The opening sequence to Paranoia Agent is kind of a head trip in its own right.
Some keys to helping you understand Paranoia Agent include...
....Watch the episodes in sequence from start to finish. Don't watch it randomly on TV, start from the beginning, don't jump around, stay in episode order. The story builds on itself sequentially and is hard enough to get a handle on in the original order it was written. You won't be able to identify all the characters in the opening sequence until nearly the end of the show, as they get introduced one by one as the plot moves along.
As I stated before, the action really does center on Tsukiko Sagi (鷺 月子 Sagi Tsukiko?), but this fact isn't readily apparent since Sagi seems to drop off the radar not long after being introduced as a main character. But if you're observant, you'll notice she's always still around in the story.
Tsukiko Sagi (鷺 月子 Sagi Tsukiko?) is important because she's the creator behind this cute lil' fellow, named Maromi and voiced creepily by veteran voice actress Carrie Savage:
Carrie Savage is expert at voicing incredibly cute critters and little kids...but she's also skilled at making characters sound ever so slightly demented and creepy in ways that can make your skin crawl. It's a rare gift. Though Maromi gets limited screen time as a moving, speaking character, mostly as a figment of Tsukiko's deranged imagination, Carrie's performance in the English dub truly brings this lil' critter to life as a pivotal character.
More often, Maromi is just an ubiquitous cultural icon seen all over the fictional Tokyo of this series. He's a parody of other cutesy animal-creature stuffed toys and other pop culture icons in contemporary Japan.
I also have to compliment Michelle Ruff's performance as Tsukiko Sagi (鷺 月子 Sagi Tsukiko?), since to me it seems a departure for her. I'm used to Michelle Ruff as the voice of Rukia of Bleach fame, where she's kind of a bad-ass and plays up the sexual tension and friendly bickering between Rukia and Ichigo, voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch. In other anime, Michelle Ruff seems to play either saccharine-sweet characters like the tragic Princess Euphemia of Code Geass, or else rather haughty/mean girls...her performance in Dears comes to mind. But Tsukiko Sagi (鷺 月子 Sagi Tsukiko?) is so emotionally sensitive and physically frail...at other times emotionally distant and withdrawn...I really think the character is probably slightly autistic or at least "aspie". She's a person who clearly prefers the world of fantasy to that of reality...which is the central moral crisis at the heart of Paranoia Agent...which is ultimately about facing down our fears and coming to terms with grim, ugly reality...of finally putting an end to one's escapist diversions and jumping bravely through life's hurdles instead of running from them or making excuses.
This is, in some ways not unlike the moral crisis faced by Mima Kirigoe of Perfect Blue, which is exacerbated by the fact that, as an actress, it is her job to bring fictional characters to life for a captive television audience night after night. Mima does a lot of soul searching, wondering if becoming an actress really was the right move...if only she'd stayed on with her pop-singer trio, who now seem to be having even greater success as a duo...the emotionally disturbed character she portrays on television seems to bleed over into her real life...
The only thing that makes Perfect Blue harder to watch now than when it first came out is all of the references to very early Internet technology that now are commonplace and passe. It definitely shows its age and some of the suspenseful elements that were captivating in the late 1990s just don't have the same force today. Today if some creepy stalker started an anonymous blog pretending to be a celebrity, he would get his pants sued off and his P.O. Box would be filled with "Cease & Desist" letters by some pretty high priced entertainment lawyers...but in the late 1990s the internet was so much more new and mysterious than it is now...
Still, the final twist in Perfect Blue is worthy of Hitchcock--I totally didn't see it coming--and the resolution of Perfect Blue, for me, is highly emotionally satisfying.
So, too, the final resolution of Paranoia Agent, especially the final speech delivered by the police inspector's terminally ill wife to Lil' Slugger.
I think probably the creepiest character in Paranoia Agent is Masami Hirukawa (蛭川 雅美 Hirukawa Masami?), a corrupt low-level neighborhood beat cop with the Tokyo police force. He is a regular customer of the prostitute named Maria...and when you later figure out WHY he makes all of the prostitutes who service him call him "Daddy", it truly makes your skin crawl...two pairs of two words: Hidden camera -- daughter's bedroom. Yeah, pretty sicko. He later gets in way over his head with the Yakuza, and fate/karma itself sorta bitch-slaps him by the end.
Satoshi Kon must have believed that the monsters we bring to life in our fantasies and imaginations have real power...almost a Jungian idea...and that we must be mindful of them and their potential power. Art imitates Life, Life imitates Art.
I did thoroughly enjoy Paranoia Agent, finally having an opportunity last weekend to sit down with all four DVDs and finish watching the series. It is mentally challenging, very entertaining, and mind-blowingly weird. I would say that it is probably Satoshi Kon's final crowning achievement, having produced an entire half-season series...as compared to Perfect Blue and Paprika, which for all their artistic merits, are in the end merely feature length films, entirely self-contained.
