Category: Ergo Proxy

This episode was totally messed up. Not in terms of quality, but in terms of storytelling. We have this Proxy who can change his appearance at will, and he keeps bothering Real, Vincent and Pino with this ability. Pino probably featured her best performance up till now. ^_^

The episode begins with a teaser of what happens at the end of the episode. Real phylosophizes a bit. She believes that the world doesn’t end once she dies, though she used to believe this as a child. She’s a true realist, though I’m dying to see her as a child. Then it seems that Vincent seems to have done something stupid, though he seems to blame Real and Pino for this. Then they approach the dome, which probably will be Moscow, Vincent’s homeland.

We then switch to a lake, in which a dead Real is floating, with Vincent and Pino standing right next to her. At this time, I was beginning to scratch my head, and then to think that that only was the beginning.

The OP rolls, and we switch to Pino and Vincent doing some groceries. It seems that they ran into another abandoned city. This time, not even robots or autoraves are active. Real walks around a bit, and gets some visions of Iggy. The city has a strange shape. Much like a huge crater, entirely populated with houses and with a small lake and lots of trees in the middle. She walks around a bit, takes a look at the ship they traveled with and then she arrives at the lake. At that time, she could’ve sworn she saw something. That’s the first clue we get of the Proxy.

Real then goes back to the supermarket, at which Vincent and Pino just finished shopping. While Pino has fun with cans, Real’s as cold as usual. Vincent wants to stay for a while, though Real scolds him, for not being determined. Then, Pino gets cuter than ever when she tries to present her own assembled meal to her. It looks absolutely disgusting. Real immediately turns this down and leaves, with the excuse of keeping a lookout. Vincent, however, doesn’t. Seeing Pino smile like that was just absolutely hilarious. She’s an autorave, so she doesn’t have the slightest ideas about taste. I don’t think the Proxy was at this scene. Both characters acted natural and said things that an outsider wasn’t supposed to know. (Like Real who drinks a lot of Ginger Ale and Vincent’s goal to reach Moscow) Though it would have been too funny if he actually was pretending to be one of them. ^^

We then switch to Real, complaining about how Vincent and Pino bring her in a bad mood. Back to Vincent, he’s packing and runs into the Proxy, pretenting to be Real, eating the pea soup from before. When he tells her to hurry, she tells him that she’s eating at the moment. Vincent gives her some ginger ale and then goes to get some water, along with Pino (she looked too awesome carrying that big can like that ^^).

Back to Real, the fake proxy gives her a visit, pretending to be Vincent. He brings her the same ginger ale as he just got from the real Vincent. He then suggests to stay here for a while. When you see this, and don’t know about the Proxy, the scene turns hilarious: first, Real tells Vincent to pack things up and leave as soon as possible. Vincent packs, but then he sees Real, taking it easy. Then Vincent comes back to Real, and he is the one again to suggest to stay and Real is the one to suggest to leave fast. Still, when you know about the Proxy, this scene makes perfect sense. The Proxy is lonely, and he hopes for the two of them to stay.

In any case, when the face Vincent set up an incredibly fake speech, asking Real in a very sad tone whether she didn’t love him anymore, I began to suspect something. These feelings only got confirmed when the real Real pushed the fake Vincent off the roof of the supermarket, only to disappear into nothingness afterwards. The fact remains that the Proxy didn’t know about the two of them. He just thought that they were a couple with a child. He also thought they were still lovey-dovey, so that’s why he set up the act he did. He also let himself get pushed off, in order to try and test how Real would react to this.

Vincent, meanwhile managed to get enough water. Then he runs into the fake Real. She sets up an angry voice, and she asks for the autorave. Then she attempts to kill Pino and Vincent locks her in a storage room. When he hears her reasons, it appears that Pino wanted to kill her. Vincent doubts this, of course, though he still asks Pino in a very kind way. Out of her explanation, it seems that Vincent believes that this was because of the food that Pino made. He indeed reckons that Real overexaggerated a bit. What follows is the fake Real, falling off the roof of the supermarket, right in front of Vincent’s eyes. He then sees a figure on top of the roof, and heads there. While he does, he notices that the storage room from before is open again.

When he gets to the top of the roof, the fake Real is gone, only to appear behind him. She then asks him a few questions, which Vincent can’t answer and runs away. Pino, meanwhile, gets visited by the fake Vincent, carrying the real Real’s unconcious body. They head for the lake, and the fake Vincent drops the body of the real Real in the lake. It sinks, only to rise again. Pino then thinks that Real has died.

