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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Thursday, 02 August 2007 17:00 |
 Ergo Proxy treads a lot of ground that’s been done by other high-profile series – not least Ghost in the Shell – but does it in a way that makes itself stand out. Investigator Re-l Mayer may live in a supposed utopia, but there’s more going on in the closed city of Romdo that she’s ever realised – and she’s about to find herself caught up in something she’d be better staying clear of...
1 - Awakenings / The Pulse of Awakening
Earth of the future, and ecological mis-management sees the remnants of the human race living inside a single domed city, Romdo, with their android servants, the AutoReivs. Romdo is meant to be a utopia, but I wouldn't want to live there - with emotion cast aside and consumerism king, it's not the most pleasant of places. Add a series of murders to the list, believed to have been committed by out-of-control AutoReivs infected by the Cogito virus, and it gets even less appealing. Re-l Mayer is an investigator from the Civilian Intelligence Office, and along with her AutoReiv partner Iggy have been assigned to investigate the killings - and Re-l's about to discover there's more going on that anyone suspected...
2 - Confession / Confession of a Fellow Citizen
Re-l's having a hard time getting anyone to believe that she was attacked by a monster - attacked, yes, but they're certain it was just another immigrant, and Re-l is made to sit through image after image of suspected attackers until she can name one. It doesn't help that Iggy doesn't have any memory recordings of the attack. Her "injuries", such as they are, also result in her being removed from active duty until such time as a doctor certifies her as psychologically able to work again - just one in a string of decisions that has Re-l believing someone's trying to hinder her investigation...
3 - Mazecity / Leap Into the Void
Re-l's beginning to become confused: she's sure in her own mind of what she saw when she was attacked, but she's also found evidence in the remains of her flat to back up the "stalker" theory that the investigators have, pinning the blame for the attack on Vincent. Vincent, meanwhile, has had his own run-in with the proxy, and unusually has lived to tell the tale - something he apparently hadn't expected. Although with the authorities also on his tale, he's still not having an easy time. Re-l's also trying to find him - he's the one person who may be able to tell her what's really going on - but with Vincent having decided he'd be better off taking his chances outside the city, she needs to find him quickly...
4 - Futu-Risk / Signs of the Future, Hades of the Future
Re-l pays a visit to Vincent's apartment, hoping to find some clues as to who he really was, why he'd been a target for the proxy, and why he was prepared to face death outside Romdo than face the Security Bureau. What she finds is an apartment that doesn't feel entirely natural - and a map detailing potential AutoReiv escape routes that should allow her to follow in Vincent's footsteps. Before she can leave the city, though, she finds what appears to be the proxy's dead body. Vincent, meanwhile, is safely outside Romda, and alive - although only just, after a viral infection nearly killed him. He awakes to find himself in the home of a man named Hoody, who had provided medicine during his illness and nursed him back to health. Even outside the dome, though, it appears he's not outside the Security Bureau's reach...
Uto•pia (yu-'tO-pE-&): a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions. The word probably puts a whole slew of ideas into peoples’ heads about what the ideal society should be – Romdo, the domed refuge for humanity’s remains, claims to be just that, but while for some of its inhabitants it may fill that role, scratch beneath the surface and the underlying reality is very different. That’s the world that Re-l Meyer and Iggy live in, and after about five minutes of watching Ergo Proxy you realise it’s more dystopia than utopia. Within the city live the “fellow citizens”, those who live their lives according to the rules; the AutoReivs, their intelligent, mechanical servants; and the refugees, those who have found their way to Romdo from the outside world and are trying to prove themselves worthy of citizenship. Vincent Law is a refugee, working in Romdo to prove his worth, and making good progress – until he’s implicated in an attack on Re-l and becomes a fugitive from the Security Bureau. Re-l’s sure that it wasn’t Vincent, but a creature of some sort, and her attempts to discover what had attacked her soon lead her to areas where good citizens shouldn’t go.
Vincent’s and Re-l’s paths cross several times throughout these episodes, until it becomes clear that he may know more about what’s going on than a lowly immigrant should, and that whatever creature had attacked Re-l is also after him. Re-l herself is a very interesting character – confident but naïve, she falls short of being a kick-ass character in the mould of Ghost in the Shell’s Major Kusanagi, but she’s also far from being a pushover. Vincent is an enigma – his initial persona of the eager-to-please citizen candidate soon gives way to a stronger personality as he finds himself on the wrong side of events and Romdo’s authorities. There’s a strong feeling that there’s more to him than there at first appears, and there still seems to be a lot to learn about him.
The creature that attacks both Re-l and Vincent is the proxy – a creature of immense power and ability that Romdo’s authorities had been experimenting upon. The string of killings began when the proxy escaped from the testing facility, but Vincent appears to be of particular interest to it. As for what the proxy is, or pretty much everything else about it, that’s all a mystery for now.
As you’d expect, these initial episodes introduce the main characters and setting, while laying the groundwork for the story that’s hopefully going to unfold over the remaining volumes. The future world portrayed in Ergo Proxy is very well-realised and detailed, with aspects of Ghost in the Shell, 1984, and other dark futures all brought together to create a believable whole. It’s not original, sure, but the pieces of inspiration taken from other sources have been woven together to create a world that the series soon makes its own. The way that world is presented on-screen – dark, foreboding, and in some ways threatening – does a lot to enhance the atmosphere of the show and bring you into the world that the characters inhabit. Full marks on that front.
As for the story itself – while a number of issues have been introduced, there’s been very little in the way of explanation so far. The proxy’s escape impacts on a number of people – Vincent, Re-l, and the chief of the Security Bureau, Raul, who looks set to play a larger role in events as the story progresses – and how they interact looks to be the key to how events will unfold. While there’s a lack of information, though, there’s no lack in desire to keep watching, as the whole setup is just so intriguing it’s hard not to get pulled in.
Dark futures have been done many times before, to varying degrees of success. Ergo Proxy is one of the better ones, with its utopia-gone-wrong, a cast of varied and interesting characters, and the foundations of a mystery having been carefully laid and now waiting to be resolved. It’s early days for the series yet, but this is a very promising start and I’m looking forward to seeing the next instalment.
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