[SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THIS REVIEW! I'D RECOMMEND READING THE MANGA AND WATCHING THE SERIES (though watch the series first, of course) BEFORE READING THIS REVIEW!]:

The Narrative:

So, Centzon Hitchers and Undertaker is a side-story or rather what I'd call a companion piece to the anime since it takes place between Episodes 3 & 4 of the anime after Vincent and Pino escape from Romdeau and are with Hoody and everyone in the Commune and is a past tale told from Hoody to Pino about a story that happens within the past with a very special kind of Autoreiv. That's the summary I'm giving cause I'm not trying to violate the Review Guidelines any further. So, the story is fairly simple starting out, but I'd say much like the series it grows in scale as it progresses and it works pretty well in its favor. We're even given some foreshadowing to things that happen in the series itself (which you won't get if you don't watch and finish the entire anime first before reading this), which is pretty neat for someone like me who finished watching the series not that long ago. It's well-paced for a pretty short ten-chapter-long manga and I think they do a good job expanding on the lore of the universe while also giving us a glimpse into what life was like back before the series took place (which frankly isn't all THAT different, but there's certainly more people seen outside of Romdeau and the domes compared to the anime.) I think its length is pretty good and they don't waste the reader's time by padding it out with anything unnecessary the story is pretty straight to the point once you realize by the end what it's going for (an origin story things like the Commune and the Centzon Vince and everyone else rides during the anime.) A- overall, if only for things SOMETIMES seemingly just kinda...happening out of nowhere at times.

The Characters:

Well, the Ergo Proxy anime has some PHENOMENAL characters, both in their visual design and writing, so how does THIS manga stack up to its bigger brother anime? Well...it's...pretty good! Not as good as the anime's cast, for sure, but far from bad. The characters who AREN'T Vincent, Pino, and Hoody are all original and they all fit pretty well into the universe. Once the main characters are rounded up you've got Leon, an astronomer, Heart, a mercenary, and Dorothy, the 'special' autoreiv that is easily the most iconic thing about this manga, so it's a nice diverse cast. Once they're together they honestly work like a family much like Vincent, Re-l, and Pino did in THEIR own time together, so I guess Leon's 'Three Amigos' are in a way predecessors to them. The characters are likable, albeit a little bit more wise-cracking than anyone from the anime (there's some gags and stuff in this manga that just straight-up don't exist in the anime, and it both benefits and hurts this manga in its tone if I'm to be frank.) I enjoyed watching how they all overcame everything that was thrown at them and seeing Leon especially go from being an absolute jerk to Dorothy to genuinely caring about her almost like a child was quite sweet to see. This section's honestly probably the best part about this manga and probably where I'll have the most to say about anything here, so A-, only for some instances where the characters feel a little too cartoonish at times and it hurts the tone of the story.

The Visuals:

Probably the section I don't have all that much to talk about, frankly. The environments are nicely drawn and look how you'd expect an Ergo Proxy manga to look. Characters both original and from the anime also look pretty on-point and really only Dorothy I would say is the outlier because she's made to be the main character in a way, though it's only because of her outfit. The parts where they show stars were probably my favorite parts visually of the manga since they contrast so much with everything else and it's the only time where I personally feel the manga pops outside of some parts towards the end with some admittedly nice-looking pages and panels. I personally wish we could've gotten at least a glimpse at Romdeau, though I suppose they didn't want to end up having to write more stuff, especially since they'd probably have to include Raul Creed and Kristeva, which makes me wonder what they would've even done with them or Re-l here, so maybe that's why. Anywho, it's a solid A effort for a single mangaka who did BOTH the writing AND art.

The Conclusion:

Overall, as a companion piece to Ergo Proxy, an already obscure anime, it's no surprise that nobody's really reviewed this or anything, it's good for what it is and serves as extra material for fans to dive into if they loved Ergo Proxy and wanted a little more of it (like me.) If you can find an English Translation of it somewhere or can somehow track a physical copy of somehow out in the wild, I'd give it a read if you enjoyed the anime. That's all I've really got to say at this time, honestly. With such a straight-to-the-point manga that's small like this, I guess you can't expect me to have much to say on it, it's just a decent side-manga for a pretty peak underrated series.