Just Finished Paranoia Agent(SPOILERS)

[Truth Seeker]

Man, I can't believe you survived watching that. Try Fooley Cooley, and I will get back to you.

 

[Squire James]

Man, I can't believe you survived watching that. Try Fooley Cooley, and I will get back to you.

The third time I viewed FLCL, I actually started understanding what was going on! Now, THAT'S scary!

 

[Truth Seeker]

Word...

The third time I viewed FLCL, I actually started understanding what was going on! Now, THAT'S scary!

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Filby: I hate to hijack this thread, but it is sort of related to Paranoia Agent's theme of facing up to ones problems.

SPOILERS FOR END OF EVANGELION!!!!

Spoiler

I think I am one of the few people who interpreted the End of Evangelion movie in a positive way. I think that at the end, anyone who wanted to come back to Earth and leave the giant pool of LCL could if they really wanted to and had the will to live. Shinji and asuka did. It is amazing that Shinji did because of all the pain he had to go through throughout the series. The reason he choked Asuka for a few seconds was to experience the rejection of another. Which, while a bit disturbing to many viewers, does show his strength in a weird way. As before he feard rejection by others a lot, and was one of the reasons he might have accepted the Human Instrumentality Project, as if the it were to suceed, then he would never have to fear rejection by another Human being ever again. So, I think that it is possible for others to come back from the sea of LCL. I think Hideaki Anno did not show such a positive enbding because he wanted to leave it up to the fans and also because he was also sort of ticked off at his fans at the same time for harassing him about the TV series end. But in the end, how this related to Paranoia Agent is that Shinji decided to live life and face up to his problems and not escape into his own world.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I see people say this a lot. And mostly I am just curious, what is it that you dont like about the "metaphysical" parts/endings?

You misunderstand me. I don't mind metaphysical parts or endings. Or even vague. The problem I have is with sense-less. And there are a lot of anime out there that simply throw a truckload of crap at the viewer, and figure something will stick. Big-O was that way. Certainly, with the emphasis on memories and self definition, the metaphysical elements were there from the beginning. And I liked that. But by the end, it had all turned into mindless drivel. Touching upon metaphysical themes is not a license to throw reason and continuity to the winds. All IMO, of course.

I haven't watched all of Evangeleon. After seeing the first four episodes, it didn't really grab me. But from what I've heard, it may fall into this category as well.

Not challenging your opnion, just curious about what leads to it

I'm not really sure you can challenge an opinion, but I have no problem explaining mine.

 

[Merlion]

I dunno, perhaps a desire to have things resolved and wrapped up neatly.

I've noticed that weak endings are suprisingly common in anime. Paranoia Agent as mentioned above... Fruits Basket's ending was nice but offered minimal resolution... and of course, everyone who's seen it has an opinion on the finale of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Sometimes I think that the creators get so attatched to the narrative that they just don't know how to draw it to a close.

That's just my own observation, though. I'll admit that my knowledge of anime is broad, but pretty shallow.

See I wouldnt neccesarily call them weak. They are often inconclusive and interpretive, but that doesnt neccesarily make them weak (especially when you consider that many of the anime with those kinds of endings are rather interpretive to begin with and generally rife with unanswered questions).

I dont think its the creators getting to attached to draw it to a close, I think most of those types of anime are meant for viewers to draw a lot of their own conclusions, or to puzzle out the meanings rather than having them spelled out.

You misunderstand me. I don't mind metaphysical parts or endings. Or even vague. The problem I have is with sense-less. And there are a lot of anime out there that simply throw a truckload of crap at the viewer, and figure something will stick. Big-O was that way. Certainly, with the emphasis on memories and self definition, the metaphysical elements were there from the beginning. And I liked that. But by the end, it had all turned into mindless drivel. Touching upon metaphysical themes is not a license to throw reason and continuity to the winds. All IMO, of course.

I wouldnt really say Paranoia Agent did that. Again, a lot was unexplained and left for the viewer to draw their on conlcusions about, but overall I think it was pretty consistent. We got the feeling all along that Tsukiko was central in some way to what was going on, and we know that she faked the original Lil'Slugger attack, so I think what came at the end had continuity with what had been established. Its now just a matter of unravelling some of the unanswered questions.

I haven't watched all of Evangeleon. After seeing the first four episodes, it didn't really grab me. But from what I've heard, it may fall into this category as well.

I wouldnt say so. I enjoyed all of Evangelion very much. The last two episodes of the series are quite non-standard and might be unsatisfying for some, but I think when you combine them and the End of Eva movie you get a pretty good picture of whats going on. There are inconsistencies, and unanswered questions, but again that just pretty much comes with a lot of anime. I felt the whole thing fit together quite well.

 

[Merlion]

Man, I can't believe you survived watching that. Try Fooley Cooley, and I will get back to you.

I've seen FLCL and enjoyed it quite a lot. Beneath all the wonderful wackyness its overall "messages" are relatively clear I think. Of course who knows what else there may be in there that I didnt pick up.

 

[ken-ichi]

It has been a while since I watched this series, so some details may be fuzzy to me. Also I make a lot of general assumptions of Japanese life and culture not backed by much first hand knowledge. But this is how my current perception is.
My replys are in the quote box after each question.

My biggest questions are:

Exactly what were Lil'Slugger and Maromi, or more specifically, were they indeed created by Tsukiko's mind and guilt, or are they entities that existed before and latched on to her and found expression through her situation?

I think the incarnations of Lil'Slugger and Maromi were shaped by Tsukiko, but the entity behind them existed before.

Either way, another question arises: Does Tsukiko have some sort of special power or ability of the mind or could the same sort of thing happen to anyone?

I have noticed in films and anime as well as historically, the Japanese people tend to accept the supernatural or spirit world as actually existing and influencing things in daily life. However not everyone seems able to see or influence the spirit world. So I would have to say that Tsukiko possessed rather strong emotions about not facing her fears and that allowed the entity to take form and begin influencing others. She was more a catalyst than having special powers of her own. Note that Maromi kept Tsukiko from working out her problems and letting the bottled up emotion to escape.

How did Maromi become an "emotional crutch" for everyone in Tokyo, and the disapearnce of the Maromi dolls etc result in the whole Black Ooze situation?

Japanese culture is one where everyone wants to fit in and be like everyone else. They tend to suppress emotions that would be disruptive of others around them. I think when the entity assumed the Maromi appearance and became popular that allowed it to feed off of all those heldback emotions of all the people who wanted comfort and understanding.

Whats up with Maniwa and the Old Man?

The Old Man seemed to be one of the few who could percieve the spirit world. However he also seemed to be genuinely senile. So he was unable to communicate his perceptions to those around him as anything he would say would be instantly dismissed. I assumed that he had been a math teacher when he was younger and that he used the equations he was writing to share the truth with those who were looking for it.

I cannot remember anything particularily strange about Maniwa off the top of my head. What are some of the things that he did?

And various things relating to the episode "Happy Family Planning"

Suicide is fairly frequent in Japan. It has always been a part of their culture, a samurai commiting sepukku to atone for a wrong he did, to an office worker taking the blame for some corporate wrong doing and then commiting suicide to rid his extended family from any shame or dishonor.
I saw the episode as telling the futileness of seeking suicide as a way of escaping the troubles of life.
The three characters had died fairly early in the show, but their troubles remained. Committing suicide did not free them from their troubles. By the end they were seeking any way to express and get rid of their pent up emotions. I think that is what caused Lil'Slugger to run from them, they were the exact opposite of what he fed upon.



What are your thoughts?