Review of the anime Ergo Proxy (“Ergo Proxy”)

Are you familiar with the word mainstream? If translated literally, it means “main stream”, i.e. the direction in which a particular area of life or art is moving. It is closely related to the concept of fashion. At all times, the anime industry has had its own fashion trends. It pays for studios to produce what is most likely to reach the viewer's heart and wallet. Unfortunately, the mainstream does not always coexist with the concepts of quality and development. Indeed, what kind of development can we talk about if the production of cliched harems and comedies brings good money? Therefore, very few studios and directors try to push the boundaries of what is possible by creating something new, original and daring. Yes, it is risky, yes, there is a high probability that the public will not understand or appreciate their creation, and that all efforts will be in vain. However, it is precisely through such daring attempts that the anime industry can develop further. This review is dedicated to a title that at one time raised the bar for the psychological genre with serious philosophy to new heights - Ergo Proxy .

Brief information

Ergo Proxy is a sci-fi anime produced by Manglobe in 2006. Consisting of twenty-three episodes, it is based on an original script by Dai Sato and several other good writers.

The anime is about the distant future. Thousands of years ago, as a result of a global environmental disaster, humanity found itself on the brink of extinction. The few survivors were forced to hide in cities surrounded by giant domes, isolating the citizens from the hostile environment. To accelerate the revival of humanity, scientists have developed humanoid robots - AutoReivs , which help residents in their daily affairs. The events of Ergo Proxy take place in one of the largest domed cities - Romdo , in which strange events have recently occurred: some auto raves became infected with a mysterious virus called “cogito”, as a result of which they acquired their own will. Reel Mayer , of the ruler of Romdo, was tasked with investigating a series of murders committed by infected robots and collecting as much information as possible about the virus . And somewhere on the other side of Romdo, newly arrived immigrant Vincent Law is doing his best to become a worthy citizen...

Ergo proxy (there had to be a meaning here somewhere...)

Ergo Proxy is a special anime. I won’t call it a masterpiece, although this series has a lot in common with the masterpiece Wolf’s Rain. I will not call it a set of meaningless philosophizing, although the authors are keen on constructing abstract structures. Ergo has a little bit of proxies from everywhere. As the saying goes, the world has nothing left to its name. In this case, it’s a good anime series. A kind of fairy tale about the creation of the world, told by the Creator himself.

The plot does not shine with originality - a standard cyberpunk world “after the end of the world”, separate localizations of the remaining life, locked in the “golden” cells of domes. Not heaven, of course, but far from hell. Such a drab, mediocre existence. Which, by and large, suits almost everyone. However... “Something is not right in the Danish kingdom” - mysterious creatures intervene in the measured life of the domes, organizing a natural bacchanalia. Murder, destruction, chaos - it seems that there is no point in this... However, everything goes on as usual and the main character will have to make sure that the events taking place are lined up in a certain system that will lead her... However, I will not spoil it.

Ergo Proxy, as I said, is a special anime. It is simultaneously similar to Wolf's Rain, The Matrix, and even Twin Peaks. Yes, yes, this series leaves behind a slight taste of madness, logical nonsense, theater of the absurd... absurd, but not chaos. It’s just that the viewer misunderstands something every moment, and this misunderstanding dissipates in a second, and appears again a moment later. It's like walking through a swamp, jumping from hummock to hummock, not knowing whether your path will end in a quagmire or you will still emerge on solid ground. I also remembered Zelazny’s work “Lord of Light”. No, I won’t draw clear parallels, but this feeling arises and you can’t escape it.

This multicolored sensation, the changing perception of the series is generated by the atmosphere - gloomy, almost gothic, very similar to the atmosphere of the game Max Payne (my favorite game, by the way). And the atmosphere itself is born from the peculiarities of the drawing - which in Ergo Proxy is very, very good. Especially the main character - I rarely see such level of attention to detail in anime.

However…

Despite all the advantages, Ergo proxy has a serious disadvantage - it is too abstract. Of course, I love philosophizing, but the philosophizing in Ergo Proxy seems pure. Too clean, without knots, hooks, inaccuracies, contradictions... So my mind after finishing watching it is clean and empty. It was as if nothing had happened, as if I had never watched a series called “Ergo Proxy”. Although... maybe that's how it was intended? Don't know.

Interesting Facts

1). The names of the characters were not chosen at random.

For example, Daedalus is an obvious reference to the legendary ancient Greek inventor and builder.

Robot Kristeva is named after the philosopher Julia Kristeva - philosopher, linguist, literary critic and feminist.

Pino on the character Pinocchio, with whom she has some external resemblance (Pino looks like a doll) and a common story: transformation into a human.

In the full name Reel Meyer , which includes her ID: re-l124C41+, you can notice a play on words that reads “Real one to foresee for one .

the Proxy creatures in English is translated as:

– authority; power of attorney;

– deputy; authorized;

All these interpretations are directly related to the meaning of the series.

2). There is a theory that interprets Ergo Proxy using tarot cards.

3). The “Cogito” virus and the name “Ergo Proxy” are references to Descartes’ famous saying “Cogito ergo sum” - “I think, therefore I am .

4). The Four Councilors governing the city of Romdo in the Meyer Tower are statues replicating the work of Michelangelo Buonarotti (Medici Chapel, Florence).

