Paranoia Agent 3
Another excellent episode. This week, we find out that Yuuichi's tutor has plenty of problems of her own.
A dark look inside cajunator's room.
With Harumi juggling a fractured identity and blank spots in her memory, this episode shares some surface similarities with Perfect Blue. Despite the shorter length, the way the gaps in time are portrayed works really well. It's got a very coherent narrative even though we're only getting half of the picture.
This episode is also another example of great character design at work. You can learn all you need to know about Harumi's fiancee by the time he's done uttering his first sentence.
The guy wouldn't know how to be interesting if he found a full course on it in the library. This is probably his most emotional moment in the entire episode, but his eyes struggle to go beyond neutral.
I'm definitely sensing a pattern here with the subjects of each episode. They're all facing huge problems, but even though they might have legitimate outlets for help (Harumi's in counseling, in fact), they try to clamp down on their problems and pretend that nothing is wrong, up until it's impossible to maintain. It seems like an important aspect of Kon's larger social point. Is it a cause or an effect of the irresponsible attitude shown by the people in the first moments of the series?
The preview tells me the next episode is one of the few that I saw to completion on Adult Swim, and it's one of my favorite single episodes of any anime.