Mitsuhiro Maniwa

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Mitsuhiro Maniwa is a fictional character from Satoshi Kon's animated psychological thriller, Paranoia Agent.

The younger of the two police detectives assigned to investigate the assailant known only as Lil' Slugger, Maniwa is also the more idealistic, playing the good cop to Ikari's bad cop.

In addition to being an idealist, Maniwa is a flexible thinker, and it is because of this that he is the first main character in the series (aside from, perhaps, Tsukiko Sagi), to learn the truth about Lil' Slugger.

[edit] Story

After the street assault of Tsukiko Sagi, detectives Ikari and Maniwa are assigned to investigate. While his partner is initially skeptical about the authenticity of the victim's recollection, Maniwa appears to take the information at face value, even going so far as to make a bet with Ikari over whether the attack actually happened.

The few details that Sagi provides about her attacker, coupled with the apparent lack of consistency in the future assaults to come, frustrates Ikari to no end, and he pushes Maniwa to attempt to find a connection between the victims.

The apprehension of Makoto Kozuka, a Lil' Slugger copycat, complicates matters further. During an interrogation, Kozuka leads the detectives through a detailed role-play of each assault. While Ikari becomes enraged at the absurdity of the story, Maniwa plays along, symbolically becoming the bard to Kozuka's holy warrior.

Maniwa eventually succeeds in finding a connection, learning that each victim was under intense stress at the time of their attack. Furthermore, he uncovers that Taeko was attacked at the same time Tsukiko fainted, all while their suspect was in custody. However, when he presents this information to Ikari, the skeptical police chief comes to the conclusion that he is under too much stress and needs a vacation.

Soon after, Maniwa comes to the conclusion that, if Lil' Slugger specifically targets people under intense stress, his most likely next victim is Kozuka himself! In a desperate attempt to pre-empt this assault, Maniwa pleads with Ikari to trust him and go to Kozuka. Upon arriving, the detectives are confronted with the real Lil' Slugger, brandishing a bloody bat. Maniwa attempts to apprehend the assailant, but he merely skates through a wall. As Maniwa puzzles over this, Ikari discovers Kozuka murdered in his cell. Both detectives are fired as a result of their negligence, and the case is officially closed due to the death of the main suspect.

Although no longer officially a detective, Maniwa continues his relentless pursuit of Lil' Slugger. Along the way, he continually encounters the mysterious old man, both in reality and in prophetic visions. The details of Maniwa's connection to the old man remain a mystery, but it can be determined from later episodes that he dedicates himself as a disciple to the old man in his efforts to uncover the truth.

[edit] Radar Man

When we next encounter Maniwa, he is an ill-kept drifter wandering the streets of Tokyo. In his mind, he has become a superhero, and routinely battles Lil' Slugger. Although the perspective of these battles switches between the ragged Maniwa and his Radar Man alter-ego, the damage inflicted upon him and his surroundings by Lil' Slugger seems to be real.

Radar Man's weapon of choice is the bat kept by Tsukiko's father in an effort to play along with her delusion; in Maniwa's mind, this bat becomes a sword, and appears to be the only weapon that can (temporarily) harm Lil' Slugger.

[edit] The Truth

At the same time that Maniwa uncovers the "sword that knows the truth", he learns the truth behind Lil' Slugger from Tsukiko's father. As a little girl, Tsukiko carelessly let Maromi run in front of a speeding car, and he was killed. Rather than taking responsibility for Maromi's death, Tsukiko invented an assailant that would be the cause of the whole thing; a boy with a bat on inline skates. This was the birth of Lil' Slugger.

Maniwa attempts to confront Tsukiko with the truth, but is continually impeded, first by Lil' Slugger, and then by Maromi, which appears to be acting as a self-defense mechanism for Tsukiko.

In the end, Lil' Slugger overtakes the city in the form of a great, dark cloud, and Tsukiko is forced to come to terms with the truth. The city is saved from Lil' Slugger, who fades away, but appears to have learned nothing from the ordeal.

Maniwa is shown at the very end in exactly the same manner as the Mysterious Old Man at the beginning, even narrating the final Prophetic Vision; writing a complex equation in chalk on a street and looking up in shock as he realizes what it all means.

Maniwa finds his truth, but at the cost of his sanity.

Paranoia Agent
Characters
Shougo Ushiyama | Mitsuhiro Maniwa | Misae Ikari | Tsukiko Sagi | Maromi | Lil' Slugger
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