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Ergo Proxy: Volume 1
DVD/APPROX. 100 MINS/2006/JAPAN MA15+
DVD/APPROX. 100 MINS/2006/JAPAN MA15+
9
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I must admit, I had little hope for this series, but also I was highly surprised at the same time. Normally I shudder when hearing statements such
as ‘If you liked (insert name here), then you will like this’ (a statement I read about this DVD in reference to ‘Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone
Complex’, but I was left completely blindsided by ‘Ergo Proxy’ (distributed by ’Madman Entertainment, in Region 4 only) in the best way possible.
Whether you liked ‘Ghost in the Shell: SAC’ or not is of little relevance, this series is its own entity, and although it does borrow time old themes of
who we are versus what we are, ‘Ergo Proxy’ does more to resurrect and invigorate the notion than to simply continue it.
The basic premise is that in a futuristic Utopia (or is it a Dystopia?), known as Romdo city, humans coexist with a race of artificially intelligent
machines known as Autoreiv’s. As with ’Ghost in the shell’ there are various forms of these robots spanning across various uses, such as
companions, defence, etc. With the most common type being the ‘Entourage’, which serves more as a chaperone than a lackey.
Lately a virus has been infecting these Autoreivs, giving them a semblance of self awareness, leading many to make for a big escape from Romdo.
A virus known as the Cogito virus. Also, at the same time a lab experiment known as ‘Proxy’ has escaped. It is not directly stated exactly what the
Proxy is, whether altered man, or altered machine, the coincidence of the series events seems to be of little coincidence at all.
With this we are presented with Re-L, the detective in charge of solving the mysteries of the Cogito Virus, along with her entourage ‘Iggy’. Now
here is where things get tricky, although I could expand on the plot more vastly from here, to do so would ruin the experience for anyone planning
on watching it, sadly I can only give you basic notions from now on, so please pardon any areas of gray from now on, but it is more for your sake in
the end.
Just let it be known that in investigating the mysteries of the Cogito virus, Re-L is confronted by the notorious Proxy, although much to the surprise
of the characters, and also the viewers, there is an unsuspecting twist to the Proxy, and thanks to wonderful story telling and scripting, the
viewer only becomes aware of this as the characters do.
The threat of the Proxy appears to be so severe that even the word itself is censored from records.
Speaking of characters, never before have I experienced a show such as this that you get so connected and knowing with the people as in this.
Although minimalist in a lot of ways, the interacting parties of this piece (I say piece because this series is practically a symphony of production . . .
Expert), speak much for themselves without even speaking, which I personally believe to be a great achievement amongst non live action works. It
is also worth noting that Vincent Law, a minor character of the series (or so it initially seems), is greatly fleshed in a mere four episodes, and in the
way he is portrayed the viewer at first is offered a sense of dismissal about him, which later becomes replaced with eagerness and intrigue. A
personal joke between a friend and myself even, is ‘NO ONE MESSES WITH VINCENT LAW!’. Trust me, you will come to love the characters of
Vincent, Re-L, Iggy and Pino, a companion Autoreiv who Vincent interacts with at various times throughout the episodes and also aids in his
personal journey later on.
The visual appearance of the show is done perfectly in my opinion, although set in a futuristic world, nothing is ‘hyper realistic’, you don’t have to
sit and wonder what certain things are, nor do you feel that anything in the movie is ‘unreachable’. The fourth wall seems ever smaller because of
this, and even with the oppressive feeling of Romdo City, you feel automatically connected and ‘comfortable’ with the story, as if it could be
happening today, all around you. Also the animation, set design, and characters are very consistent, nothing, and no one, seems out of place, you
wont find a small area of brightly coloured people and trappings to have it quickly replaced by drab and dismal locations. This movie does not feel
the need to contrast between opposing looks/emotions to better affect its message. The consistency is much like that of real life, you don’t have to
go see a beautiful garden to know that yours doesn’t look as good, you just understand and know these things.
The soundtrack, although not breathtaking, does little to distract you, existing more for ambience than anything else, allowing you to enjoy the
experience without having your ears blasted by stuff you really don’t want to listen to. With such production levels it also goes without saying that
the sound effects themselves fit in entirely, sounding as if the characters are actually making them, and not having that ‘Foley’ feel to them.
Ergo Proxy will ring many references in the minds of viewers. A very similar theme is presented in ‘I, Robot’ (based on works by Isaac Asimov),
also as pointed out in the special features is a reference to Alan Turing (the man who proposed the test the sentience of AI), as all Autoreivs are
installed with a ‘Turing application’ which allows for human, robot interaction in a style more comfortable for a human rather than speaking to
something reminiscent of ‘Microsoft Sam’.
One odd fact that I noticed, although I am unsure whether or not it is intentional or just a case of coincidence, is that Vincent Law, at some stage,
is revealed to have an alternate form, when we get to see this form, it strikes a very deep resemblance to ‘Chaos’, Vincent Valentine’s (of Final
Fantasy fame) alter ego, well, when considering ‘FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus’ at least.
The special features on here, are more entertaining than most, you have of course your obligatory trailers section, and so on. The highlight for me
personally though was the interview with the English staff, which helped to illuminate much about the series. I believe it is something that could
even be helpful to those who are not fans of anime of the dubbed variety. Well personally it explained a lot more to me than the ‘Keywords of Ergo
Proxy.
