Review of Paprika

Dreams, for many, are an escapade, a safe haven from our harsh reality. We subconsciously build worlds and universes that exhibit our experiences, desires, personality, traumas, phobias and even our innermost forgotten selves in the form of dreams. Though we dream during both alternations of the sleep cycle(i.e. Non-rapid eye movement(NREM) and rapid eye movement(REM)) our dreams are normally more vivid and longer during REM sleep. While we generally can’t control our actions in conventional dreaming, there are means to be aware and control it to a certain extent, at least the dreams in REM sleep. This phenomena is referred to as lucid dreaming. Manypeople suffering from a psychological condition or disorder, often don’t recall those repressed memories responsible for it. In such cases it’s often a tedious task for therapists to understand their patients' behavior and the cause of their condition. As a method of therapy, lucid dreaming is gaining a lot of attention in psychotherapy as a way for people to understand, help and equip themselves in ways unimaginable. Except that it isn’t always easy for us to lucid dream, or even if we did, there is no guarantee we will interpret the nuances of our dreams and how it relates to our own problems correctly.
But what if therapists were able to enter into the dreams of their patients to analyze it and get to the bottom of their condition? And what would happen to humanity as a whole if everyone gained this ability to enter the dreams of other people? Would we have lesser misunderstandings and understand people better if we saw life vicariously? Or would it be deleterious and damage society fundamentally? A dream as I had first mentioned is the only sanctuary for many people in general, so can we as humans accept this ability to enter a person’s dream?

Paprika is an eccentric dream(in all its definitions) that is diligent in making sure we don’t open our eyes during its entirety, and gives us a thrilling experience equivalent to the above stated. The entire anime is minimal in both the duration and decipherability with it’s subtle yet remarkable storytelling.
In Paprika, the DC-mini is a transmitter-like device that induces lucid dreaming by stimulating the brain using a psychotherapy machine, with the user’s own natural body energy levels and frequency. A DC-mini has the capability to simulate the dream in a computer, allow other users to enter the person’s dream and can also tune a previous user’s mind using its data on their energy level, without being physically in contact with the person. Though it is said to be in its prototypical stages, it is used by the psychotherapeutic/psychiatric institution that invented it, after authorisation by the chairman for every use. The DC-mini’s development team however, to gather more information and help others, use it on people that require it. Paprika(an alias), a person from the development team, stands as the therapist to all these unauthorised treatments. Police Inspector Toshimi has anxiety neurosis and Dr.Shiba, from the development team tries to help him with a DC-mini. His own side story is tacitly blended with the main plot in a very clean manner. But then, three DC-minis gets stolen by someone from the same organisation, and before stealing it, is believed to have forced dreams/delusions into the scientists when they were using the psychotherapy machine. And upon remotely triggering an anaphylactic reaction among those who had the most exposure to it, they make these scientists hallucinate. Everyone suspects the DC-mini’s inventor, Dr.Torita’s assistant Himura, after seeing him in the delusions of Dr.Shiba, the first victim. The story progresses in a very unique and somewhat predictable way with its surreal concert of dreams and reality, making us see dreams/delusions and its implications in a new light. The collective delusion in the form of an eerily comical procession of personified objects, enforced on people in particular is very distinct, as it being a parade, I felt that it refers to the death or importance of dreams. The plot also has a great deal of visual references to other movies which are both symbolic and additive to the plot of Paprika in general. The anime is meant to be implicitly understood and nuanced, and hence it would be a shame, if I were to elicit more on what needs to and must be experienced. The character development for many characters in the story is among the finest I have ever seen in anime as short as Paprika. The most beautiful of them were Toshimi overcoming his trauma by seeing ‘it’ in a new light and ironically the alter ego of Paprika, an exceptional therapist understanding and embracing her unseen, innate identity, and her own true self.
The story wouldn’t have been as entertaining if it weren’t for its vivid visuals. The animation was sharp and fluid,as it needs to bring entire worlds of differently toned dreams to life many times. The color palette created an aesthetically bizarre ambience and was mostly consistent, florid and distinctly bright, with the shades of red appearing most vibrant. The soundtrack album was mostly techno and resonated with the artstyle and the setting very explicitly.

The concise storytelling requires you to be on your feet and actually take in the scenes from the very beginning, as otherwise you will find yourself quickly lost and the ending would not make sense all too much. It has non-sexual nudity, which I felt was most necessary as it actually had an impact on what needed to be established. Symbolism and irony is very intricately placed in the scenes and dialogues of Paprika that subtly roll by and I advise its viewers to pay careful attention to it. I would recommend Paprika, a story of dreams that optimistically speaks yet also warns us of technological marvels and its misuse, to all those who love to intellectually test themselves in connecting dots alongside a very great storyline, and memorable characters.