Ergo Proxy

Do you consider it deep or pretentious garbage? Is Pino the best child character in anime?

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It's an excellent anime. As usual people will get mad at the idea of anime having some kind of meaning at all and will write it off as "pretentious".

I am the first one to defend "pretentious" works but Ergo Proxy is one of the few where even I noticed its facade.
It tries its hardest to imitate other previous series that are considered "deep" without actually knowing why they are that way.
It's surface-level, wannabe philosophy without any substance. I kept watching because I thought there would be a payoff but it was after the final episode that I finally understood what people mean when they label an anime/manga/game pretentious.

>pretentious garbage
this

I found this series at its strongest when it wasn't trying to be a philosophy 101 course, cause it is pretty good at telling it's story, building the world and developing its characters, the quiz contest is easily one of the most genius ways i've seen of delivering exposition in an anime, and the episode were Pino, Re-l and Vincent are stranded is God tier.

But having autoreivs being called as philosophers was just ridiculous, same with the half episode monologues explaining basic philosophical shit, instead of showing it

It's barely entry level philosophy sure but it gets its point across. The substance is in exploring the drama of an intelligent being facing its creator.

EP is the textbook definition of pretentious.

>Is Pino the best child character in anime?
No. What the fuck?

Pino is annoying, but EP is good.

you're annoying

its pretentiously deep

Fpbp

The latter.

very shit anime

Look at those fucking character designs. It was a great show.

I loved how how Vincent's face slowly kept changing as he learnt what he was.

I dunno if I'd say pretentious, but it was just kind of boring. It had the aesthetics and atmosphere but the actual story/characters weren't that interesting.

Pretty good show. I wouldn't call it pretentious though some scenes would suggest otherwise.
My favourite episode was Anamnesis.

kino opening

About as deep as a mirror. I still loved it though. The episode early on when the kid gets gunned down by the drone and Pino is totally innocent about it had me feeling something funky.

>Anamnesis
I agree, the library sequence was fantastic. The most most memorable part together with the quiz episode for sure.

The episode when they are stranded with no wind is my favorite singular episode of anything.

COME AND SAVEEEEEEEE MEEEEEEEEEEEEE

SAVE ME UP
SAVE ME UP INSIDE

Phenomenal execution and presentation of a lackluster and pretentious story with one note characters who spout the philosophy of the writers. Still enjoyable and short though.

Kino opening too.

This show wasn't written well for what it was trying to do. The Proxy that looked like Rei was just tossed in at random and without purpose. Everything unrelated to the ending sequence was alright, the only good thing was Raul's tear it all down moment.

>I found this series at its strongest when it wasn't trying to be a philosophy 101 course
This. I already found the initial premise, and the unravelling mystery as to what the true purpose of the domes and proxies was, very interesting by itself. It didn't need to have some pseudo-deep philosphical crap slapped on. Despite that, i still loved it. Better to have a bit of shit smeared over a diamond than to have a solid shit

God pino is so cute. It doesn't help that my paternal instincts have started to kick in this past year. I want to snuggle her so bad

The ED is fucking glorious. I love Ok Computer and I wish more quote unquote pretentious philosophical anime used Radiohead music for their EDs.
It wouldn't hurt to see Evangelion use a song or two from Kid A or The Bends for an ED.

It's not pretentious; it's just so rushed that the themes it covers aren't given enough room to fully sink in, which makes the anime as a whole feel meaningless to some once it's over. Personally, every time I've watched Ergo Proxy, I forget almost everything that happened in it aside from some of the really effective episodes, like the autonomous village and the theme park. Even though I love the series once I finish it, I gradually forget why I loved it as time goes on.

In retrospect, it's extremely rough around the edges, and it came off as not really knowing what it wanted to be. That's what makes it so charming, I think.
It all feels so lost and foggy, like it's picking up the pieces to a greater philosophical idea but it doesn't quite know what to do with them, much like the average person would. That adds a great deal of humanity to it, which is why it attracts so many people, including myself. It's certainly something that wouldn't work for everyone, though.

To many, EP comes off as pretentious because it's just stumbling through these various ideas without fleshing most of them out. It leaves it up to the viewer to make what they will from what they're shown, which, at face value, makes the anime as a whole feel unfinished. But pretentious is a term that's scarcely applicable in art, because meaning is derived from the viewer and not the artist, and I don't feel as if Ergo Proxy is trying to have any definitive meaning. A more apt term for it would be "sloppy".
I'm not gonna argue whether or not Ergo Proxy well written, though I personally think the plot is a mess; I just think that what attracts people to this anime is a subtle, underlying quality in its structure, rather than some overt philosophical points or a particularly impactful plot, and that writing it off as pretentious is a misjudgment.

It sure is deep.

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I consider it average.

>Do you consider it deep or pretentious garbage?
Neither, but I still love it. You're correct about Pino though

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That episode was probably the best in the entire anime for me.
It was quite the interesting premise for me.