Prepare to enter the realm of fantasy and imagination where reality and dreams collide in a
kaleidoscopic mindscape of sheer visual genius. The magical tale centers on a revolutionary machine
that allows scientists to enter and record a subject's dream. After being stolen, a fearless detective
and brilliant therapist join forces to recover the device before it falls into the hands of a dream
terrorist.
(Source: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
Note: The film received an early premiere at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival on
September 2, 2006.
##__~~~Paprika: A Review~~~__## Released in 2006, Paprika is a film centered around Dr. Atsuko Chiba who is a scientist by day, but is a "dream detective" by night as her alter ego Paprika. Atsuko and her colleagues are working on a new invention named the DC Mini, designed to help psychiatric patients by delving into their subconscious dreams. However, the unfinished DC Mini is stolen, which could lead to the disastrous destruction of people's minds. So Paprika must help recover it before the thief does any damage. All in all, the idea behind Paprika was an original and thought provoking one. The movie itself is definitely executed well, a lot of it does take place in the dream world, and I thought the film did a particularly good job of transitioning from reality into dreams and vice versa. Most of the time when someone was dreaming I didn't even realize until it was made obvious. Especially during dream sequences, the animation and graphics were especially stunning, although I wouldn't call them pretty, they were definitely impressive to me. The main theme music that appears periodically throughout the movie was also a good choice and is almost uplifting and fun in the fantastical dream scenes. One thing I really liked about Paprika was the characters, There is Atsuko Chiba, a stern, sometimes cruel but ultimately good hearted woman. img220(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wIMu8VmzoUQ/maxresdefault.jpg) Atsuko's dream self, Paprika, who is risk taking, brave yet practical, fun and a good counterpart to Atsuko. img220(http://www.filmedinether.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/still-paprika.jpg) Kosaku Tokita, an immature and idealistic genius, who has no control over his eating habits. img220(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aVbbmyMZRF4/VdlNA96dePI/AAAAAAAABHw/EMI5orsB9pk/s1600/paprika_1.jpg) Konakawa Toshimi, a detective with a past that haunts him. He is really the character that seems to grow and develop the most over the course of the movie, definitely my favorite. img220(http://media.animevice.com/uploads/0/3695/315109-paprika_14.jpg) The villain also makes for an interesting character as he is the chairman of the company making this new dream technology, he looks fittingly creepy as a villain should, but the part I liked the most about him is that in reality he has to use a wheelchair, but in dreams he is fully able to walk on his own two feet, adding a dimension to him that makes him less of an evil, hateable person and makes his motives more understandable. So, I did really like the characters of this movie, although some may have had extreme personalities, I could relate with all of them which added to the enjoyability of the movie. I will say that some of the movie is a little "scary, but less in a gory or bloody way, the creepiness of it stems from more psychological things that are often shown in the dream world, things that create an uneasiness in parts of the film, which I really liked because it made the dreams even more realistic. Don't we all have nightmares that just leave us creeped out? It made the movie seem more like something that could happen in real life rather than simply a fantastical science fiction movie. I also really appreciated the small injection of romance into the movie, it made everything seem a little less heavy and scary, and more down to earth. It did a good job of lifting the mood. I would say that although it was a good movie, I did get bored in parts, Paprika utilized two main dreams throughout and many scenes are repeated or similar to others making it a little tedious to watch. But, I did end up enjoying the movie and although I don't think I'll be watching it again anytime soon, I would recommend it to anyone to watch.