5). There is an assumption that the prototype for Ril Meyer was Amy Lee, the vocalist of the American rock band Evanescence .

6). Queen Lara Croft the Tomb Raider game series, in her hairstyle (waist-length braid), tight-fitting clothes and overall coolness .

I think the above should be enough to understand that Ergo Proxy is a much deeper anime than it seems at first glance. There are many, many different references and ideas hidden in it. You will find more detailed information about them here .

Characters

It is in the characters, in my opinion, that the strongest side of Ergo Proxy lies, and this applies not only to the main characters, but also to the secondary ones. 's start with the main character - Ril Mayer . She is an excellent example of a capricious aristocratic person, endowed with power and not knowing refusal. At first, she may irritate with her arrogant behavior, but it is difficult to deny the fact that this is exactly what a powerful person should be, suddenly finding himself in an unfamiliar environment, where not everything obeys the laws and rules familiar to him. In this regard, Ril is very similar to the main character of the anime Kuroshitsuji - the young aristocrat Ciel. However, over time, under the influence of external factors and the people around her, Ril changes and stops thinking that the world revolves around her person. Even despite her controversial nature, I still find her to be a well-written and interesting character who fully copes with the role of the main character. You probably won't want to sympathize with her, but it will still be interesting to watch her development.

The other main character, Vincent Law , is a weakling who eventually develops into an interesting and well-rounded character. Even despite his weakness, he is not just another typical weak schoolboy crying at every corner about how unhappy he is. On the contrary, Vincent is a kind and simple guy who wants to find out the truth about his past. His character never deteriorates to the point where he could become annoying with his uselessness, and over time he only becomes stronger and more self-confident.

Finally, the third main character is the auto-rave girl Pino . It’s simply impossible not to fall in love with such a sunny character. She is the personification of all the best that remains in the destroyed world of Ergo Proxy. Pino does not change throughout the series and continues to bring a kind smile. Such a character was absolutely necessary, because observing the gray world of Ergo Proxy, oppressive atmosphere and heavy philosophical discussions is not an easy task, and having such a cute girl makes it much more enjoyable. It is worth giving credit to the writers who were able to maintain an important balance: being a kind of symbol of the series, Pino appears on the screen just enough time to continue to touch, but not to become boring.

Regarding secondary characters, I would like to emphasize three important points.

Firstly , in the development of the plot, secondary characters play no less a role than the main characters. There are not so many of them, but each of them is really important, and they were added to the anime for a reason. There are no passable heroes in Ergo Proxy. The proxies that the heroes encounter during their journey represent emotions and feelings: loneliness, love, self-sacrifice, envy, anger, despair, and many, many others. Using the example of people and robots, we are shown the diversity of characters and human aspirations, and also touch upon important philosophical issues such as the search for the meaning of life. For some, it consists of serving their master, for others – in shopping trips, and for others – in the endless struggle against hunger and invaders. Each, even the most unimportant, character fulfills his assigned role. Lately, this kind of thing almost never happens.

Secondly , I really liked that the writers did not spare the heroes, and they could die at any time. That’s why it’s a post-apocalypse, because no one in a dangerous world lasts forever, and everyone is under constant threat of death. Moreover, the heroes die not in some pathetic way, with lofty speeches and actions, but simply and quickly - the way it behooves cogs in the mechanism of general prosperity to die. This element of surprise from the very first seconds forces you to look at new characters with increased attention, because you never know when they will disappear forever.

Thirdly , among the characters there is no strict division into good and evil. In the world of Ergo Proxy there is only room for gray shades, and therefore the first impression when viewing it should not be trusted. Each hero pursues his own goals and acts in accordance with his interests. It all depends on the point of view. Here, it would seem, is an outright villain pursuing the main characters, but in fact he just wishes the well-being of his city and adores his daughter. But here is a kind guy who treats sick people and, in his free time, generates plans to destroy all living things. These kinds of ambiguities are present at every turn in Ergo Proxy, and for some viewers trying to figure them out can be very enjoyable.

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Ergo Proxy - plot... transcript)) partial

Production: Japan Genre: drama, cyberpunk, adventure, fantasy Type: TV (23 episodes), 25 min. Release: from 02/25/2006 to 08/12/2006 Release at 19:00 [evening show] on WOWOW Director: Murase Shuko Script: Sato Dai “I am only a manufacturer of words: what is in words is in me!” F.V. Nietzsche's Songs of Zarathustra

“Be quiet, please, don’t you dare wake me up. Oh, in this criminal and shameful age, not to live, not to feel is an enviable lot... It’s nice to sleep, it’s nicer to be a stone.”

by Michelangelo Buonarroti, trans. Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev

Ergo Proxy is an anime with a truly stunning imagination that overthrows ALL gods and encourages you to go in search of your own Raison d'etre... (Raison d'être (French reason, the meaning of life))

In order to describe the whole world of “Ergo Proxy” there are few words, because words are signs of the system, using these symbols we inevitably become part of the system - a simulacrum... (Simulacrum (from Latin simulo, “pretend, pretend”) - “copy ", which does not have an original in reality. In other words, semiotically, a sign that does not have a signified object in reality.)

