Paranoia Agent 1.13

Final Episode

Ikari and Tsukiko wander together through his dream world. He is content there until he sees Misae, his wife. It reminds him of the world he has left behind and is trying to forget. He drinks beer and tries to forget her but then Misae shows up in the restaurant where he is drinking. Maromi dispels Misae but she returns. She tells Ikari that she is near death. Ikari decides that he's had enough. He grabs a bat and starts shattering the dream world around him.

Ikari and Tsukiko return to the real world. It is in the process of getting overrun by black ooze. Many people have been killed by the black ooze. Maniwa tries to tell them about Tsukiko's past and Maromi's origins but then the black ooze gets him.

Tsukiko remembers the past. She remembers how the dog she had as a child was killed. She lied to her father but he knew she was lying. Tsukiko finally apologizes to Maromi, the original Maromi.

The black ooze recedes and the world starts to rebuild.

Paranoia Agent 1.12

Radar Man

Maniwa fights with Shonen Bat. Maniwa eventually comes to realize that he can't win the way he is fighting Shonen Bat but he doesn't know what the answer is. He goes to see Ikari but he isn't home. Ikari's wife is there. She gives him the clue he needs. It leads him to the understanding that there is some connection between Maromi and Shonen Bat. Maromi is modeled after a dog that Tsukiko has when she was a child. Maniwai learns that ten years ago she was attacked by someone with a bat but her attacker was never found.

Maniwa visits Tsukiko's childhood home and talks to her father. He finds the bat that her father says he told her he would use to protect her after she was attacked 10 years before. 

Paranoia Agent 1.11

No Entry

Ikari works security at construction sites since he lost his job as a police detective. He winds up working with a thief whom he arrested years before. The thief doesn't hold it against him. They both miss the old days.

Ikari's wife spends most of the episode at home. She tells her life story to a visitor, Shonen Bat. She admits that recently she got a medical diagnosis left her feeling hopeless. Shonen Bat seems to feed off of her desperation and grows bigger but he doesn't frighten her. The longer she talks the more she becomes more resolute and adamant she becomes about her past decisions and about her future.

Her health is failing. She needs an operation. At the beginning of the episode she was contemplating not going through with the operation. By the end of the episode, over the course of telling her story, she changes her mind.

Paranoia Agent 1.10

Mellow Maromi

The production assistant on a new anime series about Maromi can't seem to do anything other than day dream. He spends most of the episode doing just that. He imagines things and flashes back to the events of the past few days. His inability to do his job correctly causes all sorts of problems for the other people working on the Maromi show.

He is shown driving the video tape of the first episode to the television studio that will be broadcasting it, in a number of scenes. His flashbacks and dreams seem to punctuate that trip. Along the way he is pursued by Shonen Bat. The episode ends with him seeming to become Shonen Bat.

Paranoia Agent 1.09

ETC

Four women stand around and trade stories they have heard about Shonen Bat, Lil' Slugger. The stories get increasingly bizarre and ridiculous as the episode unfolds. 

One of the women is married to a screenwriter. Her stories are the most out there. The other three women give her a lot of flack for not being able to come up with better stories.

The only character in this episode that I recognized from previous episodes is Shonen Bat.

This episode has plenty of laughs and is mostly humorous but the humor isn't what I would call run of the mill.

Paranoia Agent 1.08

Happy Family Planning

Three people (Fuyubachi, Zebra, Kamome), who met through an internet message board, make plans to commit suicide. They try a number of things but none of them seem to work. Fuyubachi is an older man with white hair. Zebra is a guy in his twenties. Kamome is a young girl. Fuyubachi and Zebra, at Fuyubachi's suggestion, try to lose Kamome when they find out how young she is. 

The trio starts in Tokyo but then heads out to the countryside. Their only encounter with any of the other characters from previous episodes in Shonen Bat. They talk about Shonen Bat before he shows up. They try to get him to kill them but he runs from them and gets away before they can get him to fulfill their wish. They suspect that he might be FOX, another person from the message board.

They try to kill themselves by asphyxiation, overdosing on pills, hanging, jumping in front of a train, but none of their attempts are successful, probably because they are already dead.

Paranoia Agent 1.07

Mhz

Ikari and Maniwa continue to investigate the Shonen Bat case. Ikari remains convinced that Kozuka is the culprit. Ikari tries to talk Kozuka into admitting that he didn't attack Tsukiko Sagi but that he colluded with her and attacked other people so that her story would seem credible.

Maniwa interviews a number of the victims and comes up with a theory. He thinks that everyone who was attacked by Lil' Slugger was anxious about something. He can't get them all to agree but he's convinced of it.

Kozuka kills himself while being held in a police detention cell. Ikari and Maniwa are taken off the case and fired.

