Review of Paprika

Aaahhh, I love having weird friends that introduce me to amazing stuff. Let's peep this out: Story: This movie has one of the most fascinating stories I've ever seen in a film. Like it's End of Evangelion kinds of good in my eyes (though obviously I have a biased to Eva so I'd pick that over this, BUT STILL GOOD.) A mixing of realities, both from the dreams in our minds and the reality we live in...it sounds so simple and it (somewhat, at least in the film) is, but it's also still engaging and amazing how smooth and well-paced it is. I never really felt confusedwhen watching it and it's perfect times of when to have quiet moments and when to have exciting ones were evened out really well. However, it's not for everyone and I'm sure MANY people had to look up a plot summary after watching this to grasp it. Good stuff though!

Visuals:
...You see the rating I gave on this movie? It's because these visuals even NOWADAYS are GORGEOUS! The amount of stuff that's animated, the colors, the artificial sun, the look of the characters, it's all REALLY REALLY good. They definitely had some serious creativity going on in their brains when they were making this. One of the best-looking anime movies I've seen hands down.

Sound:
Voice-acting in the sub is REALLY good...the dub's okay. It's a little distracting to see Yuri Lowenthal of all people voicing a character like Tokita. It's not bad though. Sound design is good, lots of different sounds used for the more 'expressive' scenes. This movie's got an...INTERESTING soundtrack that I've actually listened to BEFORE I've even seen the movie, it ain't everyone's cup of tea though.

Characters:
Like I said already, designs are GREAT for the characters and they sound just like I'd expect them too based on those looks. None of the characters really came off as 'bad' per say to me. I enjoyed all of them, even the bad guys had me surprised with how good they were. I really enjoyed these characters, they expressed flaws, pain, and confusion just like real genuine people would in a situation like this.

Overall:
Well, this is a weird one if you're not used to the 'weirdness' that some anime have, but if you're willing to give it a chance or just LOVE abstract art movies, go for it, it's wonderful! Really glad I'm getting into more of Satoshi Kon's work because of this one, he's really underrated in his talent.