Pino is hanging out with afro’ed artist Timothy, and we get some more images of rabbits. Everyone at the Commune is antsy about the Techibi, and they blame Vincent. However, Hude steps in with some crazy jumbo about Vincent being a revolutionary warrior. Hude then goes on to say he’s in contact with Romdeau to get everyone taken back in. The inhabitants of the Commune are easily manipulated, and rejoice at the news. Only Queen doubts Hude.
Surprisingly, someone does show up from Romdeau at the Commune. It’s actually Real, trying to get Vincent to come back. It seems Romdeau is seeking to “mop up” the commune, and Real wants to bring Vincent back. As the Techibi attack (even shooting poor Timothy), Vincent tries to fight back and ends up falling off a cliff. At that moment, the original Proxy appears, and Real can’t understand why the Proxy always shows up around Vincent. It’s eerily similar to how Spiderman always shows up when Peter Parker is in trouble!
This was another mysterious episode, and I just can’t get enough. That weird look that Vincent gets when he is all out of it (complete with yellow eyes) keeps hinting at Vincent being the Proxy, but I am not completely convinced. And what is wrong with Real? Is she actually sick? I had thought for sure that Hude was just a big fake and that Vincent had recovered all by himself. That crazy stuff Hude was making up about Proxy was hilarious. Based on Hude’s hints, I’ve already deduced who that original Proxy is.
I gotta say that Pino gets cooler and cooler every episode. It will be interesting to see what the heck the “400 Rabbits” aka Ancestor’s Tetetin is.
This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1970 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
Yellow? And I still say Pino is the friggin T-1000.
A longshot theory I’ve developed yesterday while watching this ep: probably, there’s some kind of infection – virus – disease – “plaga” in the lands outside Romdeau. Real has got the same “plaga” that Vincent had when he first arrived in the Commune. That’s why Real had this anti-bacteria suit, and whes she takes it off, we see Daedalus freaking out. So, at the end, maybe Real&Vincent aren’t androids, but human beings.
Haha, I think you might be right about the Proxy prediction. The raging fanboy in me compells it to be true! D;
well personally i think the proxy is not him but trys to protect him in a way… Otherwise HOW WOULD IT CHASE HIM IN THAT ONE SCENE!#!)@&!@&#*(&!@)# sry for caps but come on he did get chased by a proxy and in trouth from what has been told there could possibly only one proxy that changes…
ROFL- I’m still trying to recover from the ‘real identity of Proxy.’ Damn you! You almost made me spray Slurpee all over my board…*walks off still snickering*
I think Proxy is protecting Vincent because Vincent himself is the “spreader” of the Cogito virus. That’s why he’s got yellow eyes. And that’s why the other Proxy did not kill him on the spot when they were face-to-face (and probalby the reason why this proxy was chasing him).Of course it’s all , worthless, speculation, or, as Woody Allen called it more properly, “mental masturbation”.
You know… that actually makes a lot of sense…
I don’t think that Vincent being a “carrier” for Cognito is the reason that masked proxy is around him. In the first ep. he had contact with Pino, but she didn’t get cognito until ep. 2; also, the other one that went cognito never met Vincent as far as we know. While that isn’t iron-clad, it makes me think that it’s just the Proxy that spread Cognito, due to the only times we see them contract it is after being in close proximity to Proxy. Though its possible that Cognito has an incubation period, or anything else they want.
That being said, it’s obvious that the Proxy are tied to Vincent somehow; I think that this is some type of Jekyll and Hyde thing. Hude said that Proxy could change his face, and disappear at will (if Yoroshiku is right), and other stuff. So, maybe he’s hiding inside Vincent, only revealing himself when Vincent is in distress. Also, all masked proxy has done is see/assault Real, whom Vincent has a crush on, and fight lab proxy, and kill it after it hunts down Vincent. But, who knows, I’m probably wrong.
It’s green.
@Nidhogg
Maybe you’re right, and they are taking ideas somewhat from “BAOH” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baoh).If you have read the manga, the main character (when it transforms into BAOH mode) is ahem, VERY similar to Proxy, see for yourself:
http://www.animecubed.com/galleries/baoh/pics/ba003.jpg
That’s BAOH.
http://vmori.interfree.it/Proxy1.JPG
That’s one of the PROXYes (maybe Vincent HIMSELF, in “Proxy” mode???).
