The anime Ergo Proxy, whose setting is located on an environmentally devastated Earth in a very distant future from now, deals with the physical, intellectual, and emotional journey of the character Vincent Law. He is a man with no memory of his past, or so it seems to him. After certain events occur within the domed city of Romdo, Vincent comes to question exactly who and what he is. Does he really want to be a "fellow citizen" of Romdo, or is he really meant to be something else? Finding herself mysteriously involved in Vincent's life is Re-l Mayer, a member of Romdo's Intelligence Bureau and the granddaughter of Romdo's Regent Donov Mayer. Another character finding herself connected to Vincent's unfolding fate is the childlike AutoReiv Pino. (AutoReivs are robotic beings designed to serve various needs of humans.) After certain crucial events are set in motion within Romdo--Re-l being confronted by an entity known as a Proxy (ep.01); Pino getting infected with the cogito virus, endowing her with sentience (ep.02); and Vincent himself encountering a Proxy, a fateful meeting which eventually forces him to take drastic actions. (ep.02)--the three eventually find themselves together, after approximately a dozen episodes, on a journey to Vincent's professed birthplace Mosk. It's in this domed city where Vincent hopes to find answers to his missing past and to reawaken his memories.
The distance, however, between Romdo and Mosk is fairly great. Consequently, their chosen means of travel determines the length of time it takes to reach Mosk. In this case, it takes roughly over a month to reach it with their craft. They travel aboard a sailboat-type craft called the Centzon Totochtin, "The Four Hundred Rabbits." Wind provides the craft with its propulsion like a regular sailboat, except that the Rabbit can travel over sea and land. It's kept aloft by an energy beam emitted from its belly to the surface of the earth, thus allowing it to hover. It can also carry a small supply of food and water sufficient for the appropriate number of crew. As can be expected, too many passengers on such a long journey is not an ideal situation for anyone aboard the Rabbit. The original passengers on the craft consisted of Vincent, Pino, and several settlers who lived outside Romdo in the harsh climate. One by one the settlers succumb to various events, leaving only Vincent and Pino as the remaining crew. Meanwhile, events in Romdo unfold such that Re-l and her own AutoReiv Iggy are compelled to leave the city. With their own craft they set out after Vincent. After a pivotal event in episode 13, Re-l is eventually separated from her own craft and Iggy. She now finds herself aboard the Rabbit along with Vincent and Pino. Thus, they all find themselves aboard the Rabbit, as a crew of three. United by Vincent's hazy past, represented by the fragmented memories which now haunt him, their uncertain journey and fates unfold on the long pilgrimage to Mosk.
It's in episode 16 that we find that their journey has been temporarily put on hold, leaving them entirely at the mercy of the weather. As noted earlier, the Rabbit is a wind powered craft, i.e. it moves by being pushed by the wind. Unfortunately for the crew, the wind has now stopped blowing, so they have no choice but to wait until it picks up once more. Stocked with limited supplies, they are forced to ration their food, water, and power (Only Re-l and Vincent eat, since Pino is a robot. However, as a robot she does need to be charged). The opening scenes start with outside shots of the craft. Its sails are hanging lifelessly in the absence of wind. We also see that the landscape is barren: there is no visible wildlife or vegetation, and the sky is blackened by dense layers of clouds, allowing very little sunlight to shine through. With most of the Earth's water frozen, the weather has all the conditions of being in perpetual winter. Furthermore, it's been like this for hundreds of years. All of this had been caused by a massive environmental disaster which occurred approximately one-thousand years before the present setting. This disaster affected the entire planet, forcing humanity to seek alternative means for survival. The surface is barely habitable, thus forcing the humans we see now to live in domed cities such as Romdo and Mosk. These domes allow the cities to sustain an artificial environment sufficient for life. Faced with such an hostile environment and dire circumstances, the three do their best to cope with the unwelcome yet unavoidable situation: life outside of Romdo's protective dome. It's here in this episode that we vicariously experience the situation from Re-l's point of view--how she sees things.
