I recently began to watch Japanese animes again, and Ergo Proxy was one of the most interesting looking series I haven't yet watched. I was expecting to find a cool scifi story with some touches of psychological thriller but the story is much more profound than what I was expecting. It is also told in a very confusing matter that forces the viewer to figure a lot of things out for themselves. This has been the most bizarre anime I have seen in my life and in the end, I can also say it was a very rewarding and memorable story.
The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future. Humanity is living in a domed city and they have cool robots that serve in many ways, some of them are very smart companions, and other robots are more like normal machines that help maintain the city in a good state.
This domed city has very strict rules, and at the beginning, it can even be seen as a sort of authoritarian place, where obedience is revered, and there are harsh consequences for misbehaving. Things begin to get interested the first time we see a strange humanoid being, who also has superhuman abilities and is bigger than a regular person, this type of being is named "proxy". The main mystery about the story consists of discovering the nature and origin of these strange beings, which are linked to pretty much everything regarding this world.
The cast is varied, there are humans, robots, and proxies as the main characters, which keeps everything interesting. There are a few philosophical discussions but not of the same quality as those found in The Ghost in the Shell.
The entire show is full of dark colors which is probably the result of the apocalypse that happened a long time ago that is still affecting the weather and causes everything to look like that. The show will have a lot of unexpected surprises throughout its 23 episodes, however, there were several episodes that were more cryptic than I would've preferred.
A key part of the story is also about the significance of love, and how this feeling can be manifested in different ways, and the profound effect it can have in the larger order of things. Love is the main culprit of everything that happens in this show, but hate and the thirst for revenge due to perceived injustices are also present as well. These are the macro forces influencing the smaller events we see in the story.
The show will explore what is beyond this domed city, the origins of the strange beings called proxies and if that wasn't enough, the origin of the humans currently inhabiting the planet. The plot goes deep as hell and if the story had been told in a more explicit matter this could have been a masterpiece.
There are not that many questions left unanswered but properly understanding the show will require a lot of concentration, especially in the weird episodes that don't seem to make much sense, such as episodes 11, 14, 15, and 19. If you have any questions about the plot, feel free to ask them below so it can be discussed. This was a cool show and most people that watch it will probably have questions about it.
I would recommend this series to those that enjoy scifi, dark dramas, psychological thrillers, and a bit of amateurish philosophy. This is a strange show but I think a lot of people should be able to enjoy it.
The best
- Very complex and rewarding plot.
The worst
- Too much confusion and ambiguity throughout the entire show.
More information: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0791205/
Review: AAA
In numbers: 8/10