BAOH, was a symbiotic parasite inside the main character that made him transform. Maybe there’s this kind-of symbiotic parasite into Vincent and he himself transforms into the Proxy (and that’s why he was stalking Real, coming into her bathroom…and just touch her lips/cry…because Vincent maybe is in love with Real – as we see him saying “I am happy that I was able to hear your voice one last time” on his phone call to on Ep.3. That would also explain WHY there was his pendant in Real’s bathroom…and why the police is after him….and why he was found all in one piece while falling down from Romundo – he transformed)
That would also loosely explain his dream in the beginning of ep.3: it’s not a Vincent dream, but this “Proxy entity” past memories coming out (?).
We have also quite a hint supporting this theory in ep.5: when Vincent falls down from the cliff because of the Techibi fire, we see the Proxy … leaping out from the exact same spot ^_^
[Maybe there are 2 Proxy because it has split in two (one good side and one bad side), as we see in Madlax?]
It’s the “maybe” festival, I know, I believe if you watch this whole 5 eps slowly and carefully, you can extract many many small details, [and crack your skull in trying to fit them together].
-Wyk72- After reading what you said, I had to respond!! ^_^ Great Job! You really did your research! lol… Everyone so funny here… But one thing that I realised that some people are still confused about is the two Proxys… The skinny lab Escapee poxy and the larger, Vincent’s proxy.
In eps.1 Escapee proxy was trying kill Real in the Bathroom because she was investigating him. Vincent was hunting down a Cognito Autorave near Real’s apt having been tipped-off by Dorthy(the autorave). Probally, the Vincent Proxy spotted the Escapee Proxy and fought and ended up in Reals bathroom. Vincent Proxy seems to have some emotional ties to Real (maybe effected by Vincent’s crush on her. (i’m still not sure who wrote awakening?)
Anyhow, later on you discover the Escapee Proxy dead… So now only the Vincent Proxy is around.
Yeah.. what a great show… ^_^
->Wyk72:
You’re right, “BAOH” looks a lot like what I’m thinking, going by the stub in Wiki. Though, from the fact that after the fall when Masked Proxy ran off, Vincent was still in the lake we can assume that he doesn’t transform himself. So, either it has an invisibility trick, or is able to merge and seperate from Vincent. There are probably other options too, such as: it was hiding in a hole in the cliff (which we never got a good look at), etc.
On the flashbacks, the shadow figure does look a lot like Proxy; perhaps it has to do with when they first came into contact. I also think that it’s a memory of his prior home “Moscow,” which looks to have been messed up big time if those are escape pods flying away. Lil (Real) also called it “disgraceful” so there may be more going on in relation to that.
We’ve only seen the two proxy so far, the one from the lab (referred to as a cyborg in ep. 4); which I think was an attempt to immitate Masked Proxy (or another that they saw/found); and Masked Proxy, which is tied to Vincent somehow. It’s just too early for any of this to come to any use, at least part of what we’ve seen are probably red-herrings.
@Nidhogg
Yeah, it’s all really fragmented, vague and incomplete. I’ve recapped all eps (5) today, and I’m still confused. But I like the idea that the lab-proxy is an imitation of the Vince-proxy. Makes sense.
Take ep. 1.It’s called “awakening”. Now, in the first scene we have this “lab proxy” awakening. Then we have Vincent awakening (note the parallelism). We have a very short scene when he falls from his bike, and another character takes over – most probably – judging by his looks – the one we call “masked proxy” BUT he has no mask here. He’s holding Vincent’s pendant. Where did he get it? He’s just an entity that took Vincent’s body ?He’s the guy who is in the dream Vincent has in the train, so he’s from this “Moscow” (mosque? something else?) too and happens to have one for himself?
(skull cracking here)
A hint I’ve found reading the text into ep.2 , during Real haxxoring session: “The membrane surrounding Amrita cells is intensely activated when it nears.This may be the result of a megnetic field radiated by the proxy, an antibiotic reaction to an unknown body. This reaction allows us to identify a proxy.”
So maybe is this “field” that activates the Cogito virus?
(you see, all these autoraves become Cogito when they’re near this lab-proxy! The company-autorave in ep 1, then Pino…) There are Amrita cells fitted inside an Autorave? There seems to be some organic components into these androids, as we see Queen in ep.4 commenting on an autorave “central pivot”, saying that it can be the DNA transfer of a rabbit (that’s why Pino has this rabbit oufit?).
In Ep.1, looking at the biscuit-letters in Vincent’s milk we read “awakening” – took me a while to figure it out (scary, ne?).
And I’m still wondering WHO could have written “awakening” in Real’s mirror O_o…
It’s autoreiv, not autorave. Google for vierotua.
Yup, I screwed up the name, chiedo scusa.
I was just looking at wowow’s website for the show, and it seems that the Proxy that hangs around Vincent it called “Ergo Proxy” and the other lab-created one is “Monado Proxy” [e-ru-go and mo-na-do respectively]. The bios don’t seem to have anything new in them, just a lot of little kanji.
