After 15 years away, Satoshi Kon’s only anime series returns to American television on Toonami. Join the police and the victims on a mind-bending journey as they try to uncover just exactly who the Lil’ Slugger is.

A boy roller skates around Tokyo with a creepy grin, a dented baseball bat, and a passion for smashing people up-side their heads. Dubbed Lil’ Slugger, the police start their investigation by talking to his victims. They interview his first victim, timid character designer Tsukiko Sagi, but the police believe she is making up the attack, until they get word of a second attack. Attacks begin to rise around the city and each victim can only remember three distinct details about the assault: golden inline skates, a baseball cap, and a bent golden baseball bat. However, none of the victims fully cooperate with the police and it seems each of the victims, and even the police, have something to hide. Just who or what, exactly is Lil’ Slugger?

Director Satoshi Kon made a name for himself with his films Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Paprika and, one of my personal favorites, Tokyo Godfathers. His works often examined the character’s psychology, the concept of subjective reality and surrealism as a whole. With his only anime series, Paranoia Agent, Kon breaks down each episode into a miniature film to focus on a character, their issues and their connection to Lil’ Slugger. Kon’s brilliant writing and directing along with Studio Madhouse’s noteworthy animation and designs, Paranoia Agent presents an anime that will bend your mind, give you laughs, make you cry and give you the desire to go back from the start and watch it again to get more answers.

Paranoia Agent returns to Adult Swim’s Toonami lineup after almost 15 years this Saturday, April 25th at 1:00 AM. Originally distributed by Geneon, the original DVD releases have been hard to find. However, Funimation recently announced it had acquired the rights for distribution on both streaming services as well as Blu-Ray, which is planned for later in 2020.