Review Intersped with live commentary of current series[in brackets] - Paranoia Agent

Before you all get your conspiracy hats on before we begin I'd like to give a parental advisory about this show- it will fuck with your children's minds. Also, never lie to your kids about things like them killing the pets by negligence- it can lead to some quite disturbing things in the future.

Okay with the RSAC done, let's get down to business. In the great Japanese tradition of making your mind turn to jelly comprehending exactly what is going on, Paranoia Agent takes a few pages from Serial Experiment:Lain then decides " ah screw it", and then just starts having warm,lustful lovemaking with it.. if that's given you a mental image that no amount of mind bleach can shift, then there is the true result of paranoia agent, and it has won.

Paranoia Agent starts off very much on the right foot for a mind fuck with an intro that seems innocent, but has such an unnerving and disturbing edge that I never really got over. It's set in a world that is heavily modelled off reality (and in fact may as well be, up until.. the end), and it starts off with an overworked young character designer getting whacked in a dark by the elusive Bat Boy. The series follow.. no not follows.. it goes around the people surrounding the case, and the serial of other cases following.

I won't beat around the bush, the show will probably lose you around one of it's MANY contextual and senory meanderings, that much is certain. The plot is almost liquid, it expands from the single case outward at an inpressive rate for a 13 episode show. Characters range from being fairly average, to fairly awesome, and there are a lot of messed people that you meet. It really was quite interesting the lady with bipolar and her two sides fought, the cop who stole to keep himself out of debt, and all sorts in between, they were well written animated and presented.

This leads me to the more technical aspects of the series. Character animation was superb and fluid, not to menation detailed, then there were times the polar opposite deliberately and those too were well executed. Backgrounds are the high standard you'd expect from Madhouse, and all other effects are polished to a sheen. Music and Sound is all great, and the voice actors were cast excelently.

In short, get it. If you like mindscrews, get it. If you on't like mindscrews, get it, and then learn to like mindscrews. If you enjoyed Lain, GET IT NOW. GET It, it 's worth it's weight in psychology books.