CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Satoshi Kon's Paprika opened in the DC area today. I caught the second showing at a local art house in Shirlington.

Overall, I was impressed, and intend to see it again with friends. It was your typical Satoshi Kon is-this-a-dream-or-reality-or-does-it-matter ballad (like Paranoia Agent, Millennium Actress, or Perfect Blue). If you are familiar with his earlier works, you won't have to look too hard to find familiar characters. The animation lives up to its billing: it is quite well done and highly detailed.

It is rated R for good reason. There is anime nudity and an uncomfortable scene involving a restrained female. There are also some double entendres that would probably be missed by younger viewers. I would not recommend it under any circumstances for children or younger teens.

I liked the soundtrack, which I intend to get once I find it, and the opening theme is creative and not to be missed. I also very much enjoyed the title character.

Gah, thanks for making me want to see it even more. XD

*Adores Satoshi Kon*

Paprika's hitting our nearest indie theater pretty soon, so I think I'll be going to see it.

How graphic is the nudity mentioned above? I hate passing up the opportunity to see anime on the big screen, but, if I must, I must.

People in IMDB say it's not too bad. Certainly not as bad as Perfect Blue. Some people even said there wasn't that much sexual content as people make it out to be. Albeit I haven't seen it, that's what I hear.

Mangafanatic wrote:How graphic is the nudity mentioned above? I hate passing up the opportunity to see anime on the big screen, but, if I must, I must.

It is not graphic. You could go to any respectable art museum (like the National Gallery of Art here in DC) and see the same thing. If it were a live action film, it would still receive an "R".

There is a rather discomforting scene, not involving nudity, where the interpretation of what is happening is left up to the viewer. Not graphic in a visual sense per se...

If you wish, I'll PM you details. I'd consider them spoilerish in nature.

Paprika ROCKS.

That's not something that you can easily get a 46-year-old man to say.

I just got back from the Angelika Film Center (Dallas), having enjoyed one of the best feature length anime I've seen yet. Not the absolute best, but way, way up there.

I was generally happy with most aspects of the movie, except I felt the soundtrack, which for the most parts was very good, failed to come through in the most intense moments. The composer should have ratcheted up the emotions from levels already used earlier, and didn't. The artwork was first-class, character designs were very good, and details nicely done.

I've run into a few cases of people disliking this film. Now that I've seen it, I can offer a theory. If surrealism isn't appealing to you, this film may not be your cup of tea. You have to be prepared to be confused. It's on purpose. You also have to be prepared for some metaphyscalism.

Another big favorite of mine, "Roujin Z", is similar in this respect.

About the nudity. One case of breasts (of realistic proportion) drawn in detail, in what cannot really be described as a sexual way. Male and Female nudity obscured below the waist (except a few male figures in artworks that are accurate to the actual artworks being cited.)

The uncomfortable situation mentioned above is uncomfortable, yes, but also too surrealistic to be 'graphic' per se. It's disconcerting, but appropriate to the story. Might give younger kids bad dreams, though. It's my guess that that scene, not the nudity, is the reason for the "R" rating.

It occurs to me that, in my last post, I may have sounded like I was deprecating the R rating, so I want to say this: Due to the R rating, I went to see this on my own in order to decide whether my kids ought to see it. My decision was that certain scenes, especially the one alluded to several times above, deserve the rating. I would not hesitate to let my about-to-be-sixteen-year-old son see it, but that's because I know that he's emotionally stable and mature for his age, and would understand that scene for what it is. I would not let my pre-teen see it, and in my opinion, there are sixteen-year-olds out there that also probably shouldn't. That should help give parents and responsible young adults something to judge by.

EricTheFred wrote:Paprika ROCKS.

That's not something that you can easily get a 46-year-old man to say.

I just got back from the Angelika Film Center (Dallas), having enjoyed one of the best feature length anime I've seen yet. Not the absolute best, but way, way up there.

I was generally happy with most aspects of the movie, except I felt the soundtrack, which for the most parts was very good, failed to come through in the most intense moments. The composer should have ratcheted up the emotions from levels already used earlier, and didn't. The artwork was first-class, character designs were very good, and details nicely done.

I've run into a few cases of people disliking this film. Now that I've seen it, I can offer a theory. If surrealism isn't appealing to you, this film may not be your cup of tea. You have to be prepared to be confused. It's on purpose. You also have to be prepared for some metaphyscalism.

Another big favorite of mine, "Roujin Z", is similar in this respect.

About the nudity. One case of breasts (of realistic proportion) drawn in detail, in what cannot really be described as a sexual way. Male and Female nudity obscured below the waist (except a few male figures in artworks that are accurate to the actual artworks being cited.)

The uncomfortable situation mentioned above is uncomfortable, yes, but also too surrealistic to be 'graphic' per se. It's disconcerting, but appropriate to the story. Might give younger kids bad dreams, though. It's my guess that that scene, not the nudity, is the reason for the "R" rating.

i think that you should write a review for the movie...

I finally got my grubby hands on Satoshi Kon's most recent work.

Absolutely freaking MINDBLOWING. This is by far the best animated film I have ever seen. The "moral" or theme behind it is a good one. Just like Paranoia Agent, Paprika was also incredibly original and unconventional at times. The artwork and animation was the best I've ever seen. Every character was fun to watch and were not one-dimensional. Overall it was an amazing film. I highly recommend it.

On a related subject, I highly recommend the soundtrack for it. I got it a couple weeks ago off Amazon. Great, great stuff for Anime OST lovers, despite my previous gripes about whether or not it integrated into the movie.

I watched it earlier this afternoon, and I have to say, I enjoyed it quite a bit. The animation is probably the best I've seen in any film, the story was engaging, and the characters were fun to watch. I loved the soundtrack, the opening scene especially. It did deserve the R-rating with the (granted, somewhat artistic) nudity and the aforementioned "uncomfortable scene" (sketchyyyy o_O), but overall, I really enjoyed it and will probably watch the movie again soon.

BTW, a bit of Paprika trivia I ran across a couple weeks ago. Remember the virtual bartender characters at 'Radio Club'? It turns out they're the images of real people... specifically, they are Satoshi Kon and the man who wrote the original novel 'Paprika'. The story where I read that didn't say which was which, though.

EricTheFred wrote:BTW, a bit of Paprika trivia I ran across a couple weeks ago. Remember the virtual bartender characters at 'Radio Club'? It turns out they're the images of real people... specifically, they are Satoshi Kon and the man who wrote the original novel 'Paprika'. The story where I read that didn't say which was which, though.

Actually they voiced the characters of them. XD Satoshi Kon does bear a minor resemblance to the tall bartender, however. So you may be right.

Radical Dreamer wrote:I watched it earlier this afternoon, and I have to say, I enjoyed it quite a bit. The animation is probably the best I've seen in any film, the story was engaging, and the characters were fun to watch. I loved the soundtrack, the opening scene especially. It did deserve the R-rating with the (granted, somewhat artistic) nudity and the aforementioned "uncomfortable scene" (sketchyyyy o_O), but overall, I really enjoyed it and will probably watch the movie again soon.

You like it?
I never would have guessed.

Anyways, was this the widely commercialized anime film that hit theaters?

Well, I finally saw it, and got the soundtrack off i-Tunes, and I really enjoyed every moment of it. The soundtrack is really great, and is probably about a quarter of the effect of the movie.

I'm glad I was able to see it on a big screen. Satoshi Kon really set a new standard for anime visuals with this movie.

Tom Dincht wrote:Anyways, was this the widely commercialized anime film that hit theaters?

I really don't think "commercialized" is the right word for something THAT surreal...