Mousou Dairinin

Paranoia Agent is very different from any of your average anime. It can also be pretty hard to keep track of, and there are some parts that are very... strange. The anime could also sometimes be trippy and disordered and also be labeled as creepy. In MY opinion I do not believe it was scary, but as a warning you should be prepared for creepy things. Story: If you ever watch Hell girl (Jigoku Shoujo) its something like that. There are a whole bunch of one shots but eventually they come together (sort of). A boy, Shounen bat in subtitles and lil slugger in dubbed,goes around with a golden bat and roller skates and attacks people. There is something strange about him though. He can walk through walls and change his appearance. You can immediately tell that this no normal case, and the more they search the more confusing it gets. You need to wait until the last few episodes before you can piece everything together. I did find some of the one shots to be boring or repetitive, but the repetitive is part of the plot. Overall I give the story a 7/10 Art: I can say that I LOVED the art. The art looks more realistic than your "giant eye" anime characters. There are some...characters with "ugly looks". Some can have a really plump look, other can have ridiculous looking faces with huge lips. The art is often where the anime gets trippy. The art in my opinion has a "dull" look. Its not colorful, but its not boring either. I give the art a 9/10 Sound: There isn't much to say about the sound. Some of the voices didn't really match the characters, but most of them did. The background music did a good job, making me feel suspenseful and on the edge of my seat. I can't really say more, so I give the sound a 8/10 Character: The characters were...strange. Each with a different personality. There are a few characters in my opinion that really...disturbed me, I guess you can say. The way they acted or talked or looked just didn't seem right. I don't want to write much about them because it will lead to spoilers, but I'll say this. Every character is unique and if you don't like the episode, just keep watching it because just like the characters every episode is unique. I give it a 7/10 Enjoyment: I really loved this anime. It gave me anxiety, but was worth it. There is an episode somewhere in the middle that will make you go like "Am I watching the same anime?" Don't worry. You are, but it did throw me off track, but after a while you will find out everything. This earned a 8/10 Overall: I really cant say more. BUT I will recommend doing this. Watch the opening, and think. Did you like the song? What about the lyrics to the song? Did you enjoy the creepiness of the characters laughing (yes they are laughing)? What about the art and the characters? Did you like it? If you loved the opening then I really recommend you to watch the anime because I think it did a great job at portraying the anime. So overall I give this anime a 8/10

