Paranoia Agent
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Werel Tue Apr 17, 2018 8:59 pm
bomaye wrote:Ep 7
- Spoiler:
That build up to Shonen Bat killing (!) the faker, and the implication that the faker and Shonen Bat both attacked the two boys at the same time
Also that slow descent into madness (or maybe he was already paranoid and was just hiding it, I sorta believe that intsead) ending with Detective nerd broadcasting the truth over radio waves
I was getting the feeling that the imagery was trying to say Detective Nerd lost a wife and/or child (a lot of the hyper-focusing on the amnesiac daughter and some of that church stuff) but I wasn't sure I caught on to what they were trying to put down
- Spoiler:
- Dang, I'd have to re-watch this episode to be sure, but I do remember getting the impression that Maniwa had lost family members.
Sure do love his descent into madness
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by bomaye Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:07 pm
- Spoiler:
I was sort of thinking that way because paranoia is all about believing that randomized and bad events are actually all interconnected and targeted conspiracies, and now he's got this case where he's seeing actual interconnected events and maybe it's triggering the idea that if this is all interconnected, maybe whatever happened to [family or whatever people are being hinted at] was all connected too
I also really liked the fakeout where Shonen Bat attacked him in his dream (or maybe it wasn't a fakeout but a real attack in the dreamstate)
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Enail Thu Apr 19, 2018 4:19 pm
Episode 4
- Spoiler:
-All the detective could get out of him is snot, but he talks to the prostitution ring criminals
-his expression while looking at his house being built is really intense, seems like it'll be a little much to keep up for the entire construction period
-the juxtaposition of "call me daddy" and talking about his family and daughter
-it seems a little weird for a mob boss or whatever to want money from a corrupt cop, I'd think favours would be so much more valuable than money
-the way the image goes grainy when that woman with the parasol appears, like you're about to faint
-it's getting hard to tell what's realistic and what's going to be a dream in this show
-the dramatic manga dialogue over his clumsy, mean-looking robberies, really makes it feel pathetic and awful
-and moreso now he's saying the dialogue of a hero while robbing people's life savings at knifepoint
-"you have to call me daddy." Fuck, I laughed, but immediately wished I hadn't
-back in my day we'd walk uphill both ways in six feet of snow just to get a motive before we committed any crime
-Shounen Bat keeps answering peoples' pleas. But what did the first one wish for?
-holy shit, he chases him down and beats him up
-what did mob boss guy have to do with this?
-just noticed at some points in the end animation, there's the sound of flies buzzing. That makes it all even more ominous
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by bomaye Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:09 pm
Enail wrote:Episode 4
- Spoiler:
-it seems a little weird for a mob boss or whatever to want money from a corrupt cop, I'd think favours would be so much more valuable than money
- Spoiler:
I think it was mentioned or implied that he borrowed money from the Yakuza to fund the construction of his house, and now they're collecting plus interest (or maybe the Yakuza person he borrowed from was killed/replaced and now they're handling his debt collecting differently)
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Enail Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:12 pm
- Spoiler:
Yeah, I got that later on. I'd still have thought favours would be a more valuable form of repayment, though.
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Werel Thu Apr 19, 2018 5:55 pm
Enail wrote:
- Spoiler:
99% sure I did the same thing the last time I watched this.Enail wrote:
- Spoiler:
- Spoiler:
- I also wondered about that, but thought the implication was that he's such a useless small-fry within the police world that he's not even worth extorting for favo(uuuu)rs now that his debt is this large.
INDEED. Indeed.Enail wrote:
- Spoiler:
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by bomaye Thu Apr 19, 2018 6:48 pm
Werel wrote:Enail wrote:
- Spoiler:
- Spoiler:
- Spoiler:
I thought he was just some kind of traffic cop or toll-booth security or something
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Werel Thu Apr 19, 2018 7:43 pm
bomaye wrote:
- Spoiler:
I thought he was just some kind of traffic cop or toll-booth security or something
- Spoiler:
- He’s definitely a cop, IIRC he’s one of those beat cops who sit in the little neighborhood booths (tangentially: one of the most unfathomable parts of Japan). One of the other cops calls him “section head” or something at some point
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by bomaye Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:35 am
Paranoia Agent 8
- Spoiler:
- What a heart-warming episode
- Fucking when the dude jumps in front of the train I lol'ed
- And then wtf'ed when he walked away
- I love that Shonen Bat runs from them
- I never quite caught the missed shadows but I did notice "wait, he already took the last pill..." and sorta caught the implication that they're all dead already, but it was wikipedia that more or less confirmed it. Dat attention to detail with the shadows and the people being scared of the camera picture and even Shonen Bat having a shadow (and the hotel women looking at him but not them chasing him!)
