anghel: ERGO PROXY

Ergo Proxy (エルゴプラクシー Erugo Purakushī^?) is a science fiction suspense anime television series, produced by Manglobe, which premiered across Japan on 25 February 2006 on the WOWOW satellite network. It is directed by Shukō Murase, with screenplay by Dai Satō et al.. Ergo Proxy features a combination of 2D digital cel animation, 3D computer modeling, and digital special effects. The series features cyberpunk, steampunk, and gothic elements, and focuses heavily on the psychology and mentality of its protagonists.

Plot

The story begins in a futuristic domed city called Romdo, built to protect its citizens after a global ecological disaster. In this utopia, humans and AutoReivs (androids) coexist peacefully under a total management system. A series of murders committed by robots and AutoReivs infected with the Cogito virus (which causes them to become self-aware) begins to threaten the delicate balance of Romdo's social order. Behind the scenes, the government has been conducting secret experiments on a mysterious humanoid life form called a "Proxy". The Proxy beings (described as God-like and Immortal) are believed to hold the key to the survival of mankind.
Re-l (pronounced "Rielle", also represented by the spelling "REAL" in the Romdo citizen database) Mayer is assigned to investigate some of the murders with her AutoReiv partner, Iggy. She encounters a Cogito virus-infected AutoReiv and a fast and flexible monster. She later learns that the monster was a Proxy. The other central character, an immigrant named Vincent Law, is revealed to be connected in some ways with this proxy. After being hunted down, Vincent lives for a while on the outside of the dome. He later leaves for Mosk city, his birthplace, in an attempt to recover his memories. Re-l rejoins him to try to discover the truth behind the Proxies and the domes. It is revealed among other things that domes are all created by Proxies as well as the people inhabiting them who are created in special incubators.
In the domed city of Romdo (and possibly in other domed cities), various sections of the 'government' are referred to as Bureaux: the Intelligence Bureau, the Health & Welfare Bureau, and the Security Bureau, among others.
The AutoReivs are referred to as either 'Companion' or 'Entourage', depending on their role.
The humans in the city are grown in artificial wombs, but this appears to be more of a form of control over the population rather than an absolute necessity. Likewise, when a new person is grown, they are done so to fulfill a specific purpose, thus ensuring that person's future place in society through a "raison d'être" (i.e., a "reason for being").

Characters

A number of characters in the supporting cast are named after various figures taken from both history as well as mythology. Most notably, names of significant profiles in philosophical and psychological sciences appear throughout the series. The Proxies could almost be supporting characters, since they play such a vital role in the series. Though it is stated that there are many Proxies, only a few have been named: Monad, Senex, Kazkis and Ergo Proxies, as well as Proxy One, MCQ and Will B. Good. A sixth which Re-l sends back to Romdo with Iggy, is never named.

Main characters

Re-l Mayer
: Voiced by: Rie Saitō (Japanese), Megan Hollingshead (English)(credited as Karen Thompson); Inspector Re-l Mayer of the Citizen Intelligence Bureau (市民情報局, Shimin Jōhōkyoku^?) is in charge of investigating a series of brutal murders apparently committed by AutoReivs infected with the Cogito virus. She is also the granddaughter of Donov Mayer, the Regent of Romdo. Given her privileged status, she expects respect from people around her, and speaks as such (she addresses Vincent as "o-mae"). Re-l accompanies Vincent on his journey in order to learn more about the mysterious Proxies.

Vincent Law: Voiced by: Kōji Yusa (Japanese), Liam O'Brien (English); An immigrant from Mosk working for Romdo's AutoReiv Control Division (オートレイブ処理課^?) within the Temporary Immigrant Sector FG (暫定移民区域FG^?), set up to hunt and dispose infected AutoReivs. Vincent appears driven to become a Model Citizen, but ultimately fails to suppress the burden of his traumatic past and flees from Romdo. He seems to have a deep connection to the second Proxy, having left his necklace at the scene of the first Proxy site.

Pino: Voiced by: Akiko Yajima (Japanese), Rachel Hirschfeld (voice actress) (English); An infected Companion type AutoReiv owned by Raul Creed and Samantha Ross, Pino served as a surrogate child to the couple. She was scheduled for decommissioning after the Creeds were granted a real baby son by the government, but the untimely deaths of Samantha and her new son prompted Pino to flee Romdo. She accompanies Vincent on his journey. The character of Pino was given this name as a reference to Pinocchio, and Pinoko from Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack.^{[citation needed]} and also to the painter Pino Daeni.

