Review of Paprika
I’ve watched Paprika many times as it is one of my favorite movies. Paprika is a movie directed by Satoshi Kon and its music is made by Susumu Hirazawa. Those two working together is a great combination. Satoshi’s way of expressing creativity and portraying a dream world is al translated into music when Hirazawa made the soundtracks. It all fits together. The movie is about a scientist called Chiba, who works in a psychiatric medical center where she sercretly treats her patients with a machine that enables her to enter the dream of a patient. This machine called the DC-mini is stolen and some person usesit to mess with the dreams of his victims trapping them in a nightmare they cannot wake up from. Chiba enters the dreams of het patient as her alter ego, a girl called Paprika. Paprika is almost the exact opposite of Chiba.
One outstanding part of this anime is its art. All the backgrounds are so detailed and well made. Some parts of the background are looking almost photorealistic. Next to that, there’s also an incredible amount of detail in everything. The parades in the movie are so detailed the only way to seeing everything is pausing the movie. In the end of the movie the real world and the dream world are mixing together. This is well done to the point you can’t tell the dream world and the real world apart. The psychedelic effects in this movie are done very well. My least favorite aspect of the art in this movie would be the way the characters are drawn. Even though they fit into the whole movie, my personal preference would be to draw the characters a little bit more cartoony, even though they are drawn very fitting for the type of movie, but that’s probably something personal.
Like I said before the music in the movie is also very outstanding. Sometimes it’s just as chaotic as all that’s on screen, yet it’s still pleasant to listen to. Soundtracks like “parade” capture the greatness of the parade in the movie, while a soundtrack like “A drop filled with memories” shows the movies tenderness.
The characters are also well done. They all have their individual struggles and flaws, and seem realistic. They all have their own way of dealing with their struggles. For instance, Tokita, a genius whose way to deal with stress is just to eat as much as he can. (as he says in the movie “I can’t fight terrorists on an empty stomach.”) I’d say the least realistic character would be Paprika. She seems to be an overly happy teenage typical anime girl. But hey, she literally is a girl of your dreams. Also, jealousy is a feature that drives the characters, which is making them quiet human. Also, the development of these characters is done quite well. They gradually become more self-loving and accepting.
The story of this movie is also very interesting. The way the real world and the dream world are connected is a unique feature to this movie. Also, the way the characters behave seems realistic and they are easy to relate to. Everything in this movie is not what it seems to be. That’s for the characters, the story but also the visuals.