Ergo Proxy: Difference between revisions
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The story begins in a futuristic domed city called Romdo,<ref name="keywords">{{cite web|url=http://www.ergoproxydvd.com/story/keywords/|title=Ergo Proxy 3" Keywords|accessdate=2006-10-26}}</ref> built to protect its citizens after a global ecological disaster. In this utopia, humans and androids (AutoReivs<ref name="keywords"/>) coexist with each other peacefully under a total management system. A series of murders committed by berserk robots (infected with the Cogito virus) started 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 (Ergo Proxy)|Proxy]], which is believed to hold the key to the survival of mankind. |
The story begins in a futuristic domed city called Romdo,<ref name="keywords">{{cite web|url=http://www.ergoproxydvd.com/story/keywords/|title=Ergo Proxy 3" Keywords|accessdate=2006-10-26}}</ref> built to protect its citizens after a global ecological disaster. In this utopia, humans and androids (AutoReivs<ref name="keywords"/>) coexist with each other peacefully under a total management system. A series of murders committed by berserk robots (infected with the Cogito virus) started 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 (Ergo Proxy)|Proxy]], which is believed to hold the key to the survival of mankind. |
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Iggy is assigned to investigate some of the murders with her AutoReiv partner Re-1. She encounters a cogito infected AutoReiv as well as a fast and flexible monster. She later learns that the monster was a Proxy. |
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In an interview [http://www.japansociety.org/web_docs/IN_Sato-McGray%20Interview.pdf], Dai Sato describes the project: |
In an interview [http://www.japansociety.org/web_docs/IN_Sato-McGray%20Interview.pdf], Dai Sato describes the project: |
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Revision as of 17:09, 13 August 2007
| Ergo Proxy | |
| File:ErgoProxyTitle.jpg The title screen for Ergo Proxy. | |
| Genre | Adventure, Drama, Horror, Mystery, Psychological, Science Fiction, Supernatural |
|---|---|
| Anime | |
| Directed by | Shukou Murase |
| Studio |  Manglobe |
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 Shukou Murase, with screenplay by Dai Satō et al. Ergo Proxy features a combination of 2D digital cell animation, 3D computer modeling and digital special effects. The series has both steampunk and cyberpunk elements and focuses heavily on the psychology and mentality of its protagonists.
Story
The story begins in a futuristic domed city called Romdo,[1] built to protect its citizens after a global ecological disaster. In this utopia, humans and androids (AutoReivs[1]) coexist with each other peacefully under a total management system. A series of murders committed by berserk robots (infected with the Cogito virus) started 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.
Iggy is assigned to investigate some of the murders with her AutoReiv partner Re-1. She encounters a cogito infected AutoReiv as well as a fast and flexible monster. She later learns that the monster was a Proxy.
In an interview [1], Dai Sato describes the project:
It is set in the future. A group of robots become infected with something called the Cogito 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 Sato
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.
Principal characters
- Vincent Law
- Voiced by: Kouji Yusa (Japanese); Liam O'Brien (English)
- An immigrant from Mosko 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.
- Re-l Mayer
- Voiced by: Rie Saitō (Japanese); Megan Hollingshead (English)
- 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. Re-l accompanies Vincent on his journey in order to learn more about the mysterious Proxies.
- Pino
- Voiced by: Akiko Yajima (Japanese); Rachel Hirschfeld (English)
- An infected Companion AutoReiv owned by Raul Creed and Samantha Ross, Pino served as a surrogate child to the couple. She was scheduled for decomissioning 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.
Key terms
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. Australian digital broadcaster ABC2 also began broadcasting the English dub on 3 July 2007, playing every Tuesday night at 9:00pm.
Theme songs
The series' opening theme song is "Kiri" by Monoral and is first shown in episode 3. The ending theme song is "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead, although the preview version of the first episode did not feature it.
Staff
- Director: Shukou Murase
- Chief Writer: Dai Sato
- Script: Dai Sato, 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
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; to date, five volumes have been released, spanning the first twenty episodes.
In Australia and New Zealand, Ergo Proxy DVDs are being released by Madman Entertainment; the first volume was released in March 2007.
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.
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.
Trivia
- The following characters are all named after philosophers: Husserl, Kristeva, Derrida, Berkeley, Deleuze and Guattari.
- 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.
- The Cogito Virus refers to Descartes' "Cogito ergo sum," which means "I think, therefore I am."
- 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.
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 [citation needed] (source unknown) word-for-word as:
The century of how many is a futuristic stories from now. People who lived there were given the history of mankind as follows, saying that "As for the environment of the earth, the large discharge of Metanhaidorad that was called burning iced happened in old times in century how many now, and it changed suddenly, a lot of living things died out and thus, the ancestor we of human races who had survived came to live only in the bubble dome
Bubble dome "Romud". It is an ideal city that is called utopia that repeats production and consumption. An advanced making to the network advanced, and people seemed to be satisfied with going by a multipurpose robot from which Ortorab was called by the system of maintenance, the life-support of the reached infrastructure, and the complete social security in this society where everything had been managed in an orderly manner if it gave neither crime nor an an antisocial molecule. ... and it peeped at the problem on falling birthrate ...
However the event that causes the accident to the order happens several years ago. Another bubble dome "Mosque" collapses, and a lot of shelter immigrants have flowed in "Romud". The event brought different sense of values to "Romud" and gave birth to rich and poor and the class difference, and the dissatisfaction that came there smoked in the underground formed dangerous culture, and was becoming a breeding ground for crime.
Another big social issues had been generated in in such and Romud. It is existence of the virus program of the mystery of awaking the clinging ego in the artificial intelligence of Ortorab. Violated Ortorab did not follow man and caused a serious trouble frequently to the virus that was called alias "Cogito".
It begins to appear though people who have dissatisfaction in the dome are small number of people thus. Nobody said putting to practice and the person who gave up, "You should finish one's life in a peaceful dome though it was tedious" was most though they were all driven by the desire that it wanted to go out of here. Because it was taught that the external world was the world of the death to which the monster strolled and the infectious disease was furious for the Romud citizens.
"Metanhaidorad" is probably a Japanese phonetic rendering of methane hydrate, also called methane clathrate or methane ice.
References
- ^ a b "Ergo Proxy 3" Keywords". Retrieved 2006-10-26.