Paprika

On Sunday I saw Paprika at a local theater. I hadn't even heard of it before a friend asked me if I wanted to go, but I knew it was meant to be once I read the cinema's description: "In this psychedelic sci-fi adventure anime, it will take the skills of Dr. Atsuko Chiba -- a genius scientist by day, and a brawling dream warrior named Paprika by night -- to save the world when a machine that allows therapists to enter their patient's dreams is stolen."

The beginning was a little odd, but it definitely turned out to be the perfect place to start. The characters were all interesting and relatively deep for a few hours of animated film. There were great twists, wonderful artwork, and fun surprises. I really feel like it was anime at its finest, telling a compelling story that would have been much harder to accomplish in live action. One of my housemates has since been searching for the other 3 films that the director has made (all of which are advertised in Paprika), and I believe he's found at least one. I will definitely have to make time to watch it.