Amazon.com: Dark, unsettling, and intriguing, Paranoia Agent confirms Satoshi Kon's position as one of the most interesting directors currently working in Japan. A baseball bat-wielding adolescent randomly attacks five people in Tokyo, each of whom is grappling with a serious problem. Toy designer Tsukiko endures tremendous pressure to repeat her previous success; bottom-feeding journalist Kawazu desperately needs money. Popular sixth grader Yuuichi feels threatened by the new kid in his class, the dumpy nerd Usshi. Yuuichi's tutor Harumi is a compassionate scholar by day; at night, she becomes Maria, a sleazy hooker. The seemingly purposeless violence of Lil' Slugger (originally Shounen Bat, literally "Bat Boy"), also disrupts the lives of police detectives Maniwa and Karino, and their corrupt boss Hirukawa. As he did in Perfect Blue, Kon deliberately blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy: Does Tsukikio's stuffed toy really talk to her? Which is Harumi's true personality? A noteworthy series from an important artist. This set includes all four volumes of the series. (Rated 16 and older: violence, sexual situations, brief nudity, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon
Description: "When the darkness overcomes the heart, Little Slugger appears...." After the first victim's story, the police felt the overly stressed woman was having a breakdown and lied to cover-up for some crime. However, after the third and fourth attacks upon unrelated victims led to the same description of a young attacker with a golden baseball bat and in-line skates, the police had to wonder- is the "Lil' Slugger" real or a sinister phantom? Box Set contains all four volumes in series.
Great~! ^ I truly was happy, everything came true of what the person put down on your product. I'm a happy man, and glad to say that this item is great and happly paid for and happy he got it.
Head-bending series in true Kon Satoshi style ^ I am a Kon Satoshi devotee. I never know quite where he is going to take me, and I rarely understand what happened even when I reach that destination, but it is always a hell of a ride.
"Paranoia Agent" is Kon's first attempt at an ongoing series. The plot was stitched together out of left-over ideas he had from his feature films, like Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers, ideas that he liked but couldn't figure out how to fit them into the various movies. Working with the extended length of a television series, Kon was able to explore and expand on all of these ideas, fitting them into an over-arching plot.
The series has an ensemble cast, each with a complete story arc. Sagi Tsukiko is a young female character designer who has created the wildly popular character Maromi. An introspective and lonely girl, Sagi is the first to encounter the phenomenon known as Shonen Bat, a roller-skating punk with a crocked golden baseball bat who strikes those who have come to a desperate point in their lives. Detectives Ikari Keiichi and Maniwa Mitsuhiro try to hunt down the attacker, but find themselves drawn into a mysterious world beyond understanding.
"Paranoia Agent" is very much a Kon Satoshi series, and if you like his stuff then you are going to love this. All of his favorite themes are on display such as duality (Chono Harumi is a girl with a split personality. One a nice, sweet office lady, the other an aggressive and sexy prostitute.), identity (Detective Maniwa gets drawn so far into the plot he loses himself to become the super-hero Radar Man), real vs. unreal (the character Maromi seems innocent enough at first...). It is nice that Kon had the extra length to play with all of these themes, and while some of the episodes seem like interludes every single second of screen time is worth watching.
Adult Anime ^ The first two disks (eps. 1-7) are a thrill ride, focussing on different characters who are involved with a psychotic preteen called Shonen Bat (little slugger), who careens around with a bent gold-painted aluminum bat while on Rollerblades and bashes people who are psychologically damaged, and also with an animated dog and his creator, who are the connecting thread throughout the episodes.
The third disk (eps. 8-10) is not so good. It diverges from the main story to deal with three people who half-want to commit suicide (boring), some gossipeuses, who create talltales about Shonen Bat (ok, but unnecessary), and then a meta-episode about the art of animation narrated by that cartoon dog--and with an unbearably screechy voice (excruciating).
The fourth disk returns to the main story, such as it is. It ends dramatically, but fails to tell us what happened to some of the characters we've met along the way. It feels rushed, too. It's as if (and maybe this was precisely the case) the creators were told that they must wrap everything up in 13 episodes.
The animation is superb. The use of color, light, and shadow, is breathtaking.
"A makeshift salvation is nothing but deception" ^ At it's basest level; "Paranoia Agent" is the story of a girl and her dog. But before you even begin to understand it on that level you will be subjected to a case study on the fragility of the human psyche, the domination of it by media in today's world, the various forms of escapism devised by the human mind, and the power of an animated series to bring together storytelling and metaphor in ways that are impossible in nearly any other format. This is simpy one of the most thought-provoking series of any kind out there and anybody who thinks that the anime genre is split between kid's stuff and pornography should consider this the ultimate vindicator.
"Paranoia Agent" uses an unusual style of narrative. Each episode follows a different protagonist or group and examines their particular brand of escapism/psychosis. Each character is related in some way to one or more of the characters previously met and thus the overall story grows. The binding elements are two characters: the merchandising sensation Maromi the cartoon dog, and a mysterious figure known as "Shonen Bat" ("Lil Slugger" in the English version)- a rollerblading menace who assaults people with a bent baseball bat. Both are symbols of the pervasiveness and power of modern media in warping people's minds and perceptions to the point that an imaginary child-thug can become a murderous demon and otherwise reasonable people can be incited to riot over a child's toy. The characters range from an overwieght otaku who is WAY too into his cosplay dolls (way underused) to a woman with split personalites who threaten each other using her answering machine to a trio of internet friends whimsically attempting (and always failing) to commit suicide together. Then there are the two detectives. The no-nonsense cop whose inability to see past practical reality and recognize metaphor eventually causes him to escape reality altogether in favor of an old-fashioned two-dimensional dream world, and the other who indulges in the world of fantasy and fiction without being consumed by it and becomes the only one who can see the truths of Maromi and Shonen Bat. This is a brilliant illustration of the power of fantasy to portray truths of the world to those with open minds and the power of a closed mind to blind you to those same truths. These and many more characters' stories intersect each other often and help to build the larger narrative which climaxes with the media's self-contradictory cocktail of paranoia-mongering, and mind-numbing comsumer-based escapist comfort becomes a single all-consuming deluge that all began -and must end- with the same little girl.
Sound complicated? It is, but even if all this talk of metaphors and psychology turns you off, "Paranoia Agent" is still a very fun series that comes highly recommended. There is a ton of black humor, great art and animation, interesting characters with well-written dialogue, one of the best opening credit sequences out there, and much more. And my two year-old absolutely LOVES Maromi. This is a show that can be enjoyed on the surface level, but it that really pays off when you delve into it's social and psychological depths. If you're up for watching one of the best anime series out there, put his at the top of your list.
good, but overrated ^ this is certainly better than lots of other anime series, however it's far from great. i agree with reviews that claim some episodes are a total waste of time. With the psycho-anime world getting more and more creative and sophisticated this series has yet to catch up.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