The only important question for all humanity is WHAT IS THE MEANING OF OUR EXISTENCE?.. It is the main leitmotif of this work. And if Ergo Proxy is the shadow of Proxy One - “Vincent Law, you really are a shadow. A shadow that defeated those who cannot be defeated and stopped its own heartbeat.” (see episode 23) “This is proof that Vincent Law, who has forgotten everything, is nothing more than a shadow of the Creator’s plan” (see episode 23), then: What is Vincent Law?.. “He is lightning! He is Madness! (F.W. Nietzsche “Thus Spake Zarathustra”)

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~ZARATHUSTRA'S PREFACE~ 1 When Zarathustra was thirty years old, he left his homeland and the lake of his homeland and went to the mountains. Here he enjoyed his spirit and his solitude, and for ten years he did not tire of it. But finally his heart changed - and one morning he rose at dawn, stood in front of the sun and spoke to him like this: “Great luminary! What would your happiness be reduced to if you didn’t have those for whom you shine! For ten years you have been ascending to my cave: you would have been fed up with your light and this road if it weren’t for me, my eagle and my snake. But we waited for you every morning, received your excess from you and blessed you. Look! I am fed up with my wisdom, like a bee that has collected too much honey; I need hands stretched out to me. I would like to bestow and bestow until the wise among men again begin to rejoice in their folly, and the poor in their wealth. To do this, I must go down: as you do every evening, plunging into the sea and bringing your light to the other side of the world, you richest luminary! I must, like you, go down, as the people to whom I want to go down call it. So bless me, you calm eye, looking without envy even at excessively great happiness! Bless the cup that is ready to spill, so that golden moisture flows from it and carries everywhere the reflection of your joy! Look, this cup wants to become empty again, and Zarathustra wants to become a man again.” — Thus began the decline of Zarathustra. (F.W. Nietzsche “Thus Spake Zarathustra”)

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Does this text remind you of anything?.. During the entire viewing of Ergo Proxy, I was inevitably haunted by the thought that... “I have already heard this, seen this... read THIS...” Indeed, the path of Ergo Proxy resembles the path of Zarathustra, the dancing prophet, the superman who overthrew the name God in the dirt of truth... Translated from English “proxy” - by origin - from procuracy 1) authority to act on behalf of another person 2) power of attorney 3) deputy, authorized 4) vote cast by proxy; ergo translated from Latin means – therefore. Thus, Ergo Proxy is the one who replaces, shadow, image, MASK... Have you noticed that in some episodes Ergo Proxy appears as an actor? And, true, the theatricalization of the existence of the city-polis - Romdo - Romdo reaches its apotheosis and Ril Meyer calls this paradise boring, she with all her heart wants its destruction, just as Zarathustra wanted to cleanse the Earth of the “last people”... We really see the last people ... - system mechanisms that have their own numbers, such as Ryl - RE-L MAYER 124C41+...

But - not all mechanisms obey the system, some fail, they are prone to SELF-DESTRUCTION, or do they want to KNOW their Raison d'etre?.. It all depends on which side you look at it from... So, what do we have: the famous phrase of Rene Descartes - “Cogito ergo sum” - “I think, therefore I exist”, from which two words are reflected in the anime - ergo and cogito. Cogito - think, reflect, think, reason - this is the name of the virus that infected the AutoReivs. AutoReiv is a robot, one whose Raison d`etre is human life, the same auto raves that were infected with the “cogito” virus acquired a soul, which is what happened with Pino.

In fact, the virus appeared after the escape of the Proxy Monads. Monad - (monad) - An indivisible primary spiritual element, which - together with other similar ones - forms the basis of the universe (in the philosophy of G.V. Leibniz). (Monadology; Lucifer in the mythology of the Rose of the World is a great demon, a God-born monad, who rebelled against the plan of God, causing the fall of many smaller monads - demons.) Proxy Monad is the connecting element in the chain - Ergo Proxy and Proxy Van. It was with her that Awakening began - the awakening of the world. Romdo created Proxy Van, that terrible forever crying Proxy, which was discussed at the MCQ Quiz, he is the creator of this small world, he is its GOD, the god who created his own killer - Ergo Proxy... But before the First Proxy there was another creator, which had its own special plan: “The destruction of our Raison d`etre. This is our main goal." This is the desire of all “creators” - the elevation of consumerism to the absolute and the victory of a system that devours the mind, destroying the ability to think... - What are we without reason??? – Just animals... Vincent Law – Vincento Lo (Ergo Proxy)

In Ergo Proxy, not only autoraves are infected with cogito, but also people - they began to think! Almost all the characters are looking for their meaning, their path, their existence... Therefore, the formula: “The face of an ideal citizen is a face without emotions” becomes unnecessary, a person is not a doll! Another Vincent comes to this thought - gradually in his journey from city to city, from death to death, from victory over one proxy to victory over another, he begins to realize that the one under whose mask he was hiding in Romdo as an immigrant from Moscow was not a real Vincent, just an image of an ideal citizen - a picture, an image, a profanation! For a long time, Zarathustra (Vincent) searched for his own “I” until he created it himself. In episode 11 of Ergo, Proxy says to Vincent Law: “I think, therefore you exist” - an idea very often used in anime, many characters find their Raison d'etre - in the reflection of other people's eyes, in self-actualization in front of society.

Eyes are of great importance for the Japanese and that is why at the very beginning Vincent’s eyes are practically closed, HE DOESN’T SEE that real life, the real him, are passing by, like My Neighbor (Julio Cortazar “62. Model for Assembly”).