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Werel Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:14 pm
So many moments in this show where I also laughed at things I should not have, guess we're all awful people here in this threadbomaye wrote:
- Spoiler:
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Enail Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:18 pm
Speak for yourself, I'm an awful person in every thread! 
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by bomaye Sat Apr 21, 2018 4:16 am
Ep 9
- Spoiler:
- I've been watching it with a Grad Student who does math things, they were legit worried about having nightmares from the first story with the kid sneezing out his math
- The fucking baby is Shonen Bat
- And he keeps doing goofier shit (I loved him fucking up the rocket)
- The gossiping and bullying is kinda sad
- And then she finally gets her Shonen Bat story
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Enail Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:52 pm
E5
Interesting observation on this one, bomaye!
- Spoiler:
-waiting to be saved, huh
-leaping up from his chair to declare himself a warrior to exciting background and music, and the detectives' total "huh?"
-the gleam of his braces
-the book, following prophecies, the red light, the way Ushiyama transforms into a monster; and then warring back-and-forth with the detective trying to rewrite the scene back into reality again
-the detectives in Shounen Bat's view of the scene to the point where they have to run from the monsters. And he says thanks for saving him /
-holy shit, and the young detective's fully into it and in costume
-the frog grabbing the cigarette
-"We have to believe that justice exists if we want to go on living" Have to believe. That seems to be what he has to believe, at any rate. The younger detective maybe has to believe something else...
Interesting observation on this one, bomaye!
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Werel Mon Apr 23, 2018 5:07 pm
Enail wrote:E5
- Spoiler:
-holy shit, and the young detective's fully into it and in costume
- Spoiler:
- The Wikipedia description of this scene makes me lol with its academician's take every time:Maniwa, taking an emic point of view, especially gets caught up in Kozuka's role playing.
Enail wrote:
- Spoiler:
What he believes/how he handles all this stuff is one of my favorite threads in the show.
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Enail Wed May 02, 2018 7:12 pm
E6
- Spoiler:
-the pre-storm atmosphere
-and then the stillness inside the tent while the detectives wait for the old lady to talk
-that little detail of the two mean kids hesitating and then backing away when she starts crying to her father
-"I wish the house would disappear," and the old lady's tent blows away. This is capturing the dangerous, wild magic-feel of a storm perfectly
-All Taeko's backstory scenes have the ending music playing
-that video...oh no
-they keep doing close-ups on that box of matches
-about to jump off a bridge and then sees her own body already in the water
-ohshit, and it's the old lady drowning, noooo
-she can't bring herself to smash the phone
-Shounen bat comes to answer her wish
-Sagi falls at the same time as Taeko (does that parallel mean that it's a bat of truth he's hitting people with)
-Shit, I didn't realize till now that the dad was the corrupt officer. That puts his story in an even darker light
-MAROMI IS WATCHING
-I was thinking old lady's granddaughter was Taeko, but I guess they were just using her as a parallel story to get us to think that
-Shounen Bat gave her her wish for amnesia, NOT GOOD
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Enail Thu May 03, 2018 1:57 pm
E7
- Spoiler:
-what the hell was that scene, looks like some kind of old post-disaster bunker, which is pretty alarming along with all the mushroom cloud stuff in the intro
-that blank but deep smile on Taeko's face
-and then when Maniwa sees the old man and gets that creepy vision-thing, it ends with his eyes wide and terrified but his face in a smile, and it feels totally similar to Taeko's somehow. He seems to have more ability to understand things within the Shounen Bat paranoia-world than the older detective but also be more vulnerable to them (but he's the last one in the question mark of bodies in the ending if order means anything)
-the sound going staticky while he's watching Ikari confront the kid
-we didn't get to see Taeko's picture in the painting. Or Usshi's, but Shounen Bat wasn't really answering any need of Usshi's as far as we know so far
-The kid said he attacked Usshi but not Ichi, that's weird. If it were the other way round, that'd reinforce that Usshi's an oddity, but since the police officer fits with the others, not sure what it means
-eggs?