~~~img500(https://i.imgur.com/6YboVhR.png)~~~ ~~~___Now it is coming to you, giving off a stench and devouring your shadow!___~~~ ~~~___The parade of terror is coming, and it is in your name!___~~~ Paprika is a 2006 movie based off of the novel of the same name by [Yasutaka Tsutsui](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasutaka_Tsutsui). Brought to us by the studio [Madhouse](https://anilist.co/studio/11/MADHOUSE) and the acclaimed director [Satoshi Kon](https://anilist.co/staff/99580/SatoshiKon) whom passed away in 2010, Paprika is a wonderful descent into the insane world of dreams and the human mind. I should right away state that Paprika is probably one of my utmost favorite animated films, and is without a doubt my favorite Satoshi Kon work, though I love pretty much [every](https://anilist.co/anime/323/MousouDairinin) [single](https://anilist.co/anime/759/TokyoGodfathers) [one](https://anilist.co/anime/1033/SennenJoyuu) [of](https://anilist.co/anime/1462/Memories) [them](https://anilist.co/anime/437/PerfectBlue). img440(https://i.imgur.com/Y7jZeVe.gif) But as for Paprika, I love every single component of this movie. It is in fact probably I think my hands down my favorite take on the idea of "dreams." Just a huge bustling and completely insane parade stampeding wherever it wishes, pulling in whoever draws near it. If you were curious why this movie is under the genre horror... what is more terrifying than just completely losing your mind? Losing your entire sense of self as you become devoured in the absolute madness that the parade represents? ~~Additionally, there's a hell of a lot of smaller creepy stuff that kind of got swept under the rug of my brain that I just didn't remember as a result of the bigger stuff present in Paprika.~~ ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/2Q3CnPo.png)~~~ ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/Z5c8ps2.png)~~~ I think the moment the movie truly and one hundred percent won me over was a scene relatively early on when during a conversation one of the characters just suddenly starts rambling about a bunch of weird nonsense. This movie is full to the brim of memorable and notable scenes, but it's this particular scene that has stuck with me like a year and a half later. Because once this old man's insane rambling concludes, he just bursts into laughter and takes off running throughout the halls. And as he does this, [Susumu Hirasawa](https://anilist.co/staff/100750/SusumuHirasawa)'s Parade enters the scene and starts playing as this old man launches himself through a window and out of the building. img440(https://i.imgur.com/Dg37cYc.gif) Then you get to the see the parade in its full glory and sitting at the top of it is the old man, who has been forcibly abducted into this completely insane parade that stampedes throughout the world of dreams. ...Wait. Have I even actually stated anything about the plot of this movie yet? Basically, there's this invention called the DC Mini and it allows the wearer to delve into dreams. And as this movie bluntly makes clear, that is a realm we should just ___leave the fuck alone___. Because the idea of going into someone's dream, or dreams crossing over into reality is __fucking terrifying__. Because of course this experimental and incomplete dream device is stolen and everything goes horribly fucking wrong. ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/M8nO7ty.png)~~~ ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/8zVIp6c.png)~~~ _Anything can happen in a dream!_ Actually, this movie in fact features a nightmare that I myself have personally had multiple times throughout my life. Specifically, it's that dream where suddenly like the ground just gives away from underneath of you or just disappears, and you just start falling. And like right as I land in the dream, I wake up, freaked the fuck out until my brain catches up and I realize "oh that was just a goddamned dream." ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/gaYPulk.png)~~~ ~~~img440(https://i.imgur.com/TyPeAHA.png)~~~ Additionally, I've also that had that type of dream where in the dream you think you've woke up, but you're still in the fucking nightmare. And of course the thing where you're being chased by something in a dream and you know it's a dream and you desperately want to wake the fuck up but you just can't. That type of shit is a billion times more effective to me than a bunch of [spooky scary monsters](https://anilist.co/anime/19383/YamiShibai) or just [buckets and buckets of blood](https://anilist.co/anime/11111/Another). Satoshi Kon fully embraces the idea of "anything can happen in a dream." I don't know how the actual novel compares, though I know for a fact that apparently he changed some stuff and Yasutaka Tsutsui himself apparently agreed with the changes, but there is a multitude of just genuinely creepy or weird and fucked up things littered throughout this movie. I know Perfect Blue is viewed as like the darkest of Satoshi Kon's movies/works, but personally, Paprika got to me way more than Perfect Blue. img440(https://i.imgur.com/ezxs5Nd.png) _One of my favorite things of all in horror is stuff just happening right in the background. __Fuck your jumpscares.__ Subtlety is effective, god damn it._ The scene that __everybody__ knows from this movie, and for good reason, is carved into my mind right along with that scene where the old man is the first to just go completely crazy. I won't even include anything about it outside of a spoiler tag because you have to see it. You have to see it for yourself. ~!The scene with the businessmen smiling and leaping off a building after shouting "IT'S SHOWTIME" is without a doubt one of the genuinely creepiest fucking things I've ever seen out of all of the anime I've watched. Like holy SHIT.!~ And perhaps one of the things I love the most about this movie is that it never stops escalating. img440(https://i.imgur.com/9QK2GmJ.png) When dreams and reality are merging towards the end, it is just complete and utter chaos and the movie itself ends with ~!two gigantic naked dream beings confronting each other (one of which is in the middle of the process of ushering in the apocalypse), with one sucking up and swallowing the other whole. That is fucking weird as shit and I love it.!~ I mentioned him briefly before, but it does need to be stated that Susumu Hirasawa, who did the soundtrack for Paprika and has done music for this, Paranoia Agent, Millenium Actress, and the to-never-be-released [The Dream Machine](https://anilist.co/anime/6585/YumeMiruKikai), is in fact in actuality, a musical god that has descended to this Earth. As previously stated, I love just about every single thing about Paprika, but the Susumu Hirasawa soundtrack is probably what puts it on top for me in terms of Satoshi Kon works. I cannot say it enough. I will never stop saying it. __Susumu Hirasawa is a musical god that has voluntarily chosen to walk among us. And everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion, but this is not an opinion, _it is FACT.___ ~~~youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APIKVLw1tT0)~~~ _The Paprika parade would not be as great as it is without this playing._ I don't have much more to say since I of course do not at all want to get any more specific than I have/spoil this movie. So in conclusion, Paprika is a wonderful, wonderful movie from beginning to end, and in my opinion, is almost perfect. As I said when I began this review, Paprika is one of my favorite animated films of all and my favorite Satoshi Kon work. A __9.5 out of 10__ or __95 out of 100__. ~~~img500(https://i.imgur.com/mfdgAD5.gif)~~~
Rating:9.8/10 "The Internet and dreams are similar. They're areas where the repressed conscious mind escapes."~Paprika Dreams, for many, are an escapade, a safe haven from our harsh reality. We subconsciously build worlds and universes that exhibit our experiences, desires, personality, traumas, phobias and even our innermost forgotten selves in the form of dreams. Though we dream during both alternations of the sleep cycle(i.e. Non-rapid eye movement(N-REM) and rapid eye movement(REM)) our dreams are normally more vivid and longer during REM sleep. While we generally can’t control our actions in conventional dreaming, there are means to be aware and control it to a certain extent, at least the dreams in REM sleep. This phenomena is referred to as lucid dreaming. Many people suffering from a psychological condition or disorder, often don’t recall those repressed memories responsible for it. In such cases it’s often a tedious task for therapists to understand their patients' behavior and the cause of their condition. As a method of therapy, lucid dreaming is gaining a lot of attention in psychotherapy as a way for people to understand, help and equip themselves in ways unimaginable. Except that it isn’t always easy for us to lucid dream, or even if we did, there is no guarantee we will interpret the nuances of our dreams and how it relates to our own problems correctly. But what if therapists were able to enter into the dreams of their patients to analyze it and get to the