This volume is largely set outside the city of Romdo, in the desolate outskirts that citizens of the oppressive regime believe are uninhabitable. Vincent Law - having fled the Romdo government's attempt to frame and then secure him, to discover his connection with the Proxy in his pursuit - begins to show his real personality.

At the end of the first volume, a powerful scene evoked Law on the edge of the city, hanging over a mountainous drop and clinging to the pipework outside of the exit. As the shutter began to close, preventing infection from seeping into Romdo, the wind-blown Law finally opened his eyes, revealing his face-changing, marvellously green Irises, a visual sign of the living emotion that still inhabited him - which is all but extinct in the people of Romdo.

Now free to be himself, Law displays dual personalities (old habits die hard), still exhibiting the gentle sensibility of the previous volume, for the most part, but alternatively entering a mode of greater philosophical brooding. If Re-l was the protagonist of the first volume, then Law takes on this responsibility here. Despite giving rise to intrigue, Vincent is rarely as forward or captivating as Re-l however, and lacks the same charm. Fortunately, then, she still has a strong presence in this volume.

The story begins with Pino (the girl shaped, Cogito-infected autoreiv) and Vincent integrating themselves in a small commune barely getting by outside of Romdo. At first suspicious, they soon come around, hailing Vincent as a leader of sorts, after a local eccentric, Hoody, tells them that he is a good omen, and an incredible revolutionary - much to Vincent's dismay. The majority eat up everything Hoody says, believing one lie after another in the pursuit of false hope. Quinn, a tough-talking rebel, on the other hand, is less happy, and an outcast because of it, but nonetheless holds to her violent need to protect the commune.

After convincing the people that he was in contact with Romdo via radio, and that a negotiator was coming to arrange their reintegration into Romdo, all Hoody can do is play it cool and pretend that Re-l, who opportunistically arrives in search of Vincent, is the negotiator. After a series of mishaps, it becomes apparent that the commune is about to be sterilised by Romdo, and Re-l has no concern for any of its inhabitants.

When she becomes infected - however - Vincent takes it upon himself to aid her, but needs the vaccine that would counter the poisons in the air, which only Quinn possesses. Her price is simple, if Vincent will accompany her and the others on the Rabbit, a boat with which they will sail from the commune, as an extra gun, then he can have the vaccine.

For me, this volume ended on the note that Vincent was still on his spiritual pilgrimage for truth (even if reluctantly), and that the next mystery to be unveiled would be the nature of the dim corner of the Ergo Proxy universe he arrives in - the nature of his home town to which he is travelling - the nature of the city of Mosk.

Ergo Proxy still looks impressive at times, and exhibits generally high standards of animation, but is less striking than it was in the first volume, and the atmosphere has been lifted somewhat, with the commune being an easier place to reside in than Romdo - but the overhanging threat of the powers and the conspiracies they hide remains.

A suitable amount of character and story progression also keeps the shadowy world of Ergo Proxy interesting, but it would be nice if the next volume would do more to progress our understanding of the environments and the mystery of the proxy. Why is the outside world infected? Who lives outside of the dome, and why are they at war? Is Romdo their enemy? What do the proxies embody? And to what degree is the world of Ergo Proxy one ravaged by despair, lies and conspiracy? threads are offered, such as the need for the proxy to exist, but their ends are beyond reach, with little reason given, and the consequences unexplained. Why need the proxy exist, and what does it mean for the people of Romdo, or even those outside of it?

There is much I haven't mentioned though - concerning the story and its mysteries. To be blunt, this volume is bursting at the seems for the acute viewer, and is well worth the price of admission. My scathing synopsis of the story, for example, covers only the first two episodes of four - and only parts of them at that - which is rather telling.

In Summary

Abundant character and story progression keeps the shadowy world of Ergo Proxy interesting, alongside hints at greater revelations to come. All-in-all, a good and progressive follow up, less oppressive and striking than its prequel, but nonetheless worthwhile.