When the real Vincent, meanwhile checks up on the Centzon (the ship they came with) he notices that it’s gone. He then thinks that Real and Pino left without him. And that he’s alone again. He then notices that something’s happening at the lake. Back to Pino, she totally manages to pwn the Proxy when she unmasks him. She also mentions something very interesting: there are two real Reals. Does the other Real mean the Proxy, pretending to be Real, or does this mean that Real’s got another appearance? Then, the fake Vincent attempts to strangle Pino, but then he sees that she’s an autorave, who can’t be strangled. Still, when he acted as Real, he did mention the fact that Pino was an autorave. What’s up with that?

The real Vincent meanwhile arrives at the lake, and then he sees the fake Real, sinking into the lake. Vincent dives after her, and manages to save her. She then opens her eyes, and attempts to drown him. This looked pretty amusing. ^^

Pino meanwhile managed to save the real Real from drowning. The two of them realize that both of them aren’t the proxy, though Real realizes that something’s happening. What follows is Vincent and the Proxy, floating in the depths of the lake and finding out about the facts that they both are Proxy. The Proxy then tells Vincent about his loneliness. Everywhere he appeared, people fled. Nobody acknowledged him. He then killed everyone in the city, in the hope of disappearing, though it didn’t work. He hopes to eliminate himself, along with Vincent. He then tries to break Vincents mind, in tricking him to die along with him.

Vincent then surfaces, only to see the fake Real standing before him. She yells at him, and he realizes that she’s the fake one. This scene repeats for a while. During this, the fake Vincent also shows the bodies of all of the former citizens he killed, stored in the middle of the lake. I think this all happens in the head of the Proxy, as Vincent then sees the same scene of Real standing on the shore. He decides to go extreme by strangling her. Though then Pino comes to her. This makes Vincent think that he really killed the real Real, while in fact, they’re just standing on the other side of the lake, watching the two Vincents talk to each other. Real noted exceptionally well that the fake Vincent didn’t have a reflection in the water.

Then, both of the Vincents sink again. Then, Vincent surfaces yet again, as yet again the same scene happens. though this time, the fake real is the real real. We then switch to the ship again, where the episode started. Apparently, Vincent caught a cold after being in the lake for so long (you’d wonder why Real didn’t, as she also was dumped into the lake). The Proxy probably cut the ropes which were holding the Centzon at its place, so it drifed off. Vincent then managed to recover it. Vincent then relates himself to the Proxy. They were both lonely. Though Pino and Real managed to save him. They managed to give his life meaning. We also see Real smile for one of the first times in the series.

Each Proxy’s ability and way of thinking is entirely different from the others. Some of them have a human form, like Ergo and Kazkiz, while others don’t, like the one from episode 12 and Senekis. Some Proxy can really think for themselves, like Kazkiz, Ergo and the one from this episode, while others are just killing machines, like Senekis and others are just savage beasts like the one from episode 12. Some Proxy have two minds, like Ergo, while others have just one mind, like Kazkiz. Some use their hair as weapon, others like to change their appearance to confuse the enemy, others just use their hands in combat. And I can keep going on like that for a while.

Overall, I just love the mind games that this anime is playing. I wonder what’ll happen when the characters reach Moscow.

How cool, an Iggy-episode. It seems that he was infected with cogito after all. This, in combination with both Real, the infected autorave from the previous episode and a little bit of Pino turned this episode yet again into an incredible one.

As predicted, Iggy doesn’t return to Romdeau, but the cogito-virus drives him crazy. He only wants to live for Real, so he’s planning to kill the bastard who drove her away, and keep Real only for himself. In extreme ways. He locks her up inside the same sort of container that the Proxy from the previous episode was put in. (Claustrophobia, anyone?) All of this is inspired by the infected autorave from the previous episode, who, in her turn also gets inspired by Iggy in order to kill the one who took her raison d’être away. The girl then begins to chase Real, Iggy attempts to kill Vincent, which obviously doesn’t go too well. The four persons meet up with each other, the autorave attempts to self-destruct though Iggy sacrifices himself in order to save Real.

In essence, this is just the same formula as good guy turns bad, attempts to kill main character, climax, good guy turned bad gets the idea that it wasn’t such a good plan to leave the other good guys and kills himself in order to protect the other good guys from certain death. But this episode manages to delve so much deeper in the minds of the characters involved, that it makes up for everything. Both the girl autorave as Iggy as Real get so much character development. Everyone’s reasons are so full of details. I just loved it.

Take Real for example, the was so getting used to Iggy being with her that she took his existance for granted, up to the point at which she started ordering around, and stopped caring. When Iggy is away, as in the beginning of the episode, she really didn’t know what to do, and started ordering Pino around. Of course, this really didn’t help, so she sought help in Vincent. Then Iggy confronts her with this. And only then she starts to realize. Combine this with the fact that she’s just been betrayed, she’s locked up inside an extremely tight container and the fact that Iggy’s yelling at her, and it makes for some incredible moments.

