RIP Satoshi Kon

It should come to no surprise that this post be about one of anime's greatest creators/directors.
Unexpectedly today (via twitter, no less) I found out about 47 year-old Satoshi Kon's passing. [Read more here]

"If I Were Maromi" 2007

Satoshi Kon had a way of doing with anime, what directors/writers here in the States attempt to do. His work questioned, criticized, and mocked society - it was controversial; it made you think.

I was introduced to his work via Paranoia Agent while it was still airing in Japan, back in 2004. If there's one anime I've never shut up about, it's that one. I even bought a Maromi head plushie the following year at Otakon.

What I most appreciated about his work were his depictions of the world around him; he had a way of bringing out the ugly truth, the one we tend to glance over, in a way that was entertaining and intelligent. You're not meant to get things the first time around, you have to sit and think, then watch it again.



I'd be lying if I said that after Inception I didn't think to myself, "Wow, this is right up there with Paprika." The idea of "the dream" - "the mind" - was one of Satoshi Kon's recurring themes and I think he did a great job of expressing the mind's strengths and weaknesses in all of his works.

Now, I'm not a film analyst in any way, shape, or form - so I couldn't tell you this myself - but my college roommate; however, that's a different story. Here's a girl who didn't know much about anime until I popped into her life. She never got into it, but the night she watched Paprika, she was amazed. The music, the camera angles, the story. She said, "In the scenes, it looks as if an actual camera is filming - the way he goes from one scene to another".  Can't stay I picked up on any of that as I was watching, but Satoshi Kon managed to make a fan out of her - something I yet had not been able to do.

Yeah, watching Satoshi Kon's work did that to you. It made you a believer, that animation has a chance of making it into the "real world", because it wasn't just anime fans that loved his work.

I'm sure a lot of you may know by now, Satoshi Kon was currently working on a film called "The Dream Machine".  There isn't word yet about what will happen with the film, but I hope we get a chance to experience it.

RIP Satoshi Kon.

La Tenoli