tek's rating: ½

Paranoia Agent, on WOWOW
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13 episodes. Okay. This woman named Tsukiko Sagi is a character designer. She created this cute and popular mascot, a dog called Maromi, and now she's under pressure to create another character, and she seems to be totally blocked. Then she gets attacked by a boy wearing inline skates and wielding a bent baseball bat. There are a couple of police detectives investigating this: Mitushiro Maniwa, who is fairly young and open-minded; and his older partner, Keiichi Ikari, who has trouble believing some of the things that happen while investigating this case. There are further reports of other attacks by the mysterious kid, who people start calling Lil' Slugger. There's also a sleazy journalist named Akio Kawazu following the case...

I can't really say much else, except that occasionally, Maromi seems to come to life and talk to Tsukiko. The show is pretty hard to figure out... or perhaps I should say impossible.... And it doesn't always follow the main characters. You never really know what's going to happen from episode to episode. It could just be random people gossiping about Lil' Slugger. It could be flashbacks to various characters' pasts, or fantasies of what's going on in someone's deranged imagination, or... anything. Also, people seem to be attacked when they're suffering psychologically, something's backed them into an emotional corner- and these attacks may actually be to their benefit, somehow. Which is one of the many reasons it's never entirely clear whether Lil' Slugger even actually exists or not. So, really, it's a very trippy series, and confusing, and interesting, and rather engrossing.... All of which is quite typical of a Satoshi Kon anime, of course. I gotta say, though, the end didn't really feel like the end to me, and I don't think it completely explained everything, to my satisfaction. Still, it was a fun show to watch, while it lasted. Though I probably wouldn't want to see any more of it, anyway. I dunno.


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