Paranoia Agent

I began watching Paranoia Agent when it premiered on Adult Swim late night a couple of months ago. Needless to say, this show has freaky moments and it will leave you questioning the sanity of the characters, as well as your own.

The story begins with a doll maker named Tsukiko, who constantly feels pressure at her work place from her boss, her fellow co-workers, everyone. Then one night, Tsukiko is attacked by an evil-grinning kid with gold Rollerblades and a baseball bat. Tsukiko wakes up in a hospital and it seems the attack has changed her. But did it change her for better or for worse? As two Japanese detectives are brought in on the case, they discover a rash of other assaults from various other people who range from a snobbish elementary school kid, a nosy tabloid reporter, a crooked cop, a teacher with a double identity disorder and so on. Besides almost suffering from nervous breakdowns and strings of paranoia, they all have one other thing in common: their assailant is the same person who attacked Tsukiko, Lil' Slugger, the kid with golden Rollerblades and a golden bat. At first, the two detectives can't find any connection to the attacks, but as they dwell a little deeper, one of the cops starts to see a pattern of behavior between the victims and their assailant. As more and more clues start piling up, the cops begin to realize that the suspect could be anyone and it can be no one. The suspect is right in front of them or he could be somewhere down the street.

At first, I thought this show would be a waste of time, but I was wrong. It had me on the edge of my seat as I wondered who Lil' Slugger was and why he has a tendency to clonk people on the heads who are mentally and emotionally depressed. It seems that no matter how hard I tried to figure it out, I just couldn't get a possible answer behind the mystery of the show. Kind of like a detective trying to solve a murder. Paranoia Agent is more like a Japanese version of the Twilight Zone, where nothing is what it seems. This show is not to be missed and it will definitely have you on the edge of your seat, from start to finish. But remember, before you pop this movie into your DVD player, check your sanity at the door. The person that you would least likely expect to be the culprit is possibly the one you should be watching out for.

I saw the Japanese audio version with English subtitles.

This is definitely a series for mature audiences. It's not afraid to go into unhappy situations and unpleasant characters, and show people battling with their various dysfunctions. Very psychological and surreal. If you've never seen Satoshi Kon's other works before, be prepared to initially go "What the...?". (Actually, I was still saying that more than halfway through this series, but that didn't stop me from watching it almost completely straight through.)

Satoshi Kon has a distinctive style of delving into people's heads and meshing reality with fantasy. After first viewings of his works, I always get the feeling I'm going to have to go back several times and figure out everything I didn't catch.

On the whole, this series is very deep and dark, but there are many humorous moments. Some of the episodes depart from the "main" characters and go off in really creative directions. It's not the best series I've ever seen, and it's certainly not for everyone, but it's good. If you are looking for something really different and are up for the mental stimulation, this is it.

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.

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.

Hello all! For those who like their anime a bit darker, and as intertwined as ivy that grows up the side of a college school building, then this is for you!

Just so you know, the American release of this series is called: PARANOIA AGENT. If you see it in the store, I'd get it, because once it gets out about how cool this series is, you might not be able to get it!

Having seen "Perfect Blue" and "Magnetic Rose", and trying to get a hold of "Millenium Actress", and "Tokyo Godfathers", I'm interested in any work produced by Satoshi Kon. I love how his work makes the story twist a bit more than the usual, and makes you think harder.

The story, which revolves around a character who only becomes known as "Shonen Bat". Shonen Bat is boy in what looks to be his early teens who wears golden in-line skates, and carries a golden metal baseball bat, that looks like it's tried to slug a wrecking ball. The characters, and their stories intertwine with Shonen Bat and with one another. I give it a 9/ 10, and I HIGHLY recommend seeing this anime.