AllMovie

This extremely interactive anime series features a regular cast of characters who appear on the functioning outskirts of each episode, allowing most of the airtime to be devoted to the latest victim of the "Shounen Bat." This mysterious figure of a young boy is seen riding on gold rollerblades, wearing a cap, and carrying a baseball bat, which he hits some unsuspecting pedestrian with in each episode. The investigation surrounding the "Shounen Bat" is carried out Law & Order style, devoting most of each episode to the latest case and avoiding the personal lives of the investigators in favor of the victims. What at first seems like a bizarre series of random assaults on the part of some young delinquent soon cascades into a cerebral web of finger-pointing that earns the "paranoid" element of the title. This 13-episode series demands full attention in order to catch all of the nuances, and in true thriller style, the resolution to the mystery remains steadily out of reach until the end.