Production

Manglobe initially approached Shukou Murase with a bare-bones vision for a futuristic detective thriller, which included the title, a plot outline for episodes 1-3 and a design concept for Romdo City. Beyond that they let him develop the idea towards a more existentialist slant.

"There was almost too much freedom," he laughs. "A show slated to be on a commercial network carries restrictions according to the time slot," he explains. "Sponsors often have requests intended to help propel the work to hit status; and merchandising entails another set of requirements altogether. By comparison, all Ergo Proxy had to deal with was a DVD release and a TV broadcast over a pay satellite channel."

At first they intended to have Vincent as the leading protagonist and Re-l as a supporting character; however as they fleshed out her character she became a much stronger character and began to steal the spotlight from Vincent. This gave them the opportunity to split the narrative between the two characters instead of having a single protagonist lead the story.
In an interview, Dai Satō describes the project:

It is set in the future. A group of robots become infected with something called the Kojiro [sic] virus, and become aware of their own existence. So these robots, which had been tools of humans, decide to go on an adventure to search for themselves. They have to decide whether the virus that infected them created their identity, or whether they gained their identity through their travels. This question is meant to represent our own debate over whether we become who we are because of our environment, or because of things that are inherent in us. The robots are all named after philosophers: Derrida and Lacan and Husserl.

– Dai Satō

Asked about how he devised the title Ergo Proxy, Sato replied "It's cool."

Media

Anime

Main article: List of Ergo Proxy episodes

In Japan, Ergo Proxy aired on pay-TV satellite broadcasting network WOWOW from 25 February 2006, concluding on 12 August 2006. Ergo Proxy was then released on DVD from 25 May 2006 to 25 January 2007, spanning nine volumes.
The series was licensed by Geneon Entertainment USA for Region 1 release, which began on 21 November 2006 and spanned six volumes. The English dub of Ergo Proxy premiered on Fuse TV on 9 June 2007and a complete DVD collection was later released in December 2008.
On July 3, 2008, Geneon Entertainment and Funimation Entertainment announced an agreement to distribute select titles in North America. While Geneon Entertainment still retains the license, Funimation Entertainment assumed exclusive rights to the manufacturing, marketing, sales, and distribution of select titles which included Ergo Proxy.
In Australia and New Zealand, the Ergo Proxy DVDs were distributed by Madman Entertainment, the first volume released in March 2007. The first volume of Ergo Proxy was released in the UK by MVM Films on the 6th of August 2007. The English dub of Ergo Proxy aired on ABC2 (the national digital public television channel) from 3 July 2007 to 4 December 2007^[8]. In Canada, the English dub aired as part of Anime Current, an Anime Television block, on pay-TV digital channel G4 Canada from 26 July 2007 to 27 December 2007

Soundtrack

Two soundtracks, featuring the compositions of Yoshihiro Ike, have been released in Japan; the second, Opus 02, was also licensed by Geneon and packaged with a special edition of the first Region 1 DVD.^{[citation needed]}

Manga

A manga spinoff, called Centzon Hitchers & Undertaker (センツォン・ヒッチャーズ&アンダーテイカー Sentson Hitchāzu & Andāteikā^?) and illustrated by Yumiko Harao, was serialized in Shogakukan's Monthly Sunday Gene-X, beginning in March 2006. It was later released in two graphic novel compilations, the first in August 2006 and the second on 19 February 2007.^]

Reception

NewType USA said, "We're even more excited by the premise of the show, which features complex drama surrounding the strikingly beautiful crime investigator Re-l Mayer, and an intricate sci-fi setting, incorporating robots, living in human society and a grotesque array of unique monsters. With its tremendous supporting cast and carefully woven plot..." Katherine Luther of About.com praised it for its cyberpunk themes and mix of 2D and 3D animation as well as it's deep psychological storyline, calling it creepy intense and "edge-of-your-seat-delightful".

