Ergo Proxy

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Ergo Proxy


caption = The title screen for Ergo Proxy.
ja_name = エルゴプラクシー
ja_name_trans = Erugo Purakushī
genre = Postcyberpunk, Horror, MysteryInfobox animanga/Anime
title =
director = Shukō Murase
studio = flagicon|Japan Manglobe
licensor = flagicon|Japan Geneon
flagicon|USA flagicon|Canada Geneon
flagicon|UK MVM Films
flagicon|Australia flagicon|New Zealand Madman Entertainment
network = flagicon|Japan WOWOW
network_other = flagicon|United States Fuse TV
flagicon|Australia ABC2
flagicon|Canada G4techTV Canada
flagicon|Sweden ZTV
first = 25 February 2006
last = 12 August 2006
episodes = 23
episode_list = List of Ergo Proxy episodes

nihongo|"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 has both steampunk and postcyberpunk elements and focuses heavily on the psychology and mentality of its protagonists.

tory

The story begins in a futuristic domed city called Romdo,cite web|url=http://www.ergoproxydvd.com/story/keywords/|title=Ergo Proxy 3" Keywords|accessdate=2006-10-26] built to protect its citizens after a global ecological disaster. In this utopia, humans and androids (AutoReivs) coexist with each other peacefully under a total management system. A series of murders committed by berserk robots infected with the Cogito virus begins to jeopardize the delicate balance of the social order. Behind the scenes, the government is conducting secret experiments on a mysterious humanoid lifeform called Proxy, which is believed to hold the key to the survival of mankind.

Re-l (also spelled Real, pronounced "Rielle") Mayer is assigned to investigate some of the murders with her AutoReiv partner Iggy. She encounters a Cogito-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 as being the eponymous proxy, but his memories of his time in his native dome of Mosque are suppressed, or perhaps he suppresses them. After being hunted down, Vincent leaves Romdo, and Re-l tags along to discover the truth behind the Proxies and the domes.

In the domed city of Romdo (and possible 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 'companions' or 'entourage' depending on their role.Similar to films such as The Matrix, it appears that the humans in the city are somehow created and birthed by grossly swollen Autoreivs, and each assumes a purpose. This purpose, referred to as a "raison d'etre", consumes each character throughout the series. For example, Autoreiv's raisons d'etre are to serve the humans, and Daedalus' purpose is to serve and protect Real.

In an interview, [http://www.japansociety.org/web_docs/IN_Sato-McGray%20Interview.pdf] Dai Satō describes the project:

Cast & 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 and MCQ. A fifth which Re-l sends back to Romdo with Iggy, is never named.

Principal characters

* Vincent Law:anime voices|Kōji Yusa|Liam O'Brien :An immigrant from Mosko working for Romdo's nihongo|AutoReiv Control Division|オートレイブ処理課 within the nihongo|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.

* Re-l Mayer ["Ergo Proxy" anime, episode 7, 4:13: record shows RE-L MAYER] :anime voices|Rie Saitō|Megan Hollingshead(credited as Karen Thompson):Inspector Re-l Mayer of the nihongo|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. Re-l accompanies Vincent on his journey in order to learn more about the mysterious Proxies.

* Pino:anime voices|Akiko Yajima|Rachel Hirschfeld: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 after a famous pink rabbit toy from the United Kingdom which was named 'cutest toy of the decade' during which the Manga publication began. The roots of this name go all the way back to the Egyptian era when rabbits were seen to be 'pink' creatures.

Glossary

Anime

Episodes

"Ergo Proxy" ran on the satellite network WOWOW at 19:00 Japan Standard Time from 25 February 2006 to 12 August 2006, for a total of 23 episodes. In the United States, the English dub of Ergo Proxy premiered on Fuse TV on 9 June 2007, playing every Saturday morning at midnight.Hanson, Brian. [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-click/2007-06-09 The Click: June 9–15] . Anime News Network. Retrieved August 16, 2007.] Australian digital broadcaster ABC2 also began broadcasting the English dub on 3 July 2007, playing every Tuesday night at 9:00pm, concluding on Wednesday the 5th of December. [http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/abc2/200707/programs/ZY9080A001D3072007T210000.htm ABC2 TV Guide: 03 July, 2007] . Retrieved October 23, 2007.] In Canada, the English dub aired on a digital channel, G4techTV Canada, on Thursdays at 8pm ET/PT, starting its first run on July 26, 2007.