It’s also great that Iggy just continued to serve Real, even though he was infected. He just acted normally, despite the cogito-virus. Only when he begins to think about his own raison d’être, and starts noticing how Real doesn’t notice him, it goes wrong. Pino, on the other hand, managed end up just fine. She’s being treated like a normal human, even though she’s an autorave, and just look at how playful she became. The fact remains that Iggy remained just Iggy. You can’t say that the Iggy from the past died, because he kept acting the way he did, even though he was infected. The way Iggy brings this to Real is just amazing.

Also, the dying speach-scene. The one in which one of the characters is about to die, and talks his last words, who’ll probably be some inspiring words, lots of drama and the person dying completely forgiving everyone and apologizing for the bad things he did. Still, Iggy is an autorave, a machine, still infected with the cogito-virus. During that scene, he kept switching from normal-mode to cogito-mode, so in the middle of his speech, he suddenly started screaming at Real, accusing her of being the source of all his suffering, and at the same time apologizing. The effect that this had was extremely interesting to see.

I’m not too sure about the relationship between Real and Vincent. Please, don’t let Real be a tsundere! Only now with Tsuyokiss and Zero no Tukaima, I’m beginning to realize how much I hate tsunderes. Still, I do have to admit that Vincent looked too cute in his attempts to win Real’s heart. He’s got no social skills at all, so he has to try in his own ways.

Pino was once again amazing. It’s great to see that she still has her bunny-suit, and puts that on from time to time. At the end of the episode, we also see that she has learned from the past, and knows what sadness looks like. Still, she hasn’t managed to fully understand it. She also was great when she replied to Real that she’d rather want to know that feeling. Oh, and let’s not forget Vincent looking for firewood, when Pino comes running to him with a couple of mushy mushrooms. ^^;

Overall, this episode was great. Especially the conflict between Iggy and Real, when he bashed her completely into the ground with his arguments. He was right about everything, and Real realizing her own mistakes was amazing to see. This anime’s just turning better and better by the minute. I can’t wait for the next episode.

Interesting developments. Very interesting developments. The episode itself wasn’t that exiting, though I like the way at which this anime is going. Still, I did love the little details.

Pino finally had a great role again. She’s getting more and more open, she dares to do more things on her own, though she still doesn’t lose her habit to copy others. She also gets scared for the very first time, and she openly turns Real into a “scary woman”. Still, an interesting fact is that she realizes that a proxy is evil, though she doesn’t realize an infected autorave who steals from the Usagi is evil. She still needs a bit of time to understand this.

The most interesting development certainly came from Real and Vincent. Even though it’s nothing special, it’s nicely excecuted. Especially the fact that Real actually tricks Vincent who’s in love with her, and actually KISSES him, in order to not let Vincent see that she was actually planning to shoot him. That’s what I love about Real, she’s a very strong woman, though she’s not an uber-mensch. She has her moments of weakness. In any case, Vincent’s days of immortality are over, and he’ll probably run into another fight at which his memories of Real slow him down, making him almost lose. Ah well, it does explain why he parted with his memories. I believe that he had the same when he was in love with Monad Proxy.

I’m wondering about Iggy, Pino, and the mysterious autorave. It would be awesome if the three of them would wind up together, though the latter will probably infect the former with the Cogito, with the middle one to witness it. I also love the way that Real was so cold towards Iggy, by the way. Including the fact that autoraves can just be turned off. It makes you think how many humanity was put into these machines.

Still, even though many things are going into the right way, I so hope that Ergo Proxy has a few more tricks up his sleave. His transformation sequence begins to get a bit boring right now.

Ergo Proxy = Love. Seriously, my last post about .Hack//Roots really made me think about clever anime, what they are, and what they look like. This episode was so utterly incredible that it gave me such a new insight on this matter. Most people will probably dislike this episode, as it just features Vincent talking to himself for twenty whole minutes. But I totally loved it. So many references were made, so many metaphors were used, and the dialogue was just totally incredible. This episode truly can not be summarized, and I won’t even attempt to do that. So many small things mattered.

