[x-raws] seem to be delayed or absent this week, so I've had to settle with [Anime-Raws] some days later.
Ergo Proxy – 12
I just discovered this nifty ability of WordPress to shorten out posts so as not to look cluttered yet still could be extended. Darn, I was stupid not to notice this all along. Anyway, of course, as this is a summary, there will be spoilers. To encourage you to read further, I think just the fact that Real kissed Vincent this episode should be enough … The necklace of Vincent spins around, and in the distance is a barren, purple emptiness.
The Rabbit continues on its journey, with Pino and Vincent on the outside.
Focus shifts to Real, who in a flashback returns Vincent's necklace.
Vincent struggled to tell something, but she was stopped by Real. Her craft follows the Rabbit, and Vincent's look is simply classic bishounen.
Pino teases Vincent that Real is a scary onee-chan, but she's beautiful (at least from what I could glean. Her beam of a smile her really is cute.)
Real wants to know more about who Proxy is, and has a lot of doubt on Vincent. Vincent STILL (no joke, folks) tries to deny it – somewhat saying 'I don't know what you're talking about.'
The episode title then appears as Vincent starts the Rabbit up – Hideout.
A reddish fluid is leaking as somewhat a guy with white hair picks it up. The Rabbit plods on, and Real's ship follows.
When Vincent stops his ship, Real also stops hers. Pino, after disembarking calls out to Real as the scary sister, trying to tell her that Vincent and her are around.
Vincent then shares a cup of hot soup to Real after them settling down beside a blue-white fire.
They talk about Proxy and how Real has a strong doubt with Vincent. Vince would like to go back to Moscow to rediscover everything (basing from context.)
Pino wanders around.
After the chat, back inside her spaceship as Iggy searches around, she has a flashback to Daedalus's laboratory, where Daedalus tells her of the power of the anti-proxy bullets.
The past reappears as if in a montage, as she has a soliloquy.
Real gets out, and approaches a sleeping Vincent.Real falters on where to shoot, if to aim for the head or the feet. In the end, she just sits down and talks to Vincent instead.
Vincent blushes with what Real says. You are Proxy, Real reiterates. Vincent then quickly and efficiently pins Real down to the bed …
… Real reaches for the gun …
… but gets distracted when Vincent says —
'I love you.' He then repeats it.
Iggy analyses the sleeping Pino. (Talk about holding one's breath for an epiphany.)
He talks about himself trying to deny being a monster, but despite everything, he says he loves her.
The gun drops …
… and Real kisses Vincent. She holds his hand. And her look seems to be not of a sly outsmarting, but of a remorseful wish.
This moment is broken jarredly when a child tries to steal food. Vincent sheds light on the child, as he chases her.
The child loses Vincent – at the entrance of a cave where the child was, two blue eyes appear.
Iggy fixes up Real's hair. She looks hot without the nekomimi hairstyle. (Well, she looks hot most of the time.) But then, as they chat Iggy keeps her neat and tidy – and with the nekomimis.
Pino disappears, and Vincent calls for her. The mere thought of that kiss by Real lets Vincent hit his hand. Talk about how besotted he is.
Pino plays her recorder, but she falls into a deep hole, which was right smack into that child (presumably Proxy) and the two blue eyes' lair. Because she is curious, she follows the child.
A giant beside the child appears; it chases Pino, and Vincent feels something tearing at his heart (literally.)
Real chases after Pino. Vincent transforms right under Iggy's eyes.
Real runs, and Pino yells sister for Real to stop. Face to face, after she looks up, with her is the giant who also seems to be a Proxy. Tense, she tries to loosen her shotgun, but Vincent comes to save the day, transforming into Ergo right under Real's nose.
A quick flashback to the first episode – then Real covers her mouth in disgust. Pino shouts 'Vincent!' but the battle between the two monsters (or proxies, or whatever begins).
She looks at Vincent/Ergo, and tears stream with her left eye. She then chats with Iggy a little later on, but she continues to seek out Vincent, who's seemingly disappeared.
The giant and Ergo battle it out, but Ergo knocks Proxy to the ground. Real then decides who to shoot between the two of them, and then decides on Ergo.
The fight still ensues. Ergo manages to tear off an arm of the little proxy (or robot, or w/e) and keeps on fighting the giant monster.