bottom of their condition? And what would happen to humanity as a whole if everyone gained this ability to enter the dreams of other people? Would we have lesser misunderstandings and understand people better if we saw life vicariously? Or would it be deleterious and damage society fundamentally? A dream as I had first mentioned is the only sanctuary for many people in general, so can we as humans accept this ability to enter a person’s dream? Paprika is an eccentric dream(in all its definitions) that is diligent in making sure we don’t open our eyes during its entirety, and gives us a thrilling experience equivalent to the above stated. The entire anime is minimal in both the duration and decipherability with it’s subtle yet remarkable storytelling. In Paprika, the DC-mini is a transmitter-like device that induces lucid dreaming by stimulating the brain using a psychotherapy machine, with the user’s own natural body energy levels and frequency. A DC-mini has the capability to simulate the dream in a computer, allow other users to enter the person’s dream and can also tune a previous user’s mind using its data on their energy level, without being physically in contact with the person. Though it is said to be in its prototypical stages, it is used by the psychotherapeutic/psychiatric institution that invented it, after authorization by the chairman for every use. The DC-mini’s development team however, to gather more information and help others, use it on people that require it. Paprika(an alias), a person from the development team, stands as the therapist to all these unauthorized treatments. Police Inspector Toshimi has anxiety neurosis and Dr.Shiba, from the development team tries to help him with a DC-mini. His own side story is tacitly blended with the main plot in a very clean manner. But then, three DC-minis gets stolen by someone from the same organisation, and before stealing it, is believed to have forced dreams/delusions into the scientists when they were using the psychotherapy machine. And upon remotely triggering an anaphylactic reaction among those who had the most exposure to it, they make these scientists hallucinate. Everyone suspects the DC-mini’s inventor, Dr.Torita’s assistant Himura, after seeing him in the delusions of Dr.Shiba, the first victim. The story progresses in a very unique and somewhat predictable way with its surreal concert of dreams and reality, making us see dreams/delusions and its implications in a new light. The collective delusion in the form of an eerily comical procession of personified objects, enforced on people in particular is very distinct, as it being a parade, I felt that it refers to the death or importance of dreams. The plot also has a great deal of visual references to other movies which are both symbolic and additive to the plot of Paprika in general. The anime is meant to be implicitly understood and nuanced, and hence it would be a shame, if I were to elicit more on what needs to and must be experienced. The character development for many characters in the story is among the finest I have ever seen in anime as short as Paprika. The most beautiful of them were Toshimi overcoming his trauma by seeing ‘it’ in a new light and ironically the alter ego of Paprika, an exceptional therapist understanding and embracing her unseen, innate identity, and her own true self. The story wouldn’t have been as entertaining if it weren’t for its vivid visuals. The animation was sharp and fluid,as it needs to bring entire worlds of differently toned dreams to life many times. The color palette created an aesthetically bizarre ambience and was mostly consistent, florid and distinctly bright, with the shades of red appearing most vibrant. The soundtrack album was mostly techno and resonated with the artstyle and the setting very explicitly. The concise storytelling requires you to be on your feet and actually take in the scenes from the very beginning, as otherwise you will find yourself quickly lost and the ending would not make sense all too much. It has non-sexual nudity, which I felt was most necessary as it actually had an impact on what needed to be established. Symbolism and irony is very intricately placed in the scenes and dialogues of Paprika that subtly roll by and I advise its viewers to pay careful attention to it. I would recommend Paprika, a story of dreams that optimistically speaks yet also warns us of technological marvels and its misuse, to all those who love to intellectually test themselves in connecting dots alongside a very great storyline, and memorable characters.
