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Vincent Law
Vincent Law / Ergo Proxy
Voiced by Koji Yusa (JP), Liam O'Brien (EN)
Vincent Law Spoiler
Ergo ProxyVincent Law is one of the main characters of the anime. At the beginning of the series Vincent is portrayed as a unimpressive immigrant technician from Mosk whose main goal is becoming a "Fellow Citizen" of the utopian city Romdeau. Vincent is forced into exile from Romdeau following criminal accusations into the desolate tundra of post-apocalyptic Earth. During the series he is joined by the child "Auto-Reive" Pino and the Intelligence Bureau investigator Re-L Mayer to uncover his past and his relationship to the titular Ergo Proxy. Turns out he IS Ergo Proxy, a clone of Proxy One created as a proxy resistant to UV light, and creator of Romdeau. However, he is later dissatisfied with his status as an incomplete proxy with incomplete tasks and leaves all of his duties to a man named Donov Mayer - Re-l's grandfather. He leaves to live with Monad Proxy, who was governing Mosk at the time. After his leave, Proxy One was angry at Monad due to the fact that she effectively stole his "instrument of death against the progenitors". Monad took Ergo's memories out of love for him, losing her sanity as a result. From the loss of Ergo's memories became Vincent Law, a human who had little recollection of his past outside of being from Mosk and moving to Romdeau to live a normal life. However, when Monad ends up in Romdeau, chasing Vincent trying to kill him as a result of the Pulse of the Awakening, Vincent unconsciously becomes Ergo Proxy once more and sets the story in motion.
- Achilles' Heel: As a Proxy, Vincent is essentially indestructible to all forms of damage. There are really only only one thing that can kill a Proxy: FP bullets. He nearly dies to such a round, but saves himself through some last second improvisation.
- Amnesiac God: He himself is Ergo Proxy.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: To Re-l Mayer.
- Anti-Hero: He starts off as a weak-willed, low-status immigrant just trying to make good for himself. While in his Ergo Proxy form, Vincent is a Berserker that seemingly has zero inhibitions. Ultimately subverted, because Ergo never does anything villainous. Many of the bad things he does are actually Proxy One's.
- Anti-Anti-Christ: He is to end the world, but he doesn't want to.
- Badass Creed: Are the last lines of the series, but damn - it's a badass way to close a series.Vincent: " I am Ergo Proxy - the agent of death."
- Become a Real Boy: Like Pino in this respect and also why he hopefully will also survive on contact with sunlight.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Vincent is even tempered, generous and kind to almost everyone he meets, until you threaten him or Pino.
- Berserker Tears: Vincent is prone to these while in Proxy form. Usually while killing another Proxy.
- Book Dumb: Vincent is terrible at trivia. Checks out, considering his self-imposed memory problems.
- Broken Tears: Several times over the course of the series. Most notable is when Vincent is lying on the ground weeping after Proxy One forces him to face the fact that he is a Proxy.
- Bungled Suicide: Vincent attempts this by jumping from the dome exhaust pipe after being accused of treason, ending his goal of becoming a "fellow citizen".
- The Chosen One: Hoody said that Vincent was this to the rest of the commune dwellers when they started to suspect him. Then it ended up sort of being true...
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite being a clumsy wimp, Vincent is surprisingly good with a pistol and survivalism. And then there is the fact that he's one of the most powerful if not the most powerful Proxy alive.
- Dark and Troubled Past: As Ergo Proxy he constructed the Romdeau Dome only to abandon it to live with his lover, Monad Proxy.
- Determinator: He won’t go down until he’s finished with his goal.
- Dirty Coward: While being chased by a proxy during the second episode, he runs to a crowded mall and flees through the crowd shooting at it as it violently carves its way through the crowd trying to reach him. He even pushes Pino and her "mother" out of the way, resulting in the latter's death. He gets better as the story progresses.
- Dodge the Bullet: In Proxy form.
- Doom Magnet: Picks up on this before the reveal. Well, he is the agent of death.Vincent: " Am I the Angel of Death? Everything I touch stains with blood. Everyone around me dies."
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Really, its his whole head. When he starts, he has slicked over hair, closed eyes, and kind of a weird babyface. As he takes levels in badass, his eyes open, his hair gets spiky, and he gets a sharper jaw line. Even later, when he finally starts talking as his alter ego, his hair gets even spikier, his skin goes shadow-like, and his eyes go solid white. It could be hand waved as just his proxy form, but he stops returning to his original form by the end.
- The Drifter: During the middle section of the series Vincent travels the wastes with his sole synthetic companion Pino
- Eyes Always Shut: Starts out this way, but they open after he becomes less meek.
- Fanservice Pack: Over the course of the series, he gets better looking and even seems to grow several inches taller.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: As Ergo Proxy
- Good All Along: While in his Proxy form, Ergo commits some pretty reprehensible acts. However, it's revealed in the very final episode that the Ergo we see committing those acts is actually Proxy One. The real Ergo is still a berserker, but he stops short of murdering the innocent.
