In a desolate world all humans live in domed cities to protect them from the hostile environment outside. Each human wishes to become a citizen of one of these domed cities. The citizens live side by side with Autoreivs, robots that have been designed to be companions to the humans. Consumerism is encouraged and emotions are repressed. The society is "perfect". It is tranquil. It is boring. What people don’t know is that their perfect society is hiding a rotten core.

In the domed city of Romdo a woman named Re-l Mayer is an investigator for the Civil Intelligence Office. She investigates Autoreivs that are infected with the Cogito virus and terminates them. She is also the parole officer of a recent immigrant, Vincent Law, a man seeking to become a citizen of Romdo. Re-l is also the granddaughter of the ruler of the city and so has a certain amount of latitude that is not granted to ordinary citizens. She is a citizen and so is accompanied by her own Entourage type Autoreiv, Iggy. Iggy looks like a well-built, but not over muscled, man, but when his personality is activated he is effeminate. In the process of investigating infected Autoreivs, Re-l encounters a monstrous being that seems to hold feelings for her. This monster is almost immediately attacked and driven away by a similarly monstrous being.

These creatures are called Proxies. Their roles are unknown and they are said to be invulnerable. While this much is known about the Proxies, they are mostly a mystery. And Vincent Law finds himself right at the center of the mystery when he is attacked by the second Proxy. Suddenly all of Romdo is interested in Vincent Law. He escapes the dome and is followed by Re-l and they, together with an Cogito infected Autoreiv, journey across the wasteland to Vincent’s former city to try to discover the secrets behind the Proxies. During this journey they meet other humans, mutants, and Proxies.

Ergo Proxy is very hard to explain. I watched it and most of it didn’t make sense until I watched the last episode and even then I was left with questions. I guess I should say that the story in each individual episode made sense, but it was difficult to see how all the individual storylines contributed to the overall plot. The characters were trying to discover the secrets behind the Proxies, but isn’t as if they uncover a plethora of clues. If anything each episode builds the confusion until the truth is revealed in the last five minutes of the final episode and the ending raises more questions than it resolves.

I liked parts of Ergo Proxy, but I don’t think that I want to watch it again. The artwork is dark and Gothic and the anime benefits because of the mood enhancement of the artwork. The characters are complex and well drawn. Seriously Re-l is the perfect Goth princess, moody, angry, dark haired, dark eyed, and pale. However, the story suffers from incoherence. Maybe I was distracted from the details, but I thought that the story could have been clearer. The voice acting was very well done and the actors were well cast. I think the artwork was amazing, but it just couldn’t make up for the fact that the story was so confusing that even the ending could created more questions than it answered. With a stronger story this would have been an absolutely amazing anime.

Imagine the near future where body parts are replaceable and the human brain itself can be cyberized. the only difference between a man and a machine is the presence or absence of a ghost. Enter Public Security Section 9, a anit-cybercrime unit of the government, beyond the police, specialists in areas of anti-terrorism, computer security, and combat. In addition, to their specialized skills each member of Section 9 is also cyberized in some way, from the basic cyber-brain to a fully cybernetic body. As you can probably guess the brain has now taken over where the computer left off. Not that computers are obsolete by any mean, but now, thanks to cyberization, the brain can interface directly with the computer. This technology is not without its drawbacks, since the brain can interface directly with the computer it also means that the brain itself is vulnerable to hacking, a giant step up from identity theft.

Section 9 consists of a total of 8 agents and several support staff, along with the Think Tanks or Tachikoma. The chief of Section 9 is Aramaki, under him is the Major, Motoko Kusanagi, she possesses a fully cybernetic body, under her are Ishikawa, covert intelligency and technology specialist, Batou, also fully cybernetic, Togusa, only brain implants (at least for the first season), Pazu, Borma, and Saito, Section 9’s sniper.

