Review of Paprika

A solid film, but I was expecting something more from Satoshi Kon. PLOT: Extremely interesting plot – the concept of dreams has always fascinated me, so the plot of this film really did appeal to me. It’s a jumble of events as half the film takes place in the dream world where there are no rules. When dealing with peoples dreams its always going to be weird and convoluted, so its best just to go with the flow. I certainly did enjoy the ride, but now that I’m reflecting on the film I cant help but feel slightly unfulfilled. There is not nearly enough character developmentand no closure on what triggered the whole sequence of events. The characters are quirky and memorable, as you would expect, but they feel shallow and stereotyped – I find myself wishing I knew more about them and the reasons behind their avatars appearances in the dream world. This is always a problem with movies since they are short on time, but with Paprika its particularly annoying as I felt too much time was wasted on looped scenes.

ANIMATION: As you would expect from a film animated by MADHOUSE, Paprika is visually fantastic. An absolute riot of colour, detail and action – every frame is jam-packed and the action sequences have a brilliant sense of movement and fluidity. A small criticism is the fact that there seems to be a lot of recycled animation – most notably of the parade, it seems to appear way too often in the same sort of way. Character designs are nice, if typical of a Satoshi Kon production.

MUSIC & VOICE ACTING: Music is good – very reminiscent of Paranoia Agent, especially the title theme and the credit theme. Similarly voice acting is also good, but nothing overly spectacular.

Overall Paprika is a very enjoyable anime film, but I have been spoiled by Satoshi Kon’s earlier work and Paprika just isn’t as good as Tokyo Godfathers, Perfect Blue or Paranoia Agent unfortunately.