All Satoshi Kon films ranked, from Perfect Blue to Paprika

“Paranoia Agent” is a 2004 miniseries developed and directed by Kon. And yes, it Is a television series, not a long film broken up into 13 chapters, as is often understood by “miniseries” these days. Since Kon's work as a director is limited, I'll overlook this formality and include it.

Paranoia Agent begins with Tsukiko Sagi, an animation character designer who created the new hit Maromi (a pink cartoon dog that rivals Hello Kitty! and Pikachu in cuteness). One night, she is attacked by a roller-skating boy with a baseball bat. The attacker is dubbed “Lil' Slugger” by the media, while detectives Ikari and Maniwa are assigned to track him down.

The series never stops following the threads it spun in the first episode, but it initially takes an episodic approach. In the first half, each episode follows a new protagonist who ends up having hit rock bottom and becoming Lil' Slugger's next victim. Episode 3, “Double Lips,” is about a woman struggling with a split identity (she's a teaching assistant by day, a call girl by night). In episode 5, “The Holy Warrior,” Ikari and Maniwa follow one of their suspects into his fantasy world, which looks like something out of a Dungeons and Dragons-style video game. This surrealistic touch increases as the series progresses, making it seem like a test run for Paprika (the two projects share the same writer, Seishi Minakami).

At times, Paranoia Agent feels like a collection of short films that push the boundaries of Kon's imagination. Watching it makes you realize how inferior the world is without that imagination.