First of all, what does define a clever anime? I’d like to think of an anime which really makes me think. And not just a bit, as in a small note which comes to my mind, but an anime who manages to send all kinds of thoughts rambling through my head, like there’s nothing to stop them, something like a fierce mountain river which lasts for kilometres and kilometres. .Hack//Sign was the first example of this. Right now, the only anime I’m watching who accomplishes the same tasks is Ergo Proxy, with Higurashi no Naku Koro no and Mushishi getting very close as a second and third. Higurashi features very carefully written plot and mystery, while Ergo Proxy’s dialogue manages to hit me time and time again and Mushishi’s themes also make you think about the issues they introduce. Apart from these four mentioned, the only other near-clever anime I managed to run into were Fantastic Children, Utena and Fruits Basket, with xxxHolic having very small potential of becoming one. Fantastic Children had its great theme of reincarnation, Utena had its great use of symbols, while Fruits Basket delved deep into the minds of each of the characters.

Each of these anime are extremely well written, and each of them is written in its own way. It’s not just the themes, it’s how the creators make use of it. I’ve also noticed that most of them make good use of phylosophy. Especially Ergo Proxy and .Hack//Sign, and I must admit, I am a sucker for anything phylosophy-related. But still, the fact that phylosophy is used, means that there isn’t just one right answer, and one wrong answer. So many different opinions are possible, and each of them bears some hidden truth.

Anyway, back to the episode, I just loved it. Remember the sentence Raoul said in the previous episode? (I think, therefore I …, leaving the last word open on purpose). This sentence comes back, though slightly altered. It’s not “I think therefore I am”, it’s “I think, therefore YOU are”. Basically, humans are able to create their own world. They do exist, and they make others exist, inside their world. It’s also interesting that Vincent ends up in a bookstore. In there, he finds all kinds of books, and all of them have his name written on their cover. When he looks at the pages, they’re empty. At the beginning of the episode, the books keep increasing. Then Vincent comes at a point at which he begins to recite his own memories, of the things he knows. This makes some of the books disappear. At the end of the episode, Pino ends up at the Usagi again, and even there lies one of these books. Though this time, the books don’t vanish, they only lose their inscription of Vincent on their cover. This probably means that Vincent finally found himself, and accepted the fact that he IS a Proxy. (Interesting note: along with Vincent’s name, this book also featured a butterfly on its cover. This butterfly also vanished along with the name. Would that mean anything?).

Another interesting fact is that there’s the same discussion being held, twice. Once at the beginning of the episode, and once at the ending of the episode. Each of them have different outcomes, showing Vincent what he learned. Vincent lost his way at the beginning of the episode, and decided to go to the bookstore in order to ask for directions. Meanwhile, a fog started coming up, and he lost Pino. He wanted to know all these things at once. At the end of the episode, he finally realizes this. And the bookstore. For some reason, Vincent’s head turned this into a gigantic maze, but for some other reason, the maze formed a perfect circle, with Vincent in the middle. This points at the struggles that Vincent is currently in. Brilliantly found.

This episode certianly played with the minds of the viewers, as we don’t exactly know what happened in Vincent’s head, and what didn’t. For starters: was the bookstore even real, or was this a figment of Vincent’s imagination as well? Everything looked realistic and all, except for the fact that there’s a bookstore in the middle of nowhere. When Pino was walking in the Usagi, you could see one of the books bearing Vincent’s name. Was that because of Vincent’s power as a Proxy? And still, in the end, Vincent did end up getting directions. Is that really something that can form inside your head? What about the fact that at one point, Ergo and the old man were arguing with each other? Can things like these really happen, even inside your head? And if the old man did exist in reality, what part of him was real, and what part wasn’t? After all, he was the only one who didn’t end up with an Ergo Proxy mask. Ergo Proxy uses this opportunity to talk to Vincent, but the two of them indeed seemed to not have the same opinion. In fact, Ergo was just trying to make clear to Vincent that he was is a Proxy, and that the two of them are the same. But does the fact that they share the same body, mean that the two of them are also the same? I mean, Vincent is Vincent, and when Vincent loses control, Vincent blacks out and Ergo appears.

It’s also interesting that Vincent takes a trip along his memories of the past, with each person appearing with an Ergo Proxy-mask (this was, by the way, a scary sight on Pino and other little children). Ergo comes with a nice statement. At the moment, he’s only observing the world, while not being any part of it. Is that what Proxy are able to do? Messengers sent from a higher level? It’s also interesting that near the end of the episode, Real gets to be the one who loses her mask. She disappears afterwards, of course, but then, Ergo sets the mask on fire, while asking Vincent which Proxy he is. I guess he wanted to see how Vincent reacted when the Ergo-mask was to be destroyed. It’s interesting to see Vincent clinging to that mask at such a cornered moment. Afterwards, Vincent becomes surrounded by mirrors, in Ergo-mode, only strenthening this effect.

