With the officers finally coming face-to-face with Shonen Bat last week, and getting fired in the aftermath of that encounter, I'd expected some sort of structural shift in this week's episode. However, I wasn't expecting anything quite this drastic. This week's Paranoia Agent took a break from being Paranoia Agent for a while, to instead be a very different show. This week's Paranoia Agent was the merry adventures of Zebra, Kamome, and Fubuyachi.
These three are friends who met online, who share one very specific interest - the desire to die. Fed up with their lots in life, each of them has come to the decision to end their own lives, and so as we learn through a number of online text exchanges throughout the episode, they've decided to meet up in real life in order to make their journey a little less lonely. Unfortunately, while Zebra is an adult man and Fuyubachi an elderly one, Kamome turns out to be a little girl, as excited about riding the train as she is about jumping in front of it. And so, feeling somewhat awkward about condemning a child to their morbid task, Zebra and Fuyubachi decide to do the mature thing and run away.
Start watching Paranoia Agent online on Sling TV. Stream hit shows, movies & more from top channels - live and on demand. High quality Paranoia Agent gifts and merchandise. Inspired designs on t-shirts, posters, stickers, home decor, and more by independent artists and designers from around the world. Paranoia Agent is about a social phenomenon in Musashino, Tokyo caused by a juvenile serial assailant named Lil' Slugger. The plot relays between a large cast of people affected in some way by the phenomenon; usually Lil' Slugger's victims or the detectives assigned to apprehend him. As each character becomes the focus of the story, details are revealed about their secret lives and the truth.
So begins an absurd, farcical episode about friendship and suicide. Zebra and Fuyubachi keep trying to either lose Kamome or sabotage her efforts to join their suicide pact, and Kamome keeps popping back up, full of infectious energy and forcing the others to have fun in spite of themselves. When they try to overdose in an abandoned building, a bulldozer smashes through the wall. When they prepare to jump in front of a train, some other unhappy soul jumps there first, prompting a “so that's how you end up looking when you get run over by a train” from Kamome. When the three of them tie nooses to a mountain branch, the branch predictably snaps before their necks do, sending the three of them tumbling down the hillside. “It's hard to die, isn't it?” says Kamome to her companions, prompting a “these are hard times” from Fuyubachi.
This episode marked a complete tonal and narrative shift from the show to date, and in spite of that, it was actually my favorite episode yet. In twenty short minutes, this vignette tells a consistently funny story about three sort-of-lost souls, sketching fully realized and deeply endearing characters in the process. Scattered hints of past tragedy give us poignant context for each of their journeys; Fuyubachi mumbles of a lost family member on the train, Zebra's locket reveals he once loved another man, but is now alone, and Kamome's plea that she doesn't want to be left alone bridges the general divide between them. And beyond the overt character details, the chemistry these three share is undeniable. They have natural fun together even as they're trying to end it all, sharing stories and going on adventures and ultimately teaming up for an absurd chase, all of them hoping to get whacked by one more Shonen Bat copycat. I didn't expect this show to use that ominous train signal Shonen Bat song in order to set up a wacky chase around a hot springs resort, but this episode clearly had its own plans.
After the focused plotting and tonal intensity of the last two episodes, this story was a breath of fresh air. It told a complete story and brought three vivid characters to life, managing to evoke both the sadness that prompted their journey and the warmth of friends on an adventure. It's actually one of the best short stories I've seen in anime, period - if the big Shonen Bat setpiece in the last act didn't require the context of the rest of the show to be as hilarious as it was, I'd recommend this episode as a standalone accomplishment even to people who aren't watching the show. This episode lacked some of the taut direction and sound design of the show's usual material (and the animation was also shakier than usual), but it easily made up for that with its warm, funny, intelligent storytelling. Paranoia Agent has surprised me once again.
Rating: A
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Nick writes about anime, storytelling, and the meaning of life at Wrong Every Time. Malayalam film vettam movie.
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