Paranoia Agent

I caught this series by accident on Cartoon Network, but I was instantly hooked. This series tackles more weighty topics than almost any live-action drama on television today, and does so with rare intelligence.

Throughout this parable of a city struck with fear over a (possibly imaginary) serial assailant, the show presents some powerful insights on the terrible price of repression, on the thin line between reality and perceptions, and on the fragility of social order. The inter-twining stories of the victims are both entertaining and thought provoking.

This series does not feature giant robots, monsters, or big breasted magical girls. Nor does this narrative stick to simple, linear story lines with obvious heroes and villains. This is a challenging but very rewarding look at the darker side of modern society. It is unlike any anime series I have seen, and I recommend it highly.

The is so weird as well as amazing. It is rare to find this kind of psychological anime. It has every single thing to blow your mind and keep you wondering. It is hard to guess, is all those incidents are supernatural or delusion?

Though story seems bit complex at first, but all things become crystal clear at the end and put end to my curiosity. The story amazed me that much that I kept googling about it to know more.

This anime started out very interesting, the first few episodes will leave you wanting more to find out what's behind the mystery. Is there a little boy with the bat, is his story all made up, are we all crazy?

By the middle of the series you will start caring less, and the ending with the reveal has to be one of the more anti-climatic ones I have seen. In the 2nd half of Paranoia Agent it just felt like this show tried to be deeper than it really is. This seems a bit of a shallow criticism, but I think one might agree this is the feeling you get when watching it.

The good: the anime looks great. There are original characters with premises you don't see a lot in other shows. I personally really liked the episode with the 3 people who were trying to commit suicide.

The bad: the story and resolution. By the end of the series I didn't think a lot of it made sense. The whole reasoning behind everything which happened was just plain weird. And not the good kind.

When I first heard of this series, I was doubting myself whether Satoshi Kon's "Paranoia Agent" would be worth my time. I've watched "Tokyo Godfathers" and thought it was really great and touching. When I watched "Perfect Blue" I began to think what was the point of the movie... it was just about an actress suffering from hallucinations and there were many unnecessary sexual references. I thought that Satoshi Kon was just wasting his time making the anime. It was pretty pointless and too twisted.

Curious, I started to watch the first episode of "Paranoia Agent". I became interested in it after seeing how modern Japanese citizens run their own lives, while trying to deal with their own problems. The main character, Tsukiko Sagi, is the first to get attacked by Shōnen Bat (Lil' Slugger in English). Folowing next is a series of attacks, also conducted by Lil' Slugger, which are aimed at random people. The mystery here is for the police to solve and try to figure out the connections between the victims. The journey continues up until episode 13.

Viewers are also encouraged to come up with their own theories: Why is Lil' Slugger attacking the victims? Is there something deeper about this case? "Paranoia Agent" explores society issues, and also makes us question whether human emotions and psychological conditions are strong enough to create their own illusions. Is Lil' Slugger even real? Just like other Satoshi Kon films, this series also contains many symbolisms, which help us viewers to understand more about the story.

My last word is, if you like psychological thrillers, then "Paranoia Agent" is a must-watch. If you prefer lighter anime series, then don't (because this series can only be understood by more mature audience). The story may be way too complex and seem like it's going nowhere, but once you start watching it you'll become addicted and try to solve the mystery too.

The first half of this series is very engaging, like a David Lynch Anime could be. The second half completely derails and becomes too incomprehensible, with a thrown away ending that doesn't explain anything and doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I like the filler episode parodying the online death seeking cults, however.