Okay, I hope that that was understandable… Anyway, overall, this episode was just totally incredible. It SO messes with the viewer’s mind. At least, it did with mine. The Ergo inside Vincent is planning something, but before he does that, he needs Vincent to realize that the two of them are the same. The episode ends with Real catching up with Vincent. You’d wonder how she managed to find him. After all, Vincent was lost. How do you find someone who’s lost? I guess she’s special after all. But in what way?

On a side-note: What is the memory guardian? Could it be the thing that prevents Vincent from remembering what he does as Ergo? And why was the old man against unlocking it?
On a side-note2: I’ve recently managed to get my hands on the Ergo Proxy OST, and it’s amazing. I really recommend it.

Ergo Proxy returns, and it returns with another great episode. No Vincent and Pino this time, but the story focuses mostly on two side-characters: Raoul and Daedalus, along with a little bit of Real. (Yes, my way of spelling these names keeps changing. I like Ril and Dedars more than Real and Deadalus, but it seems that we’re dealing with a couple of official names here).

Even though the episode wasn’t as action-packed as the previous one, I still loved it. Especially Deadalus was great. The episode starts with Raoul and Kristeva (his autorave) checking up on him. Ever since that accident from episode seven, Real has been viewed as dead and he’s been labeled as the murderer. He’s been stripped from all his authority and just remains in his apartment doing nothing. Raoul also mentions that he’s finally gotten over Tasha’s death. It’s here where my memory left me a bit. Tasha either is one of the people who was killed while Monad Proxy chased Vincent in the second episode, or she is a yet to be introduced character who now is dead.

Raoul mentions the fact that Daedalus has lost his Raison d’Être, or reason to live. A term which will be showing up more in this episode and probably make a few more comebacks during the rest of the entire anime. Daedalus threw away both Real and Proxy, which were the only things he lived for. Then we get to see the scene we’ve been suspecting ever since Real got killed: Real being alive. It couldn’t have been avoided. I mean, she’s the main characters. Main characters only die at the last episode. Anyway, I’m glad that the creators realize this and just show the scene immediately.

Raoul then pays a visit to the city-council. It seems that Monad Proxy was some kind of important energy source for Romdeau. Now that she’s gone (I’m calling Monad a she because of one of my theories about something that happened later in the episode, look below), the city might face danger. Not only that, but Raoul is also blamed on this by the council. Something that doesn’t make him very happy, as he later punches his reflection in a mirror to pieces (the mirror, I mean). He also brings up a famous quote from Descartes, which fits the scene perfectly (“I think, therefore I am”, though he lets out the last word).

Later, when he leaves the council’s tower in an elevator along with Kristeva, The two of them talk a bit, Kristeva mentions Raoul’s wound as a result of his fight with the mirror, and suddenly, the power falls out, locking the two of them up inside the elevator. Later, when he’s leading a team to discover the meaning behind this power outage, he discovers something interesting. The power outage took 2 minutes and 17 seconds, which is indeed Daedalus’ trademark. Raoul’s been talking about this before, though I never knew what it was. But apparently, they were referring to Daedalus. Before the long power outage, there also a large number of small outages. Most of them took just a few seconds. It seems that Daedalus had been using these outages as testings, and he clearly used the last one as something to get attention. In any case, Raoul decides to go and pay Daedalus a visit.

Daedalus, starts by pulling up an act, but then again Raoul does as well. Raoul wants Daedalus to check up on the wound he got, while Daedalus keeps telling him that he doesn’t examine anymore. Though Daedalus does reveal something interesting: his life indeed was devoted to taking care of Real. This has been suggested before, though it has never been directly comfirmed like this. Though why was Real so important?

In any case, Raoul and Daedalus find themselves a spot to talk, at which they won’t be overheard, and their conversation turns less cryptic by the minute. Still, it remains cryptic. The thing Raoul was after (Daedalus’ research) is gone, hidden somewhere. Raoul then reveals that he knows that Daedalus used Monad in order to hide the existance of Ergo by forcing all of the council’s attention on the former. He also reveals that he knows that Real is alive somewhere. Daedalus wanted to use Real in order to lure out Ergo, but at the last minute, he got his doubts, as this would obviously mean Real not surviving it. Because of this, he seemed to have sent Raoul the cryptical message. I don’t understand the reasoning behind this, though I think that Raoul thinks that Daedalus planned to ask him to team up with him.

Still, Daedalus denies. He doesn’t want to partner up with the one who tried to kill him. Then, Raoul reveals another interesting fact. It wasn’t him who sent the autoraves to kill Real, it was the Council. The major is even wiling to kill his own granddaughter who indeed committed a crime, in order to keep up the law of Romdeau. Then things really get interesting when Raoul reveals that he knows that the power outage had another purpose. Daedalus replies that he was trying to resurrect Monad (after all, by causing a power outage, you can use a tremendous amount of energy). Raoul then offers to let Daedalus work for him again, in order to resurrect Monad. Daedalus hasn’t got much of a choice, so he agrees.