-The hero fantasy and the apocalyptic-seeming visions converging on the old man
-He's (dream-symbolically, hopefully) eating Sagi, the reporter and Ichi, but the others are missing?
-everyone in the audience turning into the old man
-that smile on his face when Hirukawa collapses and Taeko keeps smiling blankly
-he's ranting insanely and Ikari just hands him a vacation-request form
-They found Shounen Bat... the others are seeing the same thing as him, right?
-first death
-maybe Taeko keeps showing up more in the faded/over-lit visions because she's already in that world, whatever that world is. Some kind of awful peace
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by bomaye Sat May 05, 2018 3:11 pm
E10
- Spoiler:
... was scary as fuck o.o
- All the watchful Maromis throughout the episode (especially the in hanging from the rearview mirror)
- And then when Shonen Bat starts following his car
- And the useless guy gets madder and madder and Shonen Bat gets stronger and stronger and more people on the team suffer accidents
- And then the fucking last guy just gets golden batted by the guy, implying it might've been him all along, but then he gets batted so it was probably Shonen Bat too
- AND THEY STILL GET THEIR ONE EPISODE
- (Btw if I was driving in a car and then some kid starts rollerblading behind me and AHHHHHHHHIYAAAAAAAA suddenly pops up on the radio, I'm hitting reverse and running that fucker over multiple times)
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Enail Sat May 05, 2018 4:30 pm
E8
- Spoiler:
-Somehow I don't feel like a gathering of people with Maromi backpacks is going to do something good
-Person #3 is a kid
-The old guy's voice when he says "sorry," and then we see her on the bridge watching. This is going to be a suicide pact or something, isn't it?
-a cute little kid brattily saying "I get to die too" is such a cognitive dissonance between the incredibly sad concept and the cheerful, normal-feeling mood
-and then they're continuing with plan b while still plotting to keep her from subway jumping too, and she's just happily dancing about. But how did they ever think she was an adult, she's not exactly mature and articulate
-holy shit, someone else jumped (I laughed, but then thought, oh, fuck, it's not Maniwa, is it?)
-and they're just like "maybe that's too gruesome"
-the jumper is simultaneously dead on the tracks being stared at by a crowd of people and limping off alive - is that how Shounen bat becomes someone? Except he was presumably the kid before the kid died, if they each did some of the attacks. Maybe it's some kind of split personality to start and then he only splits off completely when he kills the other one, that'd make more sense with the Usshi/Ichi attacks. But be a little confusing given that he came to save the tutor from her split personality
-Razors pain you; Rivers are damp; Acids stain you; And drugs cause cramp. Guns aren't lawful; Nooses give; Gas smells awful;You might as well live.
-oh shit, the old guy died before they got anywhere Wait, no he didn't
-a turtle and a bird? The bird was Sagi, I think, but a turtle's new
-three people struggling not to fall and die before they get the signal to fall and die while a little kid bounces happily up-and-down in her noose is one of the darkest laughs I've had in a while
-boyfriend in a locket
-ohshit, FOX was Shounen Bat/not-Shounen Bat
-and now there's someone named Horse too, this animal theme is getting pretty strong
-someone getting murdered by Shounen Bat in the background while they're talking about wishing he'd come for them, this episode is full of laughs that I feel guilty about
-he's about to kill them and then they run to greet him and he flees in terror
-I have never laughed so hard about a suicide pact including a child and a creepy attacker that can be multiple places at once and is somehow connected to nuclear annihilation
-"what should we do to die next?" while he's possibly having a heart attack. But didn't he take the last pill before?
-those tourists were a little too scared there, what did they see in the photo?
-Condoms??
