Anime Club: Paprika

Hello everybody! For today’s anime club we have the mind bending film Paprika.

PAPRIKA

DIRECTED: Satoshi Kon

STARRING: Megumi Hayashibara, Tōru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori, Tōru Furuya

GENRE: Animated, Science Ficiton

YEAR: 2006

COUNTRY: Japan

Three scientists at the Foundation for Psychiatric Research fail to secure a device they’ve invented, the D.C. Mini, which allows people to record and watch their dreams. A thief uses the device to enter people’s minds, when awake, and distract them with their own dreams and those of others. Chaos ensues. The trio – Chiba, Tokita, and Shima – assisted by a police inspector and by a sprite named Paprika must try to identify the thief as they ward off the thief’s attacks on their own psyches. Dreams, reality, and the movies merge, while characters question the limits of science and the wisdom of Big Brother.

 Paprika is a mind bender of a film. Take Inception, toss in some Japanese anime, and it was done completely right. I went into my first viewing of Paprika, which I haven’t even heard of until recently, knowing absolutely nothing about the film. I just knew it was some kind of mind bending thriller. The animation style is completely beautiful, a very modern take on a traditional art style, many of the scenes are breathtaking. You will definitely have an enjoyable time trying to piece together the story, as it is confusing yet inspiring at the same time.

 

Paprika is a very confusing film and surprisingly I am not the only one who has this opinion. Many people compare Paprika as an anime version of Inception, as the general themes are the same. Each film involves diving into people’s dreams, but they both tackle it in a very different way. Some of the characters are not as well developed as they should be, but this doesn’t hinder Paprika one bit.

PROS:

•  Japanese Inception.
• Intruiging characters.
• Amazing visuals.
• Surrealism and dreams.

CONS:

•  Way too confusing of a story, yet interesting nonetheless.

SCORE: 9.0 / 10

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