A little googling/wiki-ing says that monad comes from a greek word meaning “one,” “single,” “unique” (refer: ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monad); which is kinda interesting if the lab proxy (monad) is supposed to be a re-creation of another “wild” proxy, like Ergo.
Now I have to re-watch the shows to see how much I missed.
When you realize that Proxy is often used to mean “stand-in” or “replacement” then it makes sense that the Ergo Proxy would be some form of Jekyll-Hyde mechanism. As for Monado, there’s a lot of possibilties there for what that refers to, but given the name dropping done thus far, its most likely that it refers to Leibniz’s concept of Monads. Leibniz proposed Monads as an extension of the ideas put forth, in the same work in which he coined the phrase that’s part of this series’ namesake. It may very well be that the monad proxy is an artificial being, and the main question the show purports to answer is whether it’s sentient or not. (similarly, is Pino sentient?)
I see this interpretation of “proxy” as “replacement” is quite popular. But as far as my knowledge goes, is quite incorrect. The word itself is an anglo-american contraction of “proximus”, which simply means “next” or “near by”. It’s a famous word in IT because of these “proxy servers”, but also here the semantics simply mean “closer” – i.e. an http proxy server simply gives you your http data INSTEAD of the http server you’ve called with your URL, because it’s located nearer/on a faster link, or for security reasons. By stretching it somehow you can give the word a “replacement” meaning, but it seems a bit farfetched to me.
Regarding the “monad” term, Leibiniz, which was very very fond of italian renaissance (and this anime is full of references to it), took the word from the philosopher Giordano Bruno in his work “De Monade numero et figura”. I believe, the concepts expressed for this android are closer to Giordano Bruno than to Leibiniz – I prefer not to explain here why because the whole stuff will get too complicated and abstract, the risk of saying total bull*hit gets higher and higher ^_^.
On the meaning of “proxy,” according to m-w.com it comes from a middle-english word “procucie” that was originally from latin “procuratio” meaning something like “to procure” or “to obtain.” They also define it as someone who acts on another’s behalf (dictionary.com says the same thing); which makes sense as his name, as he seems to act on Vincent’s behalf.
I can’t comment on the philosophy behind the term “monad” because I don’t know anything about it. However, in re-watching what’s been shown so far I noticed a few interesting, if not too important, things.
Ep.1- When Vincent is fighting the infected autoreiv: he’s knocked into the air by the tank-type one, and you can see a silhoutte of long hair like Ergo has.
- They spell it “auto-rave” once, “auto-lave” once, otherwise “autoreiv.”
Ep.2- Vincent is from “Mosk”
Ep.3- In beginning on train: Vincent casts the shadow of Ergo, but we see someone resembling Ergo/the man from his dream leave the train (or at least his feet).
Ep.4- His eyes are listed as “Blue,” but look yellow-green.
- He lives alone, but has two of everything set out.
- A sheet that falls off his bed lists modern countries and their “infection rate,” probably of Cogito, with U.S. first.
Ep.5- We don’t see Vincent’s body during the time that Ergo is around, so maybe he transformed, then after he was done jumped back in the water, to keep his cover up?
And we know next to nothing about “Real.”
Do they mean “Moscow”? I seem to remember hearing something about Russia. Maybe I just made that up.
I also thought the pair of everything was odd, although I chalked it up to being Dorothy’s. Unless the Proxy always makes sure to brush his teeth separately or something.
I bet there is something strange about Real. Her connection to Daedalus hasn’t been fully explored, and that guy is shady.
@Nidhogg
I’ve always thought “proxy” was a shortening of the the word “proximity”, I see that maybe I got it all wrong. The word “procura” in italian, means “instead”, “in substitution of”, it’a term pertinent to legal affairs – when you’re physically absent, and send another person to act on your behalf, it’s called “per procura”. Makes a lot of sens, I believe.
Your points are very intresting!
Seems we passed an Ergo Proxy weekend ^_^ ….
->Kabitzin
I don’t know if it’s supposed to be Moscow, but they wrote “Mosk” (ep. 2, 2:36 into the episode). I don’t know the word for Russia in Japanese so I can’t say if I heard it anywhere, but it wasn’t subbed in.
Not only her connection to Daedalus, but there’s something between her and Vincent from before as well. She recognized him from the report in ep. 1, before they met at the office.
->Wyk72
Indeed, it seems relevant. I take it you are from Italy? I don’t know of other countries that speak Italian, so forgive me if I’m wrong. And, yeah, a very Ergo Proxy heavy weekend >_<
Yes…a very Ergo Proxy weekend-
Wow.. I just went back to ep1 and noticed the “awakening” in the cereal.. way cool!!!