- Horrifying Hero: As Ergo Proxy he is often referred to as "a monster".
- It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Vincent has the habit of getting everyone he cares about killed, since he is the agent of death.
- Jekyll & Hyde: Initially, Ergo Proxy comes across as his Superpowered Evil Side and is a distinct entity from the meek Vincent.
- Kill the Ones You Love: Kills a berserk Monad in self-defense without knowing it.
- The Kirk: To Re-L's Spock and Pino's Mccoy.
- Meaningful Name: "Vincent" derives from the Latin word "Vincere", to win.
- Nice Guy: Vincent is pretty much a overall decent person wanting to help everyone from infected Autoreivs to snarky goth girls.
- Non-Action Guy: Subverted. Initially Vincent is portrayed as weak, submissive and incompetent as a foil to Re-L's Action Girl. But, in moments of danger Vincent is able to gather the courage to defend his friends using his impressive Gun Fu. When it is finally revealed that Vincent is a Proxy he gets upgraded to full Action Guy.
- Papa Wolf: Do NOT mess with Pino. Seriously, don't.
- Power Makes Your Voice Deep: Has a deeper voice when in Proxy form.
- Protagonist Without a Past: Vincent has no memories from his past life in Mosk.
- Psychotic Smirk: Often, typically as Ergo Proxy.
- Quest for Identity: The middle section of the series focuses on Vincent regaining his lost memories by traveling to the Mosk Dome.
- Really 700 Years Old: Ergo Proxy was responsible for the creation of the Romdeau dome, making him roughly a thousand years old.
- Reluctant Warrior: He’s a genuine Nice Guy, but he’d like to not be a part of war.
- Split-Personality Merge: During the finale it is implied that Vincent had finally come to terms with his past and was able to merge his powers as Ergo Proxy with the personality of Vincent Law.What has been divided, must become one.
- The Scapegoat: He's set up by Proxy One for a series of murders in Romdeau, leading to his exile.
- Screw Destiny: Vincent decides to continue to live in the world after the re-population of the earth, despite the fact that Proxies are now no longer useful and will be killed when exposed to sunlight. However, as a proxy created by Proxy One to withstand the weakness of UV light, he has no real way to die as a result of the sunlight.
- Stalker with a Crush: Doubly subverted. During the second episode the Intelligence Bureau attempts to convince Re-L that she was attacked by a stalker rather than a "monster". The investigators further try to guide her into placing the blame on the poor immigrant Vincent Law. By episode three it's revealed that is was in fact Vincent who was stalking her in the form of Ergo Proxy. Since Re-L is strongly implied to be a human clone of Monad Proxy, Ergo's lover, his stalker tendency toward her is justified.
- Superpower Lottery: Ergo Proxy is essentially a demi-god possessing Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Nigh-Invulnerability, Shapeshifting, and Immortality.
- Superpowered Evil Side: How Ergo Proxy manifests early on in the series
- Survivor Guilt: Vincent is indirectly responsible for getting the entire population of The Commune killed.
- Took a Level in Badass: Goes from a meek and ordinary young man to a hardcore badass.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Implied in the series finale. Vincent, having finally reconciled between his split personalities, watches as the source of most of his misery, The Creators, return to Earth. The look on his face says it all: he's about to kick some serious ass.
- Walking Spoiler: Where to even begin? Not only is he actually a proxy, but he's not even an original proxy. He was also created by Proxy One in his own image to create Romdeau out of spite for the creators. Vincent himself is an entirely separate persona made by Ergo Proxy as a means to forget his true nature and live in peace. Oh, and the proxy he killed in the very first episode in Re-L's apartment? Monad Proxy, who he was originally in love with prior to the Pulse of the Awakening.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Can do some rather questionable things as Ergo Proxy, though often they are justified.
Re-L Mayer
Re-L Mayer
Re-l Mayer
Re-L is a Intelligence Bureau investigator tasked with locating and destroying Cogito infected AutoReivs. One night after leaving an ongoing investigation she is confronted by a "monster" in her apartment. After this event she is caught in a net of conspiracies around the Cogito Virus, the Domed Cities and the mysterious "Proxies". While investigating she joins with the exiled Vincent Law and self aware AutoReiv Pino to expose the truth.- Action Girl: Takes down infected AutoReivs with her signature shotgun, She's even able to kill a Proxy with an FP bullet at one point.
- Ambiguously Human: It is subtly implied throughout the series that Re-l may not be human, but a imperfect clone of Monad Proxy, which would explain Vincent's inherent attraction to her.
- Anti-Hero: She's a bit cold emotionally and has a definite mean streak, but there's no question she's one of the good guys.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: She refuses to believe that Vincent is a Proxy until witnessing his transformation firsthand.
