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Ergo Proxy
エルゴプラクシー
2006 · TV series · 25 min episodes · 1 season
Created by Shukou Murase
AnimationMysteryScience FictionFantasy
Thousands of years after Earth’s atmosphere was destroyed, adventure blooms in the strangest of places. The domed city of Romdo is supposed to be perfect, but Re-l Mayer, a young female inspector from the Civilian Intelligence Office, knows better. In this place where humans and robots coexist, she receives a strange message: something is awakening!
8 positive2 negativefrom 10 commenters
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10 comments on Hacker News
A cursory glance of anime tv shows released in 2006 and there's a lot of good things I'd watch again: Honey & Clover, Kemonozume, Ergo Proxy, Code Geass, Haruhi Suzumiya, etc.
In 2026 the only thing that has captivated me, so far, was the Chainsaw Man movie and Dorohedoro S2.
Here's a list of some old and new ones, that an old fart might enjoy
Monster (Chasing a serial killer)
Ergo Proxy (Can't describe it)
Samurai 7 (Sci-fi variant off 7 samurai)
Last Exile (Post appocapltic world with lots of flying machines)
Kino's Journey
Mushishi
Time of Eve
Gargantia
Baccano
Durarara
Psycho Pass
Arslan Senki
Sunaboju (Desert Punk)
Witch Hunter Robin
Hunter x Hunter (old not new)
Texnolyze
Darker than Black
Black Lagoon
Great Teach Onizuka (One of the old and best)
Gintama (Comedy, It's at the level One Piece and Naruto disgusing as Comedy, you have to get past 30 episodes)
Kabaneri of Iron Fortress (Just for animation quality)
Beck (Music career)
Golden Kamui
Terror in Resonance
Ping Pong Animation (Don't let the animation fool you, it's one of the best stories)
Area 88 (Story ends abruptly, watch at your own risk)
Ashita no Joe (Old anime, boxing genre)
Valkyria Chronicles (War story)
Scissor Seven (Comedy, Chinese, assassin, in a strange world)
Shura no Toki (Martial arts, 3 generations)
A Record of Mortal's Journey to Immortality (Chinese cultivation genre, 3D good animation, faithful adaptation of one of the good novels in this genre)
Swallowed Star (Chinese cultivation genre Sci-fi variant, great 3D animation)
I watched Redline recently. The animation is worth seeing but the "story" is paper-thin.
Ergo Proxy I just didn't get.
Psycho Pass I really enjoyed; good depth of story and exploration of the pros and cons.
GitS series is probably my favourite anime, and very high up in my favourite anything.
Berserk is good, and descends into Evangelion-level insanity as it progresses.
Ninja Scroll is forever a classic. Worth a re-watch every 5-10 years. I'm due.
Just thought I'd recommend ergo proxy as a delightful watch.
Animated movies that I often rewatch (in no particular order):
- Spirited Away
- Grave of the Fireflies
- Finding Dory
- Up
- Tokyo Godfathers
- Akira (NOT the English dub, which completely changes the story and dialogue for the worse, and for no good reason)
- Mononoke Hime
- Ghost in the Shell (the original one)
- My Neighbor Totoro
Animated series I'll rewatch:
- Guardian of the Sacred Spirit
- Castlevania
- Futurama
- Archer
- Arcane
- Cowboy Bebop
- Ergo Proxy
- The Dragon Prince
- Hakaba Kitaro
- Star Trek: Lower Decks
I also enjoyed Ergo Proxy, Texhnolyze and Planetes. Ghost in the Shell is still the only movie I revisit every now and then (out of all movies ever). They are all slow, I want to take the time to watch them again some day.
Very different but I also enjoyed Naruto as I grew up myself. It's long (but you can skip all fillers) but sometimes very deep. I enjoyed Kenshin but never finished it.
As mentioned below Samurai Champloo is also nice and Steins Gate (nice, strange atmosphere) and Death Note: very psychological: He thinks that I think that he thinks and I'm smarter so... Love that. And One Punch Man, puts a smile on my face.
If you want weird: FLCL. What was that about?