Real shoots, but instead of hitting Ergo she hits the hulk; light comes out of his eyes, so it seems he's a proxy too.
The robot-child walks away, despite missing an arm. Real points her remaining gun and FP bullet to Vincent/Ergo, but Ergo is determined to stand his ground. In fact, he doesn't even seem scared, while Real does all the shaking.
Ergo and Vincent have different personalities, as proven in the clash between Vincent and Ergo. Vincent stifles Ergo from doing anything to Real.
'I won't kill you now, but I will, later.'
Later on, Iggy asks if Real would come back to Romdeau with him. She disagrees,
but Iggy tries on remaining adamant; in the end, however, he accedes, and goes back to Romdeau and Daedalus with the new giant dead proxy.
It seems Iggy is infected already. Real, Vincent, and Pino, go together as the snows fall.
IMPRESSIONS:
To be honest, Real looked absolutely stunning in this episode. That's probably why I've more screenshots than I normally do. The kiss and other subtle (and more obvious) hints at character development make me think that my hypothesis has validity after all.
To say the least, it has been an interesting episode – probably the most interesting I've ever seen. The animation, although good, still is far from top-notch. What the hell is the deal with Real being cross-eyed?! No!
It's another good episode.
anime|otaku 
May 29, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Nice, thx for the summaries, keep up the good work. Now ill have to get the Raw too.. 🙂
May 29, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Gee, thanks. I always appreciate it when people recognize my effort. 🙂
May 29, 2006 at 11:17 pm
In the cabin scene, I couldn’t quite make out if the line Vince used was really, “How can I like you?” or, “Why do you like me?”, though I suspect it’s the former. Whatever it is, he likes that she said she was attracted to him beforehand. 🙂
Real is fighting Iggy about going back to Romdeau throughout this ep. I like that during the grooming session, she keeps trying to steal glances at Vince and Iggy has to keep realigning her head to do her hair. She also tells Iggy quite firmly that Romdeau thinks she’s dead, and sort of changes the subject completely to the oddity of Vincent. It’s cute, and a reminder that Real is young. Romdeau reeks as a place for kids to develop normal people emotions.
I don’t think Real was touching her mouth in disgust when she saw Vincent change, and I wonder if that look after the kiss wasn’t one of guilt instead. But especially about the touching, I think there’s something going on about those tears. There were tears from Vince when he saw Real in the last ep. There are tears from Real when she sees Vince as Ergo in this ep, and also Pino’s almost-tear in the final frame.
The flashbacks to Asura here are also interesting, and strangely goes back to what Kazukis said about Monad: if Monad really did love Ergo, then Ergo/Vincent killing Monad later has to have been with more reason than he simply forgot her. But I don’t think he killed Monad because Real was his new interest either. There’s some question too as to what Monad really is in the early episodes. If Monad was already meant to be dead in Moscow, then perhaps what Daedalus raised was just an empty corpse. Add to that all this crying, and I keep suspecting Real’s bond with Vincent is something a lot more than what’s in their current human forms. It just raises questions.
May 29, 2006 at 11:30 pm
Yeah. There were hypothesis (among some, were mine, I think) that Real is some form of Monad’s projection, or was Monad in a previous life, or whatever. I think I posted somewhere in the past about this, and yes, it does raise questions. Now, we have to find out how Vincent and Real connects, because although Real speaks like that to Vincent, I don’t really think she feels anger or hate towards Vincent.
Vincent’s also pretty hot for a guy, so why not? That’s why I put into a previous theory that Real’s a repressed person, and needs someone to bang her up.
(But that’s only me reveling, lol.)
Anyway, going back, it was very informative.
May 29, 2006 at 11:33 pm
Aye, another good summary. I have a quick question, suposedly Ergo Proxy is supposed to have a very large budge but, the animation in almost every episode is a little off. Is it just because of deadlines of sloppyness?
May 29, 2006 at 11:40 pm
I myself have a big problem with this – Ergo Proxy has supposedly among the biggest budgets of anime this year, and they had time enough to show an advanced episode one screening (if you remember.) I think it’s best to assume that the script’s been taking its time (which would account for the draggy pace of the story sometimes and also of the sloppy animation, because of the limited amount of time left.)
This has been one of the uglier failures of the year 2006, but the story’s still good despite everything. 🙂
May 30, 2006 at 4:13 am
I would think it’s the other way around — it’s Real who’ll need to jump Vincent to get anything done. 😉 Either way, there is action to be had!
