Classic Review: Paranoia Agent

Episode 3

Paranoia Agent jumped again this week, over to Yuichi's tutor Harumi Chono. Though Yuichi saw her as an escape from his life, Harumi had her own unique problem to be escaping - Maria, her alternate self. While Harumi is a soft-spoken, plainly dressed academic assistant, by night, Maria takes over, dressing in wild wigs and selling her body to loyal customers.

What with the alternate selves and identity questions, this week's Paranoia Agent largely played out like a very concise version of Perfect Blue. As the episode proceeded, Harumi's approaching marriage made the existence of Maria more and more problematic, and eventually the two selves ended up fighting for control of her body, and the final say in who the “real” Harumi was. Much of the imagery of Perfect Blue reappeared here - the same focus on mirrors and phones, and also repeated cuts of Harumi waking up, unsure of what reality she was actually inhabiting. Slow-burning scenes of Harumi going about her day fed into a growing sense of unease, and repeated shots of crows and garbage bags created a feeling of morbid inevitability throughout the episode. At one point, a remixed version of the opening song lent a great sense of weird triumph to Harumi's first “victory” over Maria, while other scenes cut music entirely, letting the repeated beep of Harumi's cellphone overwhelm the senses.

This episode was more tonally consistent and effective than last week's, but I feel it traded that mood for a great deal of emotional impact. In contrast to the very relatable (if also insufferable) Yuichi, Harumi was a bit of a cipher, a non-entity in her own life. Though this made sense thematically, it made it difficult to invest in her story to the extent necessary to feel actual concern for her. I almost got the sense that the story itself didn't much care for its protagonist - this felt the most emotionally removed of all three episodes so far, and though its questions of identity and paranoid seeking fit in line with the show's ideas so far, Harumi being such a distant figure made this episode feel more well-constructed in a formal sense than affecting in an emotional one.

That said, there were still plenty of aesthetic gifts to be found here, and Paranoia Agent's core points are continuing to swirl around each other in very pointed, purposeful ways. Perhaps the most key line this week was when one of the detectives confidently declared “no matter how chaotic a crime may seem, there is always some law of causality.” That desire to make sense of fundamental fears and inconsistencies permeates all of Paranoia Agent, extending from the base nature of Shonen Bat to all the larger fears of modern identity, technology, and “who's to blame for the way of the world” that lightly touch each of the show's cases. Be it a hated schoolmate or an oppressive boss or the Youth of the Day, we all want a target to make sense of our fears. And Shonen Bat gives that to these characters - as Yuichi says, “Shonen Bat set me free!”

Overall, I'd say this was likely the weakest episode of Paranoia Agent so far, largely because it felt so emotionally cold relative to its predecessors. Paranoia Agent is a very cynical show in general, one that often seems to approach its characters with suspicion verging on mockery or disgust, but for its points to hit home, it needs to temper its scolding themes with a little empathy for their circumstances. The show's an aesthetic marvel, but those strengths aren't as meaningful if they aren't being used to facilitate an emotional punch.

Rating: B+

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.