Holy shit, that was a rollercoaster ride of
//I'm a terrible human being
And FUCK, I did NOT make the connection that they had died already! (possibly I was too busy laughing) I feel like I need to go watch it again to figure out when they died. They presumably interacted with people at the onsen to pay, and they got served food, so it seems like they should have died after that, but Shounen Bat being scared of them suggests they were already dead, and also no one else seeing the subway jumper walking around is maybe because only dead people can see each other.
Okay, I went back and checked, and it looks like they already didn't have shadows after the first attempt. No idea how they checked into the ryoukan or got served, then, though.
Also, on a hunch I went back and checked the kanji for Fuyubachi's name - it's winter bee. And Kamome means seagull. More animals.
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by bomaye Sat May 05, 2018 4:56 pm
Enail wrote:E8
- Spoiler:
Holy shit, that was a rollercoaster ride of
It's probably the most classic and memorable episode of the entire series.
- Spoiler:
Even after I'd forgotten what most of the series was about, I still remember the "suicide one" because it was the first one that broke the show's formula and went weird as fuck
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by bomaye Sat May 05, 2018 4:59 pm
Enail wrote:E8
- Spoiler:
Okay, I went back and checked, and it looks like they already didn't have shadows after the first attempt. No idea how they checked into the ryoukan or got served, then, though.
- Spoiler:
Dead hotelkeeps, maybe. Them seeing the train jumper and then him getting back up shows that they inhabit a spirit world together
Also probably the most obvious tip-off was them waking up on the street outside of the demolished building with no EMTs or police or anyone helping them out, but it's such a weird show that you pass it off as "oh, they're just being weird again"
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Enail Sat May 05, 2018 5:35 pm
bomaye wrote:E8
- Spoiler:
Also probably the most obvious tip-off was them waking up on the street outside of the demolished building with no EMTs or police or anyone helping them out, but it's such a weird show that you pass it off as "oh, they're just being weird again"
EXACTLY!
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by bomaye Tue May 08, 2018 5:21 pm
We watched the last three episodes 
E11
Episode 12
Episode 13
E11
- Spoiler:
- I sort of recall this one being the last one that felt like the formula that Paranoia Agent was laying down.
- The anime happened even though everyone died making it
- And Maniwa is starting to look like the knight he was in the fake Shonen Bat's delusions.
- Spending the episode holding back Shonen Bat with her will to face reality while he's smashing the shit out of everything and physically growing
- Also Chief diligently facing reality (and dat ass) with his new thief buddy.
- And then things get horrifying at the end when you find out his wife is just a little too crazy-diligent at being wifely (sitting there for a week waiting for him)
- And then he steps out into his cartoon fantasy world of the age he belongs in just as his wife insists he won't escape reality and I'm like "Yep, this is Paranoia Agent all right "
Episode 12
- Spoiler:
- I guess when you're a paranoid schizophrenic, you become Batman
- Fighting off monstrous Shonen Bat and whooshing around like a superhero
- Maromi is everywhere, a fad and craze that allows people to escape their realities and focus on it instead
- Shonen Bat wiping out her corporate boss guy after he threatened her
- Claiming her childhood bat as his golden sword
- Mannnn, Maromi going out of its way to cut her phone cord so she doesn't learn the truth
- And the escape into the cartoon world
Episode 13
- Spoiler:
- The fake world trying to force the Chief into being her dad
- And him constantly remembering his life with his wife just as she's dying
- And batting down the fake world made of Maromi's once he realizes he's a face-reality no-fun adult
- Just in time to find the nuked-out Japan
- Hugging the real Maromi and apologizing to it ;_;
- And everything goes back to normal (even implying it might end up happening again because now Maniwa is the crazy old man chalk-writing )
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Werel Wed May 09, 2018 7:35 pm
It's been a while since I saw the end of this series, but this is making me want to watch it again pretty bad and remember exactly how it all wraps up.
I will of course never forget
I will of course never forget
- e13:
WRECKED me.bomaye wrote:- Hugging the real Maromi and apologizing to it ;_;
Especially with the coming-of-age theme of how she only let the leash go because she'd gotten her first period. Welcome to adulthood, where your body betrays you and your neglect kills what you love.
