Fear of a Direct Hit

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Paranoia Agent
"Fear of a Direct Hit"
Previous episode	"The Holy Warrior"
Next episode	"MHz"

Fear of a Direct Hit is the sixth episode of the 2004 animated series Paranoia Agent.

[edit] Prophetic Vision

"To begin with... The main point of concern is moving northward in the Izu Peninsula. The moonlight disappears like a dewdrop, a shadow of a shadow. Being called here and there, where will the shoes of gold go? May tomorrow's weather be good. And then..."

[edit] Plot

Ikari and Maniwa interrogate the old woman in her shelter while Typhoon No. 9 is about to make landfall, and discover something which turns their whole theory of the case on its ear. Intercut with the interrogation, young Taeko wanders the city with many flashbacks. Her family was poor when she was growing up, and she was overly attached to her father, Masami Hirukawa (the police officer from A Man's Path). A dirty little secret which she discovers in their new, larger home while leaving him surprise thank you note greatly traumatizes her, her father had hidden a camera in her room and was transmitting images of her on the internet. Horrified, she runs away from home into the storm. As the detectives discover that the homeless woman was a crucial witness to the first attack, the storm blows away her shelter and she disappears. As Taeko's crisis reaches its climax, the detectives follow up the new lead by re-interrogating Tsukiko, Lil' Slugger's first apparent victim. It is revealed that there was no attack, Tsukiko deliberately injured herself using a pipe, at the same time, Makoto is classified as a "copycat". As this is happening, Taeko is about to throw herself into a raging storm drain in an apparent suicide attempt she sees a doppelgänger of herself caught on a branch in the torrent; her double abruptly turns into the old homeless woman who is swept downstream. Unable to kill herself or to help someone else, Taeko collapses and weeps, asking desperately to be empty even as her father desperately calls her on her cell phone immediately after their home had been destroyed -as she had wished- by a mudslide caused by Typhoon No. 9. Taeko however falls unconscious after an attack by Li'l Slugger. Tsukiko simultaneously collapses at the police station, like she had been struck in a similar manner as Taeko. The next day, the homeless woman wakes up in the hospital reunited with her granddaughter; Tsukiko regains consciousness and claims that Lil' Slugger had come unseen into the hospital; and Taeko wakes up in an untroubled, childlike state, unable to recognize her own father or remember the horrible secret she uncovered.

[edit] Notes

1. Episode Title Appearance: Taeko is walking down the street when she stops to read a digital scrolling newsboard. It freezeframes to a section mentioning Tokyo is In fear of a direct hit by Typhoon No 9.

Paranoia Agent
Characters
Shougo Ushiyama | Misae Ikari | Tsukiko Sagi | Maromi
Episodes
Enter Lil' Slugger | The Golden Shoes | Double Lips | A Man's Path | The Holy Warrior | Fear of a Direct Hit | MHz | Happy Family Planning | ETC | Mellow Maromi | Entry Forbidden | Radar Man | Final Episode
Other
Paranoia Agent Original Soundtrack | Satoshi Kon | Susumu Hirasawa