Paprika

"This is your brain on anime" is one of the taglines I'd seen promoting this slice of animated madness, and that's a very apt description. The story follows a device that allows therapists to get into the dreams of their patients, record them, and play them back so they can be interpreted to try and resolve psychological issues.

Things go wrong, as they often do when dreams are involved, when someone steals the device and starts invading the dreams of anyone who's used it before, eventually able to do so even when the person is awake. Anything is possible in the dream realm, including death, and Paprika is the only girl with the power to stop the madman before his dream takes over the entire world.

Paprika does a great job of following the "logic" of dreams, switching from one event to another and making little to no sense to anyone but the dreamer. It's animated beautifully and creepily, especially when it comes to the large parade of impossible things that's slowly making it's way from the world of dreaming to the world of consciousness, bringing all it's inherit insanity with it.

Paprika isn't nearly as over the top in terms of it's style as one would usually associate with "anime", owing more to Miazaki than Nishio. Though it may be hypebole to compare anything to Miazaki's work, I couldn't help but feel a connection between this and some of his more twisted tales, like Spirited Away.

Whether it will ever find it's way to the states isn't known, but fans of strange animation should seek this out!