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Enail Sat May 12, 2018 4:58 pm
E9
- Spoiler:
-they don't believe her about the inn attack from last episode. I kind of wonder if it's a known Shounen Bat attack that happened/that the detectives are counting or if it was something...from the past or some kind of echo that they were able to be aware of because they were dead. But then, how would this woman know about it in that case? Unless it somehow passed into rumour or ghoststory when/if it actually did happen and became known that way.
-oh no, he caught a math cold, the worst kind of cold!!
-trying to stuff all his knowledge back up his nose
-at least he can take comfort in the fact that all his knowledge piled up in the bathroom looks like a hell of a lot?
-it's interesting watching the way the rumour-attacks distort from the feel of the attacks we've seen directly. And the focus on rumour and reality does sort of support my vague ramblings
-the fetus is Shounen Bat
-what's with the rabbit kid?
-"how can he be born in the future when he already exists now" seems suspiciously key here
-Shounen Bat up to bat
-An evil cake of temptation appears before you in the fog, I could go for that
-Sushi out in the trash doesn't seem all that tempting, though
-Shounen Bat prepared a feast The fetus was still the best one, though
-I love you??
-pumping her bleeding husband for details on Shounen Bat that she can tell the neighbours, it feels like we've shifted from what we assumed was 'reality' into that weird, exaggerated quality of the rumours we were getting. In which case we have no idea when what they're telling us is to be believed
-And what on earth do this week and last week's titles/last shot mean??
-and when are we going to come back to the detective possibly gone insane??
-For the next week's thing, we know the fox is Shounen Bat now (as far as it's possible to know anything, that is), but the monkey's new, I think. And I think the falcon was mentioned before but the only bird I can remember is Sagi and I think her name means heron or some kind of bird like that. And it just occured to me Maniwa could use the character for horse, but one of the people on their site last week was Horse, so probably not. Urrrgh, these animals are killing me.
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Re: Paranoia Agent
by Enail Mon May 14, 2018 4:09 pm
E10
- Spoiler:
-cartoon kid dropped the bat when Maromi appeared, did the bat get bent?
-Maromi telling someone to take a rest seems pretty sinister after all this
-is this back in time a little to the night of the typhoon?
-He's looking at the Maromi charm while falling asleep driving on the highway, yep, it was totally sinister
-I wonder if the animators et. al making this show enjoyed portraying themselves all as twitchy, spaced out, dead-eyed balls of stress.
-a scriptwriter paralyzed in hospital, I guess the attack in last episode was real even if the version of it we were seeing might have been a rumour-version (in which case, were any of the other stories based on a kernel of something real?). Or maybe it's totally straightforwardly that the bits we saw someone telling as gossip were just gossip and the bits they showed us directly were real, and this show is just messing with my brain
-the expressions of everyone in the animation office at the bright-eyed marketing guy
-ohshit, Shounen Bat in the rear window
-totally thought they were going to announce on the radio that the victim was him (it still might be, though, since we're flashing between times while he's falling asleep on the highway, which is unlikely to end well and also involves dreams, and I'm not sure what's happening with the timeline. Though, if Shounen Bat's pursuing him, presumably he can't already be dead at least since Shounen Bat's apparently scared of dead people)
-turning into half-finished animation
-"I'm immortal," "I don't make blunders" is pretty grandiose vs the defensive, pathetic "it's not my fault"
-the cheerful little Maromi blurb about the job of the person slumped into the pool of blood coming from her head
-and he doesn't even notice, just lets himself out
-also how have there been multiple murders at one studio and no investigation, has any of this even really happened?
-the opening song coming on the radio
-that crazy laugh, maybe he killed them all
-SHOUNEN BAT's IN THE BACKSEAT HOOK HAND CAR DOOR
-that last murder was definitely him, at least
-and then I guess Shounen Bat got him? Is this after the falling asleep in the car bit? (and they only care about the tape)
-Well, that was a super-creepy ending. Still no sign of what's happening with the detectives, though.
Next week: The characters on the door it shows are "boar hunting"... as a name, the most common pronunciation is Ikari. Guess we're getting back to the detectives now.
bomaye wrote:-
- Spoiler:
- Spoiler:
- But you know when you saw the body, it would have your face
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