(To be clear where I'm coming from: I'm not what you'd call an otaku, haven't watched many things of this kind. I really detest over-the-top stuff. I prefer realism to fantasy but can enoy it if it helps with the plot. I've watched and enjoyed Evangelion (wasn't enjoying it at all in the beginning but when it started getting "psychological" I loved it) and Ghost In The Shell, still haven't but want to watch the others you mentioned. I also watched Stein's Gate and felt exactly the way you did.)
Death Note is awesome, especially the first half. There's a bit of cringy overconfident adolescent personality going on, but I think it's all for the best considering the plot.
Monster is one I'm torn about. The themes it touches on are just perfect for a great dark story, but I feel like it under-delivers by always making it sound like it's gonna get really dark but never making it so. There's quite a bit of "semi-filler" episodes. Thought-provoking but never goes as deep as I'd like.
One movie I'd recommend is Perfect Blue. Realistic psychological suspense/horror with great animation.
Not at all the same genre, but Welcome To The NHK is pretty nice if you want some realistic "light-hearted dark humor" (if there's such a thing), but maybe not if you don't relate to being a hikikomori (or social recluse in general). There's over-the-top characteristics, especially in the first episodes, but it gets better. Watch, say, 10 episodes; if you don't love it by then, it may not be for you.
EDIT: Oh, I also watched Ergo Proxy in an overnight binge so I honestly can't remember much about it. A lot of people like it, I found it really boring and felt too grandiose for what actually happened in the end. There's an interesting story behind it all, but I had to resort to reading fan theories to get it.
EDIT2: For the sake of completeness, the show I actually love the most is Avatar (The Last Airbender. I'm right now watching the sequel and still making up my mind on it). Possibly because I was a kid when I first watched it, but it still really moves me. And yes, I said before I prefer realistic stuff, but this is one of the greatest exceptions. It's also not dark by any means - it's a kid's show after all -, plenty of light-hearted humor and all, but there are many many things I'd say even an adult can get from watching it.
I enjoy watching various anime but am by no means into Japanese culture, nor the American culture that is into Japanese culture. However, when I was first introduced to anime by a friend (minus Spirited Away) which was Naruto, I was introduced to the English-subbed versions even though English dubs were available. After watching a few episodes of listening to Japanese and reading the subs, I thought it would be a good idea to skip the effort of reading and watch the English dubbed version instead.
That was a horrible experience. The English dubbed voices seemed to lack passion or say things in the wrong tones (or just be monotone!). Blue Gender immediately comes to mind as another painful English dub experience.
So, that is how my teenage self wound up pirating a lot of anime: because the fansubbing was extremely good and I could pick up on Japanese vocal intonation. I could actually tell what was a joke, and what was anger, instead of wondering when someone would have feelings at all in their English monotone!
In the case of Ergo Proxy, the additional notes in the fansubbing really helped understand the bigger dialogue. Without it I probably would not have held that particular show in has high of a regard.
The only consistent exception to the poor English dubs has been Miyazaki. Heck, Liam Neeson was a voice in Ponyo!
Perhaps, but sometimes a show is just that much more impressive if you understand more of what's going on. The show 'Ergo Proxy' comes to mind. It's got a mysterious plot and some throw off episodes that will really mess you up, but aside from that it's also got loads of references to history and philosophy that I would just not understand because I haven't studied either. The fansub group had small blobs of explanation pop up every once in a while to explain something, it really aided to the feeling you were watching something awesome. The text would only be up for a second, so you'd have to pause to read it. I think my Ghost in the Shell S.A.C subs had something similar.
There's one instance I remember of the fansubbers breaking the 4-th wall unexpectedly. The line the character said as a cliff hanger came from absolutely nowhere and was so staggering that the subber added something along the lines of "We assure you this is no translation mistake", if they hadn't added that I'd think it was so they were right to. (The anime in question is Elfen Lied, I don't suggest you watch it if you're not already deep into J-culture.. and maybe just not at all)
The thing with Science Fiction is that it's hardly a genre. As Asimov shows in "The Caves of Steel", it's mor ofa set of conventions about setting and style that can be applied to basically any genre. So you have immensely varied works of sci-fi that have bassically no relation between one another. That leads to someone loving a work of science fiction, trying other science fiction looking for something similar, and fiding that there's nothing similar to what he liked in other works.
But if you are searching for something similar to Bladerunner, a TV series of the same vein and tone would be Ergo Proxy.