- Badass Longcoat: Arguably subverted; despite her competence at her job, she's nowhere near as badass as she presents herself, a fact that becomes apparent after leaving Romdeau. This is bitterly lampshaded by Iggy after he contracts the Cogito virus, when he calls her out on acting like a badass government agent when she's really kind of a spoiled brat. Just how accurate this is is ambiguous, however; it could just be the rantings of a wounded friend taken for granted for too long. And despite all that, she still remains tough as nails throughout ensuing events.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Vincent Law.
- Badass Normal: She is the Batman to Vincent's Superman.
- Bilingual Bonus: Her Name is spoken like the german word "Reell", meaning "Real" or "Really existing". Although the word "Reell" in german is rarely used outside of the context of Mathematics.
- Clone Angst: Subverted. Re-L has no reaction to the fact that she might be a clone of Monad Proxy since her own clone turns out to be a clone of the Proxy.
- The Comically Serious: Rarely drops the negative attitude, causing her to say some pretty amusing stuff.
- Deadpan Snarker: She never goes without a snarky retort.
- Decoy Protagonist: Re-L is initially portrayed as the protagonist of the series by most of the promotional material, by episode four she is demoted to Supporting Protagonist.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Hell of a slow thaw, though.
- Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: She is one to Vincent's Monad Proxy. There are implications that Re-L is a human clone of Monad herself, so this is an archetypical example.
- Dub Name Change: A sort of; her name is canonically spoken as "Reel Meyer", but the European Spanish dub changes it to as if it were "Re L. Meyer".
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Everyone else has normal skin tones, whereas Re-l is straight black and white.
- Emotionless Girl: mild example, she has the tendency to be angered easily.
- Good Is Not Nice: Vincent is well aware of this.
- Goth: She's something of a snarky, gloomy goth, dressing in all black and wearing lots of eyeshadow.
- Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Re-l isn't evil, but you couldn't tell that by looking at her.
- Hot-Blooded: Especially when compared to the rest of the citizens of Romdo.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Her pale blue eyes compliment hergoth aesthetic.
- Intelligence Equals Isolation: She chafes at Romdeau, where much of the human population are so coddled and helpless that they're effectively automata.
- Faking the Dead: Re-l fakes her death at the hands of Cogito infected Autoreivs, so that she can sneak out of Romdeau to pursue Vincent and uncover his connection with the Proxies.
- Great Detective: Re-L works as a detective of the Romdeau Intelligence Bureau. In actuality, however, she can barely do anything without Iggy's help.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She initially comes off as cold and arrogant, especially towards Vincent, but goes out of her way to rescue him.
- Kiss of Distraction: She uses this on Vincent to distract him from the pistol loaded with Proxy killing FP bullets. She attempts this again later on, but it's actually to lower his guard so she can remove an irritating strand of hair on his chin. No kissing actually happens.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Re-L to Vincent. She’s a hardcore no-nonsense detective who will not stop until she’s got everything done.
- Mercy Kill: She kills the decapitated Cogito infected Iggy.
- Mistaken Identity: A possible explanation for why Ergo comes to her crying is because he mistakes her for a sane Monad. Given the implications, Ergo is not too far off the mark.
- Nepotism: Since her grandfather is the Regent Re-L is given a great deal more liberty than you're average citizen, that is until her grandfather decides she's disobeyed him too many times and decides to have her assassinated.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Re-L bears a very strong resemblance to Amy Lee.
- Reincarnation Romance: It is strongly implied that Re-L is some form of clone of Monad Proxy, Ergo Proxy's deceased lover. This explains why Ergo Proxy first confronts Re-L in her apartment.
- Replacement Goldfish: It's implied that Vincent is drawn to her because she greatly resembles/ is a clone of Monad Proxy.
- Rule-Abiding Rebel: All Re-L does is complain about the monotony of her utopian city, but does nothing to change it.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Re-L ignores her orders to end her investigation of the Proxies.
- Seeker Archetype: Re-l becomes obsessed with uncovering the nature of Proxies to the point that she is willing to discard her previous life.
- Small Name, Big Ego: She's not a small name by any mean, but she's nowhere near competent enough to treat people in a dismissive manner early on. Count the number of times she would have lost in a fight without help.
- The Spock: Re-L is rational and skeptical, playing off of Pino's childlike naivety.
- Spoiled Brat: She's the granddaughter of the regent and she has no qualms about using it to her advantage.
- Sweet Tooth: She has a thing for ginger ale.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Re-L is very masculine and decisive. She's also not above having a flashy hairstyle and wearing bright makeup every day. It's shown that she brings enough makeup to last for months on her journey with Vincent.