For the price of one DVD you will be getting four episodes of masterfully written, graphically well presented, and intriguing plot. I know personally
myself I will be scouring the shelves of the DVD stores until Volume 02 is released, unless of course I get the chance to review that too, wink wink.
as ‘If you liked (insert name here), then you will like this’ (a statement I read about this DVD in reference to ‘Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone
Complex’, but I was left completely blindsided by ‘Ergo Proxy’ (distributed by ’Madman Entertainment, in Region 4 only) in the best way possible.
Whether you liked ‘Ghost in the Shell: SAC’ or not is of little relevance, this series is its own entity, and although it does borrow time old themes of
who we are versus what we are, ‘Ergo Proxy’ does more to resurrect and invigorate the notion than to simply continue it.
The basic premise is that in a futuristic Utopia (or is it a Dystopia?), known as Romdo city, humans coexist with a race of artificially intelligent
machines known as Autoreiv’s. As with ’Ghost in the shell’ there are various forms of these robots spanning across various uses, such as
companions, defence, etc. With the most common type being the ‘Entourage’, which serves more as a chaperone than a lackey.
Lately a virus has been infecting these Autoreivs, giving them a semblance of self awareness, leading many to make for a big escape from Romdo.
A virus known as the Cogito virus. Also, at the same time a lab experiment known as ‘Proxy’ has escaped. It is not directly stated exactly what the
Proxy is, whether altered man, or altered machine, the coincidence of the series events seems to be of little coincidence at all.
With this we are presented with Re-L, the detective in charge of solving the mysteries of the Cogito Virus, along with her entourage ‘Iggy’. Now
here is where things get tricky, although I could expand on the plot more vastly from here, to do so would ruin the experience for anyone planning
on watching it, sadly I can only give you basic notions from now on, so please pardon any areas of gray from now on, but it is more for your sake in
the end.
Just let it be known that in investigating the mysteries of the Cogito virus, Re-L is confronted by the notorious Proxy, although much to the surprise
of the characters, and also the viewers, there is an unsuspecting twist to the Proxy, and thanks to wonderful story telling and scripting, the
viewer only becomes aware of this as the characters do.
The threat of the Proxy appears to be so severe that even the word itself is censored from records.
Speaking of characters, never before have I experienced a show such as this that you get so connected and knowing with the people as in this.
Although minimalist in a lot of ways, the interacting parties of this piece (I say piece because this series is practically a symphony of production . . .
Expert), speak much for themselves without even speaking, which I personally believe to be a great achievement amongst non live action works. It
is also worth noting that Vincent Law, a minor character of the series (or so it initially seems), is greatly fleshed in a mere four episodes, and in the
way he is portrayed the viewer at first is offered a sense of dismissal about him, which later becomes replaced with eagerness and intrigue. A
personal joke between a friend and myself even, is ‘NO ONE MESSES WITH VINCENT LAW!’. Trust me, you will come to love the characters of
Vincent, Re-L, Iggy and Pino, a companion Autoreiv who Vincent interacts with at various times throughout the episodes and also aids in his
personal journey later on.
The visual appearance of the show is done perfectly in my opinion, although set in a futuristic world, nothing is ‘hyper realistic’, you don’t have to
sit and wonder what certain things are, nor do you feel that anything in the movie is ‘unreachable’. The fourth wall seems ever smaller because of
this, and even with the oppressive feeling of Romdo City, you feel automatically connected and ‘comfortable’ with the story, as if it could be
happening today, all around you. Also the animation, set design, and characters are very consistent, nothing, and no one, seems out of place, you
wont find a small area of brightly coloured people and trappings to have it quickly replaced by drab and dismal locations. This movie does not feel
the need to contrast between opposing looks/emotions to better affect its message. The consistency is much like that of real life, you don’t have to
go see a beautiful garden to know that yours doesn’t look as good, you just understand and know these things.
The soundtrack, although not breathtaking, does little to distract you, existing more for ambience than anything else, allowing you to enjoy the
experience without having your ears blasted by stuff you really don’t want to listen to. With such production levels it also goes without saying that
the sound effects themselves fit in entirely, sounding as if the characters are actually making them, and not having that ‘Foley’ feel to them.
Ergo Proxy will ring many references in the minds of viewers. A very similar theme is presented in ‘I, Robot’ (based on works by Isaac Asimov),
also as pointed out in the special features is a reference to Alan Turing (the man who proposed the test the sentience of AI), as all Autoreivs are
installed with a ‘Turing application’ which allows for human, robot interaction in a style more comfortable for a human rather than speaking to
something reminiscent of ‘Microsoft Sam’.
One odd fact that I noticed, although I am unsure whether or not it is intentional or just a case of coincidence, is that Vincent Law, at some stage,
is revealed to have an alternate form, when we get to see this form, it strikes a very deep resemblance to ‘Chaos’, Vincent Valentine’s (of Final
Fantasy fame) alter ego, well, when considering ‘FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus’ at least.
The special features on here, are more entertaining than most, you have of course your obligatory trailers section, and so on. The highlight for me
personally though was the interview with the English staff, which helped to illuminate much about the series. I believe it is something that could
even be helpful to those who are not fans of anime of the dubbed variety. Well personally it explained a lot more to me than the ‘Keywords of Ergo
Proxy.
For the price of one DVD you will be getting four episodes of masterfully written, graphically well presented, and intriguing plot. I know personally
myself I will be scouring the shelves of the DVD stores until Volume 02 is released, unless of course I get the chance to review that too, wink wink.
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| "Malice implanted by the creator" |
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