When everything is settled, Raoul really is in a good mood. He’s apparently hiding what he’s doing from the council. He also tries to burn some fear into Daedalus by intimidating him. At first sight this works. But then, when Raoul left, Daedalus has a very interesting monologue. He talks to the dead body of Monad as if it was Real. Raoul also has no idea what his real goals are, and Daedalus really gets exited. This is where I got an interesting theory. Real, of course, couldn’t be Monad Proxy. But what if the two are linked somehow? What if she originally was Monad Proxy, but the two split apart at some certain time and space. Remember Senekis? We also saw a weirdly behaving woman, locked up inside that fort. Then the infected autoraves from Kazkiz came, and freed her. Then this woman died at about the same time as Senekis. What if the two of them were linked in the same way that Real and Monad are? In any case, Real is someone special. Otherwise, Daedalus wouldn’t have devoted his life to her and Monad.

Real, meanwhile, has an interesting experience. It doesn’t really contribute to the plot, but it introduces some very interesting phylosophical questions. She ends up in a town, abandoned by people, but with robots seemingly left behing, doing their ordinary work as if there actually were some people around. For what purpose do these machines work? I mean, there aren’t any people left, so it would seem that they are obsolete. She also has a dream about a younger version of herself, who tries to warn her, I guess. Ergo Proxy indeed is cruel. And yes, Real is indeed chasing something extremely dangerous. But still, she believes that Vincent holds the truth. The episode ends with the strangest cliffhanger ever. Something you indeed did not see coming, let alone understand. Real and Iggy leave the humanless city. The robots perform their work as usual, until one of them break from its routine and walks off.

This episode answered a lot of questions about the show. And suddenly, everything begins to make sense. Warning: major spoiler coming up. Do not read the rest of this entry if you haven’t seen episode nine yet.

Anyway, the reason we don’t see the dude which appeared at the end of the episode, is simple. He only was meant for these two particular episodes. It seems that he’s saved Vincent, and took him to his home: a tower in the middle of a green, Romdeau-like city called Asura. Apparently, this dude is named Kazkiz Hauer, and he was the one controlling the autoraves from last episode. He also was the one who sent Senekis Proxy to wipe out all of the residents of Haroth (the place from episode 8). Why? Because they lived for no purpose. They had to be wiped out, and someone had to do it. At least, those are Kazkiz’ reasons. I hated him already at this point.

By the way… how the heck to you spell Senekis… or is it Senex? The same with Ril… eh.. Lil… Real… Leal… Riru? There are about a dozen different ways to spell both of their names, though which is the right one? (Raul? Raoul?)

Kazkiz then confirms that he loved Senekis, and he claims that Vincent killed her. Then we indeed get the confirmation the previous episode had been hinting at: Vincent is indeed a Proxy, though he doesn’t know it. Kazkiz gets a bit angry when he finds out about Vincent’s ignorance. He then reveals that he’s used his robots to wipe out the entire population of Asura and Haroth, and that he’s in fact a Proxy himself: Kazkiz Proxy.

It then appears that Vincent actually loved Monad Proxy, though he killed him anyway. This would explain his actions in the first couple of episodes a bit. He also gave him a part of his memories, which explains his anmesia about everything. Anyway, Monad Proxy smacks Vincent, whose eyes begin to act like a couple of flashlights, and begins to transform. No offence, but that transformation scene was horrible. Afterwards, however the show catches up to its awesomeness from before again.

Then Vincent is in his Proxy-form for the first time while realizing it. Then, however, he loses control, he fights a bit with Kazkiz Proxy, and eventualy manages to kill him. This episode was mostly meant for Vincent to discover that he is a Proxy (Ergo Proxy, hence the name of the series). I just loved the creepy atmosphere that kept playing through the entire episode. The music, along with the creepy screenpans, the dark drawings and the twisted Kazkiz provided an awesome result.

There are still so many questions left unanswered.
– Why was Kazkiz happy that Senekis was killed? Why did he pick up the joker-card and smiled in the previous episode?
– In this episode, it gets revealed that Kazkiz Proxy is the emissary of Light. Ergo Proxy is the emissary of Darkness. What does an emissary mean? And which kinds of emissaries were Monad and Senekis Proxy? What’s the relationship with this and the deck of cards from last episode?
– Why did Vincent give his memory to Monad Proxy?
– What was Monad Proxy’s human form?
– Why is he so attracted to Ril?
– In fact, why was Ril absent yet again in this episode?

