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Eiri Kurahashi is a normal kid with a normal job.  He works in his uncle’s antique shop; he takes care of the entire place by himself since his uncle is such an avid collector and is always gone finding new treasures. 

Eiri stumbles upon a wine glass in his uncle’s shop, and when he touches it, he is filled with visions of a young and beautiful girl.  The wine glass becomes a gateway for him to peer into and see his love, Cossette d’Auvergne.

Le Portrait de Petit Cossette
4 & 1/2 Stars

Eiri Kurahashi is a normal kid with a normal job.  He works in his uncle’s antique shop; he takes care of the entire place by himself since his uncle is such an avid collector and is always gone finding new treasures. 

Eiri stumbles upon a wine glass in his uncle’s shop, and when he touches it, he is filled with visions of a young and beautiful girl.  The wine glass becomes a gateway for him to peer into and see his love, Cossette d’Auvergne.

Cossette is the spirit of a girl who has been searching for 250 years for someone who could see her, and speak to her, now she needs his help.  The story takes you back here and there to show you what happened to Cossette and why she haunts the glass.

Marcello Orlando, an Italian painter from the 18th century, painted many portraits of young Cossette.  When she showed signs of growing older he could not bear to have her beauty change, so, he killed her.  Eiri is a reincarnation of Marcello, which is why Cossette is more drawn to him.

In the first episode, you learn a little character development with Eiri and his friends.  You learn that Shouko is in love with him.  They spend time together, but once the wine glass is threatened, he goes off the deep end and shows his true side, the true side that Cossette has brought to him.  Halfway through the episode, Cossette speaks out to him, she shows him, in a first person view as the killer, how she died.  She then fills the wine glass with her blood; he drinks, and then enters a blood contract with one another.

Eiri must from then on repent his sins, or rather Marcello’s sins.  It is a rather weird scene; Eiri turns into a demon, Cossette stands across him on a pillar and points at him, ripping out his soul with invisible hands.

The second episode you get a little more information about Cossette as she tells Eiri about her family.  Once he says Marcello’s name though, she disappears.  He has no idea why she does not want to hear the words Marcello Orlando, so he does not drop it.  Cossette and Eiri begin to develop more of a relationship in this episode, more than just the ‘peeping Tom’ thing Eiri had going on before.  After some time, she finally reveals the killer, which is quite a shocker when you hear it.  The second episode does several flashbacks to the day Cossette was murdered, which does get a little annoying.

The thing is the story does not just include Cossette and Eiri.  His friends are continually showing up here and there to express their worry for him, since he had changed so drastically one day, from normal, to talking to himself all the time.

In the third episode, Eiri goes completely mad.  Cossette comes to him and says that it is over; she cannot continue to hold him to his contract anymore.  Once she disappears, he runs through the antique shop trying to find her, his friend Shouko happened to witness him going crazy trying to find Cossette.  He eventually runs off, Shouko follows; he heads to Cossette’s.  He brings himself to the place where he repents and rips he own soul out this time trying to get closer to Cossette.  He finally makes it and finds Cossette, only she really is not Cossette, she is Marcello’s painting.

Once he figures out that she is not the real Cossette, the one he fell in love with, he rushes to find her.  He comes upon Marcello’s easel and paints a blood portrait of the real, the beautiful, Cossette, killing off Marcello’s creation, freeing Cossette.

 

I would have to say hat this anime was a little different.  I enjoyed it the music was great.  Here and there, the music was dainty, which is how Cossette was supposed to appear, and at the end, the music changed to give you a rather eerie feeling.  The artwork was awesome, but I have to say that Cossette looked a little strange in some angles.  The fact that she looked childish was not my main issue, since she was killed as a child to “stop her time,” just simply at some angles she did not look as ‘beautiful’ as she was supposed.  The plot is great, and overall I believe it is worth a 4.5 stars.  The fact that the series is only three episodes long is just a major plus.

When three of the unfinished DC Minis disappear, the head scientists on the project struggle to figure out where they went.  The DC Mini allows therapists to see their patient’s dreams to better analyze their unconscious state.  Unfortunately the DC Minis were not yet finished, which made them more dangerous if someone were to use them improperly.

