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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Sunday, 09 March 2008 16:00 |
 If you thought Ergo Proxy was surreal before, you ain't seen nothing yet, as this volume cranks that aspect of the show up several notches, and may well leave you terminally confused. You'll have fun before you reach that addled stage, though...
13 - Wrong Way Home / Conceptual Blind Spot
Being stuck out in the wasteland isn't doing Re-l's mood any favours - the group's been pinned down in a snowstorm, and with the winds too high to allow them to continue in the ship, her temper's getting frayed. Iggy, meanwhile, has disobeyed Re-l's orders to return to Romdo and is instead spending some time with the AutoReiv that had been with the Proxy that Vincent had killed. Seeing how she deals with no longer having a master puts some strange "ideas" in his Cogito-infected head, and feeling that he's lost Re-l to Vincent, sets out to put things right - by killing Vincent...
14 - Ophelia / Someone Like You
Vincent, Re-l and Pino arrive at the abandoned dome of Ophelia - it's fully functional and capable of supporting life, but inside it's empty of life. There aren't even any AutoReivs left. While Vincent and Pino raid a local supermarket to restock their supplies, Re-l goes for a look around - but whether it's maybe just being in a ghost-town or her own nerves being on edge, she gets the distinct feeling that they're not alone. Sure enough, both Re-l and Vincent soon begin hallucinating - seeing other versions of each other, having strange things happen to them, and seeing the ghostly shadow of another person lurking in the background. As their paranoia begins to rise, it's only Pino who seems to be able to distinguish the truth from the fiction...
15 - Who Wants to be in Jeopardy / Nightmare Quiz Show!
Target: 1 million points in 30 minutes. Reach the target and win (which also curiously kills the show's host), don't reach it and die. Simple. This week's contestant? One Vincent Law, who I'm sure you've all seen somewhere before. He even gets the advantage that all the questions seem to be about him. But how did a Proxy travelling through the wasteland find himself on a quiz show, and is there something going on behind the scenes..?
16 - Busy Doing Nothing / Dead Calm
Once more, the gang are stranded in the wasteland - this time, they've been becalmed, and for a while now, they've been unable to travel any further. There's nothing within sight of their position, and with supplies running out Re-l's beginning to worry about their prospects. At least their predicament gives Re-l plenty of time to think - mostly about Proxies, and their role in the world. Just what purpose are they serving, and how much control do they have over the world? With Vincent being the only Proxy she has access to, she's making as many observations as she can, but much remains a mystery to her. Vincent, meanwhile, is doing his best to call on the winds - unsurprisingly, it's not working, but it's becoming slowly apparent that both Re-l's and Vincent's mental states are deteriorating more as time passes...
These four episodes go out of their way to mess with the heads of Re-l and Vincent (and by extension, the audience), and all told do a very good job of it – although not so much that you want to give up watching and find something a bit less mentally taxing. Episodes 13 and 16 both have the same underlying problem – the gang being left stranded for a time when the weather won't allow Vincent's ship to go any further – but take different spins on the story, with Iggy's increasingly erratic behaviour as the Cogito virus takes hold being the focus of episode 13, and the far more mundane issue of simply finding things to do when you're stuck in the middle of nowhere filling episode 16. It's a far more interesting episode than you'd expect, given that it's essentially pure filler – it's seen through Re¬-l's eyes as she uses her analytical nature to help pass the time by making detailed observations of how Pino and Vincent are behaving, and gives enough of an insight into the way that she thinks that it becomes almost riveting viewing.
Likewise, the gameshow episode is surprisingly engaging. My initial reaction was "what the hell?", as there's no believable reason for why Vincent, Re-l and Pino should suddenly find themselves on TV (and what's going on behind the cameras is never explained), but it turns out to be a really clever way of filling in a lot of detail about the "current" state of the Earth, how it came to be in the mess that Ergo Proxy portrays it in, and drops a few hints about the origins and purposes of both the Proxies and the Cogito virus – as long as you fully pay attention to the questions and answers. As a plot exposition method, it's very original and effective. Who says that gameshows rot your brain?
Episode 14 is the strangest of a strange bunch, and also gives this volume its token encounter with another Proxy as Vincent and Re-l have to try and separate illusion from reality in a story that involves a lot on mistrust and paranoia – Ophelia dome is empty for a reason, and the being responsible soon turns its attention to our travellers. Its chosen method of attack is to mess with the mind, and the way that's presented on-screen, while not exactly easy to follow, is fascinating to watch.
If you're prepared to give it the attention it needs, Ergo Proxy is a fascinating piece of work, and this volume is no exception – if anything, it messes with your head more than previous volumes have, but in ways that highlight the shows strong points: the attention to detail that have gone into the setting, and the strengths and flaws that both Vincent and Re-l have in their personalities. It really is a show I could easily marathon, it's that engaging, and every disc seems to end too soon. Definitely worth watching.
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