Re-l Mayer - RE-L MAYER 124C41+…

Having entered the numbers from the name Reel on Wikipedia, I received this answer in the search: “Ralph 124C 41+” (“Ralph 124C 41+”) is a novel by Hugo Gernsback. According to the author, “124С 41+” should have been read as “one-to-fore-see for-all” - “the one who foresees for everyone.” However, this transcript is simply the author’s story about how he came up with such a surname. Here “+” is needed in the combination “1+”, meaning “everything”. In the work itself there is no such decoding, but about the “+” sign it is said that it means a person who belongs to the ten most outstanding minds of earthly civilization.”

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_124C_41_plus_(novel))

For Ril, it all started with boredom, the only strong feeling she could experience in Romdo as the granddaughter of an administrator. At the beginning of the anime, she pursued Vincent to find out why Proxy always appears where he is, at the end she helped him find his own memories. Essentially, Ryl was a spoiled, selfish “aristocrat.” Despite the fact that the rules of the system are the same for all residents of Romdo, we can trace differences in status. That's why Ryl has such an attitude towards immigrants and car raves. During the journey, Ril begins to understand what Ergo Proxy is, and Proxy in general, but not only that... With the understanding of one comes the understanding of the other: If Ergo Proxy is the creator, then she was only programmed by her own creator, BUT... Ril does not want to be a cog in the mechanism of the system, she wants to live in her own way, so she does not shoot at Ergo Proxy... For both Vincent Law and Ergo Proxy - Reel is an escape from sadness, it is truly REAL - REAL. For Ryl herself, it was quite difficult to realize what feelings she had for both Vincent and Ergo Proxy...

Raul Creed

Raoul Creed in one of the episodes says to Kristeva: “Look at this ideal, beautiful world. We are just small cogs in the mechanism of this paradise, and our only purpose is to preserve it.” (Episode No. 10) But is this true? Why then does a person with such a telling surname Creed (creed, worldview; beliefs) practically complete the destruction of the system?.. So the will to destruction lives in each of us - the creators answer... And they are right... The Project for the Resurrection of Man - Project Aus Der Wickel - is also an attempt go against the system.

Iggy - Iggy Autorave Reel, who was later infected by Cogito, but skillfully hid it - he knew how the program worked and deceived the machine. Along with the soul, another Iggy appeared, who wanted to rule over Ryl, but neither the old Iggy nor the new one could betray her, the Raison D'etre of both was the help of Ryl. It is worth noting that in the example of Iggy we can see a dispersed split personality, so if we use the terminology of Erich Fromm, proposed by him in his work “Escape from Freedom,” then the old Iggy was definitely prone to masochism, and the new one to sadism.

Daedalus Yumeno - Daedalus Daedalus (Greek Δαίδαλος, Latinized version of Daedalus) is a character in ancient Greek mythology, a brilliant artist and engineer, considered the inventor of various tools, and also built a labyrinth on the island of Crete.

With the help of artificial wings, Daedalus escaped the persecution of King Minos of Crete. His son Icarus died during the flight, carelessly approaching the sun, which melted the wax that bound the feathers of his wings

The surname of Dedalus from the anime is Yumeno, it can be deciphered as yume (dream) and no - a connective to indicate that an object belongs to someone. Thus, Daedalus's Dream is Ryl, but Ryl loves another, so Daedalus creates another Ryl, gives her wings... The second Ryl flies to the sun and dies, neither Proxy Van nor Ergo Proxy accepted her love, because she was neither Proxy Monad, not even Reel Meyer. Reel 2 is a clone within a clone, a mockery of the performance!

Pino – Pino

Pino is a domestic type autorave owned by Raoul Creed, who was later infected by Cogito. Following the fate of Pino, we can see the process of humanizing a doll that could play the piano. The turning point for the formation of Pino’s soul was the death of the little boy who taught her to draw. – You should draw what YOU want, and not copy others. You must do what YOU want, and not follow orders... You must feel and think independently, because YOU are YOU.

Donov Mayer – Donov Meyer

Onov Meyer spoke through 4 surroundings with telling names: Berkeley, Derrida, Husserl, Lacan. Lacan and Derrida are famous postmodernists whose work has made enormous contributions to postmodern theory as a whole. Ergo Proxy is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Postmodernity, the spirit of new humanity and post-structuralist perception of reality, but at the same time, we are thrown as a mockery - the mystical component, which is expressed in symbols.

Postmodernism was especially on display in episode 19, in which Pino "battled" Proxy A. Will B. Good - which can be deciphered as "I'll be good." He created his own country, Smile Land, the symbol of which was the “S” sign. Wait, something is missing! Indeed, the vertical bar is missing - $, it would be more correct.

The Land of Smiles is a cruel mockery of the United States, of the state machine and of people who artificially smile at everything the state says. This is truly a society of Performance and Consumption in one of its incarnations, an exaggerated semblance of a happy society that constantly consumes gadgets. Without realizing it, they strive for destruction, but this fate - not only the United States, the state machine in postmodern theory - is in any “democracy” only a performance, the structure of which appears in the form of the superposition of one performance on another. The spectator and the actor constantly change places, the spectator becomes an actor, the actor becomes a spectator, everything depends on the quality of the performance into which they are integrated.