There is no doubt in my mind that Satoshi Kon was a great director. His body of work possesses the kind of auteur vision only the most talented of artists are capable of achieving. The way he weaves fantasy and reality together, exploring the increasingly fuzzy line between them through surreal, striking storytelling, makes for the kind of experience you can’t get anywhere else. No one does Satoshi Kon like Satoshi Kon, and it’s a tragedy he was taken from us after only four films and one TV show. That being said, while I recognize Kon as a great director, not all of his work really clicks with me. His talent is undeniable, but the way he tells his stories and the things he chooses to focus on while doing so don’t always line up with my personal preferences. In my opinion, Kon is at his best when his stories truly embrace their human element, putting all that surreal imagery to use in unraveling his characters’ emotions and the struggles they go through. The reason Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers spoke to me so well, despite being as tonally different as possible, is that their focus was on that humanity. In contrast, whenever Kon lets the broader themes and imagery take precedence over the characters, he starts to lose me. And sadly, there are few better case studies for that than Paprika, Kon’s last and, in my opinion, weakest film. The setting is the near future, and some company has invented a device that lets people traverse dreams. They play to use it as a tool for therapy, allowing therapists to dive right into their patients’ subconscious and help them work through their issues. Unfortunately, the device is stolen by an unknown terrorist, and worse still, the safety guards haven’t been installed yet. This terrorist could theoretically jack into the dreams of anyone using a dream therapy device, or, if things go really bad, he could just start invading everyone’s dreams and mess around with them. Pretty soon, even being awake might not be a safeguard against a dreamworld invasion. So a crack team gets together to plunge into the depths of their dreams and track down the terrorist through the few clues he’s left behind. What follows is pretty much a precursor to Inception: the characters jump through dreams, explore their own subconscious and those of others, and work to find the device before its thief can put it to evil use. And all the while, the characters’ dreams grow increasingly difficult to distinguish from reality, until it’s no longer clear what’s a dream, what’s real, or if there’s even any difference anymore. As you might expect, a story dealing with the abstract, surreal world of dreams plays right to Kon’s strengths as a visual artist. This is easily his best-looking, most imaginatively designed film of all. From the opening sequence, you’re bombarded with a barrage of creative, instantly striking imagery, worlds that bulge and evolve before your eyes, reality that twists and reconstructs itself, objects that take on a multitude of shifting forms. The central setpiece is a giant dream parade populated by everything from umbrellas to creepy dolls to traditional Shinto statues, and it is gorgeous. It’s rendered entirely in fluid hand-drawn animation, and as it parades its way down the street over the course of this film, it only seems to grow more and more majestic. If the entire point of this film was just for Kon to let loose with a series of surreal images he’d been dying to get out of his head, then it surely accomplished its goal. And even outside the mind-bending setpieces, the character animation, shot composition and editing are as strong as they’ve ever been. Not to mention an incredible dark-electronica soundtrack from Kon’s longtime collaborator Hirasawa Susumu. If nothing else, there’s enough imagination on display here that I can’t call this a bad film by any stretch. Sadly, that’s where my praise for Paprika end and my criticisms begin. The fact of the matter is, the mind-bending visuals take up so much of this movie’s focus that there’s almost nothing left for the characters. What little development and nuance they get is relegated to a dull, exposition-heavy first twenty minutes setting up the conflict and a few tiny scattered bits afterward. The most fleshed-out member of the cast is the police detective Konakawa, who experienced the device’s dream therapy firsthand and is later drawn into the madness when dreams start colliding. He gets enough screentime for a mostly satisfying arc about unraveling the trauma that led him to the police force in the first place, as well as an opportunity for Kon to flex his obvious love for cinema (though ironically, Konakawa initially hates movies thanks to his trauma). But even he’s merely acceptable, and the rest of the cast is basically dead on arrival. There’ lip service paid to the overweight inventor being a kid trapped in a genius’ body, how his comatose friend was jealous of him because of how alike they are, how the chairman’s