Addendum: In communicating with Mike Toole privately, he has let me know he disagrees with my thesis above and that the ultimate "why" can never be known because the principle parties involved aren't talking. Fair enough. My post above, let me be clear, is pure speculation and opinion and should not be taken as definitive proof of anything.

Kathryn's comments slightly edited for spelling, grammar & style but otherwise preserved as cited.

I'm inclined to agree. Paprika feels like a condensed re-working of the general themes in Paranoia Agent compressed back to feature film size. This was Satoshi Kon's one and only television series and really gave him the broadest canvas to work with, much more than any one particular movie. I do like the recurring elements throughout Kon's ouvre...there are pieces of Paprika that harken back to Perfect Blue, or rather, when I re-watched Perfect Blue it reminded me newly of scenes from Paprika. But Paranoia Agent stands above all the rest in giving the fullest expression to Kon's vision.

Oh yeah and I totally watched AKIRA in college my freshman year! It was DOPE, despite being the confusing 1988 dub. Thanks, Aggie Cinema!