Year: 2004

Episodes: 13

Dubbed

Cat.: Mindf*ck, Psychological, Thriller, Violence

Summary:

In the streets of Tokyo, a new menace has surfaced: Shounen Bat, a young boy who wears golden roller skates and a baseball cap, and likes to whack people on the head with a golden baseball bat. These seemingly unconnected and random attacks soon become a police investigation... but after all is said and done, is there a pattern to this chaos?

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I honestly didn't get it.

A series or movie that makes me think "Wow, whoever made this must've been smoking something fantastic" is usually a good show in my book.  I like weird and quirky things. However, Paranoia Agent...

Paranoia Agent is a hard anime to describe.  In a nutshell, it's about a mysterious serial assailant called Lil' Slugger (or Shonen Bat, depending on if you're watching the dub or the sub).  He rides around on golden skates, attacks people with a golden bat and, to the shock of the community, looks like a gradeschooler.  The anime follows the two detectives on the case--the stoic old Ikari and the new blood Maniwa--as well as Lil' Slugger's many victims. Everyone he attacked in a way seemed happy  about it.

After episode 5 they start telling it from different peoples point of view, becoming very episodic, each episode plays out like its own miniature movie with a well thought-out story, great delivery, and a nice conclusion (often with a twist).

The strongest part of this show would have to be the characters. The characters are layered, quirky, and memorable which is difficult to accomplish in a 13-episode series. The artwork is also fantastic with fluid animation and realistic character designs.

Viewing the episodes as indvisiuals I think the show is great, but as a whole, I didn't really like it or that pink thing.

I give it a 1.5 out of 5.