right-hand-man has a past of sexual abuse, but it’s all just dialogue and characters explaining their personalities, not actual personalities. There’s even a weird, out-of-nowhere romance in the final act that feels like it’s from an entirely different movie, and you all know how much that stuff sticks in my craw. The end result is that despite how creative and inventive Paprika’s visuals are, I found myself struggling to pay attention throughout its entire 90-minute runtime. It’s heavy on creative setpieces but basically lacking in reasons to emotionally invest. Plus, for as trippy as the visuals are, the actual plot is way too simple and straightforward- stop the terrorist from doing the Bad Thing- to keep your attention on its own. And by the time the climax rolls around, we’ve somehow got an actual supervillain bad guy for our heroes to defeat, something that Kon’s never done before. His specialty is in going small and intimate with the weight of the characters’ lives, so having this giant colossus stomp around and shout about how he’s going to destroy the universe- yes, really- feels entirely out of place. Even the film’s title character herself feels weirdly shortchanged; she’s the free-spirited alter ego of the ice queen master therapist, her dream self who gives her patients therapy and undertakes most of the heavy lifting of exploring the dream worlds when the plot kicks in. You feel like there should be a really interesting story there about whether her dream self or her “real” self is more representative of her, but again, it’s mostly relegate to a couple lines of dialogue inserted seemingly at random times with no real impact on her character. Perfect Blue, this is not. It saddens me to be down on Paprika, believe me. This is Kon’s last work before he passed away, and I wish I could leave his oeuvre on a good note. But the lack of a reason to care kept me from enjoying this film as much as I wanted to. It’s little more than a skeleton of a movie, a bare frame embellished with some admittedly amazing surreal imagery and not much else.
Woah, like, the animation dude, like, woah it all looks incredible with its constant spectacle and visual creativity that goes absolutely all out almost constantly, I'm sure that the plot's going to come in and tie things together really nicel- oh, it's over? This basically felt like my reaction to Paprika, broadly speaking anyway. There's no real doubt to me that this film is truly remarkable in certain respects, with a lot of time and care being put into making the world of dreams feel incredibly evocative and capitalising on the lunacy that could go on in one's own subconscious thoughts. I love the way that so many of the scenes that take place in this area jump around so frenetically, yet seamlessly, often having the scenery completely morph into something entirely different in practically every way beyond the eye catching colours and general sense of chaos. This is made all the stronger once the divide between dreams and reality is obscured, with this constant weirdness on screen fully selling the idea that things are just, totally going to hell by the end of this. Some attempts were also clearly made at making a lot of this incredible imagery feel symbolic as well, giving some meaning to what could easily have been seen as just animation flexing for the sake of it. This ultimately serves to deepen the characters without having to provide additional exposition to convey it, not to mention making a lot of this feel very significant. Unfortunately, despite this, it still doesn't stop the plot and its development throughout from being really all over the place to the point where it feels like a missed opportunity. It really feels like too much was crammed into this, with what feels like an attempt to throw the viewer for a loop every 10-15 minutes, which ends up becoming both confusing and tedious by the end. This is especially the case with a lot of the tension being killed due to the plot's reliance on characters that have gotten next to no screen time, making it really hard to care in a lot of cases like, it's hard to care about some of these plot developments when they completely revolve around characters that I've seen for a grand total of 5 minutes in the last hour. The convoluted storytelling also hurts the final sequences that strip basically all of this away in favour of a very standard sort of good vs evil encounter that ends far too suddenly, making me think that this would have benefitted from another 10 - 20 minutes of runtime to develop some of the more loosely strung together elements and make it a more satisfying experience overall. At the end of the day, I undoubtedly loved some parts of Paprika, particularly the visuals and presentation in general, but it wasn't quite enough to distract me from some of the more dramatic flaws this had, particularly towards the final act. A good watch that had me engaged throughout, but I can't really say I loved this either.
