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How does the idea of the “delusional and mediated self” figure in Paprika? Can you compare and contrast it with similar aspects in Kon’s previous works?
Paprika reminds so much of Paranoia Agent and that resonance between the two films came from similar settings. In the scene where Kanakawa passes out in his car he is sweating and his eyes are rolling really fast, just like those cornered by Shonen Bat. Also when Paprika falls from the sky into the dream world and suddenly turns into the monkey king, she looked like Maniwa in the op of Paranoia Agent. Besides the settings and characters, Paprika resembles another of Kon’s work–Perfect Blue in revealing the danger of delusion where people in their delusional selves can fall victim to manipulation. In the dreams of Atsuko and Kanakawa both of them experienced manipulation form the outside. This is also how Paprika differs from the other Kon movies in the way that it explains the manipulation rather explicitly. DC mini is a technological device controlling dreams tampers with minds to achieve that. In Kon’s other films the manipulation of illusions seemed rather intrinsic than extrinsic. But in Paprika people can actually be manipulated by the illusions of others.
The mediated self in Paprika is obviously an extremely evident theme with the DC Mini quite literally mediating dreams — But on top of this, there is the second mediated self that we see in Paprika and Chiba’s relationship. In Perfect Blue, there is another conflict such as this between Rumi and Mima, but in a negative light, where as Paprika and Chiba appear to coexist. Not much is explained in the movie, but there is obvious inference that Paprika is a subpart of Chiba’s conscious that she is able to tap into throughout her dreams, however this comes to more reality when the two meet in the same scenario, sort of like seeing ones self in the mirror. This brings to question what the consequences of a mediated self might be, potential bipolarism or personality splitting as suggested by Kon could be a consequence, but since the movie fails to elaborate much more, there is no way of knowing what Kon’s thoughts might be.
Most of the characters seemed to have a different self inside the dream world: Chiba became Paprika, the old man got weird tree legs, and Tokita became a robot. Each character had their own reasons for their different appearance. The old man obviously wanted to be able to walk, so he dreamt himself with legs. Tokita was like a kid, so it makes perfect sense for him to want to be a robot. Perhaps Chiba wanted a little more spice in her life, so she turned into Paprika. I also think Kon was using Chiba to demonstrate a little of how you can confuse dreams with reality. Paprika was very much Chiba’s dream self, but Chiba acts as if Paprika is her own separate self, and everyone else goes along with it and sees Paprika as a different person from Chiba until they finally fuse into one at the end of the movie. Chiba and Paprika strongly remind me of Mima in Perfect Blue, especially the part when Paprika says to Chiba “I don’t suppose that you’ve ever considered that you may be a part of me,” like when Mima’s “second self” told Mima that she was the fake Mima. Also, the end of the movie where the dream world kind of fuses with reality, in a very Sharkboy and Lavagirl kind of way, reminds me of Paranoia Agent and how Shonen Bat and Maromi turned into real things.
In “Paprika,” the sense of mediated/delusional self was clearly created through the dichotomy between real and dream selves, most clearly in the two characters of Chiba and her dream self, Paprika. Despite technically being the same person, Paprika and Chiba have very different personalities; whereas Paprika is playful and energetic, Chiba is more controlling and stern. Later, it is revealed that Paprika was created due to Chiba’s suppressed feelings for Tokita, and once Chiba admits her feelings to herself, Paprika becomes one with Chiba within the body of Robot Tokita, giving birth to a “new” Chiba. Immediately, a clear connection can be made between the character of Chiba and the character of Mima from “Perfect Blue.” Both characters suffer from an identity crisis, giving birth to a new version of themselves that has an identity independent to their own, an identity more playful and energetic than their own. In both works, the “mediated self” is created through suppressed desires, and only by resolving those desires is the mediated self able to merge with the real self to form a full identity. Kon, through these works, seems to believe that these “mediated” identities are born through a suppressed desire to be something else, and only through accepting our own desires and realities can we overcome such identity conflicts.
Paprika’s portrayal of mediated self was more similar to Perfect Blue because Paprika and Chiba are in a way two different people but also the same person. It’s similar to how Mima thought she was two different people because she had a mental breakdown, except Chiba is more sane. Paprika’s portrayal of mediated self is slightly different because the characters in here are more lucid and less delusional than the characters in other movies.
The mediated self in Paprika is an interest concept because instead of representing themselves to strictly public they are representing themselves in a different form of audience which is through the dreams. The most complex example of this is Chiba in the real world and how she presents herself in the dream world as Paprika. The two are complete opposites of each other. Chiba is more reserved and serious while Paprika is bold and playful. The dream world seems to play a huge role in allowing people to become an unconscious version of themselves just as how dreams are the unconscious thoughts in our mind. I believe that the main difference between Paprika and the other Kon works we have watched is that media is not heavily involved in the plot but instead it taps into a world more deep that is right in our own minds.
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