Paranoia Agent 1.06

Fear of a Direct Hit

Tokyo experiences stormy weather. Ikari and Maniwa, the two police detectives, continue to investigate the case of Shonen Bat. They spend a lot of time questioning the old homeless lady. Ikari is very aggressive in his questioning. She only wants to talk about her granddaughter whom she has not seen in a long time.

A young teenager named Taeko has run away from home after finding out that someone has been watching her, taking pictures of her as she undresses. She suspects or knows that it was her father. After tearing her room apart and destroying the hidden camera, she takes to the streets.

The storm gets more intense. It destroys the shelter that the old homeless lady built for herself and carries her away. Ikari and Maniwa summon Tsukiko Sagi, the first person attacked by Shonen Bat, and question her. Ikari is very verbally aggressive. He insists that there Lil' Slugger does not exist and that she injured herself. He tells her that the old homeless lady saw it all. Tsukiko falls down in the middle of the interrogation as if she was just hit by Shonen Bat.

Paranoia Agent 1.05

The Holy Warrior

The two detectives interrogate Makoto Kozuka, Shonen Bat. He's the boy who was arrested at the end of the previous episode for attacking at least five different people. Ikari, the older detective takes charge of the questioning but gets nowhere. Ikari gets increasingly more confused the more questions he asks of Kozuka. Maniwa, the younger detective seems to understand what Kozuka is saying.

Kozuka is convinced that he is a holy warrior and on a quest. Ikari keeps trying to bring the story back to reality but Maniwa takes the opposite tactic and accepts Kosuka's story at face value. The two detectives find them selves in a magical world. They follow Kozuka, who is dressed in armor, around. They meet two of his victims in that world, Harumi and Kawazu. Kozuka keeps talking about a supernatural being named Gohma that he is at war with. They finally encounter Gohma at the end of the episode. It is the homeless woman from episode 1.

Paranoia Agent 1.04

A Man's Path

Hirukawa, a uniformed police officer, was a client of Maria, is obsessed with a manga series called A Man's Path, and owes money to the mob. He gets desperate and starts robbing people to get the money he needs. The boss to whom he owes the money isn't very understanding when Hirukawa has trouble coming up with all the money he owes.

Hirukawa frequently thinks about his favorite manga, A Man's Path. He tries to recast his situation to be like that of the hero of the manga. The two men couldn't be more dissimilar.

Hirukawa crosses paths with Ikiru, the older of the two detectives investigating the Lil' Slugger case. They've known each other for years.

Hirukawa gets stressed out over what his life has come to, robbing people. He is freaking out when the boy with the golden skates and the bat comes along and hits him. Hirukawa, unlike the others, doesn't fall down and stay down. He gets up and attacks Lil' Slugger. The next day there is a press conference at which Hirukawa is identified as the officer who captured Shonen Bat.

Paranoia Agent 1.03

Double Lips

The two detectives continue to investigate the Shonen Bat case. They can't talk to Yuichi because he is unconscious.

Chono Harumi lives a double life. She is a university student by day. She sometimes tutors Yuichi Taira (see previous episode) but she also works as a prostitute named Maria. Maria and Harumi are two distinct personalities that inhabit the same body. Maria leaves messages on Harumi's answering machine and in her voice mail.

Harumi tries to distance herself from Maria. She accepts an offer of marriage from her faculty advisor. She packs up Maria's belongings but Maria refuses to put aside. Harumi visits Yuichi in the hospital. He tells her about how relieved he is that Lil' Slugger, Shonen Bat, attacked him. He is no longer a suspect because he was attacked.

Paranoia Agent 1.02

The Golden Shoes

The investigation into the mysterious assailant continues. An accusatory finger gets pointed at Yuichi Taira, the most popular 6th grader in his elementary school. He goes from being the person that everyone wants to know and hang out with to a pariah. He was running for president of the student council. His only competition was Shogo Ushiyama, a new kid in school who is overweight and lousy at sports.

Yuichi starts to have a mental breakdown. He starts hallucinating. The hallucinations get worse as the episode progresses. His mother throws a birthday party for him but none of his classmates show up. On the day of the student council election he stays in bed and refuses to go to school. The episode ends with Yuichi getting attacked by Shonen Bat.

Paranoia Agent 1.01

Enter Lil' Slugger

Animator Tsukiko Sagi is attacked while walking home at night. Two police officers interrogate Tsukiko about the incident but she doesn't tell them much. All she can remember about the attacker is that he looked like he was in 5th or 6th grade, wielded a bat, and was wearing gold colored rollerblades.

Akio Kawazu, a sleazy gossip magazine writer, finds Tsukiko and tries to get her to tell her story. She isn't anymore forthcoming with him than she was with the policemen. Kawazu thinks the attack didn't really happen. He shows up at her apartment after stopping her on the street, earlier in the day. She tries to run but her injury slows her down. The kid on the rollerblades shows up again but this time he hits Akio with the bat. He stops in front of Tsukiko, tells her he's home, and then skates off.