I’m now wondering about the Forest Proxy, because he’s the first Proxy we’ve seen who had any sort of companion, just like Vince, an autorave. The Forest Proxy was dependent on his autorave for food, and he seemed to have reached a point where he couldn’t recognize anything beyond the autorave and his food. I’ve been theorizing that he represents a possible mental state Vince could revert to — if he’d been left wandering around too long with Pino in my LJ, if you’re interested (it’s the extended notes at the end): http://vampyrichamster.livejournal.com/296780.html
It’s actually kind of disturbing with regards to Vince. If he didn’t have Real as human contact (or an emotional anchor, however elusive), in the long run, would he have gone completely nuts? He’s come close enough in the last few eps.
May 30, 2006 at 7:43 am
I think she loved that kiss, vamp … I also saw that you see her expression show guilt. Vince should fill her up. (You know what I mean.) The girl is depressed; she feels alone, unneeded, and she has a very, very strong need to belong. If Vincent does her (when he’ll get the guts to), Real will fall madly over Vincent.
In sex, all repression is often released accompanied by a feeling of bonding that may last extremely temporary for the couple (one-night stands) or last for a long time (sex leading to love, or sex as an affirmation of love). I think that with her state of mind, and with his, having each other together is a mutual help to both their improvement.
May 30, 2006 at 9:54 am
im so confused @_@ kazukis said that monad loved him, and that ergo loved monad too… so was he just saying that or was it true?
May 30, 2006 at 11:21 am
Kazukis loved Senex, and Senex loved him. Monad loved Ergo, and to prove that , he/she offered herself as a sacrfice to hold Vincent’s memories … I think.
May 30, 2006 at 11:57 am
[excited]… where can i get the raw >_>???
May 30, 2006 at 1:13 pm
First and foremost, do you have BitTorrent? If you do, here’s the link for the torrent of the RAW:
Torrent for Ergo Proxy – 12
Enjoy.
May 30, 2006 at 1:35 pm
Thank you, of course I do.. I have had a bt client since like… 2002.. i think. Either way I thank you very much…I will be having strange dreams tonight. Mandarin orange tea + Zatoichi movies [Meets.Yojimbo 1969 and The Festival.Of.Fire 1970] + ergo proxy ep 12= ……..?
May 30, 2006 at 1:58 pm
I don’t usually watch the RAW’s but wait until a subbed version comes out, however no one has released a subbed version of 10,11,12 (best of my knowledge) so I might just go ahead and watch the raw’s, and then watch the subbed version when it comes out.
May 30, 2006 at 3:13 pm
I myself don’t usually watch the RAWs. It’s just so much easier to sit back and read the words on the screen. However, I just like Ergo Proxy despite its setbacks, and I can’t see myself stopping with the sloth-like speed of the fansubbers doing this series.
You’re welcome.
May 30, 2006 at 4:56 pm
That be true, wist and guilt aren’t too far off from each other. 🙂
At the moment, the Real/Vince chemistry is largely, Real = dom, Vince = lapdog. Though he’s trying. Maybe he needs more of Ergo in his personality?
It will be interesting to see what effect the kiss has on future eps. I don’t think it’ll be quite sparkly shoujo sex yet, but this show does have good sexual tension between the leads. I admit, I’d have more fun seeing how they keep the tension up.
In a strange way, though the raws are hard to watch, it’s nice to work hard to understand the show too. At least, I’ve found it makes me appreciate the voicework more, and this is a good show for dramatic/creepy SFX. Oh, speaking of which, have you heard the EP OST yet?
May 30, 2006 at 5:08 pm
I simply loved EP 12 because of the sexual tension.
Changing the topic, Real is pretty stupid for loving to wield a shotgun. Perhaps it was to invite (sex-addicted 😉 jk) watchers like us, but it really is a hassle to bring a small shotgun as a side-arm:
(1) It’s bulky compared to the lighter handguns;
(2) It has limited range;
(3) It has limited ammunition;
(4) It’s slow compared to the lighter handguns.
I don’t know what went into the producers to have her wield a shotgun all the time, but it seems unrealistic. What do you guys think?
