Things to Do in Romdo When You're Dead

Introduction

Seriously, if the P-T-B are going to insist on continuing to release anime in volumes, they're going to have to start sticking in some "previously on..." recaps on stuff other than FUNimation's Dragon Ball Z. It may only have been three months since the last volume, but when you're dealing with something as deliciously complex as Ergo Proxy, it may as well have been a year. I swear, I had all but lost the thread of what was going on in the series by the time the final disc, volume six, rolled around after its extended lay-off. Yeah, I could've made the time to re-watch the first five volumes (something I'm really going to have to make time for in the future), but, well, I didn't. So I was a trifle perplexed, but still managed to get back into the swing of things enough to appreciate the rather satisfying conclusion to a show which, despite an incredible opening third, seemed to sink into its own sense of pretentiousness as the episodes progressed, and never quite managed to fulfil the promise it showed as it blasted out from the starting blocks way back when.

So, the final volume then. The last three episodes see Re-l, Vincent and Pino returning to the magnificent dystopian metropolis Romdo, but when they arrive, they find things are very different from when they left. The Cogito virus has ravaged the domed city, with Auto-Reivs and Entourages now either scrap metal at the hands of Vincent's old co-workers, or worse, stark-raving-bonkers machine insane. As a result, Romdo has all but ground to a complete halt as the machines everyone relied on become obsolete. And stranger, the majority of the population appears to have up and disappeared - but where to?

Episodes:

21. Shampoo Planet
22. Bilbul
23. Deus Ex Machina

Visuals

Even the most diligent scrutiniser will have a hard time picking up any major flaws here. A few of the common kinks that accompany animation transfers - it's a little soft from its NTSC origins and there's the odd minor artefact - will be apparent, but it's yet another stellar transfer from MVM. The anamorphic 1.78:1 visuals are sexy and stylish, and the character and art design manages to keep a semi-realistic aspect, toning down the obvious signs of its Asian origins, yet still makes itself identifiable as being of Japanese origin through copious aesthetic zeal and stylisation throughout. It's surprising the amount of detail that you can pick out in some scenes, while the contrast remains high throughout and the conceptual, moody and bleak colouring gives it an engrossing edge over shows that really don't draw you into their distinguished world in the same way.

Audio

A cracking selection of audio tracks. Clearly realising stereo is for wussies and luddites, there's no Dolby Digital 2.0 at all on the disc, instead 3 flavours of 5.1 digital surround (all together now - wooooo!). The original Japanese track is present in Dolby Digital 5.1 form with English subtitles, while the accomplished English dub (nothing less than great scripting and voicing would do on a show like this, and thankfully we get it) comes in two welcome varieties - Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1. As usual, DTS only sounds better (read: slightly louder) because we've had it drummed into us that DTS is the superior of the two compression formats. Those without DTS-compatible equipment will still find a thumping 5.1 in the double-D, one which while not particularly soundstage-mobile, does sound full, bassy and really does justice to both the electronica-tinged score and spot effects.

Extras

The final volume gets a send-off with nothing but a set of trailers.

Opinion

If you go back and read my review of the first volume of Ergo Proxy, you'll no doubt be left with the impression I was entirely enamoured with the show - and you wouldn't be wrong. But as happens all too often in the murky world of television anime, shows lose steam as they go on, are padded to fulfil promised episode counts, or in the rarest of cases, the studio responsible were never quite sure where they were going with the IP in the first place. And that's kinda the impression the final batch of ending credits leave you with. Despite beginnings that looked like Ghost in The Shell: Stand Alone Complex was in for a run for its money as the best mature sci-fi anime on the block, Ergo Proxy ended up being hamstrung by two things; too many ideas to put into practice, and a bumped episode count which drew out the main arc of what is, essentially, a 13-episode anime, if not an extended OVA. I'd love to see what could be done if the creators followed in the footsteps of GitS: SAC's recently released OVAs, made from only the most critical footage of each Gig's main storylines. I love Ergo Proxy's style, which encroaches on the territory usually reserved for feature films, and I love the intricacy and detail of the world that's been created. The storyline, however, never really went anywhere, and by the end, had zapped some of my enthusiasm for the show.

The final volume, thankfully, has none of the strange stylistic and thematic shifts present in the previous volumes. Although it wraps things up in the barest of ways, it manages to hark back to those early volumes with some strong action juxtaposed by the now prosaic existential philosophising the show has made its motif. Yes, loose threads are left a-dangling, things we were waiting to be explained never quite make the list of important revelations, but like even the most awkward of Ergo Proxy volumes and episodes, it manages to captivate you with its style and characters and its manifesto pledge to never dumb down, delivering a steely set of episodes that make up the ending we always wanted to the show we never quite got in the end.