being whisked away outside.
The other protagonist is Re-l Mayer, a police officer as best I can tell. In some ways she reminds me a little of Ricker Deckard, at least in some aspects. She's investigating a series of murders perpetuated by infected AutoReivs when we meet her, along with her AutoReiv partner, Iggy. She actually hates Romdo and its structured society, though this at least in part seems to be out of resentment for her grandfather, who runs the city. Naturally life gets complicated for her soon after we meet her and she meets Vincent. She develops a strange kind of obsession with him, especially after she first encounters what will come to be known as a Proxy.
While there is some sporadic action, if you’re looking for some kind of sci fi action piece here, you'll be disappointed. Instead, the series focuses a lot more on the frame of mind of the protagonists as they are taken through the story. Vincent has a mysterious past that he's determined to remember, and to do this he goes on a long journey into the devastated landscape he finds himself in. Re-l catches up with him and ends up going with him on his journey, along with Pino, who is the only one to be there with him the whole way.
Neither Vincent nor Re-l are perfect, either. Thankfully the series doesn't go too over the top with their flaws, making them feel a bit more real. For instance, Vincent is kind of a wuss, and he also is more than a little into Re-l, to the point he comes off as somewhat creepy. Re-l, on the other hand, is pretty much a selfish bitch who at times can be very difficult to sympathize with. But, like I said, at least they aren't too over the top.
The story could at times get a bit boring, but for the most part it was intriguing, and left me wanting to find out more. The first few episodes in particular drew me in as everything was set up, and they tended to end as cliffhangers. It's say
Ergo Proxy's biggest faults lie with what were basically just filler episodes. Basically Vincent, Re-l, and Pino would come across another dome or habitation of some kind and one or two of them would have some kind of strange adventure. These were somewhat mitigated by what self-discovery was made by the characters involved, and what little additional information we learned about Vincent and his past, as well as about the Proxies (incidentally related, to spoil you a little). The worst offenders though were the episodes that broke the fourth wall just to give us some exposition. The book store episode and the game show episode were especially bad that way. And then there was the Disneyland episode, which was more about having Pino have something to do than anything that actually contributed to the story. Basically, when the story was good, things were interesting and occasionally would tug at my heart strings, but when it was bad it was pretty much just boring and seemed more diversionary than anything.
I'm going to do something odd for me and not actually reveal all that much about the story. Instead, I'm just going to encourage you to watch this series. Some may not find it interesting, but if you're into more cerebral sci fi, you just might like this series. 9/10.
Opening titles FTW