Mousou Dairinin

The infamous Shounen Bat is terrorizing the residents of Musashino City. Flying around on his rollerblades and beating people down with a golden baseball bat, the assailant seems impossible to catch—much less understand. His first victim, the well-known yet timid character designer Tsukiko Sagi, is suspected of orchestrating the attacks. Believed only by her anthropomorphic pink stuffed animal, Maromi, Tsukiko is just one of Shounen Bat's many victims.

As Shounen Bat continues his relentless assault on the town, detectives Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa begin to investigate the identity of the attacker. However, more and more people fall victim to the notorious golden bat, and news of the assailant begins circulating around the town. Paranoia starts to set in as chilling rumors spread amongst adults and children alike.

Will the two detectives be able to unravel the truth behind Shounen Bat, or will the paranoia get to them first?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Shounen Bat Main

Sakaguchi, Daisuke Japanese

Sagi, Tsukiko Main

Noto, Mamiko Japanese

Ikari, Keiichi Main

Iizuka, Shouzou Japanese

Maniwa, Mitsuhiro Main

Seki, Toshihiko Japanese

Maromi Supporting

Momoi, Haruko Japanese

Chono, Harumi Supporting

Mitsuishi, Kotono Japanese

Old Man Supporting

Saikachi, Ryuuji Japanese

Ikari, Misae Supporting

Komiya, Kazue Japanese

Taira, Yuichi Supporting

Yamaguchi, Mayumi Japanese

Kamome Supporting

Tominaga, Miina Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Gotou, Hideki Producer

Tanaka, Shinsaku Assistant Producer

Kon, Satoshi Director, Storyboard, Original Creator

Reviews

Dec 31, 2024

Taameli

Recommended

I have no idea what I just watched.

Absolute cinema.

A friend recommended me this show a while ago and I was not interested at first, but holyyy after I started watching it I could not stop. Very unique execution, many moments that got me questioning what was fake and what was real. Truly a unique experience and very unsettling one at that. Highly recommend watching if you are a fan of psychological themed shows.

I especially like Satoshi Kon’s more down-to-earth art style. I have almost watched all of Satoshi Kon’s works and I can say that this is definitely one of my ... favorites.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jul 11, 2025

margio3k

Mixed Feelings

I watched the series very quickly because I just had to know what was going to happen next - and to me, that’s a clear sign of a valuable piece of work. I’m usually not a fan of shows where each episode tells a different story, but in this case, every chapter had something that pulled me in. Each standalone story was well-crafted, with interesting, complex characters.
The underlying motive behind everything -although I didn’t want it to be what it was at first (maybe because I’m more used to fantastical or fictional themes)- ended up being unexpected, but effective. It delivered a message that might ... not seem deeply philosophical, but is often forgotten: responsibility. I was impressed by how something so seemingly simple could unfold into a narrative with so many layers, exploring themes like escapism, social pressure, and denial.
All in all, Paranoia Agent felt like a unique piece that leaves a mark without needing to over-explain itself. For me, it’s a solid 8.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 22, 2025

1stDecame4Danime

Not Recommended

A poorly written story of mostly episodic filler character drama to convey the very basic concept of escapism and waste the audience's time.
The entire series is just a bunch of loosely connected nonstories rehashing the same things over and over.
There's nothing of depth to talk about. There are a bunch of random pedo character asides for no other reason than pedophilia.
The ending is uninspired and all the filler in between could've/should've been skipped to be a movie instead (this has more or less the same notes as Paprika but extremely uninspired execution here).

The reality/unreality of the ending absolutely falls on its face, since the ... entire conflict of the entire story affecting the entirety of the city gets resolved immediately after fmc arbitrarily faces her trauma instead of resorting to escapism immediately after being confronted with it, and this one act immediately solves the entire memetic problem for everyone else, completely destroying the argument that it isn't a real entity.
Pointless 2D character plotlines that go nowhere and haphazardly thrown in ideas and plot contrivances because it's just so cool that random old man is a plot contrivance doing math for no reason and random otaku exists and their dolls are maybe an autonomous ai program plot contrivance to have the police assistant to save the day and then become like the old man doing math for no reason and trust me the author says, this story is very deep because it pointlessly started with the empty ending scene of random escapism-inducing society stuff.

This series is a shoddily thrown together rough draft original. That's not just my opinion, that's literally the circumstances of its production under a tight deadline.

1/10 (where 5/10 is average)

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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	Poll: Mousou Dairinin Episode 11 Discussion ( 1 2 ) LibreKoi - May 24, 2009	66 replies	by INoLuv »» Jul 5, 10:51 AM
	Poll: Mousou Dairinin Episode 8 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Frash - Oct 4, 2008	202 replies	by Darzy_Mal »» Jun 28, 8:48 AM
	Poll: Mousou Dairinin Episode 13 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) katsup - Apr 3, 2008	224 replies	by aurora_yuuki »» May 31, 12:37 PM
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