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Paprika, before
Jul. 1st, 2025 11:04 pmFinished reading the original novel of Paprika. I love the movie (see: Dreampunk) so it was really fun to read the book it's based on. Definitely glad I did!
In some ways it was a bit of a let-down: I was wondering if it'd explain stuff that the movie glosses over, and it did, sorta, in that it had a lot of exposition but also not really stuff I was interested in. It explained the logistical origins of the Paprika identity, e.g., but not the emotional circumstances/how Chiba felt about creating this alter ego and the emotional dynamic. (It did also explain that "DC Mini" stands for "Daedalus Collector Mini", though, so it's got that going for it.)
Paprika the movie is intensely visual and also makes great use of the soundtrack, so I was wondering how the dream world would feel in the book, and I do think it's not as compelling in prose text putting words to everything. And the central dream motif of the parade was invented for the movie.
That said, I do think the book gets to dive deeper into corporate sexism and fatphobia/disability stuff, and in general exploring most of the same stuff with a lot of direct reference points but from a different perspective made it a very interesting read. (E.g., in the book you see the antagonist perspective much earlier, making more stuff dramatic irony rather than a big reveal.)
I do think the book makes Paprika's competence a bit more of an informed trait, since a lot of the time she's getting saved by men, despite supposedly being the best at dreams. That and some other things do make the author come across a bit sexist despite also commenting on sexism.
The ending is weaker than the movie, being more of an "outlast the bad guy and embarrass him once" than anything symbolically satisfying.
What's most interesting to me is the two bartenders, Jinnai and Kuga. They're side characters, and seemingly completely mundane (unlike in the movie), but seem to be author favorites: they're unreasonably competent and helpful, and also they close the book for reasons that aren't well-explained. It sorta feels like I'm missing a reference: why is Kuga such a natural at dream stuff that he invents time travel all by himself? Am I supposed to take them as literally Buddhist figures contrasting with the antagonist's Christian cult status? Why do they play the song P.S. I Love You constantly? I sorta like them, and I'm amused that I was being all "these guys feel like author inserts" before I realized they were literally voiced by the original author and by the director respectively in the movie. But I do feel like they contribute to "men overshadowing Paprika", and while it doesn't really seem they're trying to imply a secret dark ending in the last scene I'm not sure what they are trying to imply.
But regardless, glad I read the book and it gave me a lot to think about.
(P.S., apparently the same guy wrote the novel of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which I also like, so clearly I need to read that sometime too.)
In some ways it was a bit of a let-down: I was wondering if it'd explain stuff that the movie glosses over, and it did, sorta, in that it had a lot of exposition but also not really stuff I was interested in. It explained the logistical origins of the Paprika identity, e.g., but not the emotional circumstances/how Chiba felt about creating this alter ego and the emotional dynamic. (It did also explain that "DC Mini" stands for "Daedalus Collector Mini", though, so it's got that going for it.)
Paprika the movie is intensely visual and also makes great use of the soundtrack, so I was wondering how the dream world would feel in the book, and I do think it's not as compelling in prose text putting words to everything. And the central dream motif of the parade was invented for the movie.
That said, I do think the book gets to dive deeper into corporate sexism and fatphobia/disability stuff, and in general exploring most of the same stuff with a lot of direct reference points but from a different perspective made it a very interesting read. (E.g., in the book you see the antagonist perspective much earlier, making more stuff dramatic irony rather than a big reveal.)
I do think the book makes Paprika's competence a bit more of an informed trait, since a lot of the time she's getting saved by men, despite supposedly being the best at dreams. That and some other things do make the author come across a bit sexist despite also commenting on sexism.
The ending is weaker than the movie, being more of an "outlast the bad guy and embarrass him once" than anything symbolically satisfying.
What's most interesting to me is the two bartenders, Jinnai and Kuga. They're side characters, and seemingly completely mundane (unlike in the movie), but seem to be author favorites: they're unreasonably competent and helpful, and also they close the book for reasons that aren't well-explained. It sorta feels like I'm missing a reference: why is Kuga such a natural at dream stuff that he invents time travel all by himself? Am I supposed to take them as literally Buddhist figures contrasting with the antagonist's Christian cult status? Why do they play the song P.S. I Love You constantly? I sorta like them, and I'm amused that I was being all "these guys feel like author inserts" before I realized they were literally voiced by the original author and by the director respectively in the movie. But I do feel like they contribute to "men overshadowing Paprika", and while it doesn't really seem they're trying to imply a secret dark ending in the last scene I'm not sure what they are trying to imply.
But regardless, glad I read the book and it gave me a lot to think about.
(P.S., apparently the same guy wrote the novel of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which I also like, so clearly I need to read that sometime too.)
