Review of Paprika

Paprika is a movie that seems to have a pretty positive consensus overall, which made me really excited to jump in and watch it, especially considering the insanely high regard I hold other Satoshi Kon works in, but after viewing it I couldn't help but feel that this was one of the most disappointing movies I'd seen in a while. For me, the two main thing I watch a Kon work for is the beautiful art direction, and the well written characters. Paprika has beautiful art direction in spades, its wonderfully animated, has a strong artistic vision, and is justa joy to look at. Where it falls flat though, and the main reason why it was so disappointing is its characters.

Unfortunately I feel the characters in this movie only range from about serviceable to just completely forgettable. I felt no strong attachment whatsoever to any of these characters and I basically never felt invested in any of their conflicts. The only character who I felt had a somewhat interesting arc was the detective Konakawa, but besides that I hate to say that I couldn't really care much at all for anyone else. All of this isn't even to mention the hilariously forced romance that just didn't feel natural at all and lacked any sort of build up to justify it. Everyone just felt very surface level and basic, which to me is more disappointing than a character just being annoying or making stupid decisions.

The plot really isn't much better either sadly. The antagonists in this movie were just flat out lame, and had motivations and actions that were just so uninteresting and boring to watch unfold. The rest was predictable and the ending left me feeling more dissatisfied than happy. Even if the villains were interesting and fleshed out they still probably wouldn't have saved this movie for me, but it still would've been miles better than the 1 dimensional characters that we ended up getting. I really hate that almost all of my opinions surrounding this movie are so negative because I wanted so badly to like it, but I just can't shake the feeling that Paranoia Agent or Perfect Blue both do everything this movie does far better. If you're in the mood for some gorgeous animation, than this movie may scratch that itch, but otherwise, there are far better stories directed by the same man that aren't as forgettable and mediocre as this one.