Paranoia Agents

[DB]

Actually I recently rewatched the series, which is what prompted me to do this now.

This 13 episode series follows the case of 'Shonen Bat' a mysterious shadowy figure who goes around on rollar blades beaning people in the with his crooked metal bat. Two detectives are assigned the case and start searching for answers, trying to unravel the MO of these seemingly random incidents, and exactly why the victims seem better off after their attacks. The answer is ... unusual to say the least.

PA is done by Satoshi Kon, of Perfect Blue fame. That, and the killer promo Geneon (or whoever released it) did actually worked against it the first time I saw it because the series shifts gears midway through and becomes much larger in scope than the opening would indicate.  The first time I watched it my expectations were high. The next time I watched, I found I was able to enjoy it more (something that has happened to me before in the past).

First the pros. It all ties together, despite the seeming randomness of some of the episodes (except the two pure filler eps).  Acutally PA is as much an examination into various aspects of the human psyche as a mystery. The first 5 episodes deal with individuals, with the common thread of Shonen Bat and the detectives relegated to the background. Then things get weird about midway through the series, and the events start to come together one after another.  It's quite the rollar coster ride, but an enjoyable one.

The bad. Two episodes in the middle are possibly the purest filler I have ever seen. They have *nothing* to do with the main plot, and don't even do much from a background aspect. Cut both and you'd never know they were there. There is an episode that deals with how animes are done, but that  does tie into the main plot (and I'd imagine it was something of a therapy for Kon and anyone involved in the anime industry) The other bad things is the scope of the series goes from one neighborhood to something that engulfs the entire city, which is a bit jarring.

Overall I recommend this, though I found it inferior to Perfect Blue, and superior to Millenium Actress. Definitely worth seeing once and has a rewatchability factor.

7 out of 10.

[Dracos]

I thought I reviewed and/or commented on this before... Strange.

Anyhow, I really enjoyed Paranoia Agent.  I think it's another example of Satoshi in his favorite area:Making awesome mystery/mindfuck animes work.  It's wild, fairly unpredictable, and makes complete sense when it's over (for the most part).  I enjoyed watching it.

Most notably, I think the opening music and scenework rocks.

Dracos