- Tsundere: towards Vincent Law. At the beginning of the series she doesn't pay any attention to the lowly immigrant, once she learns his true nature o she frequently abuses him by to test the extent of his power.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: Towards Vincent Law
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Judging from some old videos from Daedalus, Re-l seemed to be pretty cheerful growing up. Then she just became... gloomy.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: In the end, Re-l just wants her grandfather's love and recognition.
- When She Smiles: At the end of episode 16, upon seeing Re-l give a true smile, Vincent is seen blushing.
Pino
Pino
Voiced by Akiko Yajima (JP), Rachel Hirschfeld (EN)
Pino
Pino is one of the three main characters of Ergo Proxy. Pino is a "companion-type AutoReive" designed to act as a surrogate daughter to residents of Romdeau who are prohibited from rearing children, in her case Raul Creed and his wife. During the course of the show Pino becomes infected with the Cogito Virus which gives her a consciousness and full range of emotions, as such Pino often behaves like a normal (if not hyperactive) young girl.
- Become a Real Boy: See Meaningful Name. It's kind of implied that this does happen in a literal sense, and it's necessary for the series to have a happy ending of any kind as otherwise, she'd be killed by ultraviolet light like all autoreives.
- Cheerful Child: Throughout the series she's always optimistic regardless of the situation.
- Creepy Child: Before Character Development.
- Curious as a Monkey: Comes with being a child.
- The McCoy: She is childish and emotional in contrast to Re-L's stoic rationalism.
- Meaningful Name: She shares a name with Pino of Black Jack, and for both of them the name alludes to Pinocchio and their status as an artificial child.
- Please Wake Up: Can't understand that her friend Timothy has died.
- The Pollyanna: There’s almost nothing that will get her down.
- Robot Girl: She is a companion AutoReiv designed to be a couples surrogate child.
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Averted for the most part. Pino no has outstanding functions beyond her role as a companion robot, much to Re-L's initial frustration. But, she does appear to have incredible strength despite her small size as Pino managed to lift Re-L's total body weight with one arm after the latter needed saving from Romdeau's falling structures.
Romdeau
Iggy
Iggy
Voiced by Kiyomitsu Mizuuchi (JP), Travis Willingham (EN)
Iggy
Iggy is a supporting character within the series. Iggy is Re-L's loyal robotic entourage who acts as a personal assistant when she works as an inspector with the Bureau of Intelligence.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Double Subverted. He gets infected with the Cogito virus when Romdeau's ruler sics his Autoreivs on Re-L, but actually keeps his sanity for a time. Then Re-L orders him to go back to Romdeau on his own, at which point it kicks in for real.
- Alas, Poor Scrappy: In-Universe. Re-L clearly doesn't like being around him for much of his screentime, on account of believing him to be Just a Machine and her grandfather's spy. It's only after he rails on her under the effects of the Cogito virus, and has to be put down after saving her life that she shows any sincere affection towards him.
- Ambiguously Gay: Later episodes reveal that Re-l deliberately chose him to sound this way. However, he doesn’t show any real homosexual tendencies.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: There are infected robots who turn out good. What happens to him is closer to a personality disorder born out of abuse. Part of him still loves Re-L and part of him knows that she treats him terribly.
- Jekyll & Hyde: As he lays dying in Re-L's lap, he continually shifts between his old personality, who
begs Re-L to forgive him and not to hate him, and his Cogito infected self, who angrily blames her for getting him killed. The possible implication being that even after developing sentience, it was the Cogito infection causing him to attempt his kidnapping and murder not Iggy - Jerkass Has a Point: Subverted. After completely losing it, he chews out Re-L essentially for thinking herself more Badass than she really is, but whether one agrees with him or not, his "plan" (consisting of dragging Re-L back to Romdeau, where she'll likely be arrested and/or executed, and he'll likely be decomissioned for being infected) is so unbelievably half-baked, that his only response is to ignore Re-L for calling him out on it. And that's not even getting into trying to kill Vincent to keep Re-L for himself, basically decimating whatever point he could possibly have.
- Killed Off for Real: After Re-l performs a Mercy Kill.
- Nice Guy: Peppy, supporting, optimistic, and protective, hard to see why Re-L dislikes him at first. Until later that is.
- Straight Gay: Or at the very least "Asexual Gay".
- The Watson: Iggy acts as this to Re-L during her time as a inspector.
- Wham Line: “You always were a selfish bitch, Re-L.” The viewer gets a crash course in just how true the statement is in the preceding scene.
- Yandere: Becomes this later in the series after getting the Cogito Virus.
Raul Creed
Raul Creed
Voiced by Hikaru Hanada (JP), Patrick Seitz (EN)
Raul Creed
Raul Creed is the newly appointed Director-General of the Citizen Security Bureau, who reports directly to the Regent. He and his wife took Pino as a surrogate child prior to the beginning of the series. Initially loyal to the system, he comes to despise the ruling order responsible for the city's slow decay and lashes out destructively. With this is his despising of Vincent Law, whom he blames for killing his wife and infant child during Vincent's chase with Monad early in the series.
- Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain: Depending on your interpretation of him.
- Ax-Crazy: Post Sanity Slippage.
- Badass Longcoat: Almost always wearing one. As for badass, he proves to be pretty amazing at fighting Autoreivs and hiding himself when he needs to.
- Break the Haughty: The whole show does this to him. From his wife and child’s death to Pino betraying him.
- Da Chief: He is the director of the Security Bureau, thus putting him completely above Vince and almost above Re-L in terms of prestige.
- Dark Messiah: Becomes this to the human residents of Romdeau, after the autoriev situation goes out of control. It ends with a 90 percent of the population dying. Not that there were any better options once the proxies dissapear.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not to Re-L's extent, but he has his moments. The best one might be when he flatly calls out the Regent on how pretentious is to call a missile weapon "Rapture".
- Deer in the Headlights: As he sees his wife and recent born adopted son getting killed in front of his eyes, Raul just keeps staring with a blank expression. At first it appears to be a case of him being stoic, but then we learn that it was probably an awfully repressed shock.
- Determinator: Once Vincent leaves Romdeau, Raul becomes hell-bent on capturing him and bringing him to justice.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Almost killed Proxy One, the most powerful Proxy in the world.
- Do Not Go Gentle: He is decided to go fighting, trying his best to overcome the new humans faults and to live in a world without proxies. Sadly for him, his efforts are misguided thanks to his hate for Vincent/Ergo.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Still love Pino after going insane. In fact, it's possible that a contributing factor to his insanity is Pino leaving with Vincent.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even after he goes insane, Raul finds Daedalus' attempts to clone Re-L for his own purposes to be utterly disgusting.
- Rogue Agent: For a while, thanks to calling the Regent out on his attitude. However is soon obvious Romdeau has gone to shit In such a way that the Regent prefers to put Raul in the position again. Not that it helps anyone.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Fatherly version. He was obviously jealous of seeing Pino treat Vincent like a father/older brother figure. And part of his return to sanity begins once he realizes Pino had actually been thinking and drawing him too, which makes him drop his quest to save Romdeau in an attempt to get to see her one last time.
- Inspector Javert: Shades of it anyway.
- It's Personal: Blames Vincent Law for the death of his wife and infant son.
- Killed Off for Real: Real/Monad mortally wounds him when he tells her he is gonna kill Vince. After that he just regains his composture and wanders looking for his daughter. He doesnt get to see her, although his feelings will probably reach her thanks to Kristeva.
- Laughing Mad: When shooting Proxy One (whom he believes to be Ergo) in the arm.
- Nietzsche Wannabe: Definitely becomes more of a nihilist post-Sanity Slippage
- Nay-Theist: Wants to create a world that has no need for Proxies.
- Never Got to Say Goodbye: To his surrogate Autoreive daughter Pino. However he did entrust Kristeva with protecting her.
- Sanity Slippage: The death of his family and the certain doom of the city he was put on charge of eventually take a toll on his sanity. He recovers far too late.
- Spanner in the Works: Tries to be this for Vince and Re-L out of spite for the former. Eventually he doesn't succeed, but not for the reasons one would expect. Their journey was more important than the destination.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Quite a lot.
- The Stoic: Until he goes completely insane.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Starts as this. Descends into a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds, before coming to his senses in his final moments.
Kristeva
Daedalus Yumeno
Daedalus Yumeno
Voiced by Sanae Kobayashi (JP), Yuri Lowenthal (EN)
Daedalus Yumeno
Daedalus Yumeno is the chief physician leading the Proxy Research Team, Director of the Division of Health and Welfare in Romdo, and Re-l Mayer 's personal physician. He has two Entourages, a pair of modified AutoReivs known as Deleuze and Guatarri. In the final episodes, Daedalus has been revealed to have created a fake Re-l as a replacement for the Re-l, who has become obsessed with Vincent Law causing Daedalus to feel rejected. He also has shown that he has cracked-up mentally and that he no longer cares what happens to the world. Daedalus, concluding that Re-l has always left him behind, and is later crushed by falling rubble during the collapse of the dome of Romdo. He survives long enough to witness his clone Re-l dying, being incinerated by sunlight as she flies into the sky out of the collapsing dome of Romdo.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: To Re-l in Vincent's dream sequence in episode 20.
- Ax-Crazy: Not to Raul's extent, but he's clearly unbalanced.
- Creepy Monotone: He almost never raises his voice.
- Death Seeker: The looming destruction of Romdeau doesn't concern him because Real is there by his side. Too bad she abandons him to die alone in the end.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: He didn’t expect to die this way.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Is madly in love with Re-L, but she doesn't reciprocate. He continues to give her favor after favor, even putting his position at stakes just for her. When it's clear that he will never win her over, Daedalus resorts to creating a Re-L of his own and disregarding the original entirely.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: His androgynous appearance and feminine voice make it very easy to mistake him for a girl.
