ParanoiaAgent is a rather dark psychological horror mystery from the creator of PerfectBlue?.
The story begins when Tsukiko - the young and frail creator of Maromi, an evilly cute pink doglike plushy and current marketing fad - is attacked by a gold bat-carrying, rollerblading kid with a baseball cap. Enter the two detectives who are the main focus of the story, if there can really be said to be any in this story anyway. At first they suspect her of injuring herself to avoid the pressure of having to come up with another big hit product - the fact that she seems to be permanently spaced out doesn’t help; but as more people start getting attacked, events - and thus the case - start to take a decidedly weird turn.
As it progresses, the series gets more darkly psychological, delving further into the human mind and its ability to delude itself. The majority of episodes are each centred around a new character; over the whole series, you discover how each of the characters is linked to all the other characters, creating an ever-complicating and expanding web. I watched this weekly with my local anime club (WednesdayAnime) and we had a lot of fun speculating after each episode how the new characters fit in to the whole pattern. The art and music is very well done, fitting in extremely well with the creepy feel of the whole thing - from the glazed look in Tsukiko’s eyes and the fluid movements of Shounen Bat (the extremely creepy but cool rollerblading kid) through to the excellent opening credits. If the music was on CD it would be a nightmare to listen to, but it sets off the dark tone of the artwork superbly.
One thing that must be said about this series: watch the whole thing through even if you're not taken by the first few episodes, as the story will soon drag you in and the outcome will leave you glad you stuck to it, as the ending very much makes the story; it is extremely good and will leave you stunned. Dark, Disturbing, Creepy as all hell; if you’re looking for cute and fluffy or crazy action, this ain’t it. A must watch if you enjoy stories that pull you in, mess with your head and permanently creep you out.
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ParanoiaAgent/Review