MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ERGO PROXY!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT LIKE SPOILERS!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!
For a non-spoilerish rundown on Ergo Proxy and it’s plot refer to Ergo Proxy Anime Review without Spoilers and
not this post.
Initial thoughts: As anyone who read my first post about Ergo Proxy
can tell I enjoyed this Anime a great deal.
I enjoyed it so much in fact that I came up with this post as I was
watching it and was amazed at everything it made me think about. In order to
better organize my thoughts about
this Anime I decided it would be better to let the less recognized inhabitant
of this world take the spotlight this time around. So here is my take on Ergo Proxy through the eyes
of the AutoReiv who shared the stage with the Anime’s human cast for only half
of the series. That’s right, if for some reason you haven't figured it out by now this post
is completely dedicated to the most devoted Entourage of them all, Iggy.
Iggy
The AutoReiv known as Iggy was by far my favorite
character in this Anime series which is why this post is devoted entirely to
him. This character’s struggle with
himself is a lot like a person’s internal struggle with trying to understand
who they are in the world. Once Iggy became
self-aware, due to his ‘infection’ by the Cogito virus, he struggled as an
intelligent being to be accepted but was never given that acceptance. He also struggled with the fact that he was
an individual but was given an overriding directive that went against that very
notion of self. He cared for Re-l as a
person but hated her as well. He could
not come to terms with the fact that she became more and more interested in
Vincent even though he was just as much a living being as he was.
No matter how hard he tried she would not accept
him and even though he grew bitter he could not stop caring for her as her protector. This contradiction is ultimately what led to
his madness. People struggle with this
same contradiction everyday as well by seeking to be individuals who want
freedom and respect and yet sacrificing a portion of these things in order to
live and be accepted in society. Why do
people live in societies in the first place?
Is it not for security, shared resources, and companionship? Where do we as individuals in a society
strike a balance between the two? When
is there too much individualism? When is
there too much order and stability? What
happens when all of these questions come to you all at once and you can no
longer understand your own maddening thoughts?
In Iggy’s case he suffered from a severe mental
breakdown as his personality split between two competing emotions that he could
no longer control and resulted in him kidnapping Re-l in order to “protect”
her. Despite this however he still at
the very end sacrificed himself to save her from certain death. This selfless act showed that even with his
raging mind he still valued Re-l’s well-being more than his own and made her
realize that Iggy loved her not as an AutoReiv to a human, but as a person to a
person. Ultimately Iggy was a tragic
figure in this tale who inevitably decided that the person he loved was more
important than his own individual desire to survive and belong. This capacity of Iggy’s to place the life of
another over his own even with the confusion raging within his mind only helped
to raise one final question. Did Iggy
suffer from madness or was he simply the sanest person in an insane world where
everyone around him could only care about themselves instead of others?
Final thoughts: Ergo Proxy had so much depth to it that it is impossible for
someone like me to adequately explain in just one post. Even with this post I have only literally
scratched the surface of what this Anime has to offer and there is so much more
that remains unsaid. Sense of self,
society versus individualism, bliss in ignorance, these are the things that
Ergo Proxy made me think about and so much more. I would gladly recommend this anime to anyone
who is looking for a deep and moving story that will be well worth their time
and will leave them thinking about things they probably never thought about
before.
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