I still haven't seen Ghost In The Shell, though it's definitely on my list and I'll get around to it at some point.
What's Paranoia Agent about? Er, good question. It's set in present day suburban Tokyo where people who are getting increasingly stressed about their problems meet Shonen Bat, a kid on rollerblades who hits them upside the head with a metal baseball bat. Which is sort of therapeutic apparently, or at least relieves the whole pressure of life.
Shonen Bat doesn't really seem to be "real", more some sort of spirit of existential release (or whatever) though he may be an actual kid (as the police assume, and we follow their case) or maybe the victims do it to themselves. Which doesn't' really preclude the first theory.
There's a largish cast of people, mostly victims at some point and a couple of policemen who all intertwine in various ways, with each episode tending to focus on one character. So you get the university admin woman who has a split personality with a sex worker who's not happy about being sidelined and when they go from leaving phone messages to each other to actually phoning up...
Then there's the boy suspect in the case who sees himself as the hero in a role-playing game defeating monsters, which re-shows the attacks as happening in a sword and sorcery milieu.
The last episode I saw was more detached from the main story and featured three people who'd met in a suicide chat room and, in a very jolly way, showed them consistently failing to top themselves. Except I think they actually did near the start of the episode and they're effective ghosts for the rest of it, finding happiness with each other in the afterlife. Then there's the cryptic old man who keeps chalking graffiti on the floors and seems like he could have popped in from Twin Peaks or somewhere.
Er, it's odd. I've still got about five episodes to go so it might end up anywhere really.
Oh, and it's also got a hugely catchy song over the credits called Dream Island Obsessional Park which is the sort of initially meaningless but slightly disturbing title that the theme tune should have.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-06-19 12:10 pm (UTC)What's Paranoia Agent about? Er, good question. It's set in present day suburban Tokyo where people who are getting increasingly stressed about their problems meet Shonen Bat, a kid on rollerblades who hits them upside the head with a metal baseball bat. Which is sort of therapeutic apparently, or at least relieves the whole pressure of life.
Shonen Bat doesn't really seem to be "real", more some sort of spirit of existential release (or whatever) though he may be an actual kid (as the police assume, and we follow their case) or maybe the victims do it to themselves. Which doesn't' really preclude the first theory.
There's a largish cast of people, mostly victims at some point and a couple of policemen who all intertwine in various ways, with each episode tending to focus on one character. So you get the university admin woman who has a split personality with a sex worker who's not happy about being sidelined and when they go from leaving phone messages to each other to actually phoning up...
Then there's the boy suspect in the case who sees himself as the hero in a role-playing game defeating monsters, which re-shows the attacks as happening in a sword and sorcery milieu.
The last episode I saw was more detached from the main story and featured three people who'd met in a suicide chat room and, in a very jolly way, showed them consistently failing to top themselves. Except I think they actually did near the start of the episode and they're effective ghosts for the rest of it, finding happiness with each other in the afterlife.
Then there's the cryptic old man who keeps chalking graffiti on the floors and seems like he could have popped in from Twin Peaks or somewhere.
Er, it's odd. I've still got about five episodes to go so it might end up anywhere really.
Oh, and it's also got a hugely catchy song over the credits called Dream Island Obsessional Park which is the sort of initially meaningless but slightly disturbing title that the theme tune should have.
Oh yeah, opening credits, including that song are here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-anabfAg06U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8HChqhHVuU
Take your pick from subtitles or correct aspect ratio. And there haven't been any nuclear explosions yet.