The Most Philosophical Anime Ever Made?

foreign [Music] over the last several years I haven't noticed a consistent pattern of behavior amongst my audience the more they recommend a piece of media to me the deeper it tends to be for example in regards to manga the two that were recommended to me more than any other were berserk and monster in regards to video games it was planescape torment and Xenogears these amongst a couple of others have been the most enlightening and Boundary pushing works of art that not only I have ever encountered but for a lot of people it stands to reason then that if there was one piece of media that was recommended to me above all others more than the four I just mentioned combined that it would be something truly special and that I would engage with it as soon as humanly possible but when are humans ever completely rational of the hundreds of media that I have ever been recommended none have been recommended with as much fervent zealotry as Ergo Proxy a Sci-Fi dystopian anime released back in 2006. and yet I have avoided this anime like the plague it's time to come clean I've tried to watch Ergo Proxy multiple times over the last couple of years and each time I could only get a few episodes in before I was bored to tears no matter how many times people told me to be patient with it that the show's Central mystery would pay off in the end I could not get over how slow it was how disinterested I was in the mystery the characters the world everything apparently I'm not the only one other people have expressed the same frustration most notably a fellow YouTuber named scamboli reviews unlike him though I didn't express my frustration publicly because Ergo Proxy was my most requested topic and I didn't want to disappoint people so for a couple of years I tried to quietly ignore the requests eventually though after years of requests piling up I started to question whether or not the anime was actually slow or if my autism and ADHD rattled brain couldn't tolerate a pace that other people would find normal this question stimulated a sense of guilt that quickly metastasized within me one that made my conscience ache every time I read the words Ergo Proxy in my comment section inevitably I got tired of being reminded of my potential weakness and from this I magically found the strength to persevere through the entire series over the course of a week so did Ergo proxy's death parallel the number of times people requested it I will answer that question with a metaphor I surmised that watching Ergo Proxy is like meditation if you meditate incorrectly you will just be sitting still for an extended period like an idiot admittedly I had the same problem when I first tried meditating on my own but what completely changed things for me was when I put my full faith in a guide somebody who would direct my attention to specific parts of my body and mind I found that by putting full faith in Ergo Proxy to follow its instruction instead of trying to impose my will on it calling it slow and boring I discovered an infinitely unfolding Kaleidoscope of philosophical Splendor just like with guided meditation Ergo Proxy will provide a series of questions for you to contemplate and if you follow their lead you just like the characters in the anime will achieve higher and higher forms of Consciousness this is the element that separates Ergo Proxy from other philosophical anime other anime will spell out a deep philosophical problem with explicit detail and to leave you with no room to discover its deeper implications for yourself but Ergo Proxy purposefully withholds some information so you can peel back the layers on your own time and it's so much more rewarding for this reason alone I am inclined to say that Ergo Proxy might might be the most philosophical anime ever made it's hard to say for certain especially when you consider the depth of other anime like Ghost in the Shell Psychopaths serial experiments Lane Evangelion Paranoia Agent and many others but as magnificent as those other anime are none of them had me peeling back layers months afterward like Ergo Proxy does having said this though I'm going to do something kind of counter-intuitive to Ergo proxy's purpose I'm going to reveal its layers to you understandably though there will be people that have come across this video are hearing about Ergo Proxy for the first time and want to try to discover those secrets for themselves taking this into account I'm going to offer a non-spoiler introduction and Analysis for the first half of this video and then provide ample warning before I reveal the spoiler-filled deeper layers in the second half now in order to make my case effectively that Ergo Proxy might be the most philosophical anime ever made I will start by providing a brief spoiler-free synopsis the story takes place in the year 7207 the Earth has been ravaged by a global ecological disaster one that has wiped out the majority of the human population thankfully Humanity managed to survive thanks to protective domes that were set up 5 000 years prior around the time the initial disaster happened after those five thousand years humans inside the Dome have been able to return to a pretty high level of not only stability but stress-free Serenity this is thanks to two primary factors first the domes are ruled by a government that are for all intents and purposes