Ergo Proxy Ep3: Mazecity & Ep4: Futu-Risk

Since seeing Pacific Rim (2013) in July, I've turned a good deal of my spare time to kaiju and anime. It has certainly infiltrated my infrequent posting and it's been fun to get back to it.  I suspect that pattern will continue in the run up to Christmas.  Can you believe it's almost Christmas? It seems like yesterday I just saw Pacific Rim. Can we enjoy Thanksgiving first?

We continue with the story of Ergo Proxy (2006).  To catch up, here is the summary from the actual DVD of the first volume of four episodes.




MALICE IMPLANTED BY THE CREATOR. The domed city of Romdo is an impenetrable would-be utopia where humans and robots coexist, and everything  is under complete government control, or so it appears.  While working on a mysterious murder case, Re-l Mayer, a female detective from the Intelligence Bureau, receives a foreboding message that something is going to "awaken. That night, she's attacked by a deformed super-being... what was this unidentified monster that attacked her, and who was the figure that cae in between them? As Re-l attempts to unlock this spiraling mystery, a metaphysical battle cry leads her to the unknown outside world...

... outside of Romdo.




It's been some time since I wrote about Episode 1, Awakening (Pulse Of Awakening) and Episode 2, Confession (Confession Of A Fellow Citizen).  The aforementioned first two excellent episodes lay the groundwork for a series that is clearly intended to be a modern, neo-noir mystery filled with a labyrinthine maze of questions spearheaded by the goth-like chick Re-l Mayer.



Often times older anime fans are hard-pressed to get too excited about the more youthful, teen-driven animes featuring big-eyed babes with big breasts.  And let's face it, there's more than enough of those titles available. In other words, for folks like me, there's plenty to pass on. It's easy to get behind a more mature and complex tale like Ergo Proxy. It's also easy to root for someone in anime as completely hot as Re-l Mayer and not feel bad about it.  Her smoking hot factor ranks up there with Misato Katsuragi of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Princess The Swan from Battle Of The Planets. So Re-l Mayer is indeed a hot anime chick for the older set.



My natural predisposition for science fiction falls squarely in the zone of Ergo Proxy. Ergo Proxy's first volume establishes an interesting plot and its weave of intriguing characters will certainly satiate those adult fans looking for more engaging story complexity.



Thematically, Ergo Proxy firmly lands itself in dystopian realms of science fiction with a touch of horror.  Films that come to mind that share similar alternative appeals include Oblivion (2013), Elysium (2013), Never Let Me Go (2010), Artificial Intelligence (2001) and Minority Report (2002) just to name a few. If you have a predilection for these kinds of worlds than Ergo Proxy is sure to fall comfortably within your wheelhouse of taste or niche of film preferences.





Writer Dai Sato always places great emphasis on story and suffuses his work with doses of the existential and, as the DVD notes suggest, metaphysical concepts. This approach and aspect of his work clearly resonates in Cowboy Bebop, Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex and now here in Ergo Proxy. Dai Sato is clearly establishing a welcomed pattern of depth.  Ergo Proxy, through its complex cast of characters, certainly begs the question of existence, self-worth and identity.




With Ergo Proxy, Episode 3, Mazecity (Leap Into The Void) and Episode 4, Futu-Risk (Signs Of Future, Hades Of Future), Sato and the creative team continue to world build upon the place that is Romdo and the vast beyond outside the city walls.  Along with the previously noted themes, characters are constantly attempting to break down the distinction between truth and lies.  Intelligence Bureau Inspector Re-l Mayer, Russian immigrant and AutoReiv Control Division agent Vincent Law, and even young infected AutoReiv companion Pino, become the focal point of the third and fourth installments of the yarn.  Antagonist Mayer clearly questions those in power within Romdo, a perceived utopia, a place that is not quite what it seems.  As she drives to uncover the truth, the mystery pulls us in along with her.  Echoes of Blade Runner (1982) also penetrate the series in characters like Mayer, Law and even replicant-like AutoReiv Pino.