(And no, I haven’t heard the EP OST yet. It isn’t as great as the others, I think, because maybe they had to pay A LOT of money for the royalties for ‘Paranoid Android’ 🙂 )
May 30, 2006 at 11:00 pm
*LOL* The shotgun gives me Resident Evil moments. It’s cool, but inconvenient, but still cool. And she doesn’t actually wield a shotgun all the time now. Back in Ep 5, I think, she was wielding one of those peashooters Vince was also carrying in Romdeau, and in Ep 12, the FP bullets are in a different gun?
The OST is quite repetitive, though I admit it was still creepy to work with late at night. There is judicious electronic heartbeat use in there, but nothing on the OST is something we haven’t already heard. Even worse, the version of Monoral’s “Kiri” is exactly as heard in the OP, but they put in the full Paranoid Android. Barring the offchance that “Kiri” is as short as we’re used to hearing it, it would’ve been nice to have included the long version.
May 31, 2006 at 12:53 am
Maybe Kiri is as short as it is … I’ve had that with The Sacred Moon for Tsukihime, and I was like … where the f*** is the rest?
Going back – she seriously needs to upgrade to a Desert Eagle, vamp. Yeah, the FP bullets are in somewhat a modified Derringer because it has only two bullets, but her primary sidearm is still the shotgun. I mean, seriously, if it had been a duel, Real would have died far earlier than me. I would have shot some bullets from a simple M1911A1 at her before she would have cocked the shotgun.
As I said before, the only redeeming thing about this show is its story. Nothing else. Everything else is almost crap or way below our expectations for this series. 🙂
May 31, 2006 at 3:32 am
Interestingly, I went into this series without high expectations for the story (and I wanted to see this title ever since it was announced last year). I was expecting it to be a good yarn, taking SF generics and doing it in style, and quietly, the way I like it best. I wasn’t expecting them to rewrite the genre, or be the next Picasso, and neither of those things has happened. And for all that is flawed about this show, I consider it among the most solid series this season.
So, I could be in the minority here, but I actually do like the show as a whole. The point most people seem to have trouble with is that the art is patchy, and I agree it is patchy, but I would say overall it’s still good. By that I mean it shows what it has effectively, and effectively moves the story that way. I am fond of the voice acting, and watching raws has definitely helped my appreciation of how much work goes into the dialogue (Daedalus vs. Raul is classic). What little music they have does get used well in this show, and I like that the show actually seems to appreciate the power of silence for a change. The SFX has impressed me from ep 1 – like the music, they know how to space the silence and the noise. But that is, IMHO.
May 31, 2006 at 11:23 am
I admit I do like the show as a whole. Why am I still watching it, then? lol 😀 However, I think that only the story has pulled off the show from what could be mediocrity. And admittedly, despite the cool stuff occurring, it falls short of the hype AND the budget: the animation is patchy; character design is patchy, sometimes horrible enough to show cross-eyes of supposedly handsome people, and only its story is really there to still pull it off. I don’t think the OST’s amazing right now, but I do like Paranoid Android. That’s all.
I agree it’s among the more solid shows this 2k6, but there are some way more solid than this – an example would be Bake Neko, the final arc of Ayakashi ~ Japanese Classic Horror, IMO. Anything animated by BONES is relatively more consistent as well.
June 1, 2006 at 2:34 am
Yo, thanks for pointing me at Ayakashi. I didn’t hear about it till you mentioned, and Yoshitaka Amano-anything character design will get my attention. 🙂
I think the root of our disagreement is a fundamental difference in taste. For instance, where you see a bad OST and bad music choices, I see music that fits the show put to excellent use in context. I suspect that, if each of us were to offer up our playlists for perusal, we’d each end up shaking our heads and muttering, ‘How can anybody listen to *that*?’ 😉
Thus, I’m sorry to say that I think we’re just going to have to agree to disagree on EP.
June 1, 2006 at 10:12 am
Yeah. I agree to disagree … :0
June 8, 2006 at 10:04 am
I think the OST is great. I don’t like “Paranoid Android” or Radiohead at all. I prefer music without vocals anyway although “Kiri” really shines. I also wondered about a full version but maybe I wouldn’t actually like it as much if it was longer.
Some of the tracks remind me a bit of Blade Runner. My favourite track is Centzontotochtin. I’m not sure whether it was used in any episode so far. The track is up-lifiting, bitter-sweet, sad and violent all at the same time.
January 22, 2010 at 5:56 am
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