It's been a while since I've done a review on any anime. But let me take this moment to have just that on Ergo Proxy.

Set in a post apocalyptic era, Vincent Law, an immigrant from Mosque has come to Romdeau to seek a new life for himself -- to become a citizen. But he has a haunting past made worse by the fact he couldn't remember what happened during the desolation of Mosque.

However, a certain entity, identified as a PROXY, has been the subject of much of Romdeau's secret research. And it is somehow connected to Vincent Law.

In comes Re-l Mayar, an officer of the Informations Bureau hunting cases of murders by autoreivs, robots that has been infected by the Cogito virus. The initial symptom of infection is the autoreiv falling down on its knees and seemingly praying. After which it begins to act with a sense of 'self'. This is undesirable as far as the human populace of Romdeau is concerned. And as a task for the discriminated Vincent Law, is a job for him to disinfect and identify autoreivs that are infected with said virus.

Let me tell you first the reason I first bought the DVD: THE HEROINE, RE-L MAYAR IS MODELED AFTER AMY LEE OF EVANSCENCE. Please watch this YouTube video, the song itself is haunting too, fits very nicely ... and gothically:


You complete my fate, the world unwinds inside of me ...

I don't know who's the genius who did that, but it certainly worked for me. Man, seeing Amy Lee, er ... Re-l shoot guns and do action scenes or generally look spooked is fantastic. I couldn't help but go oohs and aahs.

However, the quality of animation all throughout is not that great. Re-l isn't drawn consistently since I think she's the most complicated to draw. Some odd renditions are just plain .. odd. I never really loved post acolyptic themes, being all dark and gray and sad. But it is the reality they want to portray I guess.

The story itself is not simple matter. I can even say, that minus a few chinks in the story, it's unlike any other anime. Or maybe it does but you have to think of animes like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Serial Experiments: Lain, or Neon Genesis Evangelion. Heck, I can say it's written by a Western author. One wouldn't notice that because of the anime nature ofcourse, plus the fact that Pino, a child robot/autoreiv, is oh so cute.

Truly, Pino has gotta be one of the most lovable little things out there -- really well done.

Vincent Law is of course, the object of the story. The fact that at first he looks like the universal loser, and become the focus all throughout may be too formulaic for most. Re-l, who's obsessed with the PROXY entity, is also quite interesting a character. A manipulative, selfish bitch, she would stop at nothing to achieve her goals. Using everyone, even her benefactor Daedalus, a boy genius in charge of the Research Bureau, and her Entourage robot/autoreiv, Iggy.

You'll find references to Buddhist terms and references inside here, so that should add some flavor to the story (as Evangelion itself got material from Jewish mythology). Also, the PROXY entity wears a Joker mask which he somehow manages to pull out of nowhere. And man do clowns scare the shit out of me. I think this visual aspect made me watch it all the more. It's like food that you initially don't like, but you got intrigued by the taste and you end up wiping the plate.

There's a definite twist in the end (and much more twists before the big finale). Oh did I mention that the fights scenes, even though not too many are actually quite good? That goes to show this anime is blood violent as well. But not too violent that it's perverse. Just the right amount of stuff if you know what I mean ;) (though the geekazoid in me wanted to see what a nude Amy Lee would look like, I digress)

I wouldn't watch it for the reason it's too ... post apocalypticky for me. But in contrast to that, I have more than one reason to watch it as well. I'll watch it only to see Amy .. er, Re-l in there :3

And the opening song, Kiri by Monoral, is haunting ... the scene where Vincent Law looks hopeless in the desolate wilderness is burned inside my head.

I hate it when that happens. They make me gloomy and happy at the same time. If anyone wants the whole song, just message me or look for it in an anime site.