Paranoia Agent - True Believers (Vol. 2)
As Satoshi Kon's 2004 broadcast series continues, it grows darker, more unsettling, and even more intriguing. Each scene raises more questions than it answers. Is junior high school student Makoto Kozuka the assailant known as Lil' Slugger, as police detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa believe? Or is he a "two-bit copycat" who may become a victim himself? What links exist between Kozuka's fantasies of "The Holy Warrior" and the attacks occurring in Tokyo? Why were all the victims people under stress, who believed they'd been driven into corners? Kon keeps the audience in a perpetually shifting limbo, undercutting assumptions and calling what seemed to the facts of the story into question.Paranoia Agentwill frustrate viewers who expect a straightforward narrative that fits conventional anime patterns. But it stands out as a fascinating, disturbing, and highly original work by a talented director at the top of his game. (Rated 16 and older: violence, tobacco use)--Charles Solomon