5 things Christopher Nolan's Inception took from Japanese sci-fi anime film Paprika

Amid the announcement of Christopher Nolan's next magnum opus, an adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey starring Matt Damon, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, Robert Pattinson, and Charlize Theron, two of his most talked-about movies made their way to Netflix. On January 1, the streaming platform added Inception and Interstellar to its streaming library, a nice little New Year's gift for its subscribers as 2025 rolled in.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as professional dream thief Dom Cobb, Inception was what the internet liked to call a complete mind-fuck when it first came out in 2010. For many viewers, it did not make a lot of sense up until a second or third watch, yours truly along them. But several five-star reviews, millions at the box office, and eight Oscar nominations later, it became evident that Nolan had broken new ground in Hollywood.

However, Inception was definitely not the first sci-fi movie to explore the themes of deep dream state and reality. In fact, many believe that Nolan's work was HEAVILY influenced by Satoshi Kon's 2006 Japanese animated movie, Paprika. The comparison between the two movies has been going around on the internet for nearly 15 years now, which is seemingly the number of years it took for me to give in and watch the anime film.

Inception made me a Christopher Nolan fan, which in turn made me binge-watch each one of his movies, even Following, and then eagerly wait for whatever he would make next. I would have to reluctantly admit that some stubborn part of me refused to believe that Nolan's idea for Inception was anything but original. In my defense, I was 14. And yet, as someone who also loved anime and was aware of the brilliance that Japanese studios cook up all the time, I had to investigate the rumors.

On the occasion of Inception landing on Netflix and giving me another excuse for a rewatch, I gave Paprika a shot. Here's my take on the things Nolan did and did not take from the movie.

5 things Christopher Nolan's Inception Took From Paprika

1. Use of technology to invade dreams

Based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Yasutaka Tsutsui, Paprika revolves around the theft of a revolutionary technology called the DC Mini. Created to help patients with psychological therapy, the device allows access to the world of dreams. When used under the supervision of professional experts, it can help heal mental health problems. But like all scientific inventions, the mishandling of DC Mini risks dire outcomes for everyone involved.

In Inception, Dom Cobb and his associates use a technology called PASIV to break into people's dreams for the "extraction" of information as part of paid corporate espionage. We do not find out much about the device, as it is not central to the plot as it is in Paprika. In Inception, Cobb and his team are charged with implanting an idea in the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), the heir to a powerful business empire. In order to pull off this "inception," they take sedatives supplied by the team's chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao), which play an important role in the story. More on that later.

2. The risk of 'Limbo'

After the DC Mini gets stolen in Paprika, those who have worked closely with the device start getting affected by it. The device is used to commit "dream terrorism," where people connected to the dream world through the device gradually lose their minds and become empty shells. In short, their consciousness outside of the dream fizzles to near-nothing. By the end of the movie, the weight of the branching dreams seeps through the fabric of reality and merges the two worlds in a blinding display of chaos.

In Inception, Limbo is a realm of infinite subconscious. We learn that Cobb and his wife Mal (Marion Cotillard) once got stuck there while experimenting. He recovered from the experience but she did not. Now she haunts Cobb's dreams and poses a risk to the job and the team. Because of Yusuf's sedatives, dying inside the dream means the person will get stuck in 'Limbo' until they're rescued with a 'kick' and brought back to a higher level. Saito (Ken Watanabe), the client for the job, got stuck in the eternal abyss and became an old man before Cobb can find him.

3. The blurred line between dreams and reality

In both movies, there's a danger that if you break into the dream world you could get stuck there and lose touch with reality. Paprika brings us a lot more surreal visuals. The parade scene towards the end of the movie, where the dream world nearly collapses under the stress of all the minds attached to the DC Mini device, is one of the most chaotic things I've seen on screen.

Inception also blurs these lines, but does it in a more muted manner. We learn that after Cobb and Mal returned from their stay in limbo, Mal continued to believe she was dreaming. When Cobb uses "inception" and brings her back, she cannot stand the real world and eventually takes her own life.

