YMMV / Ergo Proxy

• Awesome Music: The whole soundtrack, but particularly the opener, Monoral's "Kiri", "Centzontotochtin", "Shampoo Planet" and the closer, Radiohead's "Paranoid Android."
• Bizarro Episode: Smile Land. Nightmare Quiz Show / Who Want to Be in Jeopardy.
• Cult Classic: While not a particularly successful or popular show, it maintains a loyal fanbase who still try to interpret the philosophical themes to this day (or how relevant those themes are to the plot).
• Cry for the Devil: Happens with Raul towards the end of the series, showing him as more complex than his Smug Snake personality would suggest although it's hinted earlier, an episode reveals that the woman and child killed at the mall at the beginning of the series were his wife and child, and that Pino was his daughter/Morality Pet. What makes this affecting, is that his android (gynoid?) assistant scolds him for losing his temper at the mall - a perfect citizen should apparently be stoic even when his family is killed in front of him; and you can understand why he hates Vincent so much—he blames Vincent for the deaths of his family, and is hurt even more when he sees that Pino now treats Vincent as her father. (It should be noted though, that in the second to last episode, Pino's drawings do depict both Vincent and Raul, and in her monologues she widely addresses them both.)
• Epileptic Tree: Since Real turns out to be the clone of Monad, many have speculated that Re-L is also an imperfect clone of her.
• Hype Aversion: The American release didn't sell too well; might be because it was a Mind Screw-type series, but might also be because it was advertised inside of every single Geneon DVD case for about two years.
• Hype Backlash:
  • Ergo Proxy is so often recommended along with more famous Cyberpunk anime that it's natural some viewers find it boring and weird in comparison. It doesn't help that, despite what its aesthetics and earlier episodes might suggest, there is very little actual cyberpunk on the series, and most of it (like the Cogito virus storyline, a classic Zeroth Law Rebellion) gets sidetracked in favor of Vincent's quest and the more Science Fantasy-feeling story of the Proxies.
  • Viewers desiring to see Gnosticism portrayed are often disappointed by reviews citing Ergo Proxy as heavy on it, as the only real Gnostic references are Monad Proxy's name and a speech about the "Creator" that runs dangerously near Big-Lipped Alligator Moment field.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Like you would really kill Re-L when a significant portion of the last episode is spent saving her; not to mention, a likable support character gives his life to do so.
• Narm:
  • Some shots are too silly to take seriously (like the one of a Proxy's head on a human baby).
  • The Collective's members being named "Lacan", "Derrida", "Husserl" and "Berkeley" (see What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolical below). There's no obvious connection between the series' themes and the beliefs and writings of these men, so it can seem like the production team grabbed random philosopher names and slapped them on four characters to make the show more bookish.
  • Raison d'être is said a lot in some episodes.
• Nightmare Fuel / Nausea Fuel: In Episode 2, the squishy noises as the Proxy knocks people aside at such a speed that their bones apparently shatter. Oh yeah, and a baby dies in this way.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The first seven episodes of the show have a glacial pace as it tries to set up the rest of the series and introduce certain concepts and mysteries. Some consider that the reason why so few people get into the show.
• Tainted by the Preview: The series is more of a slow-paced, eclectic philosophical thriller than a cyberpunk action show a la Ghost in the Shell, despite the latter thing being precisely what the opening and the first episodes make it look. Those who come in expecting flashy fights are often left disappointed.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Cogito virus. When it is introduced, it is hinted it will be a huge part of the main storyline and will serve to explore the foundations of conscience and what separates humans from artificial intelligences. However, this point goes almost unaddressed, and the biggest influence of the virus in the series ends up being just to create the character of Pino and give Iggy some drama later on.
  • Re-L being a possible clone of Monad Proxy. There are so many interesting ways that the nature of Vincent and Re-L's relationship can be explored with this plot point in mind. Namely, how the love between Ergo and Monad is so great that any versions of them will be drawn to one another. Re-L doubting her past would also make a for a nice parallel with Ergo's fake identity and makes the couple more relatable to each other.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Though it does get better as the show goes on, some of the early episodes run into this problem. Near the beginning of the series, there are a few moral dilemmas stemming from Evil Versus Evil, an example of which involves either: stopping the Proxy that's loose in Romdo so that the fascist government can regain total control over the city, or not stopping the Proxy and thereby allowing it to continue with its murder spree. On the bright side though, it's all uphill from there.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Daedalus Yumeno tends to invoke this at the beginning of the series.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?:
  • Too many to count. At one point, a character even lampshades the pretentiousness of calling a nuclear missile "Rapture."
  • Why don't we start with the Council members? We have Derrida, Lacan, Berkeley, and Husserl. Speaking of pretentious...
  • The Cogito virus.
  • Raul's AutoReiv, Kristeva.
  • Daedalus, and his autoreivs Deleuze and Guattari.
  • In the very last scene of the show, as the spaceships of The Creators break through the dark clouds and descend to the earth, their tiny shadows against the sunlight look very much like falling angels. And considering the guy standing in the foreground...

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