December 15th, 2020 
Charles Solomon 
This first—and long overdue—release on Blu-ray of Satoshi Kon’s one television series, Paranoia Agent (2004), reminds viewers of the exceptional talent animation lost when he died a decade ago at 46.
As he did in Millennium Actress and Paprika, Kon deftly blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy: Neither the characters nor the viewer can be certain what actually exists and what is an illusion.
At the center of the series is the baseball bat-wielding adolescent Lil’ Slugger (Shonen Bat, literally “Bat Boy”), who sports baggy cargo shorts, roller blades, bushy hair and a baseball cap that conceals his eyes. He randomly attacks people in Tokyo who are grappling with serious problems. Toy designer Tsukiko Sagi is under tremendous pressure to repeat the success of her ultra-cute puppy character, Maromi; bottom-feeding journalist Akio Kawazu desperately needs money. Popular sixth grader Yuichi Tara feels strangely threatened by the dumpy new kid in his class. Yuichi’s tutor Harumi Chono is a caring pedagogue by day; but by night, she becomes Maria, a sleazy hooker.
Lil’ Slugger’s seemingly purposeless attacks and unknown motives disrupt the lives of police detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa, and their corrupt boss Masami Hirukawa. Every scene offers additional clues—and additional questions. Were his victims chosen at random or are they somehow linked? Is junior high student Makoto Kozuka really Lil’ Slugger, as Ikari and 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 real attacks?
The inhabitants of Tokyo become fixated on Lil’ Slugger. In one episode, a group of gossipy housewives trade outrageous stories: Lil’ Slugger brained a pitcher during a major league baseball game; he attacked a man on a desert island; he appeared in a pregnant woman’s ultrasound. After swapping lies, one of the women is ecstatic to find her husband has been beaten by the mysterious adolescent.
As Kon’s disturbing urban fantasy builds to its climax, the linked storylines about the murderous Li’l Slugger and the adorable dog Maromi spiral out of control. Gorged on media hype, the two characters threaten to engulf Tokyo. Sixteen years after its debut, in the era of Donald Trump and the Kardashians, Kon’s vision of bloated media images disrupting the fabric of reality feels eerily prescient. But is Lil’ Slugger a real person, a product of media hype or a projection of Tsukiko’s childhood trauma—or some combination of those elements?
Paranoia Agent lacks the sympathetic characters that won viewers’ hearts in Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers. But the program is as finely crafted as any of Kon’s features. During the 13 episodes, he keeps the audience in a perpetually shifting limbo, undercutting assumptions and calling what seem to be the facts of the story into question. Paranoia Agent will frustrate viewers who expect a straightforward, conventional narrative. But the increased focus the series demands also pays greater rewards than standard-issue tales.
Paranoia Agent stands out as an intriguing, unsettling and highly original work by a talented director at the top of his game.
Paranoia Agent
Funimation: $37.49, 2 discs, Blu-ray
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