I used to think I had seen all the series in the world that had sucky endings. Then I saw Paranoia Agent. Let me cut to the chase: this series is not worth watching, because the ending is not an ending. It purposefully leaves many things unsolved, and then tries to make this deep symbolic statement about it, which really does nothing except make excuses for a poorly-plotted series. The mechanics of the writing suck. You don’t make people wait through thirteen episodes and then tell them that you’re not going to wrap things up!
So, why did I watch this at all? Why did I persevere in the face of profanities, blasphemies, paper-thin characterization, and authorial self-indulgence? Basically because Paranoia Agent was written by the same person that wrote Boogiepop Phantom, which I thought, at some level was captivating. Here’s a warning: if you also enjoyed that show, you won’t enjoy this. It features the same basic themes, and the same infatuation with detectives, but it’s done half as well.
Take the title. There really is no paranoia agent ever shown in the entire story; it can’t be Shonen Bat, because Shonen Bat is born as an excuse by a young girl whose dog was accidentally run over. Yes, you read that right. And even the series admits the whole silliness/stupidity of its central character by admitting that it’s a crazy world where the guilt over a dead dog murders about a hundred people before going on a citywide genocidal rampage. Uh, yeah. The dramatic tension becomes an emotional black hole at that point.
And don’t get me started on how tenuously the characters are tied together, because there’s nothing that unites them at all. The police can’t figure it out, really, other than stating very casual, surface-level links — but that’s all you get. Wow, how meaningful!
The rest of the series features strong profanity (most of which is a mistranslation), porno, filler episodes (8 and 9). Paranoia Agent adds up to nothing meaningful. It is a waste of time; it is a waste of mental effort; don’t respect a series by watching it, if the series does not respect you.
Welcome to the graveyard, Paranoia Agent!