Paranoia Agent is Satoshi Kon's only TV series, a curveball from his usual M.O. of doing films. Like several of his other works, it strives to confuse between reality and fantasy, often doing so by showing the world as perceived by the characters. Paranoia Agent is, in whole, a story of escapism, how society is falling further into it, and the negative consequences that will follow. The plot begins as Tsukiko Sagi, a woman responsible for designing the well-known plush toy dog Maromi, is being pushed to create a new design, and is rapidly succumbing to stress. On the way home, in desperate need of away out, she is suddenly attacked by a boy on rollerskates with a baseball bat. At first, the police don't believe her, and think she is making up excuses, but before long, other people are attacked by the boy now dubbed Shonen Bat (Little Slugger in the English dub). As the series progresses, we see how rumour and truth become distorted, and how Shonen Bat goes from a mysterious attacker into something far, far worse. All of this leading back to the question... just who, or what, is Shonen Bat? What follows is 13 episodes of social commentary, clever writing, bizarre stream-of-consciousness mindtrips that blur the lines of perception and reality to both the cast and the audience, and overall mystery. Paranoia Agent manages to throw an interesting spin on what initially appears to be a whodunnit thriller. It does, on multiple occasions, dip its toes into the psychological horror genre, and when it does, it does so excellently. These aspects of it make great use of how the audience often does not know how much is real and how much is fantasy, and as a result manage to make some truly creepy moments. Most notably, Maromi is insanely creepy. Yes, Maromi, the little stuffed dog mascot thing. You heard me. In technical terms, Paranoia Agent is Satoshi Kon, Madhouse and Susumu Hirasawa all coming together on one project, which inevitably means it will excel in every single one of these aspects. The art is a strangely realistic style, if often somewhat exaggerated. The animation is completely fluid throughout the series, and is surprisingly produced to much the same level of high quality as Kon's movies are. The directing is, of course, top-notch, and as mentioned before Kon is a genius at blending reality and delusion in such a way that you often have to take a second to wonder what's going on, in the best way possible of course. The English Dub is excellent, and while nobody really sticks out, it's definitely one I'd recommend over the original Japanese track. The music is often very cheerful, and this is used as juxtaposition against the events of the series, creating something downright weird in the process. In particular, the opening and ending themes are some of the most unsettling things ever shown in anime. Paranoia Agent does have some flaws, mind you. One is in the pacing. It's entirely possible that Kon's lack of experience (or transition into) the medium of a TV series caused this, but around the middle, a lot of the episodes don't really seem to tie in to the plot. Rather, they come across as episodes that strengthen the point of the series, but don't really lend themselves to it as a story. This is easily forgiveable in that the episodes in question are quite strong in their own right (and in some instances, oddly comedic). Another valid, yet easily forgiveable fault that the series has is that in its switching between the real and unreal, it takes some steps that seriously raise disbelief. In general, it's all done for the sake of a clever metaphor, but it's something that will undoubtedly nag at the back of the mind, especially at the ending, which is a rather monumental example of this. Overall, Paranoia Agent is an extremely clever series. It's probably the most accessible thing in Kon's discography, if not necessarily (though quite arguably) his strongest. It's been described as a mindfuck series, but I'm not entirely sure it would fit into that category. For the most part, it is a realistic and grounded setting in which abnormal elements are introduced, and barring the aforementioned dips from reality it mostly stays that way. Regardless, Paranoia Agent is one of those anime I would definitely recommend to pretty much anyone, especially those into psychology, who would most likely love it for its insights and observations of the human condition. Animation/Graphics: 10/10 Story/Plot: 8/10 Music/Background: 10/10 English Dub: 9/10 Overall: 9/10 For Fans Of: Paprika, Boogiepop Phantom.

For those who aren't used to a Satoshi Kon anime, be prepared. They usually start off as a normal type of anime, and then take a serious turn for the surreal. As for Paranoia Agent, it starts off as a normal detective-style anime but then the plot twists and turns worse than a twist-tie on a bag of wonder bread. For those used to Satoshi Kon's work (Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers, etc), none of this is news. Personally I enjoy a good "whodunit" anime since I also love CSI, 24, Prison Break, etc. These kind of shows actually get the viewer to really think howits going to unfold next or guess who is the real culprit. Just for general information I watched the whole show on Cartoon Network years ago, but then I rewatched the Japanese version and let me tell you there are ALOT of things they (Cartoon Network) cut in various episodes of the show. They even took out important parts of the show that were very important to making the episode make sense. But after watching the 'uncut' version many things made sense. Even with that extra knowledge I couldn't help but think that half the episodes had a filler feeling to them. Many times you'll wonder why certain story arcs are being told or how that person is connected to the overall story but it will all make sense in the end (except for episode 09). The character cast is extremely varied, in terms of look and personality. The details show in most of their faces.Whats most noticeable is the older the character is, the more detail their face becomes. The voice acting in the english and japanese dubs are extremely top notch as well. For the serious otakus you'll definitely notice Mamiko Noto's voice or Haruko Momoi, but if you're open minded enough to listen to the english side of the voices you'll notice good voices as well like Carrie Savage or Sam Regal. But the attention to detail don't just stop with character style and voice acting. Character props and background art is where this show shines the most, from an artists cluttered cubicle to an otaku's room filled with figures. I could have sworn you can actually see a layer of dust on an old bookshelf. Each scene is unique and different and you can tell they put alot of time and effort on all the small details to make this show stand out better than the rest. My only gripe out the artwork is that it is very earth tone and dark. Well not really dark per se but its color scheme is very warm and brownish looking which I didn't like all that much but you will soon overcome the problem the more you watch it. Another gripe I am not to fond of how Kon draws his characters. Some of them look very normal, ordinary and sometimes cute. But the characters who wear their personality on their sleeves look very drastic. Like abnormaly huge mouths, beady eyes, fishy lips, all very strange to look at. The most that suffers from this type of look are the male figures in the show. I'm not fond of it but im sure most people will enjoy the change of pace from all the cute moe cartoons that plage the anime world. If you have never seen a Sat-Kon anime, I highly reccomend watching this series simply because it will definitely be a different experience that you should see for yourself. With the outrageous plot twists and holes in some parts, the story does have a few problems overall. Like I said way back in the beggining the story starts out fine then it takes a serious turn for the surreal so take that however you may but I highly recommender this to anyone who doesn't mind a crazy mind trip of "Alice in Wonderland" proportions.

