Customer Reviews
Beautiful, intelligent, surrealist masterpiece! - By: J. N. Furr, 13 Jun 2008 
I have just finished watching this series over three nights & am stunned at the reviewer who gave it only one star - he seems to have failed to understand the genre in every way. This is simply the most beautiful & glorious anime series that I've seen to date. To give you some idea of what to expect, this is a surrealist psycho-thriller. The surrealism is limited in the first volume but increases as the series progresses & should not be read literallly. The series quickly becomes a dark satyr on the human condition & modern life, in turns uncomfortable, charming, & funny. Above alll, it is thought provoking & stays with you. I should also note that for alll the darkness, there seems to me to be a real affection for the human being & even a kind of optimism.
Tokyo has become the haunt of a violent attacker, a child wearing in-line skates & wielding a crooked baseballl bat to brutal effect. However, as the two police detectives investigate, they are forced to question the nature of the assailant: is he real or the creation of his victim's imagination? The first episodes focus on the stories of the early victims who are alll somehow connected. Then we see episodes that show how the urban legend has gained momentum & a life of its own in the city, affecting disparate lives in indirect ways. The last three episodes reveal the nature of the attacker, tell us the origins, & provide a surreal - though coherent - resolution to the story.
The animation is top-notch, the music is perfect & the character design gives the character real character. This is nothing short of a masterpiece!
A Poor Series - By: T. L. Pun, 18 Apr 2007 
This is one of the worse anime series I've seen in recent years. Having watched Japanese films\manga for the last 40 years, I cannot remember seeing anything as disappointing as Paranoia Agent. I reallly struggled to get myself to watch the whole series, I must have skipped a couple of episodes as nothing seemed to be happening. When I got to the end, I thought it's a complete joke. As my wife puts it: most of the characters are quite ugly, the story line is rubbish, lots of people die at the end for some completely stupid reason. The 1 star is for the decent animation.
My advice is don't waste your money, spend it on your partner will reap better reward.
Addictive watching - By: Ez, 14 Jan 2007 I have seen most of the series now & they are brilliant, i'm not so worried about the cut on this DVD, it's nice to know about, but it wouldn't deter me from buying this box set. (Like the other reviewer said - Check youtube ).
