bmoore07
There are two kinds of anime. The first are the anime with well- known reputations, some so notable that they may be overrated (Anime that fall in this category are titles like Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Fairy Tail and, of course, Dragon Ball Z). The second kind are the lesser-known anime, the cult classics that endear themselves to the true fan (For me, titles like Bartender, Outlaw Star, Rurouni Kenshin, and Monster come to mind). Paranoia Agent falls into the latter category and I think it's terrible that many people have never heard of this. A work of director Satoshi Kon, a product of the company (Madhouse) that produced my all-time favorite show (Monster), Paranoia Agent is a psychological thriller filled with drama, shockers, and memorable moments."When trouble rises, the hero is here!" This is Paranoia Agent's premise. When people feel mentally tormented, when they feel like they're trapped in an inescapable corner, a being named Lil Slugger appears to guide them away from their troubles, relieving them with a powerful hit to the head. Lil Slugger is the series' main antagonist, a boy with a red baseball cap, golden roller skates, a bent golden bat, and a love for spreading suffering. Paranoia places so much focus on Lil Slugger at an extent that I haven't seen since Monster and Johan Liebert. This anime portrays Lil Slugger as many things: a delusional maniac who views himself a hero, an urban legend generated by rumors, a prodigal criminal almost impossible to arrest, a messiah of the mentally ill, and even an outright demon with red eyes, an ability to feed on fear, and the ability to shift into an enormous shadow. In all of these forms, Lil Slugger's essence remains the same, that he is a malevolent menace to society.'Creepy' is the only word that does justice in describing Paranoia Agent's opening, a sequence that shows various characters laughing in a number of places, most of them scenes of natural or man-made disasters. Paranoia Agent's characters aren't just important to the anime; they are crucial, helping to construct the complexity of Paranoia's plot (Even the most unimportant characters, like a former thief or a seemingly gay employer, have significant roles). The characters are also accompanied by amazingly acted voices, the three main characters (and corrupt police chief Hirukawa) reminding me of voices in Monster. Tsukiko Sagi is Paranoia's central character, a beautiful yet timid cartoonist whose withdrawn whisper of a voice refuels memories of Monster's Anna Liebert. Liam O'Brien is the voice of Mitsuhiro Maniwa, a young detective that serves as another main figure, but he also starred as Monster's Dr. Tenma. In Monster, O'Brien only had two memorable scenes (the closed-door conversation with Inspector Lunge in "Lunge's Trap" and the climatic confession to Anna in "I'm Home") but, in Paranoia Agent, O'Brien is allowed more vocal creativity, in episode 7 (one of Paranoia's finest) shifting Maniwa's submissively gentle voice to a passionate one filled with fury and devoid of sanity. My favorite character has to be Keiichi Ikari, the bad cop to Maniwa's good cop, a short-tempered star of the police force whose gruff voice is like that of Monster's Richard Braun, and a mid-life crisis victim who wholeheartedly loves his wife, remains as stubborn as a mule, and often reminisces over his youth.Plotwise, this anime has one of the finest, where each episode is a potential favorite; there's just something unique about every Paranoia episode. For example, I've never been a fan of the perfect protagonist (thanks to Goku and his "I am the universe!" speech in Frieza Saga) and Paranoia Agent's second episode focused on a ridiculously popular kid named Yuichi Taira, and how the opinions of others turned him into a raving lunatic. Paranoia also specializes in (very dark) satire, poking fun at battle anime in episode 5, suicidal people in episode 8, the neighborhood gossipers in episode 9, and even animators themselves in episode 10. The animation, high- quality and meticulously detailed, was the first thing that stood out to me about Paranoia Agent and, throughout the series, the show loved to try different styles. First, it was the grotesque, child- like illustrations of episode 2. Then, the black-and-white manga in episode 4 (the voice of the manga's main character was excellent). Finally, it was the cardboard layout (yes, cardboard!) in the last three episodes. Throughout all of these styles, Paranoia Agent remained great.It's been a while since I've watched a truly exceptional anime, something that'll make me happily flip on the TV simply because I don't want to miss another moment, and Paranoia Agent did that for me. There wasn't one individual thing that caused my Paranoia binge- watching. It was all of the things I mentioned: the theme song, the characters, the plot, and the artwork. An anime has to be excellent to join my list of favorites and I just found a new addition.
dushyant-7990
With anime masterpieces like Death Note, Naruto, Gungrave, Cowboy Bebop, Code Geass, Kaiji, Samurai Champloo and the likes...the list goes on... I am really big fan of anime. I had very high expectations when I started watching paranoia agent. But i was highly disappointed. With every episode I grew restless waiting for the good part to begin. But it never did. Off to a good start it slowed down in 4/5 episode. And I simply hated it after that part. Also the 2 fillers were a huge disappointment(fillers always are). Ancient master, pink dog Maromi, Fear personified..what the hell!!! the anime completely lacked logic and made no sense whatsoever. Maniwa fighting in a make believe fantasy world, Ikari wandering off to an even worse looking animation, I wonder why it has an 8.2. Please fan-boys don't misguide people looking for a good anime and not a piece of crap!! This clearly was one. 2/10 for an interesting premise which could have paved way to something super awesome but fails miserably.
Shaun Marquet (metalsonic_chaosking)
Paranoia Agent, without doubt, is a good anime, but certainly not for everyone. It is a dark anime about a series of attacks carried out by a mysterious child known only as 'Lil Slugger', and the efforts of the detectives to find him/her. The show often takes different angles, away from the main characters, showing us what is happening with other characters on the show. There will be people, who after watching this, will be thinking 'WTF just happened?' after seeing some of the things this show contains. Towards the end the show becomes outrageously weird, Lil Slugger suddenly becoming more than 10 feet tall and Tsukiko's travels into an insanely weird environment, where everyone but him are 2-D characters. Throughout every episode, there is an old man, whose name was either never mentioned or I have forgotten it, but although he seems irrelevant, almost every episode ends up involving him in some main way, such as Episode 5: The Holy Warrior and later on, where he is referred to as The Old Master by a man called Mitsuhiro, who goes by the alias of Radar Man and fights with Lil Slugger from at least episode 11 (have not seen Disk 3) and is technically the one who solves the case of Lil Slugger. Without giving anything else away, I recommend this highly to anyone who likes a 'Smart' anime/show, and a good mystery at that. 8.5 out of 10