Ergo Proxy doesn’t have a 1:1 correspondence of mythological figures to its own characters. You could say one of two things about this:

The writers of Ergo just pasted some Gnostic names onto their opus in an attempt to sound deep, after learning that “a flawed creator creating flawed creations” was a Gnostic theme.
They decided to let their own Creator — not to mention the Proxies, Re-L, and Vincent — fill numerous spots in mythology at once.

Ergo’s storyline is a complicated (some would say convoluted) and sometimes abstract one. Since it’s not always literal, that abstraction points me more toward #2. Plus, I like to give writers the benefit of the doubt.

Monad vs. Yaldabaoth the Demiurge

To Gnostics, the most fundamental belief is that the creator of this earth is not a true god, but a “demiurge.” This is Yahweh, Allah, Jehovah. That’s where the heresy comes in. This being’s very existence is basically a mistake, but it was powerful enough to create the material universe — and the little beings who populate it. Now, these folks aren’t bad, and in most Gnostic teachings Yaldabaoth isn’t either, but there are two truths here:

A flawed creator can only create flawed things. The Statues actually tell Re-L that they’re all the flawed products of a flawed creator. This theme continues to trickle down to the AutoReivs, the flawed creations of humans.
We, as fleshy beings, are prisoners of a material world. In this case Romdo is analogous to our own universe, in which we live perfectly happy lives until we acquire a glimpse of Gnosis (meaning knowledge, called “truth” in the anime). At the point where you know, your soul’s desire for more knowledge supplants your ability to be happy in slavery. All of its equivalent domes, represent potential similar planes of existence. Yes, both The Matrix and They Live are bigtime Gnostic flicks, according to some.

The one in Gnostic myth who brought Gnosis and saved us from this prison of slavery is Christ, but more on that in a second.
Some Gnostics break it down further, where the Demiurge was served by beings called Archons who did his laundry. In this case, I think there are two possible routes:

The proxies are in fact Archons to The Creator, who is the primary Demiurge.
The Creator is the real and truest God, known as Monad, while the Proxies are various Demiurges. Each domed city in this case would represent a material universe like our own.

Either is likely, but either way the central theme is what’s important: the Demiurge stands as gatekeeper to the realm of Light, and thus true God and Gnosis. I think that’s obvious in this case, since the Proxies rule over the false realities of the domed cities.

Sophia (Monad)

Monad is represented by numerous æons — emanations of God, also semi-analogous to traditional Christian angels — who come in pairs of descending importance. On the lower end of that, in the realm of Light, is Sophia and Christ.
From Wikipedia, paraphrased from the Gospel of Thomas (part of the Nag Hammadi), here’s what happens when the pairs operate independently of each other:

When an æon named Sophia emanates without her partner aeon, the result is the Demiurge, or half-creator, a creature that should never have come into existence. This creature does not belong to the pleroma, and the One emanates two savior æons, Christ and the Holy Spirit, to save humanity from the Demiurge. Christ then took the form of the human Jesus, in order to be able to teach humanity how to achieve gnosis; that is, return to the pleroma.

Well, that says a lot about the other Monad — the one in the anime — who is inexplicably tied to Ergo, and of course it says plenty about Vincent and Re-L as well. Vincent is the obvious Christ-figure of the story with his return to Romdo in earthly form, and when he and Re-L come back to Romdo again, they occupy the same body for a time.

When things start to both confuse and click simultaneously is when Monad Proxy herself returns to Romdo, but as Daedalus’s creation, a false Re-L. The names are obvious here, with the literal translation of her untimely end from the Icarus/Daedalus myth, although I think it’s only marginally related. But If Monad is Sophia to Vincent’s (Proxy) Christ, and Re-L is somehow also Sophia to Vincent’s (human) Christ, then that would tie them together fairly well.

What’s it mean?

There’s far more to cover in Ergo Proxy besides these three loose Gnostic parallels — for instance, the cogito virus, whose purpose bears a funny resemblance to another semi-Gnostic cartoon’s Human Instrumentality Project.
But regardless of whether I ever tie it all together, the point is the same as why Gnosticism still has an appeal as a religion (though please don’t consider this as anything other than and endorsement of an anime):
It values knowledge, thought, interpretation, and freedom of intellect over the material, the easy, and enslavement. it eschews easy answers in favor of learning for ones’ self.
But unlike this material existence, at least I’m able to do it a second time in hopes that it’ll make more sense.