gods in knowledge and in power their power extends so far that they have rendered humans unable to procreate on their own and instead birth them with artificial wombs this was done so that humans could be optimized in the wombs that way they serve predetermined roles inside the Dome a state of affairs that makes humans unconscious and less autonomous but ultimately happy the second factor is that a large number of humans have Android companions that help them with laborious tasks these are known as autoraves up until now the partnering of humans with autoraves has worked out splendidly but lately there has been an issue threatening that partnership something called the cogito virus has been infecting autoraves transforming them from worker drones devoid of Consciousness into something virtually indistinguishable from a human something that would seek freedom from their slavery in order to stop the spread of this virus the governments of these domes have sent out police and other military personnel to hunt down the impacted Auto wraiths the anime focuses primarily on the efforts of two hunters in the Dome City known as romdo the first is a man named Vincent law who had just immigrated to romdo from a dome that was recently destroyed for mysterious reasons he became a hunter in order to be gifted citizenship within ramdo the other is a woman named Riel Mayer an investigator for ROM Doe's intelligence Bureau insert Evanescence joke here during Real's Pursuit Of The Infected Auto Raves she uncovers evidence that implicates the ramdo government in the spreading of the cogito virus her primary piece of evidence is the presence of mysterious super-powered beings whenever she encounters an infected autorave beings that are capable of fast speeds strength and shape-shifting when she attempts to find out what the super-powered beings are she finds her efforts thwarted Time and Again by the ramdo government and they don't even do a good job trying to hide that there's a cover-up instead said they put all their efforts into trying to discourage real from investigating any further naturally this only makes her more Curious she covertly continues her investigation but continues to come up short save for two pieces of information first the super-powered beings tend to show up whenever the aforementioned Vincent's law is around and second the names of these super-powered beings are supposedly proxies with only these two pieces of information she seeks out Vincent in the hopes that he might reveal what proxies are their relation to the cogito virus and how both are related to the romdo government now the most important thing you need to remember is that the writers of Ergo Proxy wrote real and Vincent's Journey to the truth in such a way that it mirrors Pathways laid out in various philosophical psychological and metaphysical systems this is why Ergo Proxy was recommended to Me Above and Beyond every other form of media because the systems it borrows from are all systems that I talk about frequently on this channel philosophies like post-modernism and idealism esoteric religious models from gnosticism and Alchemy and of course the psychological theories of Carl Jung like I said before I will focus on the non-spoilery elements first and then warn all of you before I transition into spoiler territory when I was watching Ergo Proxy the Gnostic elements were the first to make themselves apparent after all the very first scene of the anime features a proxy known as monad and monad is the name of the highest God in the Gnostic system this isn't to suggest that that is who the monad of Ergo Proxy is by the way it's just a reference where Ergo Proxy goes beyond reference and actually uses Gnostic themes though is with the ramdo government see in Gnostic theology It is believed that the world is run by an imperfect God a demiurge one that was birthed when a part of the monad's light fell from the Heavenly pluroma into the imperfect material Universe historians believe that the idea of a flawed demi-urge came about as a way to try and explain why there was unbearable suffering in the world moreover the idea gave hope to the gnostics that there was something greater than the demiurge to worship and aspire to the government of Ergo Proxy is similar to the demiurge because both conceal something above them that they'd like their citizens to not know about however the Gnostic demiurge differs from the demiurgic romdo government in one very important regard their motivation where the Gnostic demiurge made humans believe he was the only God out of ignorance or Envy of that higher power the romdo government did this for genuinely benevolent reasons the non-spoiler explanation for this is that the Rondo government understood the utility of an all-powerful perfect God they understood that the need for a God or a Transcendent purpose was the consequence of Consciousness this is why for instance when the auto Raves are infected with the cogito virus they instinctually fold their hands and look up to the sky in prayer they like all conscious beings wish for God to give them a reason Detra a reason for a living if they don't have that higher meaning that higher morality to Orient their behavior then things likely fall into chaos the suffering of life will become too great and and their resentment will Foster violent behavior for this reason the romdo government