Romdo Romdo and other city-states that are shown in Ergo Proxy are very reminiscent of Japan with its isolation and policy towards immigrants and other gaijin. There is a sealing of souls, in the words of Ortega y Gasset, Man loses his Raison D'etre and replaces truth with image - an image, only the outer shell remains of a person, nothing more - a shadow of the creature whose name used to sound PROUD! Now, in order to find your pride, your existence, you need to isolate yourself from the mass media and the performance... Public life is completely theatrical, finding yourself in this continuous flow of information is difficult and almost impossible, because even the STARS of the society of the performance are more unhappy than ordinary consumers, because they themselves realize that they are just images of an era that will later be forgotten.

Mystic. Visuals. Romdo's appearance is very reminiscent of the Sephiroth tree:

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The main and most famous image of Kabbalah is the tree of life, or the tree of the Sephiroth. It is a comprehensive and powerful symbol. In its fundamental interpretation, the tree of sephiroth explains creation. The main reason for the emergence of existence is seen in God’s desire to see Himself. Why did he change the place of Absolutely Everything in such a way as to see Himself. In the act of calling the universe into existence, God revealed His ten attributes, each of which is represented in the tree by its own sephira. The Sephiroth are connected by a system of relationships. The path is crowned with a “crown,” which signifies all that was, is, and will be, and leads to the “kingdom,” which signifies the presence of God in matter.

Tree structure

The Tree of Life (World Tree) is a composition of 10 Sephiroth, which in turn are 10 emanations, 10 names or 10 channels of manifestation of God. Nowadays, “archetypes of states of consciousness” are also called sephirot. At the same time, the Tree of Life is the personification of the highest man (Adam Kadmon), created in the image and likeness of God. Hence, the Tree distinguishes between the right and left parts, the male and female principles, light and darkness. Each sephira exhibits masculine properties in relation to the underlying one, and feminine properties in relation to the overlying one (the right one is considered slightly higher than the left one). The relationship between two sefirah is called “zivug” (lit. pairing). In addition, there is an invisible sephira, Daat (Hebrew: דעת‎), connecting the three higher sephirot, but not included in the standard numbering - “The invisible sephira DAAT - the keys of knowledge. (Vulcan, Chiron).” According to the Book of Zohar, each sephira contains ten more sephirot, and so on ad infinitum. Above the first sephira - keter - there is the infinite light of the Creator (אור אינסוף), also called simple light (אור פשוט). The name of God at this level is “Atsmuto Itbarah.” The infinite light passes freely through the Sefirot Keter, Hochma and reaches the three upper Sefirot (“Gimel Rishonot”) contained in Bina. At this level there is eternal, unclouded perfection. Bina is also called paradise. Below the Gimel of Rishonot Bina there passes a narrow stream of light, which, having contracted many times, reaches the lower Sefira - Malchut. The lowest part of Malchut is our material world. As it rises, a person’s soul can reach Gimel Rishonot Bina, but it will be possible to go beyond this level only after the “final correction” of the world (gmar tikun). On the festival of Sukkot, which lasts seven days, each day corresponds to one of the “shepherds”, corresponding to the seven lower sephirot. The Tree of Life has a mystical shadow of the Qlipot. Sometimes they talk about the multiplicity of the Trees of Life, which are individualized in hypostases (Hebrew פרצופים‎, partzufim) - “spiritual objects consisting of 10 sefirot”[8]. The first Partzufim was Adam.

Etymology of Sefirot According to one version, the name “sefirot” (Hebrew: סְפִירוֹת‎) comes from the word sefer (Hebrew: סֶפֶר‎, book). The version that sefirot (singular sefira) came from the Greek word “sphere” (Hebrew ספירה‎) was not confirmed and no etymological connection was found between the words.

10 Sephiroth Each Sephiroth has its own name and meaning: The top three Sephiroth are called “Sephiroth of Reason” (ספירות השכל)

Keter (כתר) - crown, crown
Chokmah (חוכמה) - wisdom
Bina (בינה) - understanding

The seven lower Sefirot are called “Sefirot of the senses” (ספירות הרגש)

Chesed (חסד) - mercy, mercy.
Gevura (גבורה) - valor, heroism, power.
Tiphareth (תפארת) - beauty.
Netzach (נצח)—eternity.
Hod (הוד) - glory, greatness.
Yesod (יסוד) - foundation.
Malchut (מלכות) is the realm of the physical.

The process of creation According to the teachings of Kabbalah, the Creator created the world by pronouncing the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This process was first described in the most ancient Kabbalistic work, the Sepher Yetzirah (Book of Creation), attributed to Abraham. According to Kabbalistic teachings, Man and woman were created as a vessel, the creator wanted to fill it with light. Together with the light, the vessel adopted the Creator’s ability to fill, but since the vessel could not do this, it rejected the Creator’s light. Then the 10 Sephiroth were created to hide the perfection of the creator. The six lower Gevurah, Hesed, Tiphareth, Hod, Netzach, Yesod created the physical world, in which we can only receive the reflected light of the Creator.

I believe that the combination of seemingly incompatible things is a very thoughtful and reasonable step by the creators. In fact, mysticism is a component of the life of the performance society, because those who know how to use symbols achieve their goals. There are a lot of talking symbols in anime, they are everywhere, everywhere - entangling and preventing the passage of such extra-systemic elements as Ril and Vincent, with whom even “God” cannot do anything.

