Anime: Paranoia Agent #1
A series of assaults across Tokyo leaves detectives stumped, and with few leads and less evidence regarding the attacker’s identity, there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight to the violent crimes. To make matters worse, the perpetrator “Lil’ Slugger” doesn’t appear to target people for any reason - except certain psychological issues.
When I first sat down to watch Paranoia Agent, it was just after I’d struggled through the opening episodes of two other anime series I’ve still not gotten round to watching. I’d been looking forward to both shows, and I was more than a little frustrated that neither one had turned out to be anything I could get into. I thought I’d better leave them for the time being, and even though I knew Satoshi Kon’s penchant for weirdness would make his first anime series a complex watch, I figured the director’s previous track record would at least provide me with something new and interesting. Boy, was I right - Paranoia Agent has, in only a few episodes, firmly established itself as one of the freshest, most interesting and unique anime shows currently available, and certainly that I’ve ever seen.
The opening sequence of the first episode provides us with a glimpse of the universe as Kon sees it - people endlessly apathetic about their lives, their jobs and their relationships. It’s a world that has inhabitants totally absorbed in their own bored existence, and disinterested in everything outside themselves. The indifference of the population is exaggerated slightly, but just enough that it remains grounded in a surreal sort of reality. Enter: Lil’ Slugger, what appears to be an elementary school kid with golden rollerblades and a twisted metal baseball bat, who attacks seemingly at random - but his targets are all very good examples of the directionless society they live in, albeit for different reasons. The main characters change from episode to episode, in what the director has described as a relay race; there are some recurring characters, but after being featured once they’re generally not the focus again - at least not in these episodes. The first person to find themselves at the business end of Lil’ Slugger’s bat is Tsukiko Sagi, a character designer for a Sanrio-esque company who’s found herself stuck in a rut trying to invent a suitable follow-up to her immensely popular (and slightly creepy) “Maromi” character. Frustrated with her lack of progress and under pressure from her bosses, Tsukiko is on her way home one night when Lil’ Slugger appears and cracks her on the head. The subsequent victims have no connections to the first victim, and even though they all survive their lives are turned upside down by the fear that the attack instills in them. The detectives assigned to the case don’t have an easy time sorting through the various pieces of the puzzle, and if Kon’s films are anything to go by, it’s entirely possible that the series will end with no explanation of who or what Lil’ Slugger really was. There’s not much evidence in this volume, at least.
The character art in Paranoia Agent should be very familiar to fans of Satoshi Kon’s earlier, feature-length, work, and there are obvious similarities to the designs in Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers. They’re stylized without being overly simplified, and although the overall impression is very realistic, there is a certain amount of room for strange, temporary deformation of some characters. Likewise, the majority of the animation is straightforward enough, although the movements of some characters is somewhat surreal from time to time - most notably the reporter, Akio Kawazu, and Maromi - and there’s also something not quite right about Lil’ Slugger’s movements, although I can’t put my finger on it. The muted colour palette works very well with the designs and the whole show looks extremely consistent, and although the darkness in the night-time streets is a little exaggerated it does a great job focusing the paranoid tension of the characters in the build-up to Lil’ Slugger’s attacks. The daytime in Paranoia Agent is almost invariably bright sunshine, and the contrast and transition between the day and night scenes works well to emphasise the psychological problems of the characters; for instance, the confused lines of Harumi’s personality are mostly crossed at sunset, and the struggles she invariably loses are usually surrounded by the deepening darkness as the sun disappears.
Right from the opening theme, it’s obvious that Paranoia Agent’s score isn’t going to be any more conventional than the show itself. The entire soundtrack lives up to the opener’s standard, and although it’s not all as overtly bizarre, the music in the episodes does a lot to underpin the weird emotions of the series. Some of the character themes are overused a little - Yuichi’s in particular - but there is a lot of variation overall and there’s nothing that seems out of place, except where that’s very obviously the point. Like the intro credits, the closing theme is quite, quite surreal, although in a totally different way, and both are accompanied by equally strange imagery. The dub for Paranoia Agent is very strong in every category; the lead actors do excellent work in their roles, and there’s little to complain about in the minor and background characters, either. The one slight problem I had with the show was the recurring talent - as much as I love Wendee Lee’s work, she’s got a little too distinct a voice at this stage to be showing up in multiple roles per episode, even if they are uncredited walla. My favourite performance of the dub was undoubtedly Carrie Savage’s Maromi; her inflection and pronunciation is so great with the character, although I’m sure not having to match mouth flaps helped her concentrate more on the acting. Erica Shaffer does great work with Harumi Chono too, especially during her moments of inner conflict, which were some of the slightly creepier scenes on the disc - no mean feat, I can tell you.
Extras on the disc are excellent; the interview with Satoshi Kon being the real highlight. It covers a lot of the director’s philosophy, his interpretations of the psychology in Paranoia Agent, and how he feels about the characters in the series. There is some very fast text scrolling at the start of the piece, covering Kon’s background, which is almost unreadable, but what it tells you isn’t essential to enjoy either the interview or the show itself. The other major bonus feature is the first episode’s storyboard, which allows you to view the production sketches either on their own or picture-in-picture with the final animation. Some people may be put off by the fact that only the English dub track is available for this feature, but if you’re interested in the storyboards then I’m sure it would be a minor issue, and having it in your first language will let you concentrate on the images without subtitles obscuring any of the picture. It’s strange to see a disc nowadays without the textless opening/ending animations - I’d love to see a clean version of that intro animation, personally - but the storyboard does a great job in place of the usual standard image gallery, which would be rather redundant in this case.
Verdict: 18/20
There’s no doubt in my mind that Paranoia Agent is a must-have, for fans of Satoshi Kon as well as those who have yet to be introduced to his brand of storytelling. The fact that he’s turned in yet another top-notch anime is one thing, but to see him able to spread the weirdness out over multiple episodes without any loss of style or substance is outstanding. Miss out on this at your own peril.
Contains episodes 1-4 (100 mins approx). Distributed by MVM. Rated 15.