Paranoia Agent - Enter Lil Slugger (Vol. 1 of 4) Anime DVD Review

Anime DVD Review: Paranoia Agent - Enter Lil Slugger (Vol. 1 of 4)

Reviewed by: Krista

Stumble It!

Title: Paranoia Agent - Enter Lil Slugger (Vol. 1 of 4)
Publisher: Geneon Entertainment
Running Time: 100 min
MSRP: $29.98
Ratio: 1.78:1
Region: 1
Release Date: 10/26/2004

Overall Rating:

Content:

My Rating:

In a society where everyone is overly stressed and always on the go, paranoia can creep up in the most unexpected places. Thus begins the story of several characters who each find themselves under stressful circumstances and welcome any type of intervention that may give them a break from their lifestyles.

Paranoia Agent is a twisted anime that explores the underlying motivations of each of its characters. For instance, because Tsukiko Sagi created the popular tv character, Maromi, her boss pushes demanding deadlines for the next big sensation while her co-workers talk jealously about her. When she is attacked by Shonen Bat, she welcomes the hiatus from her thankless job.

Other episodes look at how one of the most popular boys at school deals with becoming the school outcast virtually overnight, how a tutor and professor's assistant deals with her prostitute split personality, and how a cop caught up in a lifestyle of crime falls into petty theft and winds up catching the Shonen Bat by accident.

This anime has quite a bit going for it - a deep story, interesting and non-stereotypical characters, and an overarching mystery at play. No one knows for sure whether the attacker, Shonen Bat, is real or a figment of Sagi's imagination. When others are attacked, the suspicion never quite goes away, playing with the "paranoia" theme in each episode.

For more about my opinion of this excellent anime, read my anime review or episode summaries.

The dvd comes with four episodes:

1 - Enter Lil' Slugger: Tsukiko Sagi has been under a lot of stress recently to create another popular tv character as a follow up to her huge hit, Maromi. When she becomes a victim of the Shonen Bat, the police wonder if she made the whole thing up.

2 - The Golden Shoes: Yuichi Taira used to be the most popular 6th grader and a shoo-in to become the next Student Council President. But since the description of Shonen Bat got out, everything thinks Yuichi is the assailant.

3 - Double Lips: Harumi just wants a normal life - to settle down with her Professor fiancée. Unfortunately for her, her split personality, the whore Maria, has other plans.

4 - A Man's Path: Having connections in the crime underworld can come back and bite you when you least expect it. Police officer Hirukawa finds that out the hard way when he is forced to cough up far more money than he can pay.

Audio/Visual:

My Rating:

I watched this in Japanese and didn't have any problems. Much of the music fits really well with what's happening on screen to give you that eery feeling - almost as if you're watching a movie rather than a tv series. Paranoia Agent aired in Japan in early 2004, and carries similar animation/camera themes Satoshi Kon has played with in his feature length films.

Packaging:

My Rating:

The front of this DVD is a creepy shot of Shonen Bat, showing everything but his face. His bent bat and inline skates are illuminated from the light coming from behind, casting a large shadow our way. The onlookers behind him are portrayed in a red tint.

The back has a few pictures of characters from the first three episodes along with a silhouette of Shonen Bat in action.

The menu plays flashes of video from the anime and obscures the menu options within the business of the background. I prefer clean, easy to read menu options, myself, but the appropriate text does light up when the cursor selects it.

Extras:

My Rating:

The extras on this DVD are top notch. One of the most interesting is an interview with director Satoshi Kon who describes how Paranoia Agent came to be and what paranoia means to him.

Another section of the dvd shows multi angle storyboards for how they laid out Paranoia Agent. You can see the black and white sketches on the left with the finished videos on the right.

Finally, there are a few Geneon previews and DVD credits.