Paranoia Agent, full series eps 1-13 (rewatch)
Even though I've got an absurd pile of new blu rays to watch, I had a real hankering to revisit this one after I wrote my intro post the other week, where I included it in my favourites. I realised it had been many years since I saw it, so I wanted to see whether I felt the same way.
Definitely yes!
I love everything that I've seen by Satoshi Kon, and this is no exception. Haha, I feel like I understand his brain. You will have your own opinion on what that says about me. Killer soundtrack by Susumu Hirasawa too, who also seems to completely understand Kon's vision. (By the way, if you like the music in Paranoia Agent, check out Hirasawa's Blue Limbo album, which Kon recommends in an interview in the bonus features. It's excellent.)
I was reading a blog the other day that described Paranoia Agent as a "flawed masterpiece", and I think that's about right - but I'm very happy for flaws in something experimental. It's a fascinating exploration of delusion and trauma, and I enjoyed it as much today as I did a decade or so ago.
I think my only real criticism is that although the animation is often gorgeous, there are some moments when it was very obviously rushed and done on the cheap. This wouldn't be such a big deal if there weren't other moments when the animation style is chosen very deliberately to tell a story, such as a moment where two animation styles are deliberately used at the same time to show the thoughts of a character. It leaves you looking at the jarring cheap animation, and wondering whether it really was rushed and done chearly, or whether it was just a bad decision.
I'd recommend it to anyone who is open to watching shows where the on-screen visuals are not necessarily literal reality, and where the camera is an unreliable narrator. It's challenging and brilliant.