For the past two hundred years a magical war has been fought between mages for the ultimate prize, the Holy Grail, which can grant the desire of one’s heart. Seven mages are selected to fight for the prize and as the chosen weapon of combat each mage summons an epic hero, the souls of legendary figures taken from across time and pitted against each other. One hero is summoned from each of the seven classes, Saber, Archer, Lancer, Berserker, Rider, Assassin, and Caster. The battle lasts until only one hero is left, when the Grail appears and grants the wishes of both the mage and the hero.

Ten years prior to the events in the anime Emiya Shirou is the only survivor of an enormous fire started under mysterious circumstances. Shirou is found and healed by the man who would eventually become his adoptive father. His adoptive father also turns out to be one of the seven mages who competed in Holy Grail War. The fire that killed Shirou’s family was a result of the war. He didn’t tell Shirou about the war or about the servants, but he did begin to train him to be a mage. His training doesn’t go very well. Shirou turns out to be completely inept as a mage, except in the area of reinforcement magic. Shirou can find the weaknesses and physical defects in an object and erase them, making the object stronger, making it last longer.

Ten years later Shirou’s father has passed on and the Holy Grail War is starting again about 50 years too early. The various mages have summoned their servants and are seeking each other out. Shirou witnesses the battle between the Archer and the Lancer servants and is sentenced to death to preserve the secrecy of the war. Shirou is stabbed in the heart by Lancer and left to die. Tohsaka Rin, the master of Archer, takes pity on Shirou and saves his life, healing him from a fatal injury. Lancer finds out that Shirou survived and attempts to finish the job. In his moment of panic, Shirou saves his life by summoning his servant Saber. Saber protects Shirou by driving Lancer away and in so doing discovers Lancer’s true identity when he is forced to use his Noble Phantasm, the ultimate attack that reveals who the servant was in life.

Shirou and Saber then must defeat the other six masters and their servants. Each servant has various powers available to them as part of their class. Saber is a master with the sword, just as Lancer and Archer are masters with their respective weapons. Berserker with fight on regardless of any injury sustained. Rider is a master of animals and can ride or drive just about anything. Assassin is a master in the art of killing. Caster is a magic user of incredible power. Each servant and each master vie for the Holy Grail as each has a wish or desire that they would like to see fulfilled. Only Shirou seems to be concerned with the war and the consequences, even his servant Saber has a desire that she wished to have fulfilled and fights to make that come true.

The story that drives the characters in this anime is enthralling. The anime is based on a Japanese visual novel of an erotic nature. The game was so captivating that it spawned the anime, with the eroticism removed, it wasn’t needed to drive the story in any case. I started watching and couldn’t wait to see what was coming next. That is not to say that there aren’t any rough spots. There were a few places where the loose ends were ignored. Each of the servants’ true identities are revealed, except for Archer. It seems that for whatever reason it was not deemed necessary to reveal who he really was in life. Archer’s true identity is revealed in the game, but not in the anime for some reason. It mars the delivery somewhat on an otherwise exceptional anime.

The artwork is high quality and the character designs are beautiful. It is amazing the things that they can do with animation. This series has become one of my new favorites.

One day, while on the way home from school, Sakai Yuji witnesses a monstrous baby doll and a sphere composed of human heads draining blue fire from several victims, turning them to ash. He is saved by a sword wielding girl with flame-colored hair and eyes. Yuji then finds that he is dead and has been for some time. His existence was consumed by a denizen of the Crimson Realm and the real Yuji was replaced by a "Torch". The torches take the place of humans who have been consumed and fill their place until the damage to reality can be repaired. Then they disappear as if they had never existed. The girl who saved him is a "Flame Haze" and it is her duty to stop the denizens from consuming the power of existence of humans and to initiate the repairs to reality that the denizens cause.

Yuji is understandably distressed. In one day he discovered that the real Yuji has died and that monsters from another world are invading our world and harvesting the power of existence from ordinary humans. The girl who saved Yuji basically told him to say his goodbyes and resign himself to disappearing from existence. Yuji decides that there has to be more to it than that and follows her. He finds out that this girl has no name and that all she knows is fighting. The girl has very little humanity, being completely consumed with her duty to stop the denizens. In order to give the girl at least the illusion of humanity, Yuji names her Shana after the very powerful sword that she wields against the denizens called the Nietono No Shana.

Yuji offers Shana a place to stay and asks that she train him to help her stop the denizens. Initially, Shana resists Yuji’s attempts to befriend her, thinking that this will only distract her from her mission, but later she comes to depend on Yuji’s support and the support of others. It takes Shana some time for her to adjust to her own humanity, and it isn’t a complete adjustment. She still has trouble dealing normal social situation. Yuji tries his best to help her cope, but Shana has an aptitude for combat that doesn’t extend into the social arena.

Not all of the denizens are the same, some believe that there needs to a balance between the two realms. To maintain the balance between the two realms the Lords of the Crimson Realm empower humans by bonding with them giving them the ability to destroy the denizens. Shana bonded with Alastor, considered to be one of the most powerful of the Lords and she is considered to be the Flame Haze with the most potential. Alastor acts as Shana’s guide and advisor when dealing with all aspects of her life, which explains why she has some difficulty dealing with mundane social situations. Alastor may be the supreme Lord of the Crimson Realm, but he has some blind spots when dealing with humans.

There are several other characters that round out the cast, denizens, flame hazes, lords, and high school students. I don’t really want to go into the supporting cast. Since this anime contains elements a "Slice of Life" anime there are love triangles, homework assignments, dates, summer vacation, etc. all the trappings of normal life. The contrast between paranormal battles and ordinary high school life makes for great entertainment.

The story is fascinating. The only thing that Shana knows is how to fight. Yuji is the nice guy who gets dragged into events beyond his control. On its own this may not be enough to pique one’s interest, however, the addition of amazing artwork, driving action sequences, captivating characters, and superb acting make for an absolutely amazing anime.

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.