Ergo Proxy

Cool new anime alert: ERGO PROXY. I watched the first episode today (it airs on pay-channel WOWOW, but I got a fansub version) and I’m definitely impressed. Very slick animation with some nice character designs add up to something that’s certainly easy on the eyes. As far as the storyline, as with most anime series, you can’t really tell where things are going to head from the first episode alone, but the setting takes its cue from GITS/BLADE RUNNER, with a society where Autoraves (think androids/replicants) are everywhere, and some weirdness involving them starts taking place. The first episode ends with an intriguing cliffhanger, and I’m already curious as to where they’re going with this. Oh, and the theme song, which will only appear starting episode 2, is Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”.

I haven’t mentioned anime much recently, but that’s also because I haven’t been keeping up like I used to (or maybe there’s just nothing out there that interests me). I did watch all of PARADISE KISS, which I quite liked, and I was so happy to finally see the end of MONSTER last week. After a long wait, the fansub versions of the last six episodes were finally released, and I watched all of them pretty much in one go — it was a terrific ending to a terrific series, and I can honestly say that I doubt anything will ever surpass it (for me at least). I did watch the first few episodes of HELL GIRL and MUSHISHI, but never followed up mostly because of lack of time.