{"id":5606,"date":"2010-08-26T06:00:14","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/?p=5606"},"modified":"2018-02-15T19:41:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T03:41:01","slug":"satoshi-kon-dies-at-46","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/satoshi-kon-dies-at-46\/","title":{"rendered":"Anime Legend Satoshi Kon Dies at 46"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>News from Japan has revealed that Satoshi Kon, director of such landmark anime films as &#8216;Perfect Blue&#8217;, &#8216;Tokyo Godfathers&#8217;, and (most recently) &#8216;Paprika&#8217;, passed away this week. He was only 46-years-old. Pancreatic cancer is reported to be the cause of death. The director was in many ways a true visionary for the medium. This is a major loss for an industry that has only become increasingly derivative, cannibalistic, and generic in recent years. <\/p>\n<h6><!--more--><\/h6>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/satoshi-kon.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/satoshi-kon.jpg\" title=\"Satoshi Kon, R.I.P.\" width=\"150\" height=\"165\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-5605\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/satoshi-kon.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/satoshi-kon-273x300.jpg 273w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a> Kon&#8217;s feature directorial debut, &#8216;Perfect Blue&#8217;, is arguably still his best film. The suspense thriller is notable for its rich psychological depth and a storyline that could work equally well in live action. In fact, the movie was such a big hit that it actually did spawn a live-action remake (directed by others). Kon followed this with acclaimed works such as &#8216;Millennium Actress&#8217;, &#8216;Tokyo Godfathers&#8217;, and the TV series &#8216;Paranoia Agent&#8217;. His last feature was the 2006 dream thriller &#8216;Paprika&#8217;. He was working on a new movie called &#8216;Yume-Miru Kikai&#8217; (&#8216;The Dream Machine&#8217;), which he described as <em>&#8220;like a road movie for robots,&#8221;<\/em> when he died.  <\/p>\n<p>Anime News Network also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.animenewsnetwork.com\/news\/2010-08-25\/director-satoshi-kon-wife-writes-about-his-passing \">reports the following<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A final message was <a href=\"https:\/\/konstone.s-kon.net\/modules\/notebook\/archives\/565 \">posted<\/a> to his website on his behalf on Wednesday, after his passing. His website is currently under heavy traffic load, but ANN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.animenewsnetwork.com\/images\/misc\/satoshi-kon-sayonara.html\">archived<\/a> a copy. <\/p>\n<p>In the beginning of the message titled &#8220;Farewell,&#8221; Kon recalled:<\/p>\n<p>May 18 of this year, an unforgettable day.<\/p>\n<p>My wife and I received the following prognosis from a cardiologist at the Musashino Red Cross Hospital:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The pancreatic cancer is terminal and has metastasized to the bone. You have at most a half year left.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Later, he remembered meeting with MADHOUSE founder Masao Maruyama about the final anime film he was directing:<\/p>\n<p>When I conveyed my concerns for Yume-Miru Kikai to Mr. Maruyama, he said, &#8220;It&#8217;s fine. Don&#8217;t worry, we&#8217;ll do whatever it takes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I cried.<\/p>\n<p>I cried aloud. <\/p>\n<p>He concluded his message with the following:<\/p>\n<p>With feelings of gratitude for all that is good in this world, I put down my pen.<\/p>\n<p>Well, I&#8217;ll be leaving now.<\/p>\n<p>Satoshi Kon\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/bluray.highdefdigest.com\/1133\/paprika.html\">Paprika<\/a>&#8216; is the only of Kon&#8217;s films currently available on Blu-ray. Although not one of my favorites, personally, it&#8217;s certainly a visually dazzling effort with some interesting thematic weight behind it. Story similarities to current blockbuster &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/inception-review\/\">Inception<\/a>&#8216; might make this a particularly good time to give it another watch. <\/p>\n<p>Also, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hometheatermag.com\/httalksto\/1205talks\/\">here is a good interview<\/a> the filmmaker gave to Home Theater Magazine back in 2005, in which he talks about his working methods, the importance of anime in Japanese culture, and his favorite anime films. <\/p>\n<p><em>[via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.animenewsnetwork.com\/news\/2010-08-24\/award-winning-director-satoshi-kon-passes-away\">Anime News Network<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/popwatch.ew.com\/2010\/08\/25\/satoshi-kon-dies-at-46\/\">Entertainment Weekly<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News from Japan has revealed that Satoshi Kon, director of such landmark anime films as &#8216;Perfect Blue&#8217;, &#8216;Tokyo Godfathers&#8217;, and (most recently) &#8216;Paprika&#8217;, passed away this week. He was only 46-years-old. Pancreatic cancer is reported to be the cause of death. The director was in many ways a true visionary for the medium. This is&#8230;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_excerpt -->","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5603,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,140],"tags":[969,774,1147,1146,1145,1144],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5606"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5614,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5606\/revisions\/5614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}