Last week I began my analysis of Satoshi Kon's Paranoia Agent, a short anime series that caught me off-balance with how good it is. So, how did the second half hold up?
All in all, I think Kon pulled it off. That's not to say the series doesn't stumble as it hits the halfway mark. The cynic in me wants to believe that Kon was contracted to make thirteen episodes for a series that really only had material for eight or nine. Still, the stuff that's there is so good and the conclusion is so satisfying that I'm willing to give Kon the benefit of the doubt and say that his pacing was deliberate. Hell, for what we get at the end, his decision is downright literary.
As episode 7 closed, we witnessed Shounen Bat's first actual murder when he/it assaults a teenaged boy copying the evil spirit's MO. Before that, Shounen Bat merely conked people on the head with enough force to hospitalize them. It's a not-so-subtle sign that his power is growing.
In fact, that's basically what the second half of the series is about. We can safely assume, though it's never explicitly said, that Shounen Bat isn't of this world and that he's becoming stronger as more people come to believe in him. The series spends a good three episodes diverging from the main plot to explore some one-off characters who only graze the central story arch. To their credit, these characters are fairly amusing, especially a pair of suicidal men who inadvertently become the caretakers of a cheerfully morbid little girl. The only reason these "filler" episodes even exist is to give the series time to build up tension, as well as possibly exploring the big theme of how people run from reality.
That's where Kon's thesis is so strong, particularly in the last two episodes. As Shounen Bat grows into an unstoppable mass of black sludge, we finally get the big reveal of where he came from and what he has to do with a quiet cartoon animator. Kon suggests, quite convincingly, that there's very little difference between fashion fads like the Maromi cartoon and rumor-driven violence like the kind perpetrated by Shounen Bat. At the public level, both are things people use to distract themselves from the pressures of real life. Though wrapped in the gory bombast of anime, Paranoia Agent makes the same claim as Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, only more poignantly.
Comprehension: 9/10- I could never quite keep up with all the cultural references, though I tried. But as for as the inferences of the imagery, I found them to be pretty universal. I loved the subtlety, especially as we get to Tsukiko's memory sequence. A younger version of herself drops her dog's leash due to a debilitating cramp, and we witness a splatter of blood at the simultaneous moment the dog gets hit by a car and Tsuki crouches in pain. The references to menses is quiet but unmistakable, and it adds a layer to the character's pathos that even those investigating her life don't know.
Enjoyment: 9/10- Some of the filler veered into the unnecessary, but most of it was still pretty entertaining. I especially enjoyed Maromi's explanations of the animation industry.
Improvement of Understanding: 9/10- Satoshi Kon uses common anime tropes to tell a very layered, insightful story. It still looks and feels like anime, but it's easier to take seriously than tales of ancient warriors or ridiculous robot battles. Paranoia Agent is essentially what anime can be in its optimal form. The cartoon medium allows for a more magical style, so the story can be told in a way that is neither economical nor immersive when using flesh and blood.
Next Week: Serial Experiments Lain