After respectfully reading everyone’s comments, (I’ve certainly learn a lot in 10 minutes) Ergo Proxy sounds like he is the “next evolution in Proxy Amrita cells”– since the first Monad one didn’t cut it…
And the list saying Vincent’s attributes of blue eyes instead of green, I thought it was a typo.(maybe?)(someone making a mistake in production? it happens :p)
I was also wondering about Real, it seems like Vincent has met her before but she totally forgot him… Poor guy… But then Vincent is like an Autoreiv(rave) hunter and also an immigrant from another dome, so maybe connections to investigators isn’t uncommon? Remember Iggy trying to bust some immigrant in ep. 1 for his papers.
In any case, I also have some tibits if no one else has realised, it seems that each episode are written by one of many writers. And also that they are directed and animated by different people for different episodes. I find this very fasicnating, since it means that this is a totally group oriented original animation, each frame pain-stakingly drawn in Japan, (without the usual send it to korea to animate faster.)
But this also explains the story telling and the way each episode seem to have a different feel. Or maybe that’s me?
Well one thing’s for sure, Daedalus and Real is realllly close to each other… Sorry, got spoiled in episode 6. But that’s all the hint I’m giving you… lol
Can’t wait to read the next blog!! Cheers!! ^___^
speaking of crap animation from korea, has anyone seen the lastest episode of naruto ;P, i’ve invented a new term for it it’s call korapination.
Pino cute in this episode… wait for episode 6, I wanted to melt into a puddle and shqueeze her. YMMV.
You forgot to notice that in episode four, the same alphabet-cereal spells ‘misfit.’
Maybe this is because after his ‘awakening’ he has become a ‘misfit’ from Romdeau, and therefore needs to be eradicated, which Raul planned out in episode five.
I also honestly do not trust Daedalus. The people who stand by the law can become the government themselves.
Is that what it spells? I noticed they showed the pouring milk into cereal scene a number of times, but I was too lazy to go back and figure out what was being spelled. As for Daedalus, I don’t trust him at all, and I think he’s just using Real.
It took me some time to figure things out, but when the letters sank and once again started floating I was able to spell misfit … this is an anime you really just can’t watch on TV. (You have to download it to be able to dissect it properly.) It’s like a Faulkner or Joyce novel – the subtle nuances of characters portray the characters well. So what you once thought of as incomplete, was really just a complex jigsaw-puzzle after all.
All the answers are there … but you have to fix everything first. Amazing. This is just like the great books I’ve read. Some part of it is Orwellian, some part Faulknerian, but it totally kicks ass …
Some research I’ve also done:
Lir, in Celtic mythology, is the god of the sea. So from the different spellings that abound, I still should like to stay with Lir. The characters are archetyped by their respective etymological representatives. Daedalus is a doctor (inventor) who has taken part of the creation of Proxy.
But I have to go for now … again, this anime pwnz0rz … seriously.
oooo, cool all the replies are good things to ponder on XD, and i wonder if anyone noticed that right before the auto-raves get the Cognito virus they kneel there and pray?
as for the connections, remember in ep. 1, when Real asks Iggy what Vincent’s name is, she mentions she vaguely remembered meeting him at an interview. So i took that to mean they had met when he was interviewed for his current job and/or being allowed to work in Romdeau as a citizen (side note, kinda sounds a lot like our US worries with immigration >.>;;;;;). I’d wager Vincent met her during his ‘security’ interviews to live in Romdeau and got that old fashion love feeling of her.
misfit was the word…damn, i totally didn’t catch that one. I knew there had to be a word there too. lol. thanks
I love Pino – she’s the cutest little robot rabbit I’ve ever seen – and she’s so innocent too. It’s also amazing how intelligent she could be. What is Pino? What side is she on? What’s her relationship between with Lil or Vincent?
So the proxy that caught Real in the bathroom was the lab proxy, and not Vincent proxy? If so, I wonder what the connection between lab proxy and Real was? It didn’t kill her like it could have, so I doubt that it came for revenge. Dedalus’ person must have had an influence on it somehow.
As I’m writing this, of course, everyone else has already finished watching the series…
I wouldn’t think so…I’m writing this even later than you! lol
I think that was Vincent Proxy that caught Real in the bathroom, and Lab Proxy that suddenly burst in to fight him.
Gotcha all on that one! *lol* I’m probably the last person on earth give or take a couple of billion, to watch ergo proxy. Oh well, better late than never. On to ep 6.
iv seen all episodes. vincent is a human dumbass.