Review of Paranoia Agent: Volume 1

Introduction

It`s happening again, anime is poised to take the world by storm. Ever since Akira explosively burst forth, people have expected Japanese animation to enter the mainstream. It didn`t happen then, and every few years the release of a film like Ghost In The Shell or Spirited Away will have fans and critics raving intensely, and the general public ignoring them completely. In fact these trends go in cycles, and in between the anime peaks, some Daily Mail journalist will get hold of some Hentai and denounce the medium as a threat to innocent children throughout the nation. We hit one of the peaks once more though, as the national press unite behind a new Japanese animation from the imagination of Satoshi Kon, the creator of Perfect Blue. Once again anime is poised to take over the world, the difference this time is that it isn`t a movie, rather a television series. Like every other time, I`ll keep my fingers crossed, but I won`t hold my breath expecting anime to start appearing on prime time terrestrial television any time soon.

The trouble is that with all this hyperbole surrounding its release, Paranoia Agent has some hefty expectations to fulfil. It starts off promisingly indeed, unlike any series I have seen before. Satoshi Kon has crafted a series of 13 episodes, the first four of which are presented on this first volume. Each of these episodes tells a different story, vaguely interlinked by the characters shared by successive episodes, as well as Lil` Slugger, the elementary schoolchild who wears a baseball cap and gold inline skates, and sporting a dented metal baseball bat goes on a spree of violent attacks in the stories.

1. Enter Lil` Slugger

Tsukiko Sagi is a toy designer who is under pressure to create a character that rivals her previous Maromi doll in popularity. After a particularly hard day at work, where her boss becomes insistent with a deadline, she falls victim to a vicious street attack. The detectives investigating the case begin to doubt her story when she describes the attacker as an elementary school boy. Meanwhile, an unscrupulous reporter investigates the same crime from another angle, and begins to pester Tsukiko as she recuperates.

2. The Golden Shoes

Yuichi Taira is the popular kid in school, good at sports and consistently getting top grades. His nickname is `Ichi`, meaning first. His popularity slips though, when his fondness for skating convinces his classmates that he is Lil` Slugger. With student elections around the corner, Yuichi becomes convinced that someone is spreading rumours about him, and it`s most likely Ushiyama Shogo, a bookish student who recently transferred to his school and who is also standing for student president. Meanwhile the detectives investigating the previous attacks visit the school to follow up the lead.

3. Double Lips

Chono Harumi is a university assistant by day, and tutors Yuichi in her spare time. By night though, she is a call girl called Maria, afflicted with two different personalities. She seeks professional help for her identity problem, and gets the chance to leave Maria`s life behind when she is asked for her hand in marriage. The Maria personality isn`t going to give up her life that easily though.

4. A Man`s Path

One of Maria`s clients is a crooked policeman called Masami Hirukawa, who indulges freely in the vices he is supposed to protect against. He sees nothing wrong in taking the occasional kickback from his underworld friends in exchange for turning a blind eye. Then a Yakuza boss appears, demanding that Masami pay a little something back to the organisation. Masami has no other option than to turn to crime himself, and now that he has started digging, he can only keep getting deeper.

Video

Paranoia Agent gets a crystal clear 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer. The colours are strong and there is no evidence of artefacts. This is an absolutely stunning animation, with character and world design influenced strongly by a sense of realism, and of consistently cinematic quality throughout. This is a dual layer disc, with the layer change discreetly placed between episodes 3 and 4.

Audio

You get a choice between DD 2.0 English and Japanese, with the option of translated subtitles or translated signs. As usual I chose the Japanese track, and while it is a stereo track, it is one of the best I`ve heard in a long time. Sound design is an important part of Paranoia Agent, and the stereo separation and placing of effects works very well. You almost don`t miss a DD 5.1 track. The dub is good as well, with the translation natural, and the voice actors suiting their characters. The theme tune is something special, especially when combined with the title sequence and encapsulates the tone of the series perfectly.

Features

You get the usual MVM quality when it comes to the disc authoring, with the requisite jacket picture, animated menus, disc credits, and trailers for other MVM properties including Samurai Champloo and R.O.D the TV.

Depending on where you shop from, you should have the option of a limited edition release that comes with a cardboard case designed to hold all the discs in the series.

More substantial on this disc is the option to watch the first episode in storyboard form, and through use of the angle button, watch it a la picture in picture with the completed episode.

Finally there is an interview with Satoshi Kon that lasts 5 minutes. He talks about the inspiration for the show, its format and what its message is. It`s short but informative and subtitled in English quite naturally.

Conclusion

Paranoia Agent lives up to its promise, and more than deserves the accolades being heaped on it. It is without doubt, the most original anime I have seen in years. The quality of the animation is amazing, the strength of the writing and characters even more so. If you are familiar with the work of Yoshitoshi ABe such as Serial Experiments Lain, you will recognise the languid pace and the sense of mystery in the stories. But where ABe`s output has enigma at its heart, Satoshi Kon`s Paranoia Agent is driven by character, by emotion and the darker side of humanity. The puzzle of Lil` Slugger is merely a garnish.

Paranoia Agent is about the stress of living in modern society, how individuals react to pressure and our innate desire to flee or hide in the face of adversity. He puts it concisely in the extras; the schoolchild who doesn`t want to go to school will use a stomachache as an excuse, and through belief will actually develop that stomachache. The stories in Paranoia Agent look at various people under different forms of stress in their lives, and how they deal with it, or fail to, resorting to fantasy or delusion. Tsukiko Sagi is the designer, who is under pressure to emulate her previous work, but she is a fragile personality, who talks to her own Maromi doll, and as the deadline approaches, the pressure becomes unbearable. Meanwhile the reporter investigating the first attack is after that perfect scoop, and needing it to pay off debts. In the second story, we see the harsh world of the schoolyard, where peer pressure, gossip and bullying can cause friends to turn on their schoolmates in a blink of an eye. Chono Harumi is under stress from within in the third episode, and the pressure that bent policeman Masumi is under from the Yakuza is obvious. For these people, Lil` Slugger is as much an escape as he is an assault. The four character stories are strongly written and utterly compelling to watch in and of themselves, but the threads that tie the stories together, the spectre of Lil` Slugger just adds layers to the richness of the anime.

From the beginning we are treated to the enigma of Lil` Slugger, as we follow the two detectives who are investigating the attacks. The nature of the attacker is almost supernatural, although it certainly provides comment on that state of disaffected youth the world over. Just when it seems that society has created a sort of subconscious escape valve, an apparition that appears when someone needs to escape a stressful situation, events in the final episode turn that on its ear. But there are hints and red-herrings dropped through the episodes, the old lady that goes missing early on, the addled old man, who keeps scrawling equations on any available surface, and Tsukiko`s conversations with her Maromi doll that point to something strange afoot.

I`m consistently amazed at the quality or anime coming to our shores, and in recent months the number of exceptional series keeps on increasing. Paranoia Agent once again raises the bar. Forget for one minute that it is animated, as Paranoia Agent is outstanding television full stop. The episodes are held together by a compelling mystery, but at its heart are some exceptional character pieces. It`s strong writing of the sort that is rarely seen in any medium, and if for that reason alone, it makes Paranoia Agent worthy of recommendation. If you are only going to try one anime series, make it Paranoia Agent. You won`t be disappointed. I can`t wait to see how the series unfolds.