The implosion of “kawaii”: The anime TV Series “Paranoia Agent” by Satoshi Kon

Abstract

The article presents the anime TV series Paranoia Agent by Satoshi Kon and its major themes: escapism, lack of communication and the guise of victimhood, which is as a method of denial meant to mute a conscience burdened by the horrors of World War II prevalent in contemporary Japanese society. Certain phenomena of Japanese consumer culture, such as fine goods, kawaii and character goods are also presented. These phenomena form an important cultural background for an analysis of Kon’s oeuvre, as the author uses them as lens through which he portrays the problems facing contemporary Japanese society — not least of all the ways in which it is influenced by the ubiquity of media. His insights are quite well grounded in reality, and his conclusions are rather bleak. Even the apocalyptic destruction of Tokyo cannot change ways of the Japanese people, who are thoroughly engulfed by non-communication and hyper-consumerism.