Paranoia Agent, master of illusions

Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers .. After all the admiration I have towards Satoshi Kon .. who to me uncover how powerful the Anime could be. After a while I found myself lost, until I suddenly realized that I'm standing between the hands of a gem, a pure & outstanding one called ... Paranoia Agent. And when I put all my love & admire aside, again! I'm standing between a work showing me how the most thing I fear in my life looks like, with a huge diversity in the society.

Life is full of choices, and we tend to choose the easiest ones, so we can feel safe, so we don't have to face our fears, and this work is showing how the easiest one can be REALLY scary and more than that.

...........

This is picturing my worst fears ... perfectly.

"You're just trying to escape. A makeshift salvation is nothing but deception. No matter how hard it is, don't run away." 

Over 10 characters, each one resembling a category in the community. Each one has two worlds to live, the reality and the delusion they created. 

It's a Defense Mechanism, whenever the reality becomes unsettling, whenever the reality pushes a person to the edge .. there it is, the perfect trigger, excuse, delusion, and defense mechanism that ever existed, to save you from reality. Which one would a person prefer to choose? 

And this is not even the scary or the hard part. That part would be when these fantasies intersect with the reality, and involves directly with another human beings. You see, now you're maybe dealing with a new version of a person, and this version is only a delusion. Episode 4 is a simple example. That man has two worlds. Reality says he's a true piece of shit, and the delusion he created says he's a working man who puts his family over his needs. 

And that's what I meant by the scary part. In this situation, he's safe, but you're NOT. Because he's interacting with facts .. he's the one who created, shaped and believed in them. 

But it's true somehow, that we're all need some fantasies of our own, and it's funny, the reason I mean .. "to keep living" ? Well, I guess. But one thing I'm sure of ...Don't you ever let them, don't run away for a temporary escape. Because the painful repercussions are INEVITABLE. 

..............

A fit of Rage, Frustration & Glorious!

These words, as a resembling, ... when that poor girl found out about horrible & ugly truth. In this situation, she started to express her feelings with anger, and anger mostly gives you either a clear view, or ... or maybe slowly grow inside you to become a frustration.

And frustration means you're dragged into a place, like a dark room, with no doors or windows, with no light .. just emptiness surrounding you. And then? Those glimpses of glorious .. the ultimate defense mechanism, that will set you free, will turn around this dark room to .. to a paradise, where everything is perfect, where the only perfection can exist.

Throughout this simple story, an idea -- ... I can't say anything more.

................

You know when they say about something like "nothing will ever come close to it" ... well usually I don't believe in that, but what I can say is Paranoia Agent is a rare case, always & forever.