- Face Death with Dignity: Doesn't flinch when Raul points a gun at him and shoots. Of course, it could be that he knows Real will protect him, which she does. His actual death is much less dignified, however.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Towards anyone close to Rea-L.
- Improbable Age: His info says he’s 21. He looks younger. How the story plays out, you’d think he was the only scientist on staff, and knows all the secrets. Even with a doctorate by 16, and knowledge requirements for his work still makes it improbable that he could handle as much as he does without some kind of mentor hanging around.
- Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Never seen without it.
- Killed Off for Real: During the fall of the dome of Romdo, he is trapped under debris in the final episode, living just long enough to see his creation, Real, burn up into the sun, fitting to his name.
- Love Makes You Crazy: Daedalus' "love" for Re-L drives him to clone her, so that he may be with her. Problem is the clone isn't really that into him either. How does Daedalus cope with rejection? He decides to kill everyone in Romdo.
- Mad Scientist: He’s one of the youngest examples of these in media. He lusts after Re-L and makes a clone of her.
- Only Friend: His creation, Real.
- Older Than He Looks: Could easily pass for a young teenager. Some viewers tend to mistake his gender as well. It doesn't help that he's voiced by women in Japanese and in all dubs but English, where even then he is voiced by the somewhat feminine Yuri Lowenthal.
- It's actually invoked in-universe. Vincent mistakes Daedalus for Re-L's younger brother in his dream, even though the latter is 2 years Re-L senior.
- Only Friend: His creation, Real.
- Meaningful Name: Named after the Greek mythological figure Daedalus, the expert craftsmen who constructs paper wings for him and his son, Icarus. This is referenced in the series finale when Real/Monad Proxy flies towards the sun to commit suicide.
- Not Good with Rejection: Re-L and her clone Real choosing Vincent over him.
- Stalker with a Crush: Towards Re-L, even going so far as to create a human-Proxy hybrid clone of her all for himself.
- The Peeping Tom: Possesses numerous recording of Re-L throughout her life.
- Wife Husbandry: Create Real to be his lover because Re-L never loves him. The cloning process doesn't produce an adult instantly.
- Yandere: Towards Re-L.
Donov Mayer
Donov Mayer
Re-L's grandfather and the ruler of Romdo City.- Calling the Old Man Out: Despite all the crap he's pulled, it's Donovan (through the Council) that does this to Proxy One when they're reunited, begging him to explain why he abandoned his devoted followers and why his love was unreturned.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: Donov is clearly in terribly health, hooked up to IV machines and a breathing device, and apparently struggles even to push buttons on his throne.
- Decoy Leader: Acts as one for Proxy One.
- Evil Old Folks: Tries to have his granddaughter Re-L killed for poking around too much. Given that Re-L is implied to be a clone, it's possible that he feels no true attachment towards her.
- Light Is Not Good: Wears white, has a spotlight shining directly upon him, and holds a fascisic grip on his City in a Bottle.
- The Voiceless: A very weird example; the "Council" seem to have distinct personalities, but they act as the Mouth of Sauron (despite him being right there), and continue to function after his death. How he communicates with them and why he never speaks directly to his visitors is never clarified.
- Regent for Life: Explicitly referred to as the city's regent. Subverted in that a large part of his motivation is to avert this trope: his slavish and fanatic devotion to Proxy One is a large part of his raison d'etre and he desperately wishes to resume serving his god directly rather than ruling in his absence.
Other Proxies
Proxy One (SPOILERS)
Proxy One
Voiced by Hōchū Ōtsuka (JP), Dameon Clarke (EN)
Proxy One
- Big Bad: The final enemy Vince/Ergo faces.
- Evil Counterpart: To Vincent/Ergo Proxy. Proxy One is actually the original, as Ergo Proxy is a duplicate created by him.
- Evil Versus Evil: He's pretty much responsible for much of the story's events, and ultimately, Romdeau's destruction, but everything he's done is in retaliation for what the Creators have done and are planning to do.
- Large Ham: Once Re-L discovers who he is, is pretty obvious he is enjoying the reveal.
- Game Face: He spends his earliest appearances looking like a duplicate of Vincent. Once he decides to fight Ergo Proxy, his facial features become dark and twisted.
- God Is Flawed: A fact that bothers him a lot. Like other Proxies, he was made to die once the earth got healed.
- The Man Behind the Man: Both figuratively and literally; at the end of the series he's encountered sitting on a throne located behind Donev Mayer's throne room.
- Manipulative Bastard: manipulates Vincent, Raul, Daedalus, and The Regent.
- Psychotic Smirk: his default expression.
- Screw Destiny: Proxy One creates Ergo Proxy as a act of rebellion against The Creators.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Proxy One despises The Creators for creating flawed beings like himself, so he wants to wipe out all of humanity as revenge.
