Classic Review: Paranoia Agent

Episode 9

Paranoia Agent kept things light this week, with an episode that was less “carefree and poignant” like last week's and more just “very, very silly.” Through a series of increasingly absurd semi-horror vignettes, we got to see Shonen Bat cameo in all manner of stories, lending that winning smile to beleaguered students, haranguing mother-in-laws, and even star-crossed shoujo lovers. It couldn't compare to the show's usual material, but it was at least a cute idea.

This week's episode used the framing device of four women gossiping outside of their apartment complex, swapping stories of what new mischief Shonen Bat had gotten into. My first assumption was that this would be about engaging with what Shonen Bat has come to represent - how the idea that Shonen Bat comes to those who are cornered had essentially turned him into an excuse for people, ironically making him exactly the alibi that the police chief originally assumed. Through the vehicle of Shonen Bat, all manner of social ills are now reinterpreted - instead of the young blaming the old and the old blaming the young, as at the beginning of the series, now everyone gets to hang their anxieties on Shonen Bat.

Turns out, the episode actually just wanted to have a very silly time. But the episode slowrolled that reveal, with its first couple “haven't you heard” vignettes actually maintaining both some tonal congruity with the series proper and even reflecting on real Japanese social issues. In the first, a student feeling cornered by oppressive entrance exams ends up studying so hard he can't contain his own knowledge, and starts coughing up facts and figures right out onto the page. This was a legitimately compelling horror idea, and the show's execution sold it through some excellent sound design - the oppressive ticking of the clock as the student sat at his test, the echoing emptiness of the bathroom as he frantically attempted to re-swallow his knowledge. This felt like a fully realized horror vignette.

The second story had a coherent issue to focus on, but didn't really go anywhere with it. This time, the focus was on lingering mother-in-laws, mothers who stay with their sons and lecture new wives, causing an inherent rift in their relationship. From what I've heard, a combination of familial assumptions and economic realities make this a legitimate issue in Japan (in this vignette, the mother-in-law's presence is reflective of the fact that she paid the downpayment on her son's apartment), but all this sequence really said about this issue was “it happens, it causes stress, hey here's Shonen Bat.”

From there, the episode got progressively sillier, as the gossiping ladies tried to outdo each other and the new member of the group found herself being pushed out by the others. We got Shonen Bat as a fetus, waving that bat around in a pregnant woman's belly. Shonen Bat interrupting a tragic shoujo romance, complete with characters whose shimmering eyes seemed nicely out-of-place in Paranoia Agent's world. Shonen Bat appearing in an actual baseball game. Shonen Bat tempting a starving boxer with a steaming buffet on his morning run. Etcetera. All of these sequences felt like brief and half-formed fragments, which somewhat fit with their role in the episode, but didn't make them all that compelling to watch. Each new story was essentially built around one silly image, and the execution didn't sell them as anything more than single jokes told slowly.

In the end, the new member of the gossipers goes home and finds her own husband has been struck by Shonen Bat - but of course, in the wake of her hazing by the other women, all she cares about is getting a good story out of how it happened. This ending was one more lukewarm twist in an episode already full of them. This was a kind of cute episode, but “kind of cute” is way below Paranoia Agent's batting average.

Rating: B-

Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time.