Some nifty AutoReiv Control Division weaponry.



Sato himself offered his own analysis:

"... Set in the future. A group of robots become infected with something called the Kojiro [sic] virus, and become aware of their own existence. So these robots, which had been tools of humans, decide to go on an adventure to search for themselves. They have to decide whether the virus that infected them created their identity, or whether they gained their identity through their travels. This question is meant to represent our own debate over whether we become who we are because of our environment, or because of things that are inherent in us. The robots are all named after philosophers: Derrida and Lacan and Husserl."

Sato genuinely pokes and prods our own contemplation over such age old themes of nature versus nurture throughout Ergo Proxy. It's Philosophy 101 all over, but presented within the context and framework of an inventive, exciting science fiction drama that happens to be a terrific anime.



These latest installments highlighting a world immersed in technology got me to thinking about an essay published in Robot Ghosts And Wired Dreams by Susan J. Napier called When The Machines Stop. In the piece Napier really illuminates a cultural aspect of Japan that certainly bears fruit in Ergo Proxy. Like any art, the influence of politics, economics, culture and climate really influences our state of mind when creating.  Napier sheds some light (not specifically) on why Dai Sato's Ergo Proxy might be the dark, visionary animal that it is.

"Japan endured over ten years of recession starting in the nineties, and it has left a deep mark on contemporary attitudes toward both technology and the future."

Manglobe can draw some eyeballs.









Ergo Proxy is a by-product of that influence. So this aspect, combined with a distrust of government officials and hidden deceits and corruption couldn't be a more timely cautionary tale to our own American woes. 

Without a doubt, the legacy of science fiction certainly plays a role, but the impact of of the aforementioned societal elements certainly can't be discounted or under appreciated.



"Although the country continues to produce important technological advances, the dominant attitude toward technology displayed in both its mass-cultural and high-cultural works seems to be ambivalent at best. This is in significant contrast to Western culture, which, ..., still contains strong elements of techno-celebration...."



This pervasive mood of a nation (Japan) is indeed reflected in Ergo Proxy as much as the atom bomb, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and World War II influenced the science fiction fantasy films of Toho, Ishiro Honda and anime of the 1960s and 1970s.  The affect of our surroundings leaves its indelible mark.  That imprint is undeniable and when artists actually allow the influence of culture into their work, they can often generate something special and something worth talking about.  Whether Ergo Proxy finishes as strong as it begins will be revealed in time.




Outside of the recession, Napier points to the 1995 Aum Shinrikyo incident. The sarin gas attack by a cult on the Tokyo subway as an influence of the problematic nature of the Japanese toward technology. She argues the "shadow" of that incident "still looms" wide casting a kind of societal "malaise." The incident speaks to the "complex" relationship the Japanese have with technology when coupled with a variety of traditional, spiritual or religious teachings. Look no furhter than Miyazaki's own advocacy to respect the traditions and natural treasures of Japan in his every feature. The Japanese see "the dangers of technology" and the "potential powers" it offers. This particular analysis certainly speaks to anime in particular in such resulting series as Serial Experiments Lain (1998), Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996)delving into both technology and spirituality, Ghost In The Shell (2002-2005) and here, Ergo Proxy.

There is indeed a graphic novel-like quality to some of the images found in Ergo Proxy.



Mazecity and Futu-Risk generate more questions than answers at this point, despite providing more information, but the pacing and the intrigue is generated in nice fits and starts.  The latest two installments are low on physical action of the kind fans of Hollywood have come to expect and for me, that's a good thing.  As a result it's a much more satisfying, cerebral and mesmerizing story that Ergo Proxy manages to takes us inside its science fiction maze and paint the potential risks of one potential future.  The fact some of its political and technological darkness has arrived already makes it all the more unnerving.



Mazecity (Leap Into The Void): B.
Futu-Risk (Signs Of Future, Hades Of Future): B.

Ergo Proxy Theme

So I've been relatively immersed in kaiju and anime since roughly July alternating between the two.  Yes, the arrival of Pacific Rim (2013) naturally sent me reeling off in that direction.  Since then there's been no looking back.

