♡ 𓂃 rambles about Paranoia Agent
mostly spoiler free! you should still go watch it tho :3
episode 8 : Happy Family Planning
This is probably my favourite episode in the whole series. How do you do THAT much in 20 minutes?? It's actually insane! A dig at heteronormativity and the ideal of the nuclear family, commentary on mental health care in Japan, reactions to tragedy, the internet, life after death… All presented in such a funny and simultaneously devastating way. These characters meet up to die, but almost immediately each finds a reason to stay alive for just a little longer. Stay alive to make sure the girl is safe, stay alive to stick together, stay alive to spend a night at the onsen... It's so sad and beautiful and hopeful and funny and I really consider it to be one of the best episodes in the whole series. It exemplifies how despite our circumstances, even when driven to the brink, what we really want is a release from pain rather than for it all to end. It's just so meaningful to me that upon meeting, Zebra and Fuyubachi's immediate reaction was to keep Kamome alive, and they were willing to sabotage their own goals to keep her alive. Through that, they're able to find reasons to keep going, and they get so caught up in that they don't even realise their own fates. Something to be said about the ways humans influence each other, and the inherent intimacy of living.
Since watching Tokyo Godfathers, it's become pretty clear to me that this episode follows similar themes of an unconventional found family. Through all these episodes, it's so clear which ones are more reminiscent of Perfect Blue or Paprika (even though it came out after). It's so fascinating to see the concept of family structure be played with in non-conventional ways, both in this episode and in Tokyo Godfather.
episodes 9 & 10: ETC, Mellow Maromi
Yeahhhh idk these episodes are good but they're still kind of mid imo... I think that Mellow Maromi is much better than ETC, but they're both still good episodes. I just thing its points and messages are a lot weaker because its very much a collection of mini-episodes within a bigger story? It's a little weird how the show kinda switches up on you and abandons the main storyline for a few episodes, which works for Happy Family Planning because it ties directly back to episode 7. All of them include Lil Slugger of course, but the role he plays in each of them is a bit different. I'm aware thats probably the whole point; that stress and catharsis look different for everyone, that societal pressures impact people in unique ways, but yeah I dunno they don't do it in as interestingly or endearingly as they do in episode 8.
The whole anime is sort of like a compilation of shorter stories and character concepts and I GUESS its cool to kinda get a feel for how the rest of Japan is sort of adjusting to this new status quo. How do people react when there's this sort of threat looming overhead? The stress and overwhelming pressure of life has always been there, but now it's manifested. Now it's literal, and it's attacking people.
Episode 10 is literally an anime about making an anime, yet still ties deeply into the main themes of the anime. It's very exaggerated and dramatized and portrayed comedically at times to make it fit more into the story, but its done in such a specific way where Satoshi Kon is very blatant with it. There's so much going on, you don't really notice how stressed the characters are or how much pressure they're under until they characters start getting beaten with bats or reacting to their circumstances and then you're like oh! This normalized thing is actually kinda bad!
Anyway. Thank you for reading <33 I love paranoia agent
