Classic Review: Paranoia Agent

Episode 6

There was a storm warning on for this week's Paranoia Agent. Heavy rain approaching, with a high chance of flooding. Residents were advised to stay inside within the affected areas, and sit tight as the storm washed away all it could.

In the wake of last episode's significant stylistic digression, this week's episode returned to exactly the kind of storytelling Paranoia Agent excels at. This episode was full of slowly building tension, articulated through the overcast cityscapes, the powerfully emotive sound design, and the constant mirroring of story against story, character against character. As Mitsuhiro and the chief questioned the old homeless woman about the Shonen Bat case, we were introduced to one more new character - Taeko, a girl who has run away from home. Her story was told through constant transitions from her present-day wandering to a series of flashbacks, detailing her close relationship with her father and her family's struggles with money. Eventually, Taeko's idyllic relationship with her father is torn away by an awful discovery, and so she finds herself much like the old woman in her shack - “there's no home to go back to, even though I want to.”

The mirroring of both characters and shots was omnipresent in this episode, helping the audience feel in an emotional sense the way all of these stories are connected not by linear patterns, but by underlying fears and shared journeys. Early on, the chief complains to the old woman that “we're not here to listen to that story” when she brings up her granddaughter - but as it turns out, the synchronicity he puts so much faith in doesn't really exist in the way he wants it to. He wants a coherent, crime-based pattern; but what these stories share is not a common foe, but a common fear.

The mirroring wasn't just presented in a narrative sense, though this episode did a commendable job of contrasting Taeko, Saki, and the old woman throughout. This episode was also full of purposeful match cuts, with shots of Taeko wandering the streets seguing gracefully into memories of past pain, or even Saki fighting through similar situations (later on, the old woman's testimony prompts the chief to bring Saki in, accusing her of fabricating her attack). At one point, the police officers asking questions from the left side of the frame was intercut with Taeko pleading for escape from the right; at another, the older Taeko attempts to win a prize in a crane game, fails, and then is replaced by her younger self, a person still shielded by her father's affections.

As always, Paranoia Agent's sound design was on-point this episode, keeping the audience firmly trapped in the gray gloom of the coming storm. The episode opened with a series of melancholy city shots set only to the sound of wind, while later on, dramatic scene transitions were marked not by musical interludes, but by the steady ringing of horns and sirens. Practically the only song in the entire episode was used specifically to mark out Taeko's discovery of her father's secret, and even then, the music was more based in percussion and unnerving noise than outright melody.

Near the end of this episode, Taeko's wanderings come to an end, as she steels herself to jump into the raging floodwaters and wash everything away. But looking down, she sees herself already drifting there - a momentary vision that's quickly replaced by the old woman, who is swiftly dragged away by the current. Both Taeko and the old woman have been made homeless by circumstance, stuck in a fractured world where traditional families can no longer be trusted - but instead of trying to escape this world, Taeko cries out that she “wants to forget.” Like the chief, she wishes to believe in a simpler world - and as Saki collapses in the interrogation room, Shonen Bat returns to grant Taeko one more wish. The storm ends and sunlight returns, revealing that the rains have washed away both Taeko's home and her awful, unbearable memories.

This was a Top Shelf episode of Paranoia Agent, gracefully constructed and full of aesthetic gifts. Its understated storytelling did nothing to reduce the sense of tension throughout; if anything, the slow build here was more effective than some of the more overtly dramatic episodes. If I have any complaints, it's that Taeko's father's secret felt perhaps a bit too much of an expected “horrifying subversion” - but considering this episode was far more focused on both contrasting several characters to make larger points and maintaining a very specific tone, I can definitely forgive one slightly underwritten plot thread. This was the kind of episode that demonstrates why Paranoia Agent has maintained such an enduring reputation.

Rating: A

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