 

 

 

Though I have made time for other avenues simply to take a break.  I recently viewed Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go (2010) and Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain (2006), both exceptional, on the recommendations of fellow readers/writers.  I'm pleased I took a chance on those two powerful sci-fi, human dramas.  They may require a bit of patience but these thoughtful films are both ever so rewarding.

 

On the anime front, I've been jumping into some old school anime, Gatchaman, but also checked out the next two entries in Ergo Proxy (2006) featuring the goth sexy Re-l Mayer.

 

One of my only complaints with the new anime productions is the same complaint I sometimes have for today's live action science fiction.  It's computers.  The CGI effects in today's cinema is sometimes underwhelming.  It's just too damn perfect and polished for its own good and simply can't compare to the gritty practical effects of yesterday.

 

The same goes for the world of anime.  While it's certainly more economical and computers do wonderful things for the visionary, the look of the production is often too clean, sharp and sterile.  This complaint is minor and comes from an old school fan of the hand drawn variety.  It's simply hard to let go of some those deep, dark line drawings that graced everything from Gatchaman to Neon Genesis Evangelion and in between.  That warmth of artistry is absent, but that's the sad reality of today's 2D digital cel animation and 3D computer animation and modelling.  Nevertheless, I embrace both and I'm more than happy to give new and old a chance.  Ergo Proxy is one of those new ones that lured me into its fold.

 

The opening theme song from the series is called Kiri by Japanese alternative rock band Monoral.  I have to admit - I dig it.  Also, Ergo Proxy actually employs Radiohead's Paranoid Android appropriately enough for the closing theme.

 

Enjoy this opening theme to the solid science fiction yarn that is Ergo Proxy.  Also worth noting is the editing and effects used in the making of the opening theme.  Aesthetically it is impressive and does complement the anime quite nicely.

 

The Sci-Fi Fanatic BIG 10: Greatest Science Fiction Films Of The 1970s

John Kenneth Muir is running one of his week long, popular Reader's Poll Lists at John Kenneth Muir's Reflections On Cult Movies And Classic TV.

 

Who doesn't love a good list?  I know I'm an addict.  He generously offers readers to contribute.  He posted a list from yours truly here. Be sure to check out the rest.  Here's an amped up version of that same post.

The subject is the Greatest Science Fiction Films Of The 1970s.  So I offer you Musings Of A Sci-Fi Fanatic's BIG 10: Greatest Science Fiction Films Of The 1970s.

Let's begin by admitting straight away that the 1970s was so much more than the disco era.  It was indeed a fertile period for science fiction film and television. There was simply no shortage of wonderfully rich and imaginative material.



So, clearly no pretensions here.  I'm not venturing into high art, though I think it is, but rather insanely incredible, fun art of the classic science fiction variety and no less sincere.



10. Godzilla Vs. Hedora (or more famously Godzilla Vs. The Smog Monster) (1971).
Director: Yoshimitsu Banno.
The only film to be directed by Banno on a Godzilla feature that doesn't spotlight directorial mainstays Ishiro Honda or apprentice Jun Fukuda from the Showa period of films.  Underrated and brilliant good fun with a significant ecological message.





9. Space Amoeba (also famously known as Yog, Monster From Space) (1970).
Director: Ishiro Honda.
Honda steps away from his baby, Godzilla, and comes up with a good, old-fashioned Toho, fantasy monster romp that manages to predate Sigmund And The Sea Monsters (1973-1975).  The famous Akira Kubo (Matango, Invasion Of Astro-Monster, Kill!, Gorath) and Kenji Sahara (Rodan, The Mysterians, Matango) are in the cast and it's an absolute blast.  Played often in heavy rotation on Saturday Creature Double Feature out of Boston, MA in the 1970s.  The 1960s and 1970s were a rich period for Toho and these two aforementioned pictures are proof of that.







8. Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971).
Director: Don Taylor.
A film centered on two of my favorite characters from the franchise.  The late, great Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter shine.  With Ricardo Montalban thrown in for good measure, honestly, you can't go wrong with this exceptional installment in the series.



