Paranoia Agent

>>159418962
A great show :)

the twin peaks of anime

>>159418962
The girl's guilt over letting her puppy die manifested as the puppy character (who protects her from thinking about her fuckup) and eventually Shounen Bat to "punish" her but also "excuse" her because hey you can't get mad at her this kid tried to murder her!

The meme of Shounen Bat sticks in society's head, and the rest of the series is (mostly) people stressing to the point they manifest Shounen Bat and he knocks them all out too.

The cop duo cause the kid who imitates Shounen Bat to kill himself and get fired because they're so sure he's real.

It's not 100% clear if the damage all this is causing is real or not- the young cop thinks he has to fight on that level (believing so hard you make stuff real- like him thinking he's a knight/hero). When Shounen Bat comes for the older cop's dying wife, she outwardly rejects him- accepting that hey, life can suck. Shounen Bat flips the fuck out and goes on a rampage which is again, not 100% clear if it's really real or not. The older cop rejects the fake world everyone has created (which has created the puppy character and Shounen Bat) when his wife passes, and tears it all down. He accepts his wife's death, and his new lot in life.

The girl comes to terms with killing her puppy as a kid years ago and the fake world along with Shounen Bat disappears.

The younger cop is institutionalized, but he ends up recognizing the pattern and that it'll happen again- just in time for another cute animal mascot to show up with a similar creator.

Old enough to bleed old enough to create disastrous tulpas.