Ergo Proxy Vol. 4 and 5

The plot thickens...

Just how thick you ask? Well, lets say I give you a tub of treacle, ten pounds of custard powder and a vat of whipped cream. You mix it all together, and proceed to watch it pour from the bowl... very slowly. That is how thick it is. Thick is not a good thing here by the way.

Well, the plot is not actually that hard to grasp, it is just a little disjointed. With episode classics such as “Nightmare-30-minutes-to-get-1-million-points-or-you-die-gameshow” and “Smileland” to break up the otherwise continuous storyline as well as the always fun “Real sits on her arse and does bugger all for an entire episode adventure”, it does get a bit hard to follow at times.

Not that there is much to get. By now it is already evident that the Ergo Proxy is Vincent Law. The cogito virus which gives the autoraves souls is manmade and that the world was destroyed because of humanity’s mistakes. The specific details of which are explained during volume 4. So what is left? As you may recall, the reason for their journey was for Vincent to find out who he was, why he is a proxy, what happened to his memories and his “raison d’être”. This meaning of self now seems to be a reoccurring theme with the major characters in all of the various plot lines all having the same self-doubting thoughts. Thankfully, questions do get answered, character histories and motives are clarified, and the slow mystery of Ergo Proxy is slowly revealed... ... thank god for that!

Bitching aside, the series is beginning to wrap up nicely. The cold, heartless, bitchy exterior of Real is slowly beginning to fade. Vincent finally grew a set of non-proxy balls, and Pino is just a creepy little android. This headache-on-a-disc, this brain-ache-in-a-box is almost at an end. With just a few episodes left to go, I feel that I can begin to summarise what I have learnt thus far and how it equates to real life.

1: Humanity is a damn disease. Seriously. We majorly screw things up.

2 Never rely on anyone to keep you safe and warm. Hell, just look at how dependable the Proxies were.

3. Communism doesn’t work within a sealed environment.

4. Ergo Proxy is going to have one heck of an ending!

... and isn’t that the truth!