Plot

The plot component of Ergo Proxy can be easily divided into four parts, differing in dynamics and intensity:

1). The beginning. Episodes 1-7. The viewer is brought up to date, told about the world and gradually expands its boundaries. One of the many interesting storytelling techniques used in Ergo Proxy is that the characters experience the world in parallel with the viewer. The viewer and the characters are in absolutely equal conditions.

2). Development of action, slow part. Episodes 8-14. After a rather vigorous start, the series turns into a drag. The series consists almost entirely of philosophical discussions, dialogues, flashbacks, and other unnecessary details. The number of truly important events can be counted on one hand. Episode eleven is the epitome of everything that's worst about the series: twenty minutes of brooding with no benefit to the plot or character development. The most boring part of the series.

3). Development of action, fast part. Episodes 15-20. This is where the variety of styles and originality come into play, which largely compensate for the lack of dynamics. Almost every episode here carries a certain meaning and stands out in one way or another. For example, episodes about a quiz show or an amusement park turned out great. Even seemingly boring episodes like the sixteenth about calm allow the characters to be revealed from new angles. The best part of the series.

4). Denouement. Episodes 21-23. Three episodes during which the idea of the Ergo Proxy universe changes upside down. The viewer is bombarded with such a flow of information that it will be very difficult to perceive it the first time.

As you can see, there are good and bad periods in anime. Earlier in the review, when describing the characters, I repeatedly mentioned their development. Yes, it really does happen. However, the problem is that the characters change dramatically , literally within two or three episodes. This applies to Ryl, and Vincent, and Daedalus, and many, many others. And a logical question arises: was there any point in stretching the anime over twenty-three episodes if absolutely nothing happens in many of them? In my opinion, twenty-three episodes is too much. I would remove some series as unnecessary, or shorten them several times. The anime turned out to be unreasonably drawn out, and, as a result, at times it looks too heavy. And the point here is not the difficulty of perceiving the meaning inherent in it, but the fact that the episodes turned out to be simply boring. Who would be interested in watching a conversation between two entities in the hero’s head for twenty minutes, and filled with flashbacks at that?

For those who looked at Ergo Proxy, but still did not understand what was happening, I will provide a brief explanation. If you haven't watched the anime yet, then you'd better skip the next paragraph so you can figure it out on your own. This is really interesting.

Ending explanations

So, in fact, a long time ago, humanity brought the planet to a state in which it became impossible to live on it. That's why people left the Earth in spaceships. However, they did not finally put an end to the planet. Two plans were developed to save the Earth. The first was to create dome cities in which “test” organisms would live, i.e. artificially created people waiting for the restoration of the planet. The second plan was to accelerate the cleansing of the Earth with the help of robots - auto-rave. Proxies—essentially immortal organisms developed by humans—were supposed to serve as overseers. However, people were not going to give the Earth to immortal creatures, and made sure that they died from exposure to sunlight. At the very end of the series, it is seen that as a result of the execution of the plan, the cloud around the planet disappears, the Proxies die under the influence of sunlight, and spaceships return to Earth. The proxies and artificial people have served their purpose, having fulfilled their purpose. But the end of history has not yet been set...

Among the strengths of Ergo Proxy, I would also like to note the unobtrusiveness of the information provided. If desired, the viewer may not pay attention to philosophy or various cultural references at all. The writers of Ergo Proxy made full use of the golden principle: “Show, don’t tell . They show the viewer everything, but practically nothing is served on a silver platter. Yes, such an approach may seem stupid to some, but to me, as a viewer who likes to think when watching anime, it seemed more than justified. Not all information in this world should be easily obtained. Besides, it’s so nice sometimes to figure everything out on your own.

Anime review: Ergo Proxy / Ergo Proxy

Episodes: 23
Genres : Detective, Psychological, Science Fiction
release date: 2006
Studio : Manglobe

What is this anime about?

Let's take a leap into the distant future. Very distant future. 1000 years ago, a disaster forced humanity to live in domed cities, which are depicted as mini-utopias. Romdo is one such town where our main character Ril Mayer lives with her auto-rave companion Iggy. They work together in an intelligence bureau and are assigned a strange case. Two auto raves have recently been infected with a virus that is driving them crazy. To protect the utopian harmony of Romdo, Reel and Iggy need to find out where the Cogito virus comes from and stop it as soon as possible.

However, one day Ryl is attacked by a strange creature known as a proxy. Simultaneously with these incidents, an immigrant named Vincent Low appears in the city. He doesn't really stand out, but he always seems to be connected to incidents as they happen. After an incident that forces Reel and Vincent outside the dome, Reel teams up with Vincent to travel to another city called Mosk to help Vincent remember who he is and figure out why the Proxies are destroying their perfect society.

See also: 10 Best Anime About Post-Apocalypse

Who might like anime?

Ergo Proxy is a fun anime. One of the best parts of it is the part where the viewer is forced to think. Latin is used when characters ask deep, personal questions. Often the viewer is left with more questions than answers, which makes you say, “One more episode!” The steampunk and futuristic elements seem too realistic as one can see how our societies will one day become like this series. There are many hidden gems and tidbits of information, usually in the form of symbols or metaphors that force the viewer to pay attention and think about their meaning. There are very serious, funny or sad moments, and the best way to think of them is to think of them as a flower blooming in a vacant lot. You'll be so focused on the show and what's going on that if you're too busy, you'll miss half-hidden incidents.

