If you look closely at the works of Satoshi Kon, the idea of merging reality and dreams can be seen in almost all the anime he created. It seems that Satoshi was obsessed with it and constantly tried to express it as fully as possible using the artistic means available to him. Of course, obsessed with such an idea, Satoshi simply could not pass by the 1993 novel “Paprika” by his compatriot Tsutsui Yasutaka, which tells about an apparatus with which psychiatrists can infiltrate into the dreams of patients and cure them of mental disorders. The idea of this novel is very reminiscent of the idea of the novel “The Dream Master” by Roger Zelazny, published back in 1966. However, unlike the Zelazny novel I read as a teenager, Yasutaka’s “Paprika” seemed to me so clumsy and mediocrely boring, and the characters so disgusting that I could not bring myself to read this vile thing to the end, and therefore I will further refrain from going into detail comparison of the original source with its film adaptation, which was carried out by Satoshi Kon. Moreover, Kon bypassed and smoothed out the most disgusting parts of the book to the point of imperceptibility.
What he retained was the atmosphere of a nightmare dream, close to Kon himself, which is closely intertwined with reality, directly influencing it and becoming indistinguishable from reality. The audiovisual style of "Paprika" is indeed like a dream - from the wonderful, bewitchingly strange music, to the borderline absurd, and sometimes reminiscent of feverish delirium, plot, in which the transition between sleep and reality is often not distinguishable, and to the bright and colorful picture, often ominous and frightening, like a nightmare.
As for the plot, as far as I understand, the operating principle of the DC Mini “dream analysis machine” invented by Kosaku Tokito is based on Jungian analytical psychology. The psychiatrist, with the help of a machine, infiltrates into the dream, that is, the individual unconscious of the patient, into his “shadow”, trying to manifest it for the patient’s consciousness. This is what Atsuka Chiba does, but not directly, but with the help of her “shadow” (alter ego). Donning a wig and applying makeup, the stern, cold and purposeful beauty Atsuko transforms into "Paprika" - a cheeky, irresponsible young woman who visits patients "at home" with her DC Mini to penetrate their dreams. And the patients, in turn, literally penetrate her, as Atsuko, “for therapeutic purposes,” copulates with her patients (sometimes with several at the same time). The scene in the hotel at the beginning of the movie, when Paprika gets out of the “patient’s” bed in a robe, taking the DC Mini, is not part of a dream, but a retouched demonstration by Kon of Atsuko’s peculiar “therapeutic practices” in the novel. At the same time, Atsuko considers her sexual promiscuity, committed when she is disguised as Paprika, to be “not real”, since... well, she’s wearing a wig and makeup, and then the patients don’t recognize her on the street, or pretend that they don’t recognize her. However, distancing herself from these actions of Paprika, Atsuko does not hesitate to appropriate all the merits of her alter ego - after all, Paprika, not Atsuko, conducts sessions with patients. In general, Atsuko is okay with hypocrisy and double standards. In addition, she is secretly in love with the infantile genius Tokita, but represses her love into the unconscious (shadow) and cannot (that is, does not want) to accept it as easily as she accepted her penchant for promiscuity.
Besides the cold yet promiscuous, two-faced Atsuko, we have the incredibly childish, obese genius Takito, as well as sexually obsessed by Atsuko her colleague (let’s give Kon credit, in the anime he at least made this colleague a man), and another psychiatrist, a manipulative psychopath, dreaming of enslaving the world with the help of a DC Mini, and on the way to this goal practicing hentai tentacles on Atsuko. In general, we have a whole collection of sexual and other mental deviations - and all this, I note, is only among “psychiatrists.” The author of “Paprika” obviously tried very hard, “smearing” his sexual fantasies and mental deviations across the characters he created. I'm not even sure who in this anime (and book) actually needs medical attention. Atsuko's patient, detective Konakawa, against the backdrop of this whole company of insane psychiatrists, looks like a completely mentally healthy and adequate person.
