My short review is

Ergo Proxy is a masterpiece anime that has an AMAZING combination of mystery, action, character development, humor, complexity, and darkness. Not darkness in a horror sense, but darkness as in mysterious and unknown. I finished the series and it's ending was a little hard to understand, but moreso everyone told me that it was complicated and I was expecting so much. If you've watched Game of Thrones, Future Diary's OVA ending, Monogatari, or even NCIS, you'll be fine. This show is great and I was personally emotionally invested into it. Gotta love badass scene chicks that run around blasting the heads off her enemies while one-handing a shotgun, right?

My longer (and more personal) review is

I know I'm a little bit late to the party.

But I do not want to just shove away my feelings for this anime because it's 10 or 11 years old now.

First off, the darkness in the anime was something I haven't seen before-and I love it. No, it wasn't scary like Afraid of Monsters, it wasn't gruesome like Elfen Lied, it wasn't creepy like Tokyo Ghoul, it wasn't intense like Attack on Titan, it wasn't uncomforting like Future Diary. If I had to compare it to something, it'd be to Max Payne. Forget that the movie was a failure, forget that it was terrible, forget that it screwed up in every aspect. Compare it to the first two games if you have to. It had a darkness like that which was present. And it was perfect in my eyes, I can't help but crave more. Speaking of Max Payne, if you max him a chick, added a little bit of teenage scene bitch, and made her 19, you'd get Re-L. She's also hot as hell lol. I managed to develop a slight crush on her.

The strongest part of the show is how well thought out it is. Some writers have the point there characters want to be by the end of the series and rather than making them work for it, they just walk right into it. They also have a series of events that they want to have happen but they don't really know where or what will have to happen in order for their story to be what it is or execute their ideas blankly. Ergo Proxy's events are defined and the character development is well earned. This show is sort of complicated, yeah. I don't really know how you come up with something like this to be honest with you. The "77.7%" average score does it a major disservice. I've been calling it a masterpiece and I believe it has well lived up to that title. Between you and me, I think that the people who rated it poorly either never finished the series, didn't pay attention, or didn't have the mental capacity to understand the ending. Even though the ending's not even that hard to understand.

The character development is easily the second strongest part of the show. We have Re-L who starts off as a spoiled bitch. She then advances to badass. Then to ungreatful, easy to harshly judge, and hostile. Finally, she ends being the badass she always was but with a a heart (she cried at the loss of her relative and after having to shoot her friend, even though he didn't die).

The art gives you a dark, mysterious, but interesting vibe. It's not bad for being ten years old. It does an AMAZING job portraying the darkness and edgyness that this show has to offer. I'm not a fan of sci-fi anime. I'm not a fan of modern day anime at all, honestly. But this anime had me on the edge of my seat during almost any episode.

It's not perfect, though. The fillers, like the question show and "smile land" were god awful. Like, talking ninja ostrich from Naruto Shippuden level awful. The first six episodes are also sort of slow and linear.

This is where my review gets personal. When I watched it, there were things present that I haven't really seen since the mid 2000's. It had a bit of 2005/2006 cheesiness that I haven't seen ANYWHERE since 2009 at the latest. It had things present, like tools, technology, social norms, and habits that were extremely nastolgic for me. I can't really explain it. But that is why I'm so emotionally invested into it. Go and watch the first few episodes of CSI or NCIS, that will give you an example of what I mean. Or if you don't have the time, just take a quick peek at the music video for "Wake me up" by Evanescence. Things that were advanced, "cool," and basically the flavor of the day back then are present in this show. It has a darkness and edginess that was easy to find in the late 1990's to about 2009 that I have just craved for so long. I've had shit happen in my life and the reason I'm so draw to this vibe is because I haven't experienced it since I was young, too young to understand the world, but happy enough to laugh and smile. After finishing this anime, I actually broke down and cried at the realization that 2006 was 10 years ago.