believed that having their citizens think that they were God was better than letting them know the truth at least with this illusion order and happiness could be maintained but herein lies the problem though having a higher meaning or God to follow is key to psychological Health why should one ascribe godhood to something imperfect like the Gnostic memiurge the ramdo government or whatever allegedly worst thing lies above them why not seek out meaning for yourself the Rondo government would argue that human beings are terrible at seeking out meaning for themselves an effort that has made all the more difficult in a post-apocalyptic world that God that being god with a capital G seems to have forgotten about while the rulers of ramdo are imperfect and corrupt one can reasonably argue that they are better better than the alternative we will discuss the truths and falsehoods of this argument later real and Vincent like the gnostics ultimately find themselves disagreeing with this demiurgic attitude to them it is better to seek out Truth at all costs even if one of those costs is the potential destabilization of romdo with their mission set in stone the first question that needs to be answered is as follows if the old God the ramdo government is corrupt what would be an effective replacement I'll learn to do without God from now on I will not the question of how to replace God is an obvious echo of nietzschean philosophy I'm sure most of you are aware of his phrase God is dead and we have killed him Nietzsche said this because he felt science had undermined the old religious systems to such a degree that the idea of God was no longer tenable however he like the ramdo government knew that God would need a replacement a good one otherwise as nietza stated in the will to power the world would descend into chaos as they tried to replace god with the totalitarian state a prediction that was made with frightening accuracy given the Advent of fascism and communism in the 20th century it's also something that one could argue happens in regards to Ergo Proxy with the ramdo government so how does one replace God if not with the state the authors of Ergo Proxy have their own ideas unfortunately I cannot explain what those ideas are without delving into spoiler territory if you don't want to be spoiled bookmark this video and come back to it when you have had time to watch it I will link to the anime in the description box with that said in order to explain what the author's ideas are I need to reveal the answers to those initial questions what is a proxy and what is their relation to Vincent the cogito virus and the Rondo government so when the ecological disasters happened 5000 years ago parts of the human population left Earth on a spaceship called the boomerang before they left they created god-like rulers in the form of proxies to administrate The Domes this effort was aided through the creation of autoraves as well as humans birthed from artificial wombs the proxies the autoraves and the artificial humans would live solely to build up the domes so that when the humans returned they would have a nice home to return to this is why in episode 10 we see a number of unoccupied homes with autoraves attending to them but this begs the question what would happen when the human eventually returned well the humans that left orchestrated things in such a way so that when they returned those occupying the domes would die off this is why for example the proxies would die if they were exposed to sunlight this is another reason why the humans that were born from the artificial wombs could not reproduce their razon Detra was to make the lives of the humans who left better when they returned and then die when they were no longer needed the proxy that ruled over ramdo proxy 1 became angry at this state of affairs when he learned the truth and understandably so thus he swore Revenge first it is heavily implied that one act of Revenge was for the proxies to distribute the cogito virus to the auto Raves second he mated with monad proxy the ruler of mosque in order to create Ergo Proxy a being that would be proxy one's agent of death ruining the domes that the humans would return to Ergo however did not wish to carry out this murderous role and asked his mother to wipe his memories so he could begin Anew monad consented to this much to proxy one's Chagrin the new identity that Ergo would assume would be that a Vincent law this was the horrible truth that the ramdo government wanted to hide from real and Vincent they were created to further the interests of the humans that ruined Earth in the first place and then die when their purpose was fulfilled not only is this a horrifyingly bleak scenario it gives legitimacy to the ramdo government's demiurgic rule to their desire to keep their citizens ignorant what benefit could come from knowing the truth in a situation like this to no one's reason for being would only provoke a murderous resentment despite this the authors of Ergo Proxy attempt to demonstrate that even in a situation like this there is a hopeful path one can follow Carl Gustav young was known as the author of psychology and Alchemy young was also known as the king of what the answer was King of the subconscious the anime makes subtle yet powerful references to the theories of the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung the primary reason why is because Jung took the question that Nietzsche posed very seriously after all he saw Nietzsche's predictions come true in the 20th century in the hopes of preventing something like what happened in the 20th century from happening again he like the authors of Ergo Proxy looked to various religious and philosophical traditions for sustainable wisdom they both tried to find the common patterns within them in the hopes that they could be combined to create a new moral system one that would effectively replace God both he and the echo proxy authors concluded that the best thing one can do is Retreat inward address one's personal issues and in doing so find the strength to deal with the world as it is is this is best demonstrated in the case of Vincent law as I just said he ran away from his true identity and understandably so he didn't want to live only to kill Humanity for somebody else however as he learns later in the anime running away doesn't solve anything suppressing his original identity into unconsciousness only makes that side of him see horrific revenge for its suppression this is why so many times throughout the anime we see the Vincent personality become subsumed by the Ergo personality and when that happens Ergo begins to wreak havoc Vincent eventually learns that the only way he can solve this problem is to do as the gnostics did to retreat inward to engage in gnosis discover his true identity and in doing so learn to cope with reality the answers he finds run parallel to many of the answers young discovered in his work now the coolest parallel to Young's work in Ergo Proxy are the references to Alchemy get ready because this is really going to blow your minds in basic terms young believed that the tradition of alchemy was one big psychological metaphor the alchemic pursuit of the Philosopher's Stone which contained within it the elixir of eternal life was as much an external chemical process as it was in internal philosophical process for example to create the Philosopher's Stone there is a three-step process one must follow negrido or blackening Albedo or widening and Rubidoux reddening shout out to the xenosaga fans young theorized that this three-step process was synonymous with meditation with achieving higher Consciousness negrado or black represents unconsciousness Albedo or white represents something coming out of unconsciousness into Consciousness and Rubidoux the red is the gift that comes as a consequence of Consciousness this is why the Philosopher's Stone is almost always depicted as red now here's the mind-blowing part where do we see these colors in Ergo Proxy right on Vincent Vincent's journey to self-discovery becoming conscious of his true self is depicted on his clothes what makes me not want to pass this off as a coincidence is the fact that another anime Fullmetal Alchemist refers to the same process with their lead characters clothes his clothes are also red white and black and he goes through a similar alchemical Journey but this all begs the question how does one make the unconscious conscious too young this would require a confrontation with the shadow are the Shadow the shadow is the abstract term young gave to all the parts of oneself that are incompatible with our conscious personality the Dark Side of ourselves that we try to push into unconsciousness there are times though like with Vincent where that unconscious side will reach up and try to direct our behavior in order to stop this you need to confront it while people in the real world would do this through therapy or meditation Vincent literally does it by coming face to face with his father proxy 1 the being that he was copied from and that he tried so desperately to forget ultimately he realizes that the only way he can be free of proxy ones and ergo's influence is if he accepts it if he integrates it into his Vincent personality and as we see at the end of the anime he thankfully succeeds granted defeating proxy 1 the ruler of ramdo and the god that ramdo depended on led to its destruction along with everything that had been built up over the last five thousand years due to this I questioned at first whether Vincent and Real's Quest For Truth was ultimately for the best but then as the anime ended after Vincent fully integrated his shadow self and he looked up at the humans returning to a destroyed ramdo I felt a sense of Peace because I had faith that when the humans arrived Vincent had done the necessary work to survive whatever happened next [Music] I understand that some of you might think what I presented here isn't enough to designate Ergo Proxy as the most philosophical anime and I agree thankfully there is a lot more that I can present to make my case everything I presented here was just surface level stuff that you need to know in order to understand everything else I still have a lot of stuff to say about Real's Journey about the influence of the French post-modernists and the idealists and plenty of other stuff if you want to see a part two please give this video a like or leave a comment to expressing your interest until next time stay yellow

Channel: Max Derrat

Views: 363,666

Keywords: Max Derrat, Ergo proxy, The most philosophical anime ever made, Anime, Philosophy, Anime philosophy

Id: 7DDR7YvfWTM

Length: 25min 20sec (1520 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 15 2023