Classic Review: Paranoia Agent

Episode 2

“I have no idea what young people these days are thinking,” says one of the lousy cops halfway through this episode, to which his partner responds “I'm one of those young people, too!” Modern anxiety's a fickle and complicated thing, and it'd be nice to think there's an easy Unknowable like “the youth of today.” The first episode raised that specter, before immediately dismissing it through the youth's own words. In this week's episode, we sit inside one of those unknowable youth's heads, and find it to be a selfish and paranoid but ultimately very familiar place.

This episode introduces Yuichi Taira, or “Ichi,” Number One, so called because he's the best at everything. And Yuichi knows it - he's smug and self-important, playing to the crowd in order to maintain his reputation. But Yuichi's one weakness is an unfortunate sense of style - gold inline skates and a baseball cap. And in the age of Shonen Bat, that makes him an easy target for a rumor campaign.

Most of this episode involves Yuichi falling further and further into a pit of understandable paranoia, as he's ostracized by his peers and named the attacker in various backhanded ways. He thinks it's his rival Usshi, a “fat country hick” who's competing with him for student council president. When he confronts Usshi, his attack is photographed and distributed to the other students, the incessant, accusatory ring of their cellphones proving his guilt acting as a mirror of the show's very first shots. Once again, technology is framed as ambiguous, but the real “culprits” are our own actions and feelings. “Everybody is manipulated by the media. So idiotic,” Ichi thinks to himself. How dare they be manipulated by others, instead of being manipulated by him.

Yuichi's paranoia is depicted through a variety of compelling tricks this episode, though the overall tone and direction don't seem quite as purposeful and oppressive as the first episode. The sound design remains strong; instead of using sirens and hammers, this episode turns the chatter of Yuichi's fellow students into a kind of oppressive white noise, rising in intensity until their faces distort into inhuman creatures. I found the unsettling angles and closeups of the first episode more effective in really evoking a sense of personal fear and discomfort, but it's still an interesting trick. And we once again got a great segment of Maromi-chan consoling her creator Saki, which ended with the charged lines “Forget about things that happened a while ago. Everything is Shonen Bat's fault, right?” Seems like we all want a villain.

By the end of this episode, Yuichi has descended entirely into paranoia and victimhood, his smug machinations giving way to a scared kid who just wants the hatred to go away. “Why is this happening to me? It has nothing to do with me. An incident like a street assault has nothing to do with my life,” he thinks, which feels like an important line - considering the way the show has jumped from character to character between episodes, it seems that “events echo” is a key refrain. As I said in the last writeup, “Agent” implies a seed, as if Shonen Bat's attacks are each stones dropped in a pond, causing ripples beyond their immediate effect. In the end, Yuichi gets his “wish” for Usshi to be attacked granted (all three attacks so far seem to have been prompted by someone running from oppressive expectations - to create another hit design, to get money for a lawsuit, and to escape the bullying and accusations), but it does him no good. He ends the episode shivering in his bed, dreaming of who he used to be as his world melts into accusing faces. And then his friend arrives, and he smiles that creepy opening-song smile.

This episode wasn't quite as tuned of an emotional/narrative ride as the first, but it was still a strong followup that attacked Paranoia Agent's ideas from a very different angle. Paranoia Agent remains strong.

Rating: A-

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