Satoshi Kon, 1963-2010
 |
Satoshi Kon, director of such films as Perfect Blue, Three Godfathers and Paprika, died yesterday in Japan at the age of 46 from pancreatic cancer. Apparently the diagnosis was recent and terminal — and absolutely tragic.
Although Kon worked exclusively in anime, his movies were great films, not just great anime films. Perfect Blue is like the Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never got around to making; Paprika foretold Chris Nolan’s Inception in many, many ways; Tokyo Godfathers was a reimagining of a classic John ford movie which actually matched the original; and Millennium Actress, often considered Kon’s finest work, won countless awards around the world. The best thing about Kon is that he used anime in two ways — 1) not at all, as many of his movies (or parts of his movies) took place in the real world, and 2) in ways no one ever did before, using animation to warp that reality in ways traditional filmmaking never, ever could. He was truly a visionary, and the world — not just the anime world — is poorer for his loss. (Via ANN)
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.