Theme songs

The series' opening theme song is "Kiri" by rock group Monoral and is first shown in episode 3. The ending theme song is "Paranoid Android", a famous song by English alternative rock band Radiohead, although the preview version of the first episode did not feature it.

taff

*Director: Shukou Murase
*Chief Writer: Dai Satō
*Script: Dai Satō, Yuko Kawabe (Office Crescendo), Seiko Takagi, Yusuke Asayama, Naruki Nagakawa, Jun'ichi Matsumoto
*Character Design: Naoyuki Onda
*Music: Yoshihiro Ike
*Sound: Keiichi Momose
*Production Committee: Manglobe, Geneon Entertainment, WOWOW, Geneon Entertainment USA

Media

DVD release

"Ergo Proxy" was released on DVD in Japan 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. On July 3, 2008, Geneon Entertainment and Funimation Entertainment announced an agreement to distribute select titles in North America. While Geneon Entertainment will still retain the license, Funimation Entertainment will assume exclusive rights to the manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution of select titles. "Ergo Proxy" was one of several titles involved in the deal.cite press release|url= http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2008-07-03/funimation-entertainment-and-geneon-entertainment-sign-exclusive-distribution-agreement-for-north-america |title=FUNimation Entertainment and Geneon Entertainment Sign Exclusive Distribution Agreement for North America|publisher=Anime News Network|date=2008-07-03|accessdate=2008-07-22]

In Australia and New Zealand, "Ergo Proxy" DVDs are being released by Madman Entertainment; the first volume was released in March 2007. The first volume of "Ergo Proxy" was released in the UK by MVM Films on the 6th of August 2007. Currently 5 volumes of the series have been released.

oundtrack

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.

Manga

A manga spinoff, called nihongo|"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.

Trivia

*In episode 10, one of the tomb stones shown before the introduction song has "Chief Writer: Dai Sato" written on it.

*In the first episode, when Vincent's cereal overflows with milk, the word "awakening" can be formed out of the letters that float to the top.

*The following characters are all named after philosophers: Husserl, Kristeva, Derrida, Berkeley, Deleuze and Guattari.

*The society can be based on Plato's ideal guardian society with philosopher rulers and information control.

* Monad Proxy's name comes from the word 'monad' as being the first origin of all things and in gnosticism, refers to the "god which begets lesser gods"

*The character Pino and her name is thought to be a play-on of the story of Pinocchio - her experiences with Re-l and Vincent are similar to Pinocchio's journey to become a real person. It also pays homage to Pinoco from the manga Blackjack. Pino's character was partially inspired by Pinoco. Pino means 'to drink' in Latin possibly symbolising Pino's ability to 'drink knowledge' or learn.

*The Cogito Virus refers to Descartes' "Cogito ergo sum," which means "I think, therefore I am." Each episode is also called a "meditatio" as a further reference to Descartes whose most famous work, Meditations on First Philosophy is a series of meditations on various philosophical ideas.

*Inside Regent Donov Mayer's chamber, the statue of two reclining figures on the right is based on Michelangelo's Night and Day statue placed above Giuliano di Piero de' Medici's sarcophagus in Medici Chapel, Florence. In the show, the female figure (Night) represents the voice of Lacan and the male figure (Day) the voice of Husserl. The statue on the left is based on Michelangelo's Twilight and Dawn stature placed above the sarcophagus of Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici in Medici Chapel. In the show, the female figure (Dawn) represents the voice of Derrida and the male figure (Twilight) the voice of Berkeley.

*The robots (AutoReivs) in the show are installed with a Turing Application program that can be switched on and off, allowing normal human-like conversation between humans and robots. This is named after Alan Turing, who proposed the Turing test as a test of AI sentience.

*Daedalus and the death of Re-l 2 refer to the Greek myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus, who died after he had flown too close to the sun. Other references to the mythology of Daedalus also exist. In one episode, a Minoan dolphin is seen swimming across Daedalus' aquarium screensaver on his computer. A ball of red yarn also makes a few appearances towards the end of the show. Although this yarn is thought to reference the threads of fate that bind lovers together, it may also be a reference to the ball of yarn that helped Theseus find his way through the labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur. It had been Daedalus who had built the labyrinth in the first place, as punishment for his helping Minos' queen to procreate with a bull (who was actually Zeus in disguise). It was the same labyrinth that Daedalus and Icarus were escaping from using wings that Daedalus himself had constructed.

Introduction text

There are three different resources identified and used for the snippets of text shown in the introduction/opening sequence that starts on episode 3:

*The poem introduced in the beginning of the series, written by Michelangelo.
*Several pieces of text and graphics taken from the ancient text called Landnámabók (mostly from the title page).
*A piece of text Fact|date=March 2007 (source unknown) word-for-word as:

This was possibly pieced together from text flashed during the introduction of each episode from episode 3 onward. "Metanhaidorad" is probably a Japanese phonetic rendering of methane hydrate, also called methane clathrate or methane ice..

References

External links

* [http://www.ergoproxydvd.com/ "Ergo Proxy" Official Website (English)]
* [http://www.wowow.co.jp/anime/ergoproxy/ WOWOW - "Ergo Proxy" Website (Japanese)]
* [http://www.myspace.com/relmayer Geneon "Ergo Proxy" MySpace (English)] anime-links
title = "Ergo Proxy"
ann = 5115
imdb = 0791205
tvcom = 67854