What is so attractive about this anime?

To be honest, I have watched this anime many times and every time I find something new. I want to point out that some people are stupidly quick to discredit anime as being pretentious or too difficult to understand. To that end, first of all, I say the show isn't pretentious, it's complex. This makes some people think it's pretentious, but Ergo Proxy just wants you to think. When it comes to complaining about difficulties, Google is your friend. Don't be too quick to dismiss something that isn't immediately perceived as too complicated or stupid. Challenge yourself to find out more. That's what this series asks you to do, and if you want to enjoy it, why not find out a little more? The cast of main characters is amazing too! This allows you to grow with them and become captivated by their stories. You will find yourself empathizing with some actions and people, while acutely doubting others. Don't forget about the steampunk elements! It is very interesting to see the clash of old and new technologies inside Romdo.

List of main characters

Reel Mayer

Voiced by:

Rie Saito

Serious and with a steely gaze, just like her signature blue eye makeup, Ril Mayer is a 19-year-old inspector working for the Intelligence Bureau. She is quite cold-blooded at first. She eventually begins to realize that she needs to be more open to understand others. Trying to understand the emergence of the Cogito virus and the reasons for its spread, her fate becomes intertwined with Vincent. Together they will search for answers as the answers seem to be closed to them.

Vincent Lowe

Voiced by:

Koji Yusa

Vincent immigrates to Romdo from Mosk and works for the government, finding infected car raves and getting rid of them. At first he seems like a rather rude, flat character who keeps to himself. Since he recently immigrated to Romdo, he is eager to become a “model citizen.” However, no matter how you look at it, something is constantly haunting him. As the story progresses, he begins to become more confident, and his fate is tied to that of Ryl.

Pino

Voiced by:

Akiko Yajima

Pino is the third main character of this series, and a very interesting one at that. Pino lives with her family and is also related to Vincent and Reel. She has become infected with the Cogito virus, but at the same time does not know about her status as an autorave. This causes her to act like a child, but not go crazy like the virus should have made her. She loves Vincent and follows him everywhere.

Anime review (contains spoilers!)

I think the series has fantastic re-watch value. At first, Ergo Proxy seems almost like a copy of every other post-apocalyptic anime. The world has been destroyed and people live happily in domed cities that are paradise. This is where the similarities end. Welcome to humanity's last paradise and chance. The society is actually a dystopia due to the totalitarian government. Although it does look like paradise, it is because the government has such a tight grip on the people. It could even be a satire of some modern governments.

Reel, the granddaughter of the regent overseeing the city, who for the most part has complete freedom to do what she wants with her autorave, Iggy. Sent to investigate a virus that affects only auto raves, she encounters proxies for the first time. Reel is stubborn, which I think is a good characteristic for a protagonist. She is a serious and purposeful person, but her stubbornness at the same time causes her a lot of trouble.

After being kicked out of the dome, it's interesting to see how the life she once seriously questioned suddenly becomes everything she wants to return to. Here we see Reel take a turn towards true humanity, questioning heaven, and the series really starts to capture the mysterious aspect. With more questions than answers, she sets off with Vincent and Pino to find out what happened to the world, the confidants, the domes, and Vincent's memories. Her fall from grace into reality happens quickly. Especially when the people living outside the dome are attacked by the Romdo government, which is fully aware that Ryl is among them. She suddenly turns her stubbornness into a steely determination to find answers. The only time she hesitates is when Iggy comes back for her, infected with the Cogito virus.

After encountering various proxies and learning more about why proxies exist and why Earth became like this, all evidence points to Romdo, which is why they return. Returning there, they learn that the city has begun to fall, and Raoul has almost gone crazy from the loss of his wife and child. He accuses all autorave and is on a mission to destroy them.

One of the craziest plot twists that still plays into the dystopian society's favor is the part where it is explained that humans don't actually reproduce naturally anymore. Instead, they are born in incubators, and all people are created only to fulfill a specific role. They are still connected to their human ancestors, but their connection is based on trusted individuals.

The next plot twist is Vincent's origins as a proxy and his reluctance to admit it for a while. Vincent is a clone of the first proxy. Vincent killed the Proxy Monad, causing Mosk to die. Dome cities cannot survive without their trustees, since they are the ones who created the city. So, when Vincent, as Ergo Proxy, killed the Proxy Monad, Mosk died with him. This is why Mosk is in ruins when Reel, Pino and Vincent arrive there.

I could easily go on and on about this series, but I guess I'll stop here. As I said at the beginning, Ergo Proxy is an amazing anime that is worth watching.

Similar

Panache

From the very first frames, the black and white color scheme with rare bright elements, maintained throughout the series, catches your eye. In the world of a post-apocalyptic future, there is no place for provocative colors and colors. This approach made it easy to focus on important details: for example, Ril Mayer’s eyes highlighted with blue shadows or Pino’s suit. In addition, this allowed me to save on drawing and spend the freed-up resources on more important things. One of the most outstanding features of Ergo Proxy is its clever use of 2D and 3D animation, which by 2006 standards can be called a significant achievement. Just look at the few battle scenes found in anime - their fluidity and staging will be the envy of many modern titles. In addition, anime also contains non-standard graphic styles and techniques. Among the weaknesses of the drawing are the background images, which very often represent only blurry walls or clouds.

