Ergo Proxy The Companion Viewing Guide

This will be the standard layout:
Section one, denoted by the episode title, will go mostly chronologically with general observations of important things to pay attention too in the plot, some perceived significance of things, and some questions I think it provokes. It will discuss some of the references and summarize some reasons and implications for events, as well as remind you of important details you may have forgotten. This section will be completely spoiler free from later episodes.

Section two will be where I can answer as best I can all the links and ties to future episodes, and will be extremely spoilerific and hidden by tags. It will dissect a few things and suggest some explanation for some events and how they unfold within the timeline. I'll probably also end up having to throw in a lot of the meaningful questions here because of the cause of them being completely from knowledge of later episodes and how characters change etc.

Section three is where I will free to go wild with theories, interpretation, and personal significance that is completely off the books, but still really really resonated with me. I'll also devolve into rants and side ruminations here. This too if it is deep in spoiler territory, will be hidden with tags unless you reveal it yourself.


Episode 1:Pulse of Awakening/Awakening
Episode 2:Confession of a Fellow Citizen/Confession
Episode 3:Leap into the Void/Mazecity
Episode 4:Signs of Future, Hades of Future/Futu-Risk
Episode 5:Recall/Twilight
Episode 6:Return Home/Homecoming
Episode 7:RE-L124C41+
Episode 8:Light Beam/Shining Sign
Episode 9:Shards of Brilliance/Angel's Share
Episode 10:Existence/Cytotropism
Episode 11:In the White Darkness/Anamnesis
Episode 12:When You're Smiling/Hideout
Episode 13:Conceptual Blindspot/Wrong Way Home
Episode 14:Someone Like You/Ophelia
Episode 15:Nightmare Quiz Show/Who Wants to Be in Jeopardy!
Episode 16:Dead Calm/Busy Doing Nothing
Episode 17:Never-Ending Battle/Terra Incognita
Episode 18:Sign of the End/Life After God
Episode 19:The Girl with a Smile/Eternal Smile
Episode 20:Sacred Eye of the Void/Goodbye, Vincent
Episode 21:The Place at the End of Time/Shampoo Planet
Episode 22:Bind/Bilbul
Episode 23:Proxy/Deus ex Machina



Opening Credits: Transcribed Text






I did it! I completed the guide, and now am just improving it at my leisure. Below is what I wrote back when I first began:
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I want to do it. I want do it for every episode.

I want to write a guide for first time viewers hinting at what there is to notice while they watch for the first time
and I want to do it for experienced viewers who might not have seen all the references and meaning that I have
and I want to do it for all the wild theories and wonderful wonderful significance that I have found in some of the more simple coincidences.



There is absolutely no way I will succeed or finish such an ambitious project. I didn't even finish my lazy bullet list of all the things I thought cool for each episode a couple of years ago. I got pretty far and wrote quite a few pages at that. But still, not even close to such a finished product that I'm so impudently suggesting now.

But I've wanted to do it for a long time now and at the moment I have the energy and I can hope that eventually, maybe, some star-crossed day, I'll finish it to the last episode's finale.

I'll also try to keep up with the links so that each episode links to another and to the main post with all the links.

So.

Without further ado, welcome to Ergo Proxy you poor soul. May she accompany you well now, and forever more.


(Very very very late idea: If indeed I ever get around to it, I would love to go back and insert a lot of the wonderful scenes and images from the anime. Not only would it be illustrative and pretty-up the text walls of analysis, it would also probably help comprehension and sometimes is actually kind of critical for the times I have translated or seen iconic imagery.
On that note, the opening credits for the anime itself has a treasure trove of text that deserves attention, and I have not yet translated or even edited the screen captures to make the text readable. [done] I still don't know what I'm missing from that piece of exposition. A timeline would also be nice. And fixing all of the spelling changes. [done])