Title: Paranoia Agent Anime: The animation production for Paranoia Agent was done by Madhouse (famous for work on Death Note and Paradise Kiss), and was directed by Satoshi Kon (famous for Perfect Blue and Paprika). It aired on Japanese television from February 2nd, 2004 to May 18th, 2004. Geneon (soon to be defunct) licensed it Stateside, and the fourth and final volume was released May 10th, 2005. The dubbed version also had a run on Adult Swim, the first of which began on May 28th, 2005, and an encore run on June 6th, 2006. Story: The first episode kicks off with character designer (Sugi)being pressured to follow up on her first hit and dealing with creative block. On her way home, she runs into an older woman rummaging through garbage and who randomly disappears -- never a good sign, especially in a Satoshi Kon work. Things get progressively creepier from there, culminating in her getting beat over the head by some random elementary school punk on gold skates with a bent bat, which draws suspicion from the detectives investigating the case. Soon, others are attacked in the same way and give the same description of the kid, who is dubbed "Shounen Bat" (Bat Boy in English, but I prefer Shounen Bat, personally :P). From there, a different director takes the helm each episode, and the episodes become self-contained one-shots that focus on a different victim of Shounen Bat. Each of the episodes are, for the most part, self-contained, but, at the same time, link together (oxymoronic, I know) in the tiniest, subtlest ways to become a part of the larger series. It's only in the last third or so of the series that episodes actually pick up where they left off the last time and connect to each other. And each of the victims have one major common factor (but I can't tell you that, because it would spoil the series for you), but connect to each other in smaller, subtler ways. This story is nothing short of phenomenal. You'll be on the edge of your seat as you watch each victim's story unfold, wait for the inevitable attack, and watch the mystery of Shounen Bat unfold. Just be warned, though: this is classic Kon, which means there's going to be blurring between fantasy and reality, the occasional trippiness, and psychological problems. I think this is Kon Lite, though (then again, I may have just gotten used to his works). WARNING: There's a bit of sex and nudity in here, and some trippiness, but, as I said before, it's nothing, compared to his other works. Still, nice to know that it's there. Art: Madhouse's realistic style fits this production to a tee. They tend to use darker colors and shades, except for when they use brighter hues, usually to a darker effect (yes, I know it's oxymoronic, work with me here). But remember how I said that directors changed each episode? Well, this applies to the art directors, too; this results in a subtle changing of styles each episode that affects what each director most wants to get across, while still remaining Madhouse's trademark realistic style. Art directors can even change several times within an episode, which makes for some interesting style changes. Music: Satoshi Kon almost never does a work without Susumu Hirasawa, and this is where the latter has a chance to shine. The OP is absolutely eerie, and sets the tone for the series perfectly, and the ED manages to make bright music seem like the damn creepiest thing ever. The music for the series alternates between these two extremes, but it never gets old. The ED (which is also the theme for one of the series' main characters) and the theme for Shounen Bat will never fail to send shivers running up and down your spine. Length: Perfect. If it were any longer, it would've started to drag, but if it were shorter, they probably wouldn't have been able to tie everything together like they did. The length allows for the perfect exploration of each victim, and for the larger mystery to unfold like it does. Seiyuu: No particular standouts or any seiyuu that I recognize, really. Overall, good job. Overall: A Kon work, through and through, with a phenomenal story and amazing art, all because of the changing directors. This is one of the anime that I believe you must see at least one episode of before you die. So go watch it already! Story: 10/10 Art: 10/10 Music: 9/10 Length: 9/10 Seiyuu: 8/10 Overall: 46/50; 92% (A)

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