My new #5?

"Paranoia Agent" ends on an amazingly powerful note!

While at first I thought of the series as "a quirky one", it definitely grew on me more and more. And the end -- well... wow.

I guess I didn't entirely know what to make of it at the time when I first popped disc 1 in my player. But as you can read in that post, I was only just introducing myself to the world of Satoshi Kon, and now that I've seen more and understand more, the series takes on so many excellent layers that I can help but think that it's outstanding.

The core theme of the whole thing is escapism. And the different aspects of how that manifests, and the consequences thereof -- they're fascinating and disturbing and completely baffling at times. But it still comes around to human emotion and the powers within us to affect our perceptions of reality vs. desire. And the layers and levels that this series exposes one by one really make it an outstanding piece of work, and completely different than most of the stuff that you find in the anime "mainstream".

So I'm gushing a bit. I've got to say, I'm really pleased that I stuck with it, because these kinds of unique gems are why I'm letting myself indulge in this little obsession of mine. Or, you could say, this year-long bout of escapism...

Hmmm.... (*THWACK*)