(Minor spoiler warning. The superior video version is on my profile) Trying to understand Paprika is like trying to recall a dream you just woke up from. Satoshi Kon constantly explored with the blending of fantasy and reality, though it wouldn't be until he managed to make Paprika, that he finally felt he was able to find closure by doing what he had always dreamed of. This being making a work about the blending of dreams and reality specifically. Since 1998, Kon wanted to adapt Paprika. It's creator, Yasutaka Tsusui, had seen Kon's work on metafiction, and had also come the same opinion. The Paprika manga even has the same birthday as Kon's. You could say the creation of this movie felt like one out of destiny. Kon's tug of war transitions between dreams and reality are a direct representation that comes from his thoughts and analysis about the mind. We could be talking to a person. As we talk, we bring up things that remind us of past events. Your memories about that event start to blend with your current conversation. Our mind begins travelling back and forth between the two. We are in the room conversating, and also reliving this memory at the same time. This blend is part of what inspired Satoshi's Kon directing style. We are not aware that our minds move in this manner. Paprika shows us directly and literally to make us aware of this. The parade represents the mindset of the novel. The DC Mini's effects on reality were just beginning and seemed to have created it. It starts furthest from civilization in the desert, moves through the jungle, over a bridge, and then overflows and invades reality. I saw it as the subconscious parts of our dreams approaching us. It also represents the old inanimate objects we threw away, and religion. We have forgotten these things, but our unconscious is returning them to us. To me, Paprika is Satoshi Kon's most misunderstood work. It gets easily dismissed for being nonsensical, and yet so much of the film is filled with quality meaning behind its shots. The famous parade scene itself felt like a surreal and heavy commentary on Japanese society. Putting a spotlight on high suicide rates, hopelessly delusional people that work regular full time jobs who never managed to achieve their dreams despite they still want to, parents who use their kids as cash cows, voyeur photos and old Japanese men who date young girls, poverty and homeless, and people stuck to their computers that feel there is nothing. Not only that, politicians and their lies, as shown by one being a Daruma doll. Having its one eye blank could mean that it did not fulfill what it set out to do. Politicians and how they compete for power and use God as a way to justify their running for it, Religion used by people as a crutch to keep themselves sane with fake happiness. Merging the world's subconscious after the parade invaded took the mask off the people, and made them say how they really felt. It's a dangerous high that plays on their insanity and delusions. A person's state of mind in a dream is dangerously unstable and often oblivious to danger. I can to all the things I wand to do. I can do all the things I am not allowed to do. Law and order don't exist in my dreams. They are chaotic. If they are not sealed away from reality, the world would be destroyed. I'm given too much power and control. Still, what feels like my own fears and anxiety crush me at times and make me feel the worst fear I ever felt. Sometimes, I make precious memories in my dreams, just to be disappointed when I wake up that they were not real. Kon was writing to appeal towards the unconsciousness of the viewer. He believed that a film being made to be 100% comprehensible would be boring. He believed these "mysteries" in his films should not be made to confuse the story. The idea was for the audience to use their imaginations given by these "little margins" to interpret the films differently as they rewatch them. Dreams and the internet are similar. Just as people escape and dive deep into the night into the world created to them by the internet, removed from reality, dreams do something similar. Part of our subconscious comes out in these two types of underworlds, where, for example people being anonymous on the internet are willing to say things they would never say offline. Repetition is also used in Paprika to show how the dreaming character is progressing throughout the movie in their mental and emotional growth. The audience are shown changes that they would notice in these scenes. Kon talked about how he had ideas come to him suddenly. One came to him during a taxi drive home in the rain. He saw the drops going down the window combine into one, and felt this was a good way to visually add to the conversation Chiba and Shima were having about the dreams coming together into one huge delusion for the old chairman. One of the challenges of Paprika was the blending of 2D and 3d. Kon felt they had to be harmonious to each other, and managed to lead a talented enough team to use CGI that looked good and was not distracting. Even now CGI is a hotter topic of debate with more full CGI anime coming out. Too many people do not like CGI anime simply because it is CGI. That is a misguided opinion. As long as it is done well, there isn't a problem. It's