7. Terror Of Mechagodzilla (1975).
Director: Ishiro Honda.
The final installment for the Godzilla Showa period sees the return of Honda on directing chores for his final outing of the Big G.  Akihiko Hirata also appears.  Hirata and Honda collaborated on the classic Gojira (1954). So you know I'm not completely in the tank for Toho and Godzilla pictures there several conspicuously absent from my list simply because they are fun if not classic.  Godzilla Vs. Megalon (1973), Godzilla Vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), and Godzilla Vs. Gigan (1972) all miss the cut.  I've even omitted Gamera Vs. Zigra (1971) and Gamera Vs. Jiger (1970) from Daiei Studios.



6. The Omega Man (1971).
Director: Boris Sagal.
The father of Sons Of Anarchy's Katey Sagal directs one of those classic dystopian tales of apocalypse and implements the mood and decay of the 1970s era to great effect.  There's a terrific vibe of isolation throughout the picture based on Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (1954).  I still like it better than the Will Smith vehicle of the same name.





5. The Land That Time Forgot (1975).
Director: Kevin Connor.
A fantastic and fun adventure picture based on the terrific work of American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950).  The B-movie doesn't get more classic than this science fiction fantasy. Wonderful and the stuff of dreams.  At The Earth's Core (1976) and The People That Time Forgot (1977) are good, but not quite this good. I also positively adore Connor's Warlords Of Atlantis (1978) a picture cut very much from the same mold as The Land That Time Forgot. I wish I had room for the latte ron this list.





4. The Island Of Dr. Moreau (1977).
Director: Don Taylor.
Taylor makes my list twice.  This is just a terrifically entertaining picture starring Michael York (Logan's Run) and based on the 1896 novel by H.G. Wells.  It's a stunning morality tale and something remarkably different from other science fiction pictures of the period with plenty of lessons concerning the use of science to go around.  I'm also a fan of the under appreciated 1996 adaptation from the late John Frankenheimer.





3. Star Wars.
Director: George Lucas.
Much backyard play was had in those carefree days.  It's sci-fi fantasy perfection even if my son calls it "old man fighting." Nuff said!



2.  Alien (1979).
Director: Ridley Scott.
The start of a beautiful love affair with director Scott and the Alien franchise.  Like David Bowie sang, I was indeed Loving The Alien.



1. Space Battleship Yamato (1977). Director: Toshio Masuda.  Space Battleship Yamato, the series, and Tatsunoko's Gatchaman (Battle Of The Planets) were influential on my love of all things anime.  Not only was Starblazers (the American version of Space Battleship Yamato) terrific, but this film was a standout highlight in retrospect putting it all together.  Masuda and Leiji Matsumoto's Farewell To Space Battleship Yamato: In The Name Of Love (1978) is another winner along with the final third in the trilogy, Be Forever Yamato (1979).  The original picture actually outsold Star Wars in Japan.  I'm just saying.  Starblazers (1979-1984), Battle Of The Planets (1978-1985) and Force Five (1979-1989) were indeed the gateway anime drugs into that world until Ghost In The Shell (1995) came along.



In truth I didn't really have a specific order.  These were films I simply loved and actually just ran out of room.  What a decade!  But I wish I had room for others including Logan's Run (1976), Jack Smight's Damnation Alley (1977), Jun Fukuda and Toho's fun The War In Space (1977), The Last Dinosaur (1977), Kinji Fukasaku's Message In Space (1978), The Spy Who Loved Me (sort of sci-fi) (1977), Moonraker (1979), Mad Max (1979), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and The Black Hole (1979) - all pictures I just love.  Heck I even loved those Witch Mountain films. What an era!



My pictures may not be classic in the purest artistic sense, but for me these were ten of the most powerful and influential films in my young life. Going against the grain here these were films I had such admiration for as a kid. They may not be perfect but they were classics to me and I gleefully stand by them.

The 1970s was a remarkably creative period in pop culture.