Paranoia Agent of the Title, the Mysterious PAUL DUNSCOMB Is Assistant Professor of East Assailant Known As Sh¬Nen Bat

Media Section APAN’S LOST DECADE, ABOUT 1992 ate postwar generation that rebuilt Japan and TO 2003, encompassed the systemic created the era of high speed economic Jeconomic, political, and social crisis left growth with young Japanese born of the bub- by the collapse of the bubble economy. Dur- ble economy and the lost decade, particularly ing that time Japan seemed to lose direction, Kozuka Makoto, the boy who claims to be and the Japanese, afflicted by youth violence, Shonen Bat—but in fact is not. Kon, playing alienation, and the aftereffects of a spending on this sense of bewilderment, makes a won- spree that brought ruinous debt and spiritual derfully subversive suggestion. Perhaps the emptiness, were left to wonder what their greatest threat facing Japan is a national sen- hard work since the end of World War Two PARANOIA sibility, shaped by the desires of teenage girls had accomplished. Anyone who wants to who seek relief in the anodyne cuteness of understand the existential angst that gripped AGENT popular characters (thereby escaping the the Japanese during this period should look harshness of reality), and by teenage boys at this anime series from Satoshi Kon. who retreat into the virtual world of role play- THE SERIES NOMINALLY CENTERS ON THE ing games (to find meaning in life). The cute SEARCH FOR A TEENAGE BOY ON IN-LINE Maromi and Sh¬nen Bat are two sides of the SKATES, popularly known as Sh¬nen Bat, same coin, and both, ultimately, wreak who attacks residents of a Tokyo neighbor- destruction on Tokyo. Despite the heavy loss hood with a golden aluminum bat. The vic- of lives and property, this amounts to a happy tims in the first four episodes seem to invite ending for Kon, who suggests that Japanese attack because it releases them from the terri- were more content and understood them- ble stress they suffer and enlists public sym- selves better when busy with the tasks of pathy for their private anguish. Only after a recovering from war and destruction. young suspect is questioned by the police in The series features levels of sex, violence, Episode no. 5, do we begin to understand and adult themes, that make it suitable only that Kon is not simply repeating a formula to for college students. Consider using the examine various social pathologies or the series towards the end of a Modern Japan crises of daily life, but intends to take us history or social anthropology course to pro- someplace much darker and farther out. vide a glimpse of Japanese society at the start Through the interrogation of the suspect, we of the twenty-first century. Episodes eight learn the larger theme of the series, the unen- through ten, on disc three, are essentially durable pressure of modern life and the ways stand-alone place fillers, bulking up the people find to relieve that pressure. In Kon’s series to thirteen episodes but not advancing view, wish-fulfillment fantasies, often of a the meta-narrative of the other three discs. rather dark hue, are the key to survival in the They do, therefore, offer opportunities for modern age. For some people, though, the teachers wanting to look at social phenome- wish to be relieved of life’s burdens takes a The Anime Series na—like internet suicide chat rooms or the more active form. This is especially so with by Satoshi Kon role of gossipy city homemakers in enforcing Shonen Bat’s first victim, Tsukiko Sagi, a neighborhood norms—with quick and harried young woman whose cute popular provocative introductions to the topic with- character, Maromi, has become a nationwide PRODUCED BY out having to get stuck in the larger issues sensation. The jealousy of her co-workers MADHOUSE STUDIOS Kon is concerned with. n and the unbearable pressure from her boss to ORIGINAL RUN: FEBRUARY 2 TO MAY repeat this success causes Sagi to manifest 18, 2004 the paranoia agent of the title, the mysterious PAUL DUNSCOMB is Assistant Professor of East assailant known as Sh¬nen Bat. Now DVD, THIRTEEN EPISODES, Asian History at the University of Alaska, Anchorage, where he teaches a two-semester survey of East Asian OUR ISK ET brought to life, the roller-blading, bat-wield- F -D S Civilization, courses on Modern China, Modern ing teenager embarks on a spree, attacking DISTRIBUTED BY Japan, and the Second World War, as well as “The other victims who radiate similar levels of Rise, Fall, and Reinvention of the Samurai,” and the GENEON ENTERTAINMENT INC. desperation. history of the Chinese Communist Party. He has Throughout the series, Detective Ikari, graduate degrees from the State University of New York at Albany and the University of Kansas. His EVIEWED BY AUL UNSCOMB senior investigator on the case, serves as R P D research examines the domestic political aspects of Kon’s stand-in. For the director, Ikari embod- Japan’s occupation of Siberia, 1918–1922, and its ies the utter bewilderment felt by the immedi- relationship to the evolution of Japanese Imperialism. 66 EDUCATION ABOUT ASIA Volume 12, Number 1 Spring 2007.

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