Ergo Proxy Eps. 11 & 12 Review

With episode eleven we get Existential As Fuck, as it were. After having something a spirit journey of his own Vincent finally accepts his inner-Proxy and is free to finally find the truth about himself (because obviously be a god-like being of destruction just ain't enough). The way this resemblances Evangelion's final two TV episodes is uncanny. The way Vincent addresses his internal fears and confusion by speaking to familar people mirrors Shinji's quest for personal understanding as Instrumentality occurs. Is this a good thing you ask? Personally I really enjoyed Eva's TV endings, and Ergo Proxy doesn't have a diminishing budget to worry about - if anything it seems to have enough to throw away on fairly rubbish CG sequences involving books - so things turn out rather well this time. And hot damn, we get a few answers along the way! But only in the traditional tit-for-tat Ergo Proxy way.

Of course, any likeness to Evangelion (especially those final two episodes) generally implies extremez0r pretension and you'd be correct in presuming such. Quote Rousseau and there's not much defense, really. Luckily Shinsen provide informative explanations at the end of their sub; combine that with Wikipedia and it should be enough to quell any WTFer incidents that may arise. But let's be honest: people who watch/enjoy Ergo Proxy are hardly the type to be dismayed by some pretense. I positively encourage it myself!

But yes, if ep. eleven was a kind of slow-burning recap/soul-searching episode then twelve gets down and dirty with a scrap or two. Real is reunited with Vince at the end of the previous episode and the two, along with Iggy and Pino, begin their trek to Moscow. The group has a stop-over in a curiously green, forest-like environment and over the camp fire Lil stubbornly refuses to believe that Vince is a Proxy. Vince explains that they're may be numerous others in the world (as a nice bit of foreshadowing for later in the episode) and Lil seems shocked. Having been equipped with Proxy-killing bullets by Daedulus before her exit from Romdeau, she is all the more ready to deal with any antsy Proxies. But obviously the prospect of there being more than initially expected - at least more than the two bullets she has - is quite worrying. The immergence of a new, ogre-like Proxy in the vicinity forces Lil use one of her bullets, but she doesn't hesitate to warn Vincent that she will use the final one of him, regardless of his love for her.

Lil gets a lot of characterisation this time around, but relating more to her brash ineptitude when socialising with others than the traditional internal variety we've had in the past. It could easily be more an issue of respect, or lack of it in this case, but Lil is certainly unapologetic when it comes to her Ice Queen persona. After Vincent's declaration of love Lil merely allows him to kiss her to avoid her assassination attempt being discovered. She sees it more as a form of leverage rather than anything romantic, and it's hard to tell if this is merely her way of dealing with things or a definite form of resentment after the trauma Vince-Proxy caused her after his 'attack' in episode one.

Of course Vincent is a more unified person these days rather than a victim of the whole id vs. ego setup he suffered before. But only unified to a certain degree, we discover this episode. After his battle with ogre-Proxy, Lil confronts him with her gun and Ergo Proxy mocks, approaching her threateningly. Vincent seems to take over at this point and suppresses Ergo, suggesting a continuing kind of duel personality even after Vince's embracement of Proxy in the previous episode. This raises a number of questions regarding how Proxies exist within people: are they a kind of symbiotic being that coincides with their host, or is it simply Vincent grasping at the semblance of humanity he never really had? The latter raises more questions over where Vince got this humanity in the first place, and these two episodes document a fair bit of his developing back-story.  Still, Ergo Proxy is keeping the larger questions ambiguous and for understandable (he smirks ironically) reasons.

Production values with these two episodes were fine. As I mentioned before, episode eleven had some fairly awkward and unnecessary CG but it wasn't awful. I'm watching Ghost in the Shell: SAC, 2nd Gig on UK DVD at the moment and it continues to put to shame much of Ergo Proxy's CG work. But Ergo Proxy really shines with its background work and overarching level of design. Some characters can be gauche and inconsistent, but again it stands above most TV anime in terms of production quality.

Other things I noticed about this episode but would take too long to analyse: the suggestion of Iggy being infected with the Cogito; Iggy being sent back to Romodeau; the parallels between ogre-Proxy and his autorave companion and Vince & Pino; how awesome Lil looks with her hair down; the worry of a Proxy-a-week situation occurring in the second half of the series. And the endless, endless questions this show whips up in my mind. It's almost frustrating to keep track of them, let alone write them down effectively!

Conclusion
Both these episodes were useful for contrasting reasons.  With eleven we get existential and with twelve, we (unlike Vince) get some action. Pino and Iggy also get some charming screen time (Pino vs. Lil was especially fun to watch, with Pino winning obvs) and Vince and Lil begin their complicated relationship. The suggestion of Moscow holding lots of answers to our massive stock of questions is an intriguing prospect, too. I'm glad Ergo Proxy is keeping up the quality, at least in plotting and characterization. I won't deny the worry of it turning into a monster-a-week show lingers in my mind with all these different Proxies existing, but I still have bucketloads of faith in the show.

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Director: Shukou Murase
Production: Geneon Entertainment, Inc.
Fansubs by Shinsen Subs