Episode analysis: Paranoia Agent episode 3
Today, I'll be making an episode analysis of Paranoia Agent episode 3. Just watch the episode, it saves me the trouble of having to write a long winded episode summary.
Episode 3 focuses on Harumi Chonou, who is a teacher by day, prostitute by night. There is something interesting about Harumi, to point out, she has a shadow that comes out during night time, or put it more simply, she has a dual personality syndrome.
The name of her alter ego, or shadow if you wish to call it, is Maria. It is rather nice to point out that Harumi and Maria are of opposite personalities, Harumi being silent, timid and conservative in the way she dresses and Maria being more outgoing, more aggressive and wears very provocative clothing. It has been noted the the two personalities are talking through each other through the voice messages each personality leaves for the other to hear. The owner's phone becomes the vehicle for the two persona to talk to each other (aside from the psychologist).
In order for Harumi to escape the clutches of Maria, she opted to go through a marriage to erase maria's existence and in doing so, she rejected Maria's existence but the shadow (Maria) fought back and in doing so, overwhelmed Harumi. It was thanks to Shounen Bat's timely assault on her that she was "freed".
The episode raises the question why do people develop split personality?
In the case of Harumi Chonou, hers was that of Dissociative identity disorder, a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities or personalities (known as alter egos or alters), each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment.
But the question persists, why? The answer is that the disorder is theoretically linked with the interaction of overwhelming stress, traumatic antecedents, insufficient childhood nurturing, and an innate ability to dissociate memories or experiences from consciousness.
In Harumi's case, it could be of the stress of interacting with society, living a monotonous life and fitting with society without being able to enjoy life certainly can take its toll on certain people and they cope up with unconsciously by creating an "alter-ego" in which they can enjoy life more, albeit in extremes (in Harumi's case, it was the form of prostitution being engaged by her alter-ego). This led to her almost inability to discern her identity to whether she was Harumi or Maria partly because of the original persona rejecting the alter-ego.
Akito Wanijima, a character of Air Gear anime also exhibits the same psychological conditions although in his case it was due to traumatic antecedents and insufficient childhood nurturing and the original persona and the alter-ego are fully aware of each other and accepting of one another.
This episode shows us that we should be able to enjoy life more, no matter how bleak and monotonous it is. We shouldn't be afraid to explore new things everyday and not be so overly conscious of what society has to say. We should also accept that we have multiple sides to our personalities and never reject our true nature. To sum it up, we should live life to the fullest, accomplish all that we want to do, never hold back on life and always be courageous enough to face yourself.
PS - I also placed a streaming of episode 2 on my entry regarding my analysis on it, so you can understand my analysis more. You can watch it here.