Review of Paranoia Agent: Box Set (Review)
Tuesday, 3rd October 2006, 22:03

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Introduction
Whether it's from the pen of a clued-up critic, or one of those popular Amazon Listmania! things, If you seek out a top ten list of anime feature films, you'll invariably find 'Perfect Blue' floating around the top somewhere. A 1997 psychological thriller from the mind of Satoshi Kon, it's a stark contrast to much of popular anime, and was once described as "Walt Disney meets Alfred Hitchcock", lauded for it's prevalent adult themes and a biting social commentary. Kon would follow it up with 2001's 'Millennium Actress' and 'Tokyo Godfathers' in 2003.

Kon claims that after brainstorming for the making of his three movies, he had an abundance of left-over ideas that he decided would be best served as material to launch a TV show. The TV show he had in mind would become 2004's 'Paranoia Agent'.

'Paranoia Agent' begins with a vicious attack on a young woman named Tsukiko Sagi. She claims her assailant was a youngster wearing gold in-line skates and wielding a golden baseball bat. With no witnesses and no evidence, the detectives handed the case feel justified in their opinion that she's simply delusional and making the whole thing up. Opinions change, however, when a second victim comes forward, a reporter who had been staking out Tsukiko's case, claiming to have been assaulted by the same phantom figure. As the detectives begin their investigation and yet more victims of the now notorious 'Lil' Slugger' appear, they soon find they're at beginning of a twisting tale that takes a hop, skip and a jump between the boundaries of fantasy and reality.

Originally release in four separate volumes, the 13-part series is now released as a complete boxset containing the entire show:

Disc 1: Enter Lil Slugger

Episode 1: Enter Lil' Slugger
Episode 2: Golden Shoes
Episode 3: Double Lips
Episode 4: A Man's Path

Disc 2: True Believers

Episode 5: The Holy Warrior
Episode 6: Fear of a Direct Hit
Episode 7: MHz

Disc 3: Serial Psychosis

Episode 8: Happy Family Planning
Episode 9: ETC
Episode 10: Mellow Maromi

Disc 4: Sayonara Maromi

Episode 11: No Entry
Episode 12: Radar Man
Episode 13: The Final Episode

Video
An anamorphic 1.78:1 transfer, and 'Paranoia Agent' looks clear and vibrant throughout the 4 discs. None of the small niggles that can affect animation - banding, compression artefacts, etc - appear to present.

The subtitles are displayed in a typical yellow italic font, and perfectly fine for viewers who prefer the original language track and captions over an English dub.

While almost all of the design is flawless, a special mention has to go to the fantastic character design from Ghibli regular Masashi Ando. They say that the most important part of anime is the face, and it shows here as characters wear their personalities on the outside, from world-weary detective, to slimy reporter and the innocence of pretty young things.



Audio
A couple of strong Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mixes in both English and the native Japanese make good use of the front soundstage they're limited to, with a good balance between effects and score, and crisp dialogue with good stereo separation. While the drama soaked 'Paranoia Agent' is as far from an action-orientated anime as you could possibly go without being a big ol' perv, it does make good use of the sound for the pacier elements of the story, and a 5.1 mix is never really missed.

The voice acting on the Japanese track has a real aplomb behind it, with some forceful delivery. The English dub sticks as closely to the original script as it can, with the exception of the odd change for the sake of a smooth transition from Japanese to English.

'Paranoia Agent' has a great intro theme, too. Anthemic and catchy, it's complemented by the melancholic outro theme which closes the show.

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