ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how ontological similarities between human and machine characters in the anime series Ergo Proxy (2006) provide opportunities for emotional connections. This analysis serves as an example of how ontological differences between humans and machines are displayed specifically in anime and possibly overcome. On a narrative level, the series shows that essentialist claims of ontological difference, building upon Cartesian philosophy, can be altered, developed, and then employed to engage human-machine interaction toward structures of mutual recognition. The anime-specific performances of machine characters through facial expressions, posing, and notions of uncanniness, on the one hand, establish an ontological barrier to human figures. Especially the embodied performances of voice acting of both human and machine characters, on the other, offer points of connection, eventually leading to the bridging of an ontological divide. Rather than equality, similarities seem to suffice for emotional connections between humans and machines.
