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Paranoia Agent
Media: TV Anime
Genre(s): Crime, Drama, Psychological
Anime Director: Satoshi Kon
Studio: Madhouse
Number of Episodes: 13
Licensed? Yes (Geneon)
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By Vampt Vo
Created by the relatively young, yet extremely talented anime creator, Satoshi Kon, maker of Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers, Paranoia Agent is an unusual and ultimately engaging short series. In Musashino City, Tsukiko Sagi, a young designer, creator of the insanely popular Hello Kitty-esque Muromi pink dog character, has hit a dead end. She is expected to come up with a new character soon, and with jealousy from her peers and pressure from her superiors, she still cannot create a character as popular as Muromi. Suddenly, as she drops her keys in a parking lot, she is hit over the head by a mysterious attacker. The story spirals off from there, with detectives Keichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa attempting to track down and catch this assailant, nicknamed Lil' Slugger. Later, though, as others are attacked and give similar stories, there seems to be a pattern of Lil' Slugger attacking those with emotional problems, and all of them are fixed after the attacks.
The series does best what it intends to do, confuse the viewer and make them contend with their own views of reality. As we meet a girl with a (she believes) talking stuffed animal, a paranoid popular sixth grader, and dual-personality tutor/hooker, you begin to wonder at the connections and coincidences between these characters and the enigmatic Lil' Slugger. This story begins with a plot that sounds as if it could become cliched and typical, but slowly begins to trail into psychological themes. As you progress through the series, you will find that you understand less and less until you reach the stunning finale, in which it all fits back into place.
Paranoia Agent is not a series for those looking for a lot of action and not a lot of talk, since it is definitely an intellectual experience at it's heart. It moves fairly slow as well, and if you don't pay attention and piece the entire show together through its various parts as you watch it, this can end up very confusing. Also, if you do not watch every episode until the end, you will never truly experience the meaning of this show. The animation quality is great, as we've come to expect from Madhouse. And of course, to follow the tone of the show, the details really capture the true grit of real life. The music, from it's freaky and disturbing opening to it's unusual background sounds, really compliments the series. The dub is surprisingly good, and does great justice to the characters and their personalities. While short, Paranoia Agent will have you watching it over and over to understand all of the symbolism that Satoshi Kon packed into this brief series.
In short, Paranoia Agent is an engaging series that is truly the sum of its parts. While somewhat slow-moving and action-less, and not directly entertaining every time you watch each episode, Paranoia Agent will leave you with some profound thoughts, and is extremely interesting to watch over and over again.
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| Animation: |
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3.5
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Average:
(3.3 stars)
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| Plot: |
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3.0
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| Voice Acting: |
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3.5
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| Sound: |
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3.0
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| Overall: |
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3.5
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Millenium Actress
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Serial Experiments Lain
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