Meditatio VIII - Shining Sign
It has been a long time since I've posted. I could explain the reason of the hiatus, but I'd rather not seeing that all over the Internet blogs on vacations have been published. I'd like to be unique: I'll be talking about shows I've been watching or have planned to watch. Right now, however, I'd like to chat about Ergo Proxy.
After Rozen Maiden ~ Traumend there have been only little anime worth watching. One of those few is Ergo Proxy. As you may have known, I am a fanboy of that series. In its later episodes, however, the quality of the story has been fluctuating, and it has been fluctuating a lot.
Cliches have been introduced; deep below the complexities of the etymological archetypes of the characters and a thrilling plot lie some hard to swallow banalities. Among these banalities is the lack of any deeper meaning to the story. These may appear later, but the plot has been weaker than the established Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
For now, it has become a mystery anime; however, I personally like the subtleties and nuances in the series that make the seemingly nondescript backgrounds and seemingly non-living objects proffer important hints and clues to the characters in the anime, and to some extent their motivations as well.
But right now, to be honest, I am not watching Ergo Proxy for the sake of its incisive story. I am watching it because I am expecting a robotic/android Lir to appear in the next episode. I also am expecting, with all my fanboy heart, that beneath all this pastiche of events and relationships among people, Lir and Vincent will get to love one another.
(I've got terribly sappy over the years of watching anime. )
Anyway, I hope it will be a modification of the beautiful Tsukihime plot: maybe now, it will be a love story with science fiction elements. The beautiful first episode of this series, once full of tension, danger, and conflict, has cooled to the point of mediocrity. The intensity is no longer as strong as the first episode, but I still expect a good anime to be pulled off despite the glaring cliches.
After Rozen Maiden ~ Traumend there have been only little anime worth watching. One of those few is Ergo Proxy. As you may have known, I am a fanboy of that series. In its later episodes, however, the quality of the story has been fluctuating, and it has been fluctuating a lot.
Cliches have been introduced; deep below the complexities of the etymological archetypes of the characters and a thrilling plot lie some hard to swallow banalities. Among these banalities is the lack of any deeper meaning to the story. These may appear later, but the plot has been weaker than the established Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
For now, it has become a mystery anime; however, I personally like the subtleties and nuances in the series that make the seemingly nondescript backgrounds and seemingly non-living objects proffer important hints and clues to the characters in the anime, and to some extent their motivations as well.
But right now, to be honest, I am not watching Ergo Proxy for the sake of its incisive story. I am watching it because I am expecting a robotic/android Lir to appear in the next episode. I also am expecting, with all my fanboy heart, that beneath all this pastiche of events and relationships among people, Lir and Vincent will get to love one another.
(I've got terribly sappy over the years of watching anime. )
Anyway, I hope it will be a modification of the beautiful Tsukihime plot: maybe now, it will be a love story with science fiction elements. The beautiful first episode of this series, once full of tension, danger, and conflict, has cooled to the point of mediocrity. The intensity is no longer as strong as the first episode, but I still expect a good anime to be pulled off despite the glaring cliches.
One of these cliches seems to be a Pokemon-like (credits for the thought go to wao) invocation of the proxies as is made seemingly and glaringly obvious in its eighth episode.
It's somewhat like Vincent or Lir crying out: 'Proxyball! I choose you, Monad! (or Ergo)'
It's somewhat like Vincent or Lir crying out: 'Proxyball! I choose you, Monad! (or Ergo)'
It somehow downgrades the value of watching the anime, but don't get me wrong: this anime stands as among the best (so far) in the class of 2006. I just hope they can continue with coherence and cogency towards the end (which I hope would have something to do with Lir and Vincent ending up together.)
(Yeah, I know I'm boring in that I don't have screencaps. But I didn't aim for ostentation, however: I aimed to fuel a discussion.)
Any thoughts?
(Yeah, I know I'm boring in that I don't have screencaps. But I didn't aim for ostentation, however: I aimed to fuel a discussion.)
Any thoughts?
posted by Michael David @ 12:30 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Cliches have been introduced
eh? What cliches? Do you mean One of these cliches seems to be a Pokemon-like invocation of the proxies. ? That's just speculation.. How can you say that something a fan came up with is a cliche introduced to the series? O_o
Among these banalities is the lack of any deeper meaning to the story.
Again.. after 8 episodes.. how can you say the story lacks a deeper meaning? Seriously...That doesn't make any sense. Just because you don't see it's deeper meaning NOW (probably because the creators want to reveal it later..as they should..) it doesn't mean it isn't there... That's why series are made of more than one episode, you know... Things can (and should) be revealed slowly. You're supposed to watch the whole series in antecipation for that "deeper meaning". What would be the point of it being given in the beginning?
the plot has been weaker than the established Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
If Ergo Proxy was supposed to be like GITS:SAC, it was... well.. GITS:SAC. But it isn't. Just because the "main" (is it? who can be sure with 8 episodes?) theme appears to be VAGUELY similar it doesn't mean that Ergo Proxy HAS to approach things the same way. Main reason is: people have different points of view. Besides, what would be the point of making a similar anime? You can just re-watch GITS:SAC.
(Personaly I absolutely HATED GITS:SAC I couldn't go past episode 10ish.. it was downright BORING. But to each his own.. You'd probably want to argue that with 10 episodes I hadn't seen the "deeper meaning" of GITS:SAC, right? now please refer to the second point of my comment.)
But at least I agree with you on one thing. =P I also hope that it somehow turns to love story with heavy Sci-Fi tones. That would be nice too... =P
One last note: I don't like Sci-Fi series in general, but Ergo Proxy has been keeping me coming for more week after week, which is unusual. I guess it shows how different from the classic Sci-Fi anime it is... *shrug* But I admit that it's not all THAT great if you use other classic Sci-Fi animes to compare it with...
Aaaand I think that's all I had to say... In case you're wondering.. I was just passing by (I don't even have a blogger account..)
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