tragic when it is not, or when an anime has a great story and characters, but the production doesn't look good enough. Kon felt at the time that, from his own experience, there is not enough staff to meet the ever increasing production of anime. He stressed the importance of education because the crews aren't maturing. He said, during his time, that the people who have access to the technology are often over 40 and that they can't work forever. He felt that for animation to continue at the same level or to go beyond would be difficult. On the topic of anime production, Kon preferred making films rather than TV series. He said that TV anime have tighter schedules, smaller budgets, and that it comes to points where you have to chose what parts you want to emphasize. An interesting story has to be told right, and this poses a bit of a challenge. For film, they might not be as long as a tv series, but Kon prefers the bigger budget, more time on the schedule, and producing something of higher quality. A movie may be short, but it is packed full of quality per minute than a tv series is. Tokita and Chiba feel misunderstood to me. Tokita has a childlike view of the world that is naive. He doesn't truly realize the risks and dangers of his genius inventions. Chiba is stoic and has this rigidness to her character. Paprika is the excitement that is missing in her; the spice, you could say. They're dynamic is a bit chaotic, but playful. They become closer and accept each other's flaws. Kon said that when these two unbalanced people come together, they compliment each other and bring more harmony into each other's lives. A funny detail in the film is that in the scene where Chiba helps Tokita get out of the elevator, they cut right as he falls on her. We've all seen what these types of scenes do in anime, where the man accidently grabs the woman. They didn't even give that a chance here. There is a line where Tokita tells Paprika that he swallows everything. It wasn't to be taken literally. To me, this felt like a very romantic scene where he is saying he accepts Chiba and Paprika; everything about her. The antagonists used dreams as a form of attack. These came from their patients, and were used to manipulate the consciousness of their victims. This form of manipulation felt like the most dehumanizing exercise of power because, unlike the exercise of obstructive physical force, the visible coercive and authoritarian power where the intent of his adversaries and the sources of assault and frustration are known to the subject, manipulation “is a form of power that cannot be openly resisted by the power subject since he is unaware of the power holder’s intent or even sometimes of his existence. There is no visible command or him to disobey, no identifiable adversary against whom to assert his freedom.” Himeru became the most unsettling monster to me. He was used as a puppet, portrayed as an empty shell, controlled by the roots of the chairman. It was shown he was into men, by his idealization, or fetishization of Osanai's body. It's interesting to me that he was able to manipulate Chiba's perception of reality through the powers of the DC Mini. But his mind became lost, and the dreamification of his consciousness twisted Himuro into a manifestation of surreal and horrifying nightmares. Osanai was a petty man. Resorting to selling his body to Himuro for the DC mini, and to the chairman for power. He very expressively showed how disgusted he was with this, and you can see this disgust in his face remembering what he did when he gets reminded by HImuro's dirty magazines about men. He loved Chiba, but knew it could never happen as he saw how eagerly she'd mention how great Tokita was to her, annoying him in the process. Knowing that he was not as good as him, he resorted to cheap and lazy ways to get ahead of the curve. Even then, love prevailed, and he was not able to truly place the chairman in front of Chiba. I saw Osanai as the most tragic character in the series. Konakawa intrigued me that his battle shifted from reality to dreams. He fought against his subconscious in this state to overcome the guilt he had over what was said to had been a friend to a battle against himself. Like the parade, his love of films returned to him in his dreams though he was rejecting them, and you can see the delight he had when Osanai overlapped with the murder case in his dreams, and shot him down, "finishing the movie," allowing him to defeat his guilt, and reinvigorated his love of film. He was looking for love in Paprika, though the love he found at the end was for his old friend, his passion. Kon is gone. Dreaming Machine began to manifest in Paprika, as there had always been a connection between his movies because of how he made them. I don't know if we'll ever see it, and can't say. Paprika left us with an ambitious visual and directorial style that is unmatched by how Kon made it so precise to his consciousness, that he said other people would not be able to understand Dreaming Machine. And maybe no one ever will, but I will continue to interpret and dream about his work. The conversation about his work will never be over, and new thoughts will always appear. You may have left to the other world, but the memory of you will remain eternal.