To avoid a similar fate, Cobb always keeps a minuscule top on him he can use to tell if he's in a dream or reality. If he spins the top and it keeps spinning, it's a dream. If it stops, it's the real world. It helps him stay anchored during the job. Nolan, who likes to play with our minds, refuses to tell us if it stops or not in the famous last shot of the movie. The screen abruptly cuts to black before we find out.

4. Paprika vs. Ariadne

In the anime film, 'Paprika' is the name of the alter-ego of Dr. Atsuko Chiba (Megumi Hayashibara), the head of the medical team working with the DC Mini to help people struggling with psychological issues. When the black-haired Atsuko, dressed in medical scrubs, enters the world of dreams to help a patient, she turns into a redhead in a pair of jeans and a red t-shirt and goes by Paprika.

Some fans believe Elliot Page's Ariadne, an architecture student hired by Cobb to construct the three layers of the dream in Inception, is based on Paprika. Both the characters navigate the dream world with more fluidity than others in the story and play a key role in saving the day.

In Paprika, Atsuko helps end the nightmare by accepting her suppressed feelings for co-worker Kosaku Tokito (Tôru Furuya), the brain behind DC Mini and a victim of the theft. Inside the dream, their coming together gives birth to a being that consumes the megalomaniac humanoid form taken by Dr. Seijiro Inui (Toru Emori), the main antagonist who stole the device. He also happens to be the chairman of the Institute for Psychiatric Research.

We mostly see the movie from Atsuko/Paprika's point of view, similar to how Ariadne is a proxy for the audience in Inception. The viewers learn about the ideas and concepts of the movie through the eyes of Ariadne, who is just as confused and astounded by the dream world as we are. During the movie's climax, Ariadne goes with Cobb to rescue Saito and save the job, kills Mal's projection in 'Limbo,' and wakes Robert up with a kick.

5. Shot-for-shot similarities

Even with these similarities, Inception probably wouldn't be compared to Paprika so often if not for a few scenes that look way too similar to ignore. Arthur's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) iconic anti-gravitational hotel hallway fight scene is almost identical to police detective Toshimi Konakawa's (Akio Otsuka) recurring nightmare where he keeps seeing the childhood friend he believes he let down. However, full credit to Nolan for shooting the sequence in a real, 100-foot-long rotating set and equal credit to Gordon-Levitt for pulling it off.

In another Paprika scene, the title character seemingly touches something that looks like thin air in front of her, but it shatters and opens up a new environment within the dream. It reminds fans of how Ariadne touches the glass when Cobb first explains dream-sharing to her in Inception.

In Konokawa's dream, an elevator signifies the different layers of his conscience similar to Cobb's dream involving Mal.

A few things Christopher Nolan did differently

Despite the similarities, there are a few things that were unique about Inception. The most striking difference to me was the narrative point of view. Paprika is about looking for the criminals who have illegally broken into the dream world misusing the DC Mini. In Inception, the people doing the breaking-and-entering are the protagonists and we spend the entire time rooting for their success. There is no big bad in Nolan's movie.

Paprika focuses more on the ethical consequences of dream invasion and its impacts on the human psyche. The technology is what ignites the story but it takes a backseat to make space for each character's relationship with themselves and each other. Inception, meanwhile, leans on the science and mechanism behind dream-sharing. Each action is a cog in the wheel that keeps the job on track. Each mishap, like Saito dying, interferes with the mission.

Paprika also shows that getting killed in the broken version of the dream kills the person back in the physical world. In Inception, dying sends one into 'Limbo' but no harm befalls the real person in the real world as long as they wake up in time to not starve to death.

All that being said, both movies are excellent and deliciously rewatchable. The similarities are hard to miss, but that takes nothing away from Inception; or if you're like me and have watched the DiCaprio movie several times before getting into anime, Paprika does not seem like a 'been there done that' movie either.

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