Section 9 makes use of Tachikoma or Think Tanks. So called because they are robotic weapons platforms that are enhanced by artificial intelligence. The Tachikoma are armed and are essentially light tanks. When trying to picture a Tachikoma think large blue spider with four legs. Over the course of the first season of SAC, the Tachikoma develop their own individual personalities and attachments, going so far as to proclaim themselves the personal Tachikoma of designated personnel of Section 9.

The stories mostly revolve around the Chief, the Major, Batou, and Togusa. The Chief deals primarily with any and all political ramifications of the actions of cyberterrorist and the activities of Section 9. The Major, Batou, and Togusa are all investigators sent out to gather evidence at crime scenes and to clash with criminals when the need arises. The other members of Section 9 all play a supporting role to the four main characters. As I mentioned before, both the Major and Batou are fully cybernetic and use this to their advantage. Both are incredibly powerful, they have to be the criminals are equally or more powerful. Togusa, as one of the mostly human members of Section 9, was a highly trained and intelligent police officer, which was why he was recruited by Section 9. He is a valuable member of Section 9 because of his analytical abilities and for his humanity.

The criminals in which Section 9 takes are interesting and highly unique. People who can remotely take over almost any person they want and then disappear without leaving a trace to follow, people who will completely sacrifice their humanity to take revenge for sleights, real and imagined, and people who can hide in plain view by hacking the brains of everyone around them and removing all traces of themselves from those people’s brains, even making it impossible to for their eyes to register that they are there.

SAC has criminals, technology, guns, cyborgs, and police. In addition, some of the things that happen in this anime could occur in the near future. Recent developments in technology make the possibility of hacking the brain very likely in the future. While not immediately possible, stories are better when there is an element of the possible. The voice acting is excellent and the stories are well written. The artwork is very good. Some of the story arcs seem to go on longer than needed, but the stories are, as I said, well written and entertaining. This makes SAC well worth the watch.

During the Golden Age of Piracy, the pirate king, Gold Roger, was captured and executed, but before he died he revealed that his treasure, "One Piece", the greatest treasure of all time, was hidden on the Grand Line. Whoever can find One Piece will become the next pirate king. Years later, Monkey D. Luffy decides to become the pirate king and so he starts collecting a crew, the Straw Hat Pirates.

Luffy is an optimistic young man and at times totally clueless. He first recruits Roranoa Zolo, an expert swordsman and pirate hunter who fights with three swords. Next he recruits Nami, an thief and excellent navigator who robs pirates. Finally, at least for the first 26 episodes, he recruits Usopp, an expert liar and consummate coward. He also attempts to recruit Sanji, an amazing cook and fighter.

During the course of the travels of the Straw Hats, they fight pirates and the navy. Always striving to get one step closer to the Grand Line and One Piece. We also find out about the existence of the devil fruits, fruits that grant great power to whoever eats them and robbing them of their power to swim. In fact, Luffy ate one of the these fruits, the Gum-Gum fruit, which turns him into a rubber man, able to stretch any part of his body to a great distance. Luffy and his crew also fight Buggy the Clown and his pirates. Buggy also ate the devil fruit, but he ate the Chop-Chop fruit, granting him the ability to divide his body into separate parts at will, as if he had cut himself into pieces. This arc gives us the indication that there are several varieties of devil fruits that can grant powers to whoever eats them.

The animation is well done and the voice acting is pretty good. The voices of Luffy and Usopp are quite distinctive. Usopp’s voice is somewhat annoying, but then so is he, so it is a good fit. Luffy’s voice is entertaining in its own way. It is hard to describe Luffy’s voice, but his voice is perfect for him. I don’t know that they picked the right speech patterns for Sanji. Sanji is a cook and a waiter at a floating restaurant. He dresses in a suit and looks pretty suave. Then he opens his mouth and sounds like a thug from Brooklyn. Now, I am not saying that he should have a stuffy British accent or something, but the Sanji is a lady’s man, he’s no thug. So, his voice should be much smoother and it should go with his attire and image.

One Piece is fun to watch and to read. The characters are great and the action is incredible. I await with anticipation the release of the next set.