It’s also very intresting that at the beginning of the show, more emphasis was put on Monad Proxy, while Ergo Proxy was put a bit in the shadows. This makes you think that the anime will be revolving around Monad, only until you find his dead body somewhere in a dark alley. In fact, I only began to see Ergo Proxy as a main character until the previous episode.

Vincent may have been amazing in his role. But the true star of this episode was Pino. As an autorave, she finally begins to think a bit on her own, instead of copying others like she used to. The result is absolutely great. She knew about Kazkiz’ identity, but she couldn’t convince Vincent to leave, so she leaves on her own. She then tries to find the Usagi (the ship the two of them travelled with) on her own. Though she then realizes that she wants Vincent along with her. That was just too awesome to see. And I haven’t even mentioned the fact that she knew all anong that Vincent was Ergo Proxy. Absolutely beautiful, though I want to see Ril again. I’d better hope that she plays another major part in the next episode!

No Real! Blasphemy! Anyway, this episode was focused one half on Vincent, while the other half was focused other side-characters. A bit of new info about the Proxys is aquired, and Vincent gets to have his mental breakdown.

Vincent, while hungry seemed to have learned his lesson on his journey, as he acknowledges Pino’s existance at the beginning of the episode. They, they stumble upon other life-forms. Not Moskou, which I guessed, but a lonely army base ho’s been fighting off infected auto-raves. The members are suspiciously hospital, though it soon appears that they’ll make him fight in order to pay it back.

Then, a third Proxy appears. First, we only get to see its bandage-like hairs, killing, though it’s obvious what its owner is, mostly because of Vincent’s reaction. Anyway, because of the killing, Vincent is put in some kind of cell, right next to a crazy woman who keeps on muttering random sentences. Then Vincent begins to fall down, and mutter random sentences himself.

The autoraves, meanwhile, attack the base once more. This time, they’ve got help from the third Proxy, who kills off the commander of the base. She then crashes a helicopter right into the crazy woman, who managed to escape. Then, the second Proxy appears, beating the third one, taking off its mask, only to reveal the face of a woman. Then it absorbs the third, killing it.

We then see the dead body of the crazy woman, surrounded by cards. A strange man arrives, and picks up the joker-card, and he smiles. Who the heck is this guy? And why does he pick up the joker-card? Actually, why were those cards there in the first place?

Bluewacky also brings up an interesting issue. The face of the third Proxy bears suspiciosly close resemblances to that of the crazy woman. They also both die at the same time. Could they be linked somehow? If that’s the case, could Vincent be linked to Ergo Proxy (That’s how Bluewacky calls the second Proxy, I have no idea why, but it does explain the show’s name, as well as the fact that this will be an important character, I’m somehow reminded of Noein)? And who was linked to Monad Proxy?

This episode also explains why Monad Proxy was killed off. It was just being caught by Ergo Proxy and absorbed. And that crazy woman, right before the helicopter crashed on her, she made the infamous infected-autorave-pose. What the heck does that pose mean?

Where the previous episodes had a lot of Vincent and a bit of Lil, this episode has a lot of Lil and a bit of Vincent. The two are separated once more, and each have their own story in this episode. I’ll start with Lil.

She’s able to recover, and once she gains conciousness, she leaves her hospital-bed, looking for answers. She looks beautiful without her make-up, by the way. Anyway, she avoids a couple of doctors, while Dedars notices what she’s doing. The two meet each other in the nursery-room. In this room, all the people are born, and artificially raised to be perfect citizens. This was an interesting surprise for me. I knew that Romdeau was focused on total control, but I never realized that the control would be this total. People are truly raised to be perfect citizens, no more. Dedars is willing to tell Lil everything he knows, but before that, she’ll have to face her grandfather. When she does, he just doesn’t respond to her at all. I’m wondering whether this old guy really is the mastermind behind Romdeau, or that he’s just controlled by the statue-like things right next to him. Anyway, when she gets back to Dedars, he shows her a couple of things. First of all: Iggy. It seems he’s making a come-back, this time without being monitored by the police, as Dedars installed something nice in order to prevent it. Second, some info about Proxy, or more precisely: Monad Proxy. It seems that it’s not a bad thing after all. It served as some kind of power source for the humans, taken from Moskou. I’ll just wait a couple of episodes before declaring it along with the good guys, though. But just like Lil, I’m really interested. I want to know what it means. The creators did a fine job in this. Anyway, Lil says some things about her motivation, and then some infected auto-raves enter, trying to kill our two protagonists. The fun thing is: Raul sent them. He’s using the cogito-virus as a weapon to get rid of Lil. She manages to shoot all of the incoming autoraves, though one manages to slice her. Hard. We don’t see what happens to her afterwards. All we see is Dedars making up a death notice for Lil. This is fake, of course, but I do want to know what happened to her.