Music

An important role in creating the atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic world is played by background music - gloomy, quiet and minimalistic. Combined with panache, they create a picture that inspires fear and respect. The background compositions were created by Yoshihiro Ike . There is not much music in the anime - about two hours, so most of the time the viewer listens to silence, which, however, does not interfere with the overall perception. Yes, in any other case, I would call the small number of memorable background compositions a disadvantage, but not in Ergo Proxy. On the contrary, such a simple technique made it possible to fully convey all the hopelessness awaiting humanity outside the polished walls of the dome. The opening of Kiri performed by MONORAL is incomparable: the longer you watch and listen to it, the more you like it. The visuals in it are impeccable. Paranoid Android , created in 1997 by the world famous band Radiohead , was used as the ending theme .

Ergo Proxy - 19

She may be paranoid, but not an android. However, which Pino is paranoid? Pino is a girl, real and alive. And she dreams not of electric sheep, but of an amusement park and fun adventures with friends!

And now this is another crazy episode, telling about how Pino hung out at proxy Disneyland, met a bunch of wonderful cartoons, and then persuaded Vincent not to touch this wonderful place and avoid the Dome.

Yes, they have already said it directly: the other half of Vincent
cannot help but kill
every proxy he meets (or they kill him, but try to resist the messenger of death and his rays from the eyes). In addition, the proxies somehow know that the world will end soon, but they want to at least live to see it. And they can be understood.

And Vincent is still sure that he is just visiting the cities to replenish supplies and that it just happens that way. Slowhead, sir. Luckily, he is willing to trust Pino and do what she asks without question. Because a Disneyland town would be no less a pity than a TV show town. Both there and there, people and robots lived, albeit strange, but still lives, and, it seems, they were happy with it.

People here are happy from birth to death. And when the end of the world comes, they will not know about it. And they will rejoice until the very end. (Will B. Good)

And the attempts to escape from the walking death of the owners of both cities were made more than worthy. One changed the rules of the game, forcing victory in a quiz instead of a battle; the other one intervened in Pino’s dream (yes, the girl sees real dreams, which is not at all surprising) and first tried to find out her friend’s weaknesses, and then simply asked to dissuade him from visiting the city. And... he became the first proxy to survive in this series. Bravo!

If you had Vince's treasure, I could give you anything. (Will B. Good)

...But Pino has heart, courage, and brains, so she doesn’t need anything from someone else’s uncle and she won’t tell where she lives and how far her parents are. The analogies to The Wizard of Oz were funny (yes, there are fake smiles in this city!), but I was interested in others that were much closer to the plot. Namely, the “girl’s smile”: the entire series emphasized how Pino differs from the city’s auto raves, working as cartoon characters. And at the same time, from auto raves in general... and from proxies, who, like those cartoons from used up attractions, are thrown into the trash as soon as people no longer need the protection of the “gods” and become a hindrance.

Al and Poole dream about how good it would be to be visitors who are just having fun, and not playing a role in a play they didn’t write.
And they talk about the meaning of their lives (this is generally the favorite pastime of most of the characters in Ergo Proxy). This is probably one of the main ideas of the series: people - and only people - are able to choose their raison d'etre themselves. But not everyone wants to: in Romdo, for example, they are ready to do anything just to live under “God” the usual planned life, in which nothing needs to be changed. “It’s nicer to sleep, it’s nicer to be a stone. Oh, in this age - criminal and shameful - Not living, not feeling is an enviable lot... Please: be silent - don’t you dare wake me up.”
“Awakening” is, first of all, an opportunity to leave the cities for a renewed world and live the way you want ( or as it turns out), but not in the way the proxy of your city came up with (and they, the proxies, are noble perverts: Romdo is lucky, but try to live in an ongoing attraction where you are entertained without interruption... it’s a nightmare, if you think about it) . Everyone in the series seems to be shouting: “People, you’re too greedy, you have a way of choosing life, so choose, damn it, and be happy! What are you doing?! Why do you voluntarily live like robots, if even robots, having received freedom, try to find their way in life and become more humane than many of you?”

And Pinot is a perfect example. A sincere smile and sincere emotions distinguish her from the auto-rave cartoons (as everyone she met at the amusement park noticed). Pino is undoubtedly a person (and was able to infect her drawn friends with humanity). But the smile of the proxy animator remained false, like his kingdom. This is another running theme: Rhyl seemed fake to Romdo, but all the other cities under the leadership of proxies look even less real. Apparently, it is not given to them, they are not gods, although they can perform miracles...

I got a soul when I met my friends Vince and Reel.
(Pino) It’s so strange: it was in a funny cartoon series that we were shown all the tragedy of the life of proxies, deprived of even the way out of a given scenario that robots “infected” with the soul have. Autoraves can become people, proxies can only die after humanity awakens. And they understand it.

Ratings

Characters – 10.0. It is very rare to see such clever use of characters and their gradual development.

Plot – 6.0. Deep, but very slow. At times there are completely useless episodes that make you want to sleep while watching them.

Drawing – 8.0. Very high quality for its time. The original color scheme especially stands out, allowing you to focus on important details. Weak backgrounds.

Music – 7.0. Great opening, great ending. The background music is atmospheric but monotonous. Sometimes you have to listen to silence.