- Übermensch: Fits the bill. He was created to heal the planet Earth, and then die so that it would be handed over to his Creators. Proxy One essentially decided "Fuck that", and instead rejected their plans and ideals, opting to create a proxy who could survive sunlight i.e. Ergo Proxy, both to ensure at least one Proxy survived the genocide, and as a big, fat screw you to the Creators.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He's part of a species of immortal demigods who are intended to self-destruct when planet Earth heals up, as thanks for having fixed the mess their creators started in the first place. Understandably, he's a bit upset.
Monad Proxy
Monad Proxy/ Real
Voiced by Sachiko Kojima (JP), Carrie Savage (EN)
Monad Proxy Spoiler
RealMonad Proxy is the Proxy of Birth and the regent of Mosk. Monad first makes an appearance as a deformed BDSM-looking monster that massacres dozens of civilians to kill the lowly immigrant Vincent Law. Once she confronts Vincent he uses his Proxy powers to kill Monad. Monad shares an intimate relationship with Ergo Proxy to the point that she is willing to absorb his painful memories leading to her insanity. Monad returns in the later episodes as a clone of Re-L by the Yandere Doctor Dedalus who creepily names her "Real".
- Beware the Nice Ones: Real is a very shy and caring girl. Threaten a man she cares about and she will send you away with blood on your gut, as Raul finds out.
- Dark Is Evil: Initially a darkly-colored, monochrome monster with a mutilated-looking face, usually seen only in shadow or moving too fast to make out clearly, she slaughters people without restraint or consideration. Subverted in that this is only after going insane; while it's unclear how much of her original personality transferred to either Re-L or Real, she was at best a genuinely Nice Girl and at worst Good Is Not Nice.
- Death Seeker: Monad attempts to convince her lover Ergo Proxy/Vincent to die with her given that the purpose of the proxies has been completed. Vincent refuses stating that he wants to live on with Re-L.
- Driven to Madness: By accepting Ergo Proxy's memories (along with the experiments conducted on her comatose body)Monad is turned into a hideous disfigured monster that goes out of its way to kill Vincent Law
- Icarus Allusion: Monad's death is a direct reference to the death of Icarus by flying too close to the sun.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Monad wants more than anything for Ergo Proxy to be happy.
- Light Is Good: As Real, she's heavily associated with angelic attributes, including wings, white hair and white clothing, and shows every sign of being a caring (if perhaps overly pessimistic) soul. Even her death - in the sunlight no less - might actually be an ascension.
- Non-Indicative Name: Naming her Real is a little ironic because she's a clone of Re-L and Monad Proxy.
- Polar Opposite Twins : Real, despite being a clone of Re-L, is her almost exact opposite. In contrast to Re-L's cold personality and gothic attire; Real is submissive, affectionate, and only wears white.
- Replacement Goldfish: Real is created to fill the hole Re-L left behind in Daedalus.
- Luminescent Blush: Real blushes when she encounters the monstrous Ergo Proxy for the first time.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The climax may not have been so destructive if Monad didn't kill Raul's family. The resulting grief drives Raul to cause some really big mess in a quest for vengeance.
- Winged Humanoid: As Monad in the later episodes.
- Would Hurt a Child: Kills several people in the mall, including Raul's infant child.
Senex Proxy
Senex Proxy
- Asshole Victim: Is brutally murdered by Ergo Proxy. She kind of deserves that after her treatment of the Charios soldiers.
- Cool Mask: An one eyed black mask.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Vincent completely trashes her.
- Kill All Humans: It seems so at first, but Kazkis Proxy reveals she was only trying to get rid of the humans that were living in Charios, as they were misguided and a lost cause.
- Limp and Livid: How she walks.
- Lunacy: The Proxy of the Moon.
- Mook Horror Show: She slaughters the people from her city that lost their way and only lived to battle, in gruesome detail. This is seen from their own point of view.
- Mystical White Hair: She has this.
- Unholy Matrimony: With the Kaskis Proxy. They were seemingly a couple who was going to take care of the two cities together.
Kazkis Proxy
Kazkis Proxy
- Affably Evil: He is polite, well mannered, and clearly cultured. He also tries to murder Vince as soon as he realizes what he did.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Gives several of these to Vincent to make him remember who he is.
- Avenging the Villain: He tries to avenge Senex after realizing Ergo Proxy's actions.
- The Alcoholic: Constantly drinking wine. It seems to have no effect on him whatsoever.
- Code Name: When in human form, he goes with the name of Kazkis Hauer.
- Cool Mask: His proxy face is actually a stone-like mask, similar to Ergo´s.
- Death Seeker: At the end, it's clear he is not really interested in killing Vince even after considering him a traitor. He most likely knew due to the Pulse Of Awakening that his time had come to end.
- Glamour: His city, Ashura, looks beautiful and high tech from his window. This is, however, just a hologram superimposed on the real, outside city, a decaying monument devoid of any human life.
- Motive Decay: For a Proxy, he did a terrible job maintaining the humans of his dome alive.
- Playing with Fire: Has the ability to produce fire, not seen in other proxies.
- The Power of the Sun: He is the Proxy Of The Sun.
- Replacement Goldfish: Sees Vince as this for Senex, until realizing he lost his memories.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Once he realizes Vince has abandoned his memories as a proxy, he loses his shit and tries to murder him, considering him a traitor of their cause.
- Unholy Matrimony: With Senex Proxy.
- Warrior Poet: Gives shades of this during his confrontation with Ergo Proxy.
- We Can Rule Together: Says this to Vince, although there is nothing left to rule anymore.
Bookstore Proxy
Bookstore Proxy
- Cool Old Guy: Appeared as an old Librarian.
- Badass Finger Snap: He activated his powers via snapping his fingers.
- Mind over Matter: Basically what he did. He went inside Vince´s mind and made him face the fact that he was a Proxy.
Cave Proxy
Cave Proxy
- The Brute: Whatever he was before, he is now reduced to a giant, grunting abomination of a man.
- Badass and Child Duo: With the little android girl that takes care of him.
- The Voiceless: Doesn't speak.
- No Name Given: Like many others.
- It Can Think: Iggy ultimately notices that he was guarding Womb Machines similar to the ones in Romdeau. Its implied he used to take care of his city a long time ago like the average Proxy, until something happened that made he lose his sanity.
Doppelganger Proxy
Doppelganger Proxy
- Axe-Crazy: The guy is a real piece of work, as you can see. He murdered literally everyone in town and buried them in the local lake.
- Doppelganger: What he is. His true, original shape has been lost in time and now he just assumes the form of whoever he wants.
- Driven to Suicide: He tries to kill himself along with Vince as to not be lonely.
- Identity Impersonator: Takes on Vince´s and Re-L identities and it outright says that he took on every citizen identity at some point in an effort to be loved.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: His motivation.
- Kill All Humans: He killed everyone on his Dome, because he didnt feel loved by them.
- Mind Screw: The episode on which he appears is this, thanks to him disguising himself as Vince and Re-L and confusing both multiple times just to toy with them.
- Missing Reflection: He does not reflect on the water.
- No Name Given: Remains unnamed like several other Proxies.
- Taking You with Me: See above.
MCQ
MCQ
- The Announcer: For his own show.
- Catchphrase: "Q-Q-Q-Q!"
- Dissonant Serenity: Rather unfazed when proclaiming he is about to die.
- Graceful Loser: Has zero problem with dying and even seems cheerful Vince defeated him in the quiz match. It is also implied he was seeking death as of hearing the Pulse Of Awakening.
- Knowledge Broker: While most Proxies are implied to know about everything, he even seems to know about Vince´s story and even Proxy One.
- Large-Ham Announcer: Verily so, fitting for the kind of show he leads.
- Mr. Exposition: Thanks to him, we get a lot of data about the world the characters are living in and the story. In fact, the chapter he appears on is rather important to get it all correctly.
- Non-Action Guy: Engages Vince in a quiz match, instead of a outright battle.
- Slave to PR: Definitively. The guy is just about to die, but still takes time to call his viewers, joke around, give orders to the camera men, etc.
Will B. Good
Will B. Good
- Anti-Villain: Probably one of the nicest Proxies out there, if a little coward.
- Bread and Circuses: His motto. He is trying to make the humans of his dome as happy as they can be before they eventually die out like the original humans in space designed.
- Catchphrase: Fittingly, "Good!".
- The Creator: His creations call him this. And indeed he creates a lot.
- Expy: Of Walt Disney, complete with his own theme park and cartoon creations.
- Lovable Coward: A good guy no matter how you see it, and he is terrified of Ergo Proxy since he knows once they meet one of them is gonna die -and it will be definitively be him-. As so, he tries to get on Pino good side to get her to spew out what is Ergo´s weakness. It doesnt work. Asking her to ask Vince to avoid his city however does.
- Medium Blending: He appears entirely white and black and in old style film animation.
- Mysterious Middle Initial: We never get to know what the B. stands for.
- Non-Action Guy: Clearly not a fighter, as Autoreivs made for entertaining children manage to beat him up. That said, his planning and his will manage to save his Dome from destruction, if only he did that to make his humans happy.
- Red Baron: The Creator.
- Super-Fun Happy Thing of Doom: Smile Land is this, although its not entirely his fault as the people from the Domes were intended to die in the first place. He just decided that, since that is inevitable, he wants to let them die while experiencing all kinds of joy and bliss.
- The Svengali: The guy tries, but thanks to a probable Cogito infection his creations easily turn against him and beat him.