Vincent, meanwhile, spends the episode flying to his city of birth: Moskou. This was really interesting to see. His companions don’t survive the trip, and he gives them an honorful burial. Eventually, he ends up alone with Pino. This also means that the entire population of Outer-Romdeau is dead now. Nobody has survived. That’s not the first thing you’d expect after episode 4. Anyway, he spends most of the time monologueing about the harships of the journey and his loneliness. Pino’s an autorave, so she doesn’t count. She has a very small part in this episode, by the way. Though, the fulfills this part nicely.

It seems that the next couple of episodes will be revolving around Moskou. Lil will probably also be heading there, and she’ll probably arrive around episode nine. Episode eight will probably involve Vincent arriving in Moskou. About the episode: I really liked it. The dialogue between Lil and Dedars was just superb.

I just love the way that Ergo Proxy takes its time to build up an episode, and then manages to finish it off with some of the most amazing scenes. This episode was certaily no exception.

We start off with Lil, who apparently got sick of the poisonous gasses which float around. All of the ‘villagers’ have had an antidote, and Vincent managed to recover on his own. With only one antidote left, in the possesion of Queen (who isn’t particulary on Lil’s good side), Vincent faces a dilemma.

Then Hude come with the idea of Vincent going back to Romdeau, in which Lil could be saved. Vincent plans to take the aircraft Lil used to get back to Romdeau, in order to accompany her. The other villagers, meanwhile, plan to move away from Romdeau as soon as possible, now that it has become clear that only death awaits them if they stay.

Both parties prepare, Pino says goodbye to Lil and Vincent, and both parties move to their destinations. We switch back to Romdeau, mostly in the long-haired guy’s point of view. He finds out Vincent came back, and he sets off as fast as he can. Only to find a pleasant surprise awaiting him. The death of a certain character afterwards also was amazing to see.

Queen and Pino, meanwhile, have a lot less luck. Along with them, about eight other guys are with them. They ride on some sort of weird boat, apparently named ‘Usagi’. Then they get attacked once more, by nine Romdeau-airplanes. After they get saved by the plan described above, only six people remain on the boat. A ‘certain’ person, Pino and four villagers who managed to not get killed by the gunfires from the Romdeau-airplanes. The deaths were a total surprise to me. I never expected it to go this way. It also shows lots of potential for the next couple of episodes.

Pino was once again, amazing. She now begins to understand the pain of losing someone dear to you. Just like a small child, who just realizes what happened.

Holy god, Pino’s just too innocent. That certainly became clear after this episode.

Anyway, we start with Vincent, trying to figure out what to do and the other people around him who begin to get angrier by the minute because of his prescense. Hude saves him for a moment by telling some quick lies, about how Vincent is the savior of the ousiders and he’ll bring Romdeau to fall. He carries these lies, however, way too far, until they quickly get out of hand. You can realy see he was having trouble with this. Pino meanwhile finds a friend to play and draw this. That was just too cute.

Then Ril arrives, with the intention of taking Vincent back. From this moment on, Hude gets to play a great role. We get to see that he’s desperate to go back to Romdeau, so he does whatever it takes to get Ril to take him back. Pino and her new friend also played a great role in this by annoying the hell out of him, which includes painting his face with some nice red colors. (she takes off her bunny-suit as well). Ril, of course, isn’t impressed with this, and takes Vincent back, while she suddenly gets the message that Romdeau is aiming to clean up the outside world, in other words, they intend to kill everyone.

They get out too late, so Ril and Vincent get attacked by Romdeau’s Techibi. Then it appears that Proxy isn’t dead after all, Ril gets hit by one of the Techibi projectiles and Vincent loses his concience. Pino, meanwhile gets taught a small lesson about doing what you like most, instead of copying others. We then switch back to Ril and Vincent, back in Hude’s hut. Ril’s now also stranded in the outside and begins to get a bit desperate and collapses. Pino, meanwhile takes a dive in the water (which looks too cute, by the way), and then she gets a first-in-a-lifetime-experience. I won’t tell what happens because of the spoiler-ness of these scenes. Pino still doesn’t understand this, and goes to take Queen. Then the episode ends. (And yes, I know that this was a crappy episode summary)

Overall, this was an amazing episode. Especially Pino and Hude were great. Although I’m also very happy about Vincent, Ril and Queen. I’m very curious about the next episode now.