The individual unconscious of all the mentioned characters is intertwined with each other and with reality, forming a kind of collective unconscious, over which one of them, the psychopath, is trying to seize control. But Detective Konakawa steps in and saves Atsuko from the tentacle monster (thus realizing his repressed movie fantasies). Atsuko finally accepts her “shadow” Paprika, merging with her inside another “shadow” - the robot Takito. Having gained integrity by merging with the “shadow,” Atsuko is reborn and defeats the monster by absorbing it into herself. The latter, however, gives rise to the suspicion that the entire nightmare dream shown to us is nothing more than a figment of the imagination of Atsuko, possessed by her demons. However, here it is worth paying attention to the oddities of double standards in Atsuko’s behavior, and the whole scene of the caranival of deviations no longer speaks of individually suppressed qualities, but of social pressure in Japanese society. Therefore, in addition to the psychological, it is also worth mentioning the social context of “Paprika”, developed in more detail by Satoshi Kon in “Paranoia Agent”. Contextualism and repressive conformism of Japanese culture do not so much psychologically drive the qualities of individual Japanese into the unconscious (this is more characteristic of the Christian guilt culture), but rather force them to consciously hide these qualities (which is characteristic of the Asian shame culture). Suppressed by social norms, unexpressed desires and experiences under the influence of social pressure find a “path to life” through an “alter ego” that acts “against the will,” a double life, a double morality. Or they are expressed directly by the body through psychosomatic disorders. Or the person simply commits suicide. There is also a socially acceptable option - immersion into the dream world. Driven into Japanese “cultural-corporate” ethics, a person suppresses his individuality and turns into a kind of robot, for whom it is only permissible to perform a socially useful function (is this where the frequent allusions associated with robots in anime and Japanese culture come from?) and to imitate, because there is no longer any room left to express “one’s own.”
The unnaturalness of such “instrumentalization” of the individual is obvious and the unexpressed desires and qualities of the “pseudo-robot” are brought to their extreme manifestations and, as a rule, are channeled through socially acceptable forms - through the “dream world” of anime and manga, with its cruelty, sadomaso pornography and “kawaii” - in general, the satisfaction of suppressed desires for every taste. However, if the throughput of socially acceptable forms is not enough, then the “sewer” can break through, releasing all the accumulated “crap” onto the streets of reality. Hence the nightmarish carnival - everything suppressed and hidden has broken through from the unconscious and suppressed into reality and is marching through the streets in an eerie march. And all this “shit” was absorbed by Atsuko. In addition, she also absorbed the opposing “repressive” shadow of a man who was trying to control the world. It’s hard not to assume that this is a kind of feminist manifesto (I note that the heroines of Satoshi Kon’s films are women and he is close to the female worldview). The woman defeats the repressive patriarchy with her boundless tolerance and absorbs all deviations, instead of suppressing and excluding them. Inclusiveness instead of excommunication.
If this is the solution proposed by Kon, then it is wrong. Fantasies of “dream masters” like Kon, their waking dreams, capable of influencing the viewer’s perception of reality through cinema and television screens, often completely replacing real experience, are probably intended to help in “freeing” the viewer from his “shackles”, through incorporation “liberation ideas” into dreams broadcast to the viewer (cinema, video games, anime, manga, music, etc.). Kon not only tried to apply wrong sollution to the problem, he tried to impose it on the viewer through artistic means. But the solution never lies in imposing a “useful” ideology on the viewer by indoctrination through “waking dreams” - the entertainment industry and the media.
As sentient beings, we primarily process reality through our consciousness, that is, by organizing facts into understandable narratives (stories). The very description of reality is at the same time its construction, since it gives meaning to the chaos of facts in order to organize meaningless phenomena into a structure processed by our consciousness. Therefore, narratives (stories) are our tools for structuring reality and comprehending it. Science creates stories (hypotheses, theories, laws, principles, axioms, equations) that help us structure and comprehend reality in the most verifiable way. Art creates stories (literature, film, fairy tales, paintings, poetry) that help structure and comprehend reality in a more immediate and personal way. However, stories, both in the form of art and scientific theories, can misinterpret reality either intentionally (falsely) or due to misunderstanding (mistake). Such false stories create a false picture of reality, thereby distorting the picture of the world. Once a narrative (story) is internalized by people, it becomes their worldview and they adapt all the facts to fit this internalized narrative. If a narrative is false, people will ignore and omit facts that contradict the narrative and/or misinterpret facts to fit into the narrative. Moreover, most people tend to internalize stories that appeas and flatter them. This is where indoctrination comes into play. The ideological narrative creates a “useful” for an ideologist interpretation of reality, appeasing wishful thinking of targeted audience. This creates a convenient lie that one can rely on to feel entitled, feel offended, victimized, and avoid responsibility. And so on until a collision with reality occurs. But even a collision with reality may not help if the story is internalized on a subconscious level. Indoctrination works the same way as psychological trauma or mental illness. By appealing to the desires of the target audience, ideology combines facts into a distorted picture of reality, which has its own logic, or does not have it at all, but is firmly incorporated into the subconscious. Similarly, paranoid delusions can be very logical and coherent, where facts are falsely combined into a fictional schizophrenic narrative. Getting rid of ideological indoctrination can be as difficult as of childhood psychological trauma, which can distort the perception of reality to such an extent that no amount of psychological help will help a fully grown patient. In a certain sense, ideological propaganda is artificially induced madness. A society instilled with a false interpretation of reality, an insane society, becomes dysfunctional and will gradually collapse. Because reality itself is not a social construct. The delusional belief of ideologues (including some philosophers, scientists, politicians, journalists, activists, and artists) in their power and right to replace reality with false narratives is the highest form of solipsism. All it will do is traumatize and cripple individuals and society to the point of no return. This is the danger of trying to bring ideology to stories, both scientific and artistic. And those who try to impose an ideology must be responsible for its consequences.
The current ideological narrative exploits a hyper-feminized tolerance, which many derive from the critical theory of the Frankfurt School and the works of neo-Marxists such as Marcuse and Derrida, and which René Girard has seen as a reactionary attempt to appropriate and distort the Christian concern with victims after the Nietzschean attempt to force humanity to abandon Christian compassion was defeated. Metaphorically Satan imitates Christ and tries to overcome Him by virtue signaling radical concern for victims. This narrative attempts to attribute a lack of compassion to "toxic masculinity," offering instead "all-salvation" through the feminization of culture and politics with a hyper-tolerance that absorbs all otherness and all deviance, instead of suppressing and excluding them. Inclusivity instead of excommunication, femininity instead of "toxic masculinity" will provide "heaven on earth." Such a narrative is imposed by fashionable ideology. However, this decision is obviously wrong. According to Girard, such a hypertolerance is designed to discredit and finally overcome Christian compassion. Like everything brought to absurdity, devoid of limits and rules, compassion turns into a cancerous tumor, a nightmarish terror that narcissists and psychopaths use to intimidate and corrupt people, and impose a totalitarian mindset ("repressive tolerance" by Marcuse). However, it is not necessary to push tolerance to the extreme to see the falsity of the universalism attributed to it.
The solution does not lie in social acceptance and tolerance of all “repressed” qualities and desires, including deviations. Perhaps, here I should explain what our “shadows” are. These are repressed "qualities" or desires that characters are unwilling to acknowledge, let alone display publicly. The repressed qualities torment people because they are not acceptable for some reasons, but people are afraid that the "shadows" are who they really are. For example, we all have moments in our lives when we catch ourselves thinking and feeling that our thoughts and emotions are, at best, creepy, if not monstrous. But this does not mean that we are all scoundrels and monsters (although some of us are). Once we recognize the existence of such thoughts and emotions as parts of ourselves, we gain the ability to subjugate and control those parts. This is what happens with proper awareness and acceptance of the "shadow". We do not become shadows, but by acknowledging the existence of shadows, we can control them rather than being controlled by them (becoming monsters). Accepting the “shadow” is like admitting your alcohol addiction, which is a necessary step to overcome it instead of becoming an alcoholic. Admitting that you are addicted to overeating is a necessary step to control your appetite and avoid gaining weight. Having a tendency to overeat does not mean that your true self is a glutton. However, if a healthy appetite, as a part of being human, turns into an unhealthy one, and you are unwilling to recognize that appetite as unhealthy, it can completely consume you, and gluttony will define who you are. So it is with the “shadow” - its awareness and acceptance means acquiring conscious control over it, instead of the shadow controlling you through the unconscious.
Fashionable ideology suggests a twisted "acceptance" of the shadow - instead of being aware of and controlling it, it is suggested to "tolerate" the shadow by surrendering to it, letting the shadow control you, and ultimately accepting it as your essence. It invites you to be consumed by your shadow. Accept your gluttony, say ideologues, instead of controlling it and enjoying food, let gluttony take over you, because it is not one of the mortal sins, but "body positive". Embrace promiscuity as your sexuality, instead of controlling it and enjoying sex within the confines of marriage, let it take over you, for it is not one of the deadly sins, but sexual liberation from the yoke of oppressive patriarchy. Accept your envy, because it is not at all a shameful desire to appropriate someone else's, to devalue other people's achievements, to be ungrateful and to humiliate those better than you, but a desire for equality and democracy, feminism and the fight against the patriarchy of white men. A person is inspired by the permissibility and unlimitedness of desires. All ethical restraining factors are declared "repressive". Why, say ideologues, restrain sexual desires within the framework of marriage, the opposite sex, or even the human race? Why have and commit to one woman when you can have sex with many different women without any strings attached? Why submit to a man, if you can simply use him through manipulation, get rich at his expense, and then devalue, castrate and leave him, and also pretend to be a victim and blame him for everything? All the hidden desires that a person relegates to his "shadow" are declared by fashionable ideology to be sacred and to be "released" and tolerated. They should be "celebrated".
Fashionable ideology exploits the worst in a person, declaring the shameful to be respectable and virtuous, the immoral to be ethical. All that is base and abominable is not simply tolerated, but is celebrated and proclaimed the height of virtue. All this is done with the help of mass media, politics, art and mass culture that distort reality.
Of course, special attention is paid to envy. As pointed out by C.S. Lewis, claims for equality, outside the purely political field, are made only by those who feel inferior in some way. What they express is an itchy, burning, twisted sense of inferiority (shadow) that one refuses to accept. And therefore resents any advantage of another; denigrates him; wants his destruction. One suspects that every simple difference is a claim to superiority. No one should be different. Under the name of envy, this desire has been known to people for thousands of years. But until now they had always considered it the most hideous, as well as the most comical of vices. Those who were conscious of envy were ashamed of it; those who did not realize did not spare it in others. The wonderful novelty of the current situation is that you can sanction it - make it respectable and even praiseworthy - by using the word "equality". Under the influence of this spell, those who are inferior in any or all respects can work harder and more successfully than ever before to bring everyone else down to their level.
This is a huge general movement to discredit and ultimately eliminate any kind of human excellence - moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not noticeable how equality is now doing the work that the oldest dictatorships once did, and by the same methods? One of the Greek dictators sent an envoy to another dictator to ask his advice on the principles of government. The second dictator led the messenger out into the grain field, and there he plucked with his cane the top of every stalk that rose above the general level. The moral was simple. Do not allow primacy among your subjects. Let no human live who is wiser, or better, or more famous, or even more beautiful than the mass. Bring everyone to the same level; all slaves, all numbers, all nobody. All are equal. Thus tyrants have always practiced equality. But now "equality" can do the same work without any other tyranny but its own. Now no one needs to walk the field with a cane. The small stalks now bite off the tops of the big ones. And the big ones start biting off the tops of themselves, in the desire to be like others.
Awareness of and acceptance of the a “shadow” in no way means its acceptability and submission to it. On the contrary, it means preventing a shadow from controlling consciousness and gaining control over the shadow itself. For example, Atsuko's awareness of her repressed sexuality does not mean that sexual promiscuity is acceptable. She simply should not deny and suppress her sexuality, but accept its existence and learn to control it, turning it into a morally acceptable head start - getting married and “tormenting” her husband with sexual harassment. Takito's awareness of his infantility does not mean that he should avoid all responsibility and henceforth behave like a child in everything. He should accept his infantility and channel it into creativity, into new inventions, without spreading it to other aspects of his life, where he needs to behave like an adult man. By the way, if there was a way out for the main antagonist-psychopath who was trying to control the world, then the solution for him would be to realize and accept his low level of empathy by finding socially acceptable forms of self-realization. For example, it is known that surgeons, judges and law enforcement officers have increased aggressiveness. However, they channel their sadistic and psychopathic tendencies into socially acceptable and useful forms. After all, not everyone would dare to cut living flesh with a scalpel, detain an armed criminal, infiltrate a criminal organization, or send a person to prison for decades. Thus accepting shadow means turning what could be vices into virtues, instead of becoming enslaved by vices.
Nevertheless, at one time “Paprika” charmed me not at all with its, perhaps erroneous, moralite. You can get purely audiovisual pleasure from this anime, without really thinking about the meaning. The plot is quite dynamic and twisted, with elements of suspense and mysticism characteristic of Satoshi Kon. Well, Satoshi’s directing and editing are simply amazing - on the level of the old Hollywood masters. Add here good animation, a beautiful picture, a beautiful main character (in both of her guises) and excellent music, season with a fair amount of surrealism and you get “Paprika”, ready to charm and entertain you even if you are not ready to think about the plot.
