Category: Paranoia Agent

Welcome to week 3 of Paranoia Agent! Once again, we focus on a new set of characters, new problems, and a new part of society. So lets jump in!

Once again, Kon’s outlandish style shined through this episode. Everything about it was just so… weird and disjointed, but I loved it. First off, Kon introduced the central character last week as Icchi’s tutor, easing us into her place in the story. It makes for a much less abrupt shift in focus. Yet at the beginning Kon fakes us out, by basically hiding her character from view with the makeup and wig. At the very least, it successfully confused me at the beginning. But not in the “I can’t follow whats going on, this is stupid way”. It confused me in the sense that there was a mystery and I wanted to know the answer. Why was she leading a double life? How does this tie into Shounen bat? What societal issue is Kon commenting on this time? And over this episode, I found an answer to each.

Continue reading “Paranoia Agent – 3 [Double Lips] – Throwback Thursday” →

Hello to week 2 of Paranoia Agent, now with an extra dose of weird! This week we focus on some new characters, the cruelty of children and the supernatural presence of Lil Slugger. Lets jump in!

In general, this was an odd week of Paranoia Agent. Only 2 episodes in and I expect to see myself saying that often. It started off very subdued with its animation. Lots of nice details, but nothing like Kawazu’s beautifully creep fluidity. It did have some awesome direction though. Showing how Icchi views himself and his growing paranoia and solitude. A lot of the shots were very evocative, and really sold the growing dread, even if the animation was more subdued. That isn’t to say Paranoia Agent didn’t have its moments of Kon greatness though. It just reserved it. Every time Icchi started to freak out, the art changed to a more simplistic but exaggerated style. Really playing with the camera angles and stretching the models. I think reserving the fun animation for these moments was a great idea, as it made them really stand out from everything else.

Continue reading “Paranoia Agent – 2 [The Golden Shoes] – Throwback Thursday” →

Hello all and welcome to another round of Throwback Thursday, with this seasons special guest, Paranoia Agent! Satashi Kon through and through, lots of weird beautiful things are happening, so let’s jump right in!

Starting off, some details for how this is going to go. Planetes was a 26 episode series, so we did 2 episodes a week so we could get through it in a season. Paranoia Agent is a 13 episode series, so we will be doing 1 episode a week. A nice and easy pace. As for Paranoia Agent itself, you can tell its Satoshi Kon right from the get go. He has a very personal, odd style, which I love. I think you can see it most in his focus on lips and mouths, faces in general. You can see it to a great extent in Tokyo Godfathers, but his faces are always… not droopy, but fluid. Detailed in how the mouth and the skin around it moves. It could almost be described as plump on some characters. Regardless, it’s an iconic and brilliant style that I love.

Continue reading “Paranoia Agent – 1 [Enter Lil’ Slugger] – Throwback Thursday” →