INVITATION - Watch Satoshi Kon's Paranoia Agent

V

VivisQueen

Adventurer
Hey everyone,

My current favourite reviewer is making a tribute to Satoshi Kon's work by watching and discussing one episode of Paranoia Agent a day beginning on Monday 30th August. He is inviting all fans to join in with the discussion.

Ordinarily, he writes about Hollywood movies but his wonderful observations on the Ghibli shows got me hooked on his blog. Humorous, creative, casually intelligent, his musings have helped influence my analyses too. (Just read his views on Ghostbusters - ohhhh yeah!)

Anyway, if you're a fan of Satoshi Kon's work and want to see some involving discussion on his only TV show, click here:

http://antagonie.blogspot.com/

Best wishes
VivisQueen
 
I have actually been meaning to watch the show myself for a while, this would be a good time for me to actually make a start on it. So yeah, i'm in.
 
That's great! :)

Looking forward to reading what people say. I myself never quite formulated my thoughts on it. I sort of watched and was left dazed and bedazzled. But I know I enjoyed it overall. Dissecting it on a more artistic level with a reviewer I highly respect should be a grand experience.
 
VivisQueen said:
I sort of watched and was left dazed and bedazzled.
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That sounds eerily similiar to my experience with the show. It'll definitely be interesting to hear others' thoughts on a series that clearly has a lot going on under the surface.
 
I'm up for this. I think the only regret I had about Paranoia Agent was that I would have also liked to see an entirely "straight" version of the show, with just the noir-ish detective storyline played out. Will be interesting to go back over individual episodes.
 
I'm in as I said on the site, though I won't have time to rewatch the series probably, though I might see if I can fit it in.

There's more than a few bits that I don't quite get though the overall plot I understand pretty well. Just stuff like the otaku who makes figures of the victims and the anime production company episode leaves me more than a litte confused as to who does what to whom
 
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Ah made dis <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eSQ3pDhlRgc?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eSQ3pDhlRgc?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

It's relatively spoiler free, I mean without knowing what's going on it's kind of hard to be spoiled. Oh wait, there is one spoiler in there, just remembered, so watch out if you've not seen the series. Though it's only an implied spoiler.
 
Enjoying Tim's thoughts, although you can see that watching a series is leading to a lot more 'process' oriented reviewing than themed reviewing. This guy was able to contextualise AI-Artificial Intelligence in a most illuminating way, so I am mainly looking forward to his overall thoughts.

And Sparrowsabre, you're providing some interesting facts. Presumably you're a massive Kon fan? Or just happen to be knowledgeable on his work? Mind linking me to a few interviews or articles on him?
 
When I get into something, I REALLY get into it heh, so I just read up all the wiki info vis a vis the names and so on, but yes I am a big Kon fan and now that he's gone I'm anxious to soak up any information I can about him, I'm going to buy "The Illusionist" book about him and his films, though it'd be a stretch to call it a biography. Still it's the only publication about him I can find so I must have it.

I also watched the audio commentaries on the episodes that had it and the interviews on the dvd. I'm afraid I can't link you since I don't think they've been uploaded, but there's an interview with Kon on one of the discs, which I found very enlightening =)
 
Ah. This is why I should buy stuff.

I also intend to buy 'Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist'. I intend to write a review for The Dream Machine and no way am I doing it without some research.

If I ever need to pick someone's brain, though, I know where to go!
 
Not my delicious brain! What will the zombies eat? And yeah. DO IT NAO! =P There's really little excuse not to. All Kon films are £5 or under in the right places and Paranoia Agent is £17 new.

So what are you waitin' for? *Arnie voice* COME ON DO IT! COME ON THEY'RE HERE! DO IT NAO!
 
I was just wondering if anyone knew if Maromi was a gender neutral name? Apparently it means 'mellow out'. Cos I know that the real maromi dog was male because it's said in the last episode but I'm not sure if the Maromi doll is male too. I mean all signs point to "no" but the japanese love to confuse us, and it is based on the real Maromi, but that doesn't necessarily mean it'd be male too... I just don't know, cos having a female VA is no indication either, and in the final ep when there's the giant maromi it's voice sounds masculine

Just a thought, I don't want to have been feeding people false info hehe
 
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Difficult to tell, since the Japanese name is written in kana. It's usually the meaning behind the kanji in a name that gives away whether it's masculine or feminine - generally, names ending in "mi" tend to be female, often using the kanji for "beauty", but you can't be 100% sure in this case since, as you say, she named it after her male dog.
 
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