Paprika
4 & 1/2 Stars

When three of the unfinished DC Minis disappear, the head scientists on the project struggle to figure out where they went.  The DC Mini allows therapists to see their patient’s dreams to better analyze their unconscious state.  Unfortunately the DC Minis were not yet finished, which made them more dangerous if someone were to use them improperly.

The beginning of the movie is a little strange, you first start out in a dream.  The dream takes your from the circus through a series of movie scenes, finally ending with the final moments of a murder scene currently being investigated.  The dreamer wakes up and you meet Captain Kogawa and Paprika.  Seconds later you are rushed into the next part of the plot where you are introduced to Doctors Tokita, Chiba and Shima, the lead developers on the DC Mini project.  Dr. Shima, a short and balding man, is their Chief.  Dr. Tokita, an excessively obese “kid in a genius’ body,” is where the original idea started.  Dr. Chiba, an all work and no play kind of woman keeps Dr. Tokita in line.

Trying to keep the theft of their most important, and most dangerous project a secret they rush to Dr. Shima’s office.  When they open the door to the office they were surprised by the Chairman sitting facing the window in his wheel chair.  He lets them know immediately that he is aware of the theft.  They put their heads together to attempt to figure out the culprit.  The only option is an inside job.  Seconds later Shima flips out, he begins saying things that are irrelevant while running out of the room and jumping out a window.  While he is knocked out from the fall they run the DC Mini on him to monitor his dream state.  In the dream he is perched on top of a float in a huge parade, which is where the strangeness continues.  Himoru, a fellow developer, shows up in the dream, making all the blaming fingers point to him.

The DC Mini is incredibly dangerous to the host, the more you wear it the harder it is to distinguish the difference between reality and dream.  Since Tokita, Chiba and Shima had been testing it on themselves they often merge dream and reality.

Since Shima is injured it becomes Tokita and Chiba’s job to find Himoru and track down the remaining DC Minis.  They went to Himoru’s house only to find nothing but dolls.  Chiba snaps into a dream and nearly jumps over the balcony, only to be grabbed at the last second by another doctor who had accompanied them.

Kogawa is searching desperately to understand his dream, so he spends much of his time in a dream state at the bar with Paprika.

Tokita and Chiba finally find their friend and partner Himoru, or rather he nearly lands on top of Chiba.  They rushed Himoru back to the lab to remove the DC Mini, which had already taken over Himoru.

Chiba and Tokita discover the Dreamland amusement park, where they find a doll that had been sort of following them everywhere.  When Chiba advances towards the doll Himoru comes crashing out of the sky and nearly lands on top of her.  Himoru is badly injured by the fall and they rush him back to the lab so the doctors can take the embedded DC Mini out of his scalp.  Tokita sees his friend laying there dreaming he decides to put the DC Mini on to join his dreams.  Tokita then gets sucked into the parade and cannot escape.

Chiba and Shima join back up to attempt to stop the “psycho-terrorism.”  Chiba, closely monitored by Shima, dives into Tokita and Himoru’s dream, changing her to Paprika.  Paprika is trying to save the two stuck when she discovers who the real terrorist is.  The Chairman and his little minion attempt to take over dreams and reality.  The Chairman then becomes a gigantic dream-mass, black, translucent and naked.  Paprika then realizes that she must sacrifice herself to save her friends.  She too becomes a translucent, naked being and begins swallowing everything in site, making her grow from an infant to an adult.  She then swallows the Chairman and the dream is over.

Kogawa finally realizes what was going on in his dreams, and what he had been running from since he was young.  Tokita and Chiba, after expressing their love for one another, get married.

With the entire thing a mystery, dipping back and forth between reality, it may be a little difficult to follow.  The story is strange, and futuristic, but does have an interesting idea.  I am still a little unsure on how I feel about the film.  The artwork is great, full of color and nice details.  The only thing that I would say is poor is the ending.  The ending seems too happy, Kogawa’s problems are solved, yes he is in love with the other side of Chiba, but he still figured out what he was running from.  Not to mention the love interest between Chiba and Tokita, that was a little strange to me.  It seemed like they were really good friends, and Tokita loved Chiba, but I would have never guessed she loved